The Mystery of Area 34

[Liz2017]

In a Kafkaesque twist to my daily, so far week long pursuit of regaining access to my blocked, 25 year old, essential to my life, Virgin Net email account, I was told account numbers in Area 34 (which mine is) had been handed over to TalkTalk and I must ask them about progress on my Virgin ticket raised a mere two days earlier. Needless to say, by the time I’d calmed down enough to call the number the Virgin chat agent shared with me on WhatsApp (so many businesses now switching to WhatsApp to avoid accountability, should have raised my suspicions) it of course didn’t work.

My account is free, so when I tried to raise a complaint against Virgin with the Ombudsman, they couldn’t help as they have no jurisdiction over these kinds of accounts. 

Having spent most of September in a similarly Kafkaesque debacle with BT, I was considering switching to Virgin, with whom I’ve generally had good expiences in the past. But I now realise that a company that can basically cut me off from my source of livelihood and then fob me off with made up phone numbers as I try to reconnect, may not be the best place to transfer to.

If anyone can help, it’s a free account, just email, but it’s so central to me and I’m running out of ideas!

[jpeg1 · Accepted solution]

Your story is a common one. The VM staff were wrong to refer you to TalkTalk. 

Unfortunately your email account has been closed.  You will find the answer in this thread:

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/Orphan-Email-accounts/td-p/3492073

[Graham_A]

@Liz2017 There is a good explanation as to why these 'free' email accounts from the old dial up days should have been closed down ten years ago.  https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/Orphan-Email-accounts/td-p/3492073. VM are gradually catching up with the deletions as they identify these orphaned accounts.

The Talk Talk story is a red herring as it was the old VM ADSL broadband service that was sold to Talk Talk, not any associated email addresses.

Since May 2022 VM no longer issue email addresses to new or existing customers so even if you moved to VM for broadband you would still need to set up an independent email address.

Sorry that this won't be what you wanted to hear but you do need to find a new email supplier and inform your contacts of your new address.

[Liz2017]

Thanks Graham, after posting I checked out your entry on orphaned Virgin Email accounts. 

So ... they let me spend hours of my time and energy on this, when basically, the account isn't blocked, it's closed. I just checked it on the spam checker address you gave in another post, and there's no Spam on it. I appreciate very much your and jpeg1 getting back and your definitive response. 

I still feel aggrieved. Surely I am owed a three day grace period or somesuch to clear and close my account? There are hundreds of contacts on there that I will only remember over the course of the next year or so, as I try to get into bank accounts and retail sites and contact friends and acquaintances. There should be a legal obligation to give fair warning, and I am going to take this up with my MP and with Which. 

In a nutshell, what on earth would it cost Virgin to send an email around to say this was imminent to allow people to collate crucial information from the address while it is still operational? And what an own-goal for them, I for years used their Insurance and Money services and I will never use them again. All because they couldn't get their act together to send around one warning email. 

[jpeg1]

I can understand your feelings Liz, and those of other people who have suffered in the same way. Virginmedia have not followed their own rules in closing the old accounts when they said they would, leaving you to build up years of emails that you would inevitably lose. 

But just so you know, Virginmedia is a US owned company. They are not connected to any of the other Virgin branded companies except than they pay something to use the Virgin name. You might reasonably ask whether Virginmedia is fit to use that brand - I couldn't possibly comment. 

[Beth_G]

Hi Liz2017,

Thank you for your post, welcome to the Community Forums.

I completely appreciate your frustration, and I am sorry about this. I can check from our side to see if the account definitely has been deleted. I can do my best to try and reactivate it temperately if it is to give you a chance to save any important emails you have. I can also get a complaint raised for you.

I've sent you a private message.

Thanks,

[Wendysoulsby]

Do let me know if you manage to get area 34 reopened. I too have a virgin.net email for 22 years and on Friday is just disappeared at around 12 midday between me sending emails. 

[Vinegar]

I’m afraid there is no ‘reopening of Area 34’ or any other area, that was just some made-up excuse that the CS agent said. It is very likely that you are in the same situation as the original poster. 

Unless you are a current VM broadband customer and the old legacy Virgin.net address is properly associated with this account, then it has, almost certainly, been deleted or is in the process of being deleted.