Mac Mail at fault, says Bell.  True?

Hello,
I've used Macs since 1987, but (ironically) it's only with my new MacBook Pro (running Mavericks of course) that I'm constantly having to re-enter my password when trying to get or send mail from my Mail program.  (I think I used to have to do this, pre-Mavericks, but not nearly as often).
At first I blamed Bell (my service provider), and they've been good.  A technician said that he did see some issues, and has been at my place, both inside and out; he gave me a brand new modem, and fixed what he said might have been some loose wiring outside.
All to no avail.
When I called just now, to say that the problem persists, a Bell tech help person who sounds knowledgable said that this is a problem, plain and simple, with Mac Mail.  Mail is "very finicky when it comes to POP3 accounts", he said; more specifically, he says it's the way that Mac Mail does its SSL encryption.
Thought I'd run this by the gurus on this forum.
(and just so you know, Bell doesn't allow IMAP accounts for some reason, so I can't simply switch to one of those).
Any thoughts/suggestions?
thanks,
Malcolm

The password is saved in your 'login' keychain.
Backup your login keychain before you delete items by copying /Users/YOUR-USERNAME/Library/Keychains to an external disk (use the Finder's Go menu to open your user Library folder). Time Machine should do this anyway.
Open /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access and look for entries that are for the Bell email account (you may find multiple entries for the sending & recieving server addresses). Make sure you are looking at the 'login' keychain - it may have your username if you have migrated over older OS's.
Remove any duplicates that you know are out of date, or delete them all if you are certain that you don't need them (& know the password).
If it continues to prompt you there is another test you can try, create a new user account (in System Preferences > Users & Groups) setup your Bell email account - if it works OK you know that it's capable of working in Mail. Each User account has it's own keychain, so it could still be the reason for it failing in the original account.
P.S. I have seen this issue some time ago, so search here for 'mail password prompt', someone might have a better answer

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