Forum Discussion

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

Email account locked and unable to log in.

Hi Virgin support

My email has become locked.

It is an old Virgin.net address and i have already posted about this and confirmed that the address is still 'active' or at lest still deliverable to, so appears it has not been deleted yet.

I have followed the Virgin directions of adding an alt email address to the virgin media log in and reset passwords. But now i can not log in at all using either the original virgin email or the new email.

Can someone from Virgin please contact me to discuss how to regain access even if it is temporary? 

Thanks

  • Flemd's avatar
    Flemd
    5 months ago

    Outcome

    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.            

  • Hey Flemd, thank you for reaching out and a warm welcome to the community I am sorry to hear this.

    Just to confirm have you left us sorry?

    If an old email has been deleted we are unable to get it back, once it has been deleted its gone for good sorry.

    Can you just confirm anyway for us.

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta

    VM's failure to observe its 90 days policy has had two directly opposite results.

    We see the complaints of ex-customers who have unexpectedly lost their email accounts after many years. 

    And we see others complaining of hacking/misuse of accounts that they believed had been closed years ago.

    Neither of these would be happening if VM had simply closed accounts when they said they would.

    It takes a particularly awful version of customer care to achieve both results at once. But Virginmedia managed it. 

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta

    The time you are referring to was a dial-up service over the telephone line, where you paid for the call and VM or one of its predecessors took part of that charge in payment for the email service. So it was never free.

    I'm not suggesting for a moment that VM have handled the email service wonderfully, but if they decide to close the email from anyone not using their broadband service there is really nothing you can do. 

    • Flemd's avatar
      Flemd
      On our wavelength

      Actually that is probably correct now you mention it. I think initially i used Freeserve as it just cost the time using the dial up service and then swapped to Virgins subscription free dial up service, again charged via BT lane line. Then my first ADSL was with ZEN.

      So technically i never signed up to Virgins T&C's as i was never a subscription user. So how does that work in terms of what they are telling me now?   

      • ravenstar68's avatar
        ravenstar68
        Very Insightful Person

        Flemd wrote:

         

        So technically i never signed up to Virgins T&C's as i was never a subscription user. So how does that work in terms of what they are telling me now?   


        That's incorrect.  All ISP's tended to have similar policies around dial up, which were provided to end users at the time.  Most end users didn't read them, but that makes no difference, The minute you click that accept button you become bound by them.  Virgin's dial up service, along with many others clearly stated that in order to continue being a customer, you had to dial in at least once every 180 days.  When the dial up service closed, all email accounts linked to dial up should have ceased around 6 months later.

        Virgin's broadband accounts (ADSL, cable etc) all had a 90 day sunset policy on the email addresses.  The ONLY exclusions to this policy were those who were transferred to TalkTalk back around 2014.  But even those users were told their email would be closed down after 12 months.  Furthermore, the AUP also warned that the responsibility to back up the contents of the email account was down to the user, and that accounts falling foul of the AUP could be deleted without warning.

        Any important documents should be pulled off the email servers ASAP and stored somewhere safe anyway.  Anyone who's serious about IT should be aware of this.

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta

    That's simple. You were using the dialup service, and then you stopped using it. That was the end as far as VM was concerned. Anything you got after that was just a bonus. 

    Did you ever get, in any contract you have had with VM, a promise (or even just a mention) of an email service? 

    • Flemd's avatar
      Flemd
      On our wavelength

      Ive no idea, it was back in the 90's 😂

      Anyway, that is by the by, i've always said i understand that apparently it wasn't a 'Free' email service. It is the deletion of the email and its mail box without notice near 30yrs later that is the issue and totally irresponsible. Clearly VM have now recognized this as it appears they are now sending out emails to people in the same situation as i was.

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta

    VM has never been accused of being excessively helpful to its customers, so if you're not even a customer you won't be getting much at all.

    Finally they are catching up with the situation they allowed to develop over the years. 

    • goslow's avatar
      goslow
      Alessandro Volta

      The question is why have they suddenly started notifying some customers?!

      • jpeg1's avatar
        jpeg1
        Alessandro Volta

        You expect someone to explain VM's motives for something?

        I've no idea why they've taken this step at this time. The only thing one can be sure of is that it further reduces the number of clients on their email servers.

        The user numbers are already diminishing as VM customers with connected email accounts move away to OR and altnets. And other customers are so p'd off with email problems that they change to Gmail etc.

        Sooner or later the numbers will be so small that VM can close it altogether without too much fuss. They've already ensured that all customers have an alternative email account, by requiring one for customer contact.