Forum Discussion

HiUtilization's avatar
HiUtilization
On our wavelength
2 months ago

Ubisoft claiming Virgin Media is blocking emails.

Hi,

Trying to get email from Ubisoft at one of my @virginmedia.com addresses and after going in circles with Ubisoft support they keep telling me to contact your email provider as they are blocking the emails. I've been told to whitelist AccountSupport@ubi.com, no-reply.account@ubisoft.com, and updates@account.ubisoft.com however there's isn't a whitelist with VM.

So is this a Virgin Media problem or a Ubisoft problem?

I've disable spam filtering on the email, tried adding the addresses to contacts, and pretty much done everything else I can think of. There is nothing in the blocklist and as far I can tell other emails are arriving without any problems it's just Ubisoft.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

15 Replies

  • coenoby's avatar
    coenoby
    Very Insightful Person
    2 months ago

    HiUtilization​ 

    It seems that you have done everything you can do. but sadly Ubisoft have not given you the support you need.

    Ubisoft's  email logs will identify whether these missing emails are being delivered or rejected by VM and if they are being rejected, Ubisoft's  logs will hold the exact reason for  that rejection.

    That information, along with any non delivery messages that Ubisoft have received from VM  will be a big step forward to getting the problem resolved.

    VM do seem to have very stringent checks on incoming emails. That involves checking the DKIM, DMARK and SPF records and using reverse DNS lookup  of all email  senders rather than simply  blacklisting certain senders. Despite what Ubisoft support have told you, whitelisting the affected email addresses is not the answer.

    Often  problems arise when organisations use automated email management software (such as Mailchimp) to handle  transactional  emails, so confirmations  /  verification emails or marketing emails.  As an aside, the automated notification emails from  this forum are flagged as spam by VM email because they don't meet VM's exacting standards!)

    Based on the experience of lots of posters on this forum you may well find that the only way to resolve this is to switch to using a different email provider such as Gmail or Outlook.com. 

    Try going back to Ubisoft and see if they can give you the information they have received from VM's servers regarding these emails.

    Then post back here or you can use VM's reporting tool  https://netreport.virginmedia.com/netreport/ Give the "Abuse type" as "Other" and supply that information that you receive from Ubisoft.

    However, one of the VM Forum Team (VM staff who support this forum) will contact you via this forum thread in the next day or so but they will also need the information that you get from Ubisoft.

    Coenoby

     

  • HiUtilization's avatar
    HiUtilization
    On our wavelength
    2 months ago

    Thanks the info Coenoby,

    The only thing Ubisoft have claimed so far is that it's being blocked as spam, I'll try to get more info out of them but I'll wait till one of the forum team post first incase I need to ask anything. It also doesn't help you get a different support agent for every reply and keep telling you to close the ticket and start a new one.

    As for your suggestion about switching email provider thats what I'm trying to do but ubisoft send you an email to change it hence the doom loop I'm stuck in with Ubisoft support.

    Gone through 20+ years of accounts changing emails which hasn't been fun but needed doing as VM email is a legacy feature now. 90% of sites changed without issue, a few others required phone calls, some where just plain lazy and required making a new account with no option to delete the old one and then there's Ubisoft which dispite providing plenty of evidence just won't help.

    • coenoby's avatar
      coenoby
      Very Insightful Person
      2 months ago

      HiUtilization​ 

      Thanks for coming back on this. I can fully understand your frustration. 

      I am not a VM staff member but as far as exactly what information VM will need (in addition to the rejection information and non delivery messages from Ubisoft's logs)   it would be great if Ubisoft could give you the SMTP identifier for one of these missing emails.

      That identifier / reference should then enable VM to check in their incoming email logs and find the email that Ubisoft sent.  VM would then be able to see what happened to that email and why it was not delivered to your email account.

      Coenoby

    • Matthew_ML's avatar
      Matthew_ML
      Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
      2 months ago

      Hey HiUtilization, thank you for reaching out and we are sorry to hear about your email issues.

      Have you tried clicking on the email in question and saying not junk / spam?

      Has this always happened with emails from this provider?

      • coenoby's avatar
        coenoby
        Very Insightful Person
        2 months ago

        Matthew_ML​ 

        Sorry Matthew, but just to clarify:

        HiUtilization cannot mark these emails as "not spam" because they are not arriving in HiUtilization's VM email account at all - not in the inbox nor the spam folder.

        The sender organisation, Ubisoft ( https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb ) is telling HiUtilization that VM are blocking Ubisoft's verification emails because VM are seeing them as spam.    

        In reality I suspect that VM are rejecting those emails because they are failing the technical security checks that VM run on all incoming emails. 

        I would suggest that this is an issue for the relevant email technical teams in VM and Orbisoft to resolve rather than the users / customers.

        I hope that clarifies things.

        Coenoby

  • HiUtilization's avatar
    HiUtilization
    On our wavelength
    2 months ago

    Coenoby is correct, if I could mark the email as not spam I wouldn't be having this problem. I'm not receiving the emails fullstop. The only information I have is that Ubisoft claim the emails are being marked as spam by Virgin Media and was told to contact them instead.

  • HiUtilization's avatar
    HiUtilization
    On our wavelength
    2 months ago

    I asked Ubisoft for rejection information, non delivery messages and a SMTP identifier as suggested, Ubisoft refused. You'd think given the trouble Ubisoft was in they'd treat the customers they desperately need better.

    • coenoby's avatar
      coenoby
      Very Insightful Person
      2 months ago

      HiUtilization​ 

      First of all many thanks to ravenstar68​  ​ for the information about the Ubisoft mail server being on the OSpam list.  I'm afraid I'm not a gamer and I don't have a Ubisoft account so I could not do any checking for myself. ☹

      @HiUtilization, thanks for going back to Ubisoft.  I have since found several posts on the Microsoft support forum with exactly the same problem as yours but with Outlook.com account's not receiving Ubisoft 2FA emails. It's definitely not just not just a VM email issue and it has been going on for a few years now,    It may be that the Ubisoft server keeps getting listed and after a while it comes off the blacklist for a while and then goes back on again.

      The story I have read a few times is that Microsoft support tell their users that they need the Ubisoft mail log information I set out in my original post before they can do anything   and Ubisoft never seem willing to help.

      For what it's worth it seems that Gmail does not block those emails.

      I do have more positive news though. As  I said,  I don't have a Ubisoft account but I have been doing some digging and I have come up with this:

      https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/help/account/article/recovering-access-to-your-ubisoft-account/000111797

      Check out the section under the heading "To recover access to your Ubisoft account".

      You will see in the instructions there is the option "Don't have access to your email". I would suggest that you try going down that route. VM are actively closing down VM email accounts that are no longer linked to a paid for VM service so you could be one of those who no longer has access to an old VM email account couldn't you? 😉   I think a little white lie is justified in this case.

      Anyway, as you are trying to move your Ubisoft account away from your VM email account and not getting any support from Ubisoft,  that route seems well worth investigating. Part of that Ubisoft account recovery process should involve you nominating a new email account. 

       Apologies if you have already tried that.

      I hope you can get this sorted - all I can say is that you are definitely not the only one left in limbo with your Ubisoft account.

      Coenoby

      • HiUtilization's avatar
        HiUtilization
        On our wavelength
        2 months ago

        So this is where it got to the point of banging my head against a wall. The "To recover access to your Ubisoft account" form I filled out with all the information needed, proved account ownership, explained about VM closing email accounts however Ubisoft support emails are delievered without a problem. So Ubisoft can see the support emails are being delievered and are refusing to help with the other emails being blocked, every ticket just ends in contact your email provider or a copy and paste of the whitelist information.

        Thats the current loop I'm stuck in, I basically need something from Virginmedia I can use against Ubisoft.

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

    Hi Guys

    I have an Ubisoft account too.  Looking at the mail coming from Ubisoft it appears to be coming from a mail server that's on at least one Spam list.  0Spam

    The DKIM and DMARC records pass muster.

    Ubisoft need to get Amazon to get their mail server delisted as the listing appears to be an old one.

  • HiUtilization's avatar
    HiUtilization
    On our wavelength
    29 days ago

    So am I to assume I'm not going to get any help from VM then since its been a week now, forum team always use to be helpful is that not the case anymore? Even a simple we can't help would be better than nothing.

    The emails are still being blocked, guessing the only way this is going to be sorted is to delete the actual email address and try going through Ubisoft again. If the email is gone I assume Ubisoft will see it bounce back so they can't use 'contact your email provider' as an excuse again.

    Thanks to Coenoby & ravenstar68 for actually trying to help.

    • ravenstar68's avatar
      ravenstar68
      Very Insightful Person
      28 days ago

      HiUtilization​ - It's for Ubisoft to fix the issue, not Virgin Media.  I run my own mail server - and if my mails to Virgin Media customers were being blocked, as postmaster I would be the one to deal with it.  Ubisoft's postmaster needs to address the issue.  Asking Virgin Media to whitelist Ubisoft is not the answer.

    • coenoby's avatar
      coenoby
      Very Insightful Person
      28 days ago

      HiUtilization​ 

      "am I to assume I'm not going to get any help from VM "  

      The point is that (as Ravenstar has said) it's totally Ubisoft's responsibility to sort out the issue with their server. 

      Ravenstar identified that a  Ubisoft server has got onto an OSpam  blocklist. Ospam are an  independent antspam organisation so they will have had a reason to include that server in their blocklist.

      Ubisoft should not expect VM to whitlelist Ubisoft email accounts just to get round a problem identifief by OSpam, or any other independant  antispam organisations for that matter.  

      Coenoby

  • HiUtilization's avatar
    HiUtilization
    On our wavelength
    27 days ago

    If Ubisoft being on 0Spam is the problem thats fine but I need Virgin Media to tell me thats the problem, Ubisoft are being extremely unhelpful to the point everything ends in 'contact your email provider'. If I have something from VM telling me it's 0Spam then I can use that, if I go to Ubisoft and claim two random people on the internet told me they're just going to copy and paste 'contact your email provider'.

    You two have spent more time on this helping me than VM, even finding a possible problem and yet the best VM can come up with is "Have you tried clicking on the email in question and saying not junk / spam?" that's frankly atrocious customer service.

    Youfibre are in the area now so we're not hostage to VM anymore, been a customer since pre-ntlworld days but it's looking more likely time to swap.