Forum Discussion

Rodstrong's avatar
Rodstrong
Joining in
2 years ago

Lost access to Virgin.net email

My virgin.net email account recently stopped me using an alias (without warning), & my efforts to sort it out, combined with several DEF01 errors, have left me with no access to around 20 years' worth of emails - I've been using an alias on this account for most of those years. I need to access this account to export everything from it to transfer to another host. I'd be happy to continue with it, but it seems Virgin are stepping away from virgin.net plus some other addresses. I have my account no. and area code, but going the "forgotten password" route on login only gets me as far as another DEF01. I did change it recently after trying to follow Virgin's instructions to restore the account, which again ended with insurmountable DEF01 errors. All this happened 2 or 3 weeks ago. Please can someone help me retrieve my emails?

  • Rodstrong's avatar
    Rodstrong
    Joining in
    2 years ago

    Just seen a reply to Bradley75 with a similar problem - I sincerely hope my account has not been orphaned. Have used it for past 20 years or so; can't remember original events, but my emails were either transferred to or from Virgin and TalkTalk. Latterly (since this changeover??) for many years I have not been a paying subscriber to Virgin & was never asked to be - my virgin.net emails just kept on working:

    • TableTop's avatar
      TableTop
      Up to speed
      2 years ago
      Snip…for many years I have not been a paying subscriber to Virgin & was never asked to be - my virgin.net emails just kept on working

      ….snip

      And therein is the issue.

      Being a paying VM broadband customer is a requirement to keep using any of the VM branded email addresses.

      The history of the virgin.net email addresses is somewhat convoluted, but it is absolutely nothing to do with TalkTalk, way back in 2015/16, VM terminated their dial-up and ADSL service, confusingly also referred to as virgin.net, all existing users were given a choice but basically, the only way to keep the email address was to sign up as a VM broadband customer, otherwise, their email accounts would be deleted after one year.

      Except, for various reasons, VM didn’t always keep to the timescale and, as you said yourself, ‘it just kept working’! But it was always on borrowed time, eventually, VM would realise that the address was not associated with a paying broadband customer, and kill it!

      In a day or so a member of the forum team will get to this thread and offer to contact you by direct message to gain further details and see what can be done.

      But, alas, I do have to say, that it is very, very likely that the email address, mailbox and all the mail within it has been deleted, and from their perspective, you aren’t paying them anything, they really aren’t going to do much about it!

      • Rodstrong's avatar
        Rodstrong
        Joining in
        2 years ago

        Many thanks for your reply, TableTop.  If what you say proves to be fact, it seems a pretty shoddy way to treat old, and potentially new, customers.  I cannot remember ever being asked to pay for the continuing emails service, it just ran on for years & years - and then someone decides to  delete it all WITHOUT WARNING??  I really, really hope that all this email history is not lost, because as well as a personal history, it contains much reference and financial information.

        Cheers, Rod

  • PapaBearDave's avatar
    PapaBearDave
    Joining in
    2 years ago

    Looks like a few of us are having the same issue. I've been locked out since yesterday morning and having called the number on the login issue page I'm told if I don't have an active Virgin Media account they are not able to assist.

    Really poor if this has happened without warning. If that was their plan then fine but you'd expect some notice that you have to make a decision to subscribe or not. 

    I'd really appreciate it if someone who monitors the forum can reach out and offer some support to try and get access back.

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    2 years ago

    To be fair for a moment, Virginmedia did make the ending of these emails clear in their T's and C's. If we don't read them we have only ourselves to blame. 

    BUT they should then have followed their own procedure and closed the email accounts at the time, rather than allow non-customers to continue building up years of data that was fated to be lost without further warning. 

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    2 years ago

    You're right that Joe's answer was confusing. The T&C's are clear that the 90 days start when the Virgin account is closed, and no employee has the ability to change that.  90 days gives the user time to save anything that they need before the email is closed. 

    VM have been lax in leaving some emails open much longer, but they have recently been catching up.  I doubt very much whether they have the time or interest to open up each of these old 'closed' accounts to see whether or not they are still being used, after all they are not being paid to do this and have provided the service for 20 years for free.

    Have you not kept any backups of your emails? Again the T&C's make it clear that that it is the user's responsibility to do so. It is after all a postal service, not an online filing service. When you get your new email service working, please do arrange to keep backups off-line. 

    • Rodstrong's avatar
      Rodstrong
      Joining in
      2 years ago

      Thank you Allesandro, but my understanding still requires some work. Before I go any further, you should be aware that I am now retired from 51 years working in IT, from working with punched card machines through to IT management and with around 40 years in IT consultancy.

      You state that "The T&C's are clear that the 90 days start when the Virgin account is closed ... 90 days gives the user time to save anything that they need before the email is closed."  Up until about 4 weeks ago, my account was open because I could log into Virgin mail and use it. So I infer that I still have c. 60 days to save my emails before the service is closed to me. But it already seems to be, so I can't save anything. Please could you put me right, or explain this paradox?

      Yes, I should have read the T&Cs (I probably did way back when) and taken more notice. As regards backups, whenever I was involved in providing online or onsite IT systems for customers, backups were always considered as of primary importance. Which is why I beleived my emails were safe and backed up by Virgin. I'd be somewhat surprised if Virgin don't back up any of their customers' emails in some way.

      Yes, I was wrong in making some of the assumptions I did.  Notwithstanding, the removal of my emails was abrupt, unannounced, and the remedial actions recommended to me at the time did not work, and no one has explained why.  I may not have been a paying customer (I don't pay Google or Microsoft for hosting emails either), but I have the right to expect some degree of consideration by Virgin after so many years of being lulled into a false sense of security.
      Rod

      • goslow's avatar
        goslow
        Alessandro Volta
        2 years ago
        Rodstrong wrote:

        <snip>  I may not have been a paying customer (I don't pay Google or Microsoft for hosting emails either), but I have the right to expect some degree of consideration by Virgin after so many years of being lulled into a false sense of security.
        Rod

        AFAIK, I have not seen any queries or referrals to the ICO on the subject of these instantaneous email account closures (many of which have been in use for decades).

        I have no idea if this is potentially a useful line of enquiry or not. It would be interesting to hear some feedback from someone affected by the issue, after they have discussed it with the ICO, as to whether there is a possible line to follow or not.

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    2 years ago

    The 90 days refers to the closure of the Virginmedia broadband account, not the email account. That's what the T&C's say. And they are also clear about the customer's responsibity for backups.

    VM's customer service is dire, about as poor as it could possibly get and still keep them in business. But you are not even a paying customer, so I'm afraid you can not expect anything better. 

     

    • Rodstrong's avatar
      Rodstrong
      Joining in
      2 years ago

      Thanks again, Allesandro.  Indeed I can expect something better, because Virgin are/were the repository for around 20 years' worth of MY information in the form of emails, accumulated there in good faith.  Virgin never asked me for up-front payment or subscription in order to continue usage. 

      The only T&Cs I can find are dated 2021 at assets.virginmedia.com, and other early 2000's dates are at www.virginmedia.com/legal.  I don't know what they were at the time of my decision to continue with virgin.net until the time they notified me it was closing.

      But I accept that I should have read them very carefully at the time - it's a long time ago. There are several other complaints on this site similar to mine, so Virgin have obviously summarily deleted a large amount of personal data/emails without recourse to their owners, who were also "taken in" by Virgin's allowing their email usage to continue for many, many years.

      Where does the blame lie? Should we have all moved our broadband contracts to Virgin or moved our correspondence off earlier - when we weren't specifically asked to? Or should Virgin accept their liability to those people whose emails they allowed to continue to unwittingly build up for many years?

      It appears that all the other similar posts I have read have also been more or less blanked by Virgin - "There's nothing we can or will even consider doing for you.". I wonder if we do actually have any legal rights over our data in situations like this. Unfortunately two Wrongs don't make a Right.

      Rod

      • ravenstar68's avatar
        ravenstar68
        Very Insightful Person
        2 years ago

        Virgin Media's email system has ALWAYS been contingent on you using their internet service, as were pretty much every other internet providers.  People like Google, Microsoft etc offer a free stand alone email service, but that's usually because they were trying to get you hooked in and in their cases they also use the same servers (albeit with different access rights and rulesets) for their commercial customers.

        People using Virgin.nets dial up service before it was disconnected were told in the T&C's that they had to dial in at least once every 180 days in order to retain access to their account, users on the broadband contracts have always been warned that that once they stop using broadband, that their email addresses should cease after 90 days.

        VM's email service has always been considered by them as a FREE add on to an internet account, but new users no longer get email from Virgin Media.  One wonders how long before they wind it up completely.

        If you are concerned about the loss of data then you can always take the matter up with the Information Commissioners Office, certainly if enough people complain then it might trigger a wider investigation.  However you should also consider that as you are not a customer of Virgin Media's then they actually have a responsibility to delete your data from their servers.

        Finally, and this is a personal thought of mine - if you've been an IT professional for 51 years - why did you not have a reasonable backup schedule going to prevent loss of data?

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    2 years ago

    It's worth mentioning that no company provides email accounts as a free public service.

    Google for instance, uses your email to build up their profile of you that they use in various ways and sell on to their business customers.  This is how you do actually pay for the service.  They also make it clear in their T&C's that they don't guarantee to keep your email account safe, and can close it down at will.

    If you want a reliable email service with some degree of security, you will have to pay for it. Like many others on here I have my own domain with a reliable attached email service, which costs a very modest annual amount.

    But I still keep a safe offline backup of all emails and attached data. That's what professional users do.