Forum Discussion

Flemd's avatar
Flemd
On our wavelength
5 months ago
Solved

can not log in to virgin.net email

Hi i really hope some one can help.

I was auto logged out of my virgin.net email as the webmail page was idle for a while. I tried to log back in and got a 

Your Virgin Media Mail account is currently unavailable

This is either because your Virgin Media Mail account is locked, or because you don’t have an active account with us anymore.
If you have an existing Virgin Media Mail account with us, please follow the steps below, as your account may have been locked as a security precaution.

Follow these steps unlock your Virgin Media Mail account

I followed all the steps for reseting passwords with no luck. I  set up a gmail account so that i could change the login email as requested and now i can not log in at all with either my virgin.net email or gmail address.

I am desperate now as i am in the middle of a number of issues i am dealing with via email (NHS & DWP) and really need access asap.

Thanks David

 

  • You can try a check yourself. Go to the link below

    https://verifalia.com/validate-email

    and enter your email address to test

    If you get a response which includes

    Classification: Undeliverable (with a red square next to it) and Status code: MailboxDoesNotExist

    then the mailbox has most likely been deleted. If you get a response which includes

    Classification: Deliverable (with a green square next to it) and Status code: Success

    then the mailbox has not been fully deleted yet.

    If your mailbox has only just been deleted it may be possible to reactivate it for you to rescue information. Unfortunately, this seems to be at the discretion of the VM forum staff as to whether they offer that or not.

    This topic may be helpful if you can gain access and just want to archive the mailbox

    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/Backing-up-your-Emails-One-of-many-solutions/m-p/3539542

  • Flemd's avatar
    Flemd
    On our wavelength

    No im not. Its an old virgin.net email. it was all working then it logged me out. i went through the process for non VM email recovery and changed login to a non virgin email and now i can not get back in with either the virgin email nor the non virgin email.

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta

    Unfortunately, if you are not a VM broadband customer, VM will be deleting your mailbox in all likelihood.

    VM has been clearing out legacy email addresses which are not associated with an active VM broadband subscription.

    • Flemd's avatar
      Flemd
      On our wavelength

      I am aware of that now. But i am hoping that someone at Virgin can either confirm this is whats happened or reinstate my profile for a short period so i can sort out transferring to a new email. 

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta

    You can try a check yourself. Go to the link below

    https://verifalia.com/validate-email

    and enter your email address to test

    If you get a response which includes

    Classification: Undeliverable (with a red square next to it) and Status code: MailboxDoesNotExist

    then the mailbox has most likely been deleted. If you get a response which includes

    Classification: Deliverable (with a green square next to it) and Status code: Success

    then the mailbox has not been fully deleted yet.

    If your mailbox has only just been deleted it may be possible to reactivate it for you to rescue information. Unfortunately, this seems to be at the discretion of the VM forum staff as to whether they offer that or not.

    This topic may be helpful if you can gain access and just want to archive the mailbox

    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/Backing-up-your-Emails-One-of-many-solutions/m-p/3539542

    • Flemd's avatar
      Flemd
      On our wavelength

      Thank you. That is really helpful.

      My email is showing as deliverable (I had sent a test email to it yesterday and it didn't get bounced back, so i was hopeful), so i guess the question is how to contact Virgin so i can get back on to it?

       

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta

    You should get a reply from the VM forum team here, usually within a few days.

    They may offer to see if the mailbox can be temporarily reactivated so you can rescue your data.

  • Flemd's avatar
    Flemd
    On our wavelength

    Despite the help from Molly, VM are instant that they will not/cannot re-instate my email, not even temporarily. Even despite the harm and disruption that the instant loss of a 30+yr old email address has caused. Personally this has meant significant distress as I was in the middle of a number of issues with several official bodies such as the DWP and NHS. Along also with a couple of job applications and communications with a group that help people with dyslexia. The loss of many official documents, loss all email contact addresses and finally making changing/updating contact/log in emails impossible with some and very difficult with others due to the inability to access verification emails.

    I want people to understand that having worked in IT I know full well that this is a policy decision by VM, not a technical issue. The Virgin.net domain and servers still exist as does the ability to manage virgin.net profiles. Profiles and mail boxes are regularly back up and if action is taken quickly enough, then mail boxes could be retrieved and profiles reactivated. At a minimum a profile can, be recreated and linked even if backups of the mailboxes have been deleted. Typically, a profile will be deactivated/deleted then an automatic process will delete any data associated with that profile, as in the mail box. How often that process runs will depend on the business needs and how often space on the server farm needs to be kept free.

    Don’t get me wrong, I full accept that VM do not offer free email hosting, even though they used to. And I full accept responsibility for me stopping using a mail client so that emails can be stored and saved independently off webmail.

    The issue for me is the complete lack of understanding by VM just how imbedded into everyday life our email address now are, and the complete lack of care and understanding this policy of deleting ‘orphaned’ email accounts without any notification is. For a company these days to display such a lack of ‘Duty of care’ is just unacceptable. If this was to happen to someone with mental health issues it just not bare thinking about what the consequences could be.

    Personally I will never buy into and VM product, nor recommend them as a company to use or work for or use