How to access a secondary email account which VM says is FORBIDDEN

My husband is the primary account holder, I am the secondary. We have been VM customers since 2011 and both have @virginmedia.com email addresses. Unfortunately neither of us are tech savvy.

On 26 July I was suddenly Forbidden access to my emails. I rang VM and the lady said this was an ongoing situation that IT were dealing with, she raised a ticket no and said all would be resolved within 10 days. I went on an overseas holiday with limited internet access, but each time I checked emails I was still Forbidden access. 

On my return I rang VM. Another ticket was raised with the suggestion I am now at the back of a long queue. I run a small business, largely conducted by email. I have NO access to any of my contacts which is now causing me a great deal of trouble and loss of income. 

I used to sign in via @gmail.com which then diverted to my @vm address but an email from VM at end of June stated "Instead of using your current email address to sign in to your account,  you'll need use your Virgin Media Mail email address. This will take effect automatically from 30/06/2025." This is what could have happened as I now only have an option to sign in via VM and not gmail.

Can someone please advise what I should do. There seem to be no answers on here and I do not want to do anything that would also jeopardise my husband's emails.

With many thanks

Hi BarryS2 

Welcome to the Community Forums. 

Sorry to hear you've been unable to access this email. 

Have you completed the registration for the Virgin Media O2 ID? This would need to be completed with the primary information to regain access to emails and apps that use the Virgin Media login details to access. More information on this can be found here. 

It's also important to ask if you have a business or residential service, as you mentioned, running a business. Our email service is not designed for business use. We offered residential customers the opportunity to create an email as a duty of care if they did not have one with us, so that they could manage their accounts online and receive email correspondence from us. Our residential email service is only available through the continued custom of our residential broadband services. Should you ever wish to move providers, you would lose access to all Virgin Media, Blueyonder and NTL world email addresses, as these are removed from service within 90 days of the broadband disconnecting.

The service is also not designed, nor compatible with business use and may trigger security concerns built into our email service that can lock the email for spam or other such identified threats.  We would recommend that a backup email from clients, such as Gmail or Outlook, be used for all important emails, as our email service is only accessible through the continued use of our broadband service. 

Please let us know how you get on following the steps to create the Virgin Media O2 ID, using the primary email/login details that were used previously to sign into your Virgin Media online account. 

Thank you. Yes, I have registered a VM 02 ID. Unfortunately I still cannot access my wife's secondary account. When I enter her address in the Change email address box a message comes up saying "This address is being used for another VM 02 ID".  Except we can't access this other mailbox. Suggestions would be gratefully received.