Forum Discussion

MarkyUE's avatar
MarkyUE
Just browsing
19 days ago
Solved

RE: virgin.net email account access

Hi Virgin,

I lost access to my primary email account (virgin.net) of over 20 years on Monday. This account is connected across my entire life, and has primary access to many extremely important accounts. The stress, anxiety and disruption this has already caused is significant. I urgently require access into this account, even for a couple of days, to migrate details asap. Without going into details, this is causing significant personal issues for me at a very difficult time. As this email address was also used as the primary username for an old O2 account I can't get into that either.

I have spent hours on hold and working through the very challenging Virgin Media help line to discuss this with support twice over the past couple of days. On both occasions they have stated I am being affected by a temporary outage (without further information) and that my email will be back online in due course. The silence and lack of clear information on this is unacceptable, as it's not clear if I will automatically get access when some problem is resolved or if I need someone to step in to regain temporary access to my old account so I can migrate away cleanly.

For my own sanity and mental health, please can someone from the Virgin support team/forum moderators please please help!?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

  • MarkyUE's avatar
    MarkyUE
    17 days ago

    Update on this post:

    I eventually had a discussion via X (twitter) with Virgin Media support (who were as helpful as they could actually be with what was in front of them) and traced my account using old addresses. They confirmed that my virign.net account of some 20 odd years was gone and could not be recovered. I have detailed and raised an internal complaint based on the following

    "Firstly thank you for your help in trying to locate a way forwards (I assume by your message there are no back-ups?). Secondly, if you have a way to feedback internally, I would like to share my thoughts. What has happened here is the equivalent of burning my house down digitally, digital arson if you will (sounds harsh because on this side it is). Even though there is an automated 90 day clean-up, I would say that if an account has been active for a long time, and is known to still be sending and receiving regularly i.e. active then there should be a requirement for an email provider to verify with the customer before “burning” the account. In some cases, not mine, it may even be the case that you are putting lives at risk by this automated clean-up. Either from someone who is currently remote, and needs access but can’t deal with the issue, or through mental health and possibly suicide caused by the stress or loss of access to accounts locked into the deleted email. I know there is currently no regulation surrounding this action, and that this is internal governance only, but this is a negligent approach to a simple problem. Moreover there is a revenue stream sat waiting. I would have paid £7.50 (BT charge this for the same) a month just to keep the email address, and did cleaning these accounts really save lots of money or free up lots of resources?! Again thanks for your support, but someone at decision making level needs to consider the above!!"

    "I suppose one more piece of feedback, not reflective upon you or the team who have tried to help at all, is the brand damage. I will never touch a related product or service provided by O2 or Virgin Media again. And I am sure this situation will be discussed with connections personally and in my professional network from time to time."

    The official reply was as follows

    "Thanks for locating these addresses and sending them over. From one of these, we've been able to locate an old national account linked to the email address - however this does mean things are as we originally thought. Sadly we can confirm that the email address has been purged as part of an automated clean-up. In this instance there is nothing we can do to regain your access, or recover the account. We appreciate it's not the outcome you are looking for - our sincerest apologies for any frustration or inconvenience caused! Wishing you all the best."

5 Replies

  • MarkyUE's avatar
    MarkyUE
    Just browsing
    18 days ago

    Hello support,

    I still can't access either my o2.co.uk account (used the same virgin.net email address) or my virgin.net account. As mentioned previously it is absolutely essential that I regain access to this account for at least 48 hours so I can handle specific information and accounts. Please can you explore every possible option so I can achieve this? If my account is experiencing temporary issues and will come back then please detail and provide an update/ETA. If my account has been "deleted" then I expect your IT/Infrastructure team have the ability to restore from back-up processes for at least the next 30 days ish. As this is my data I would in such a case request you re-enable or provide access to the email account.

    Thanks in advance,

    Mark

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    18 days ago

    It can take several days for a VM person to reply to a topic (perhaps even longer now given the volume of email queries on here at present).

    If VM answers your request in the usual way, it will be a flat 'no' to regaining access (although VM does have a long record of being staggeringly inconsistent on many things).

    I posted a reply here

    Issues accessing my virgin.net emails | Virgin Media Community - 5652469

    with some past observations and suggestions from similar previous topics.

    You should raise your objections as loudly and in as many different places as possible.

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    18 days ago

    VM do not keep backups of emails. They have always made it clear in their help notes that users should keep their own backups in case of online data loss. 

    From previous cases reported on here, it seems the deletion of accounts happens in certain stages. It's possible that staff on here might be able to arrange something, but be prepared for disappointment. 

  • MarkyUE's avatar
    MarkyUE
    Just browsing
    17 days ago

    I eventually had a discussion via X (twitter) with Virgin Media support (who were as helpful as they could actually be with what was in front of them) and traced my account using old addresses. They confirmed that my virign.net account of some 20 odd years was gone and could not be recovered. I have detailed and raised an internal complaint based on the following

    "Firstly thank you for your help in trying to locate a way forwards (I assume by your message there are no back-ups?). Secondly, if you have a way to feedback internally, I would like to share my thoughts. What has happened here is the equivalent of burning my house down digitally, digital arson if you will (sounds harsh because on this side it is). Even though there is an automated 90 day clean-up, I would say that if an account has been active for a long time, and is known to still be sending and receiving regularly i.e. active then there should be a requirement for an email provider to verify with the customer before “burning” the account. In some cases, not mine, it may even be the case that you are putting lives at risk by this automated clean-up. Either from someone who is currently remote, and needs access but can’t deal with the issue, or through mental health and possibly suicide caused by the stress or loss of access to accounts locked into the deleted email. I know there is currently no regulation surrounding this action, and that this is internal governance only, but this is a negligent approach to a simple problem. Moreover there is a revenue stream sat waiting. I would have paid £7.50 (BT charge this for the same) a month just to keep the email address, and did cleaning these accounts really save lots of money or free up lots of resources?! Again thanks for your support, but someone at decision making level needs to consider the above!!"

    "I suppose one more piece of feedback, not reflective upon you or the team who have tried to help at all, is the brand damage. I will never touch a related product or service provided by O2 or Virgin Media again. And I am sure this situation will be discussed with connections personally and in my professional network from time to time."

    The official reply was as follows

    "Thanks for locating these addresses and sending them over. From one of these, we've been able to locate an old national account linked to the email address - however this does mean things are as we originally thought. Sadly we can confirm that the email address has been purged as part of an automated clean-up. In this instance there is nothing we can do to regain your access, or recover the account. We appreciate it's not the outcome you are looking for - our sincerest apologies for any frustration or inconvenience caused! Wishing you all the best."

  • MarkyUE's avatar
    MarkyUE
    Just browsing
    17 days ago

    Update on this post:

    I eventually had a discussion via X (twitter) with Virgin Media support (who were as helpful as they could actually be with what was in front of them) and traced my account using old addresses. They confirmed that my virign.net account of some 20 odd years was gone and could not be recovered. I have detailed and raised an internal complaint based on the following

    "Firstly thank you for your help in trying to locate a way forwards (I assume by your message there are no back-ups?). Secondly, if you have a way to feedback internally, I would like to share my thoughts. What has happened here is the equivalent of burning my house down digitally, digital arson if you will (sounds harsh because on this side it is). Even though there is an automated 90 day clean-up, I would say that if an account has been active for a long time, and is known to still be sending and receiving regularly i.e. active then there should be a requirement for an email provider to verify with the customer before “burning” the account. In some cases, not mine, it may even be the case that you are putting lives at risk by this automated clean-up. Either from someone who is currently remote, and needs access but can’t deal with the issue, or through mental health and possibly suicide caused by the stress or loss of access to accounts locked into the deleted email. I know there is currently no regulation surrounding this action, and that this is internal governance only, but this is a negligent approach to a simple problem. Moreover there is a revenue stream sat waiting. I would have paid £7.50 (BT charge this for the same) a month just to keep the email address, and did cleaning these accounts really save lots of money or free up lots of resources?! Again thanks for your support, but someone at decision making level needs to consider the above!!"

    "I suppose one more piece of feedback, not reflective upon you or the team who have tried to help at all, is the brand damage. I will never touch a related product or service provided by O2 or Virgin Media again. And I am sure this situation will be discussed with connections personally and in my professional network from time to time."

    The official reply was as follows

    "Thanks for locating these addresses and sending them over. From one of these, we've been able to locate an old national account linked to the email address - however this does mean things are as we originally thought. Sadly we can confirm that the email address has been purged as part of an automated clean-up. In this instance there is nothing we can do to regain your access, or recover the account. We appreciate it's not the outcome you are looking for - our sincerest apologies for any frustration or inconvenience caused! Wishing you all the best."