Hi
Sorry about this but I am about to vent off ! Just had to reinstall Windows 11 after replacing HDD etc. Time to check up on my emails, what a bl*$dy fiasco. Firstly, I have always been happy with Windows Mail, but the powers that be at MS are making us use Outlook for Windows now. Using it I was suddenly flagged as having issues connecting Outlook to my Virginmedia account emails. Clicking on settings and making sure all the IMAP entries were correct I clicked on save but Outlook was having none of it stating that the authorization was not being accepted. Now these are the settings I have used right up until an hour ago (00:58hrs 9-Oct) before I changed to Outlook for Windows. I first cursed Microsoft and this Outlook app and kept trying until I thought the password, I was using perhaps I had entered it incorrectly. I signed into my Virginmedia account and tried checking the password, which by the way worked to let me sign in to Virgin. I soon discovered that using a 3rd party client (app in VM parlance) I needed to set up an app password. Okay so far but when you go through the process I am informed to change my sign in email address to anything but a virginmedia email address. Jeez, how confusing all this is so far, so I duly used another email - non virginmedia of course - and then I get informed that my email address is my old virginmedia address and click the button to create a new app password. Okay so I go to my client - Outlook for Windows and enter the details of the said virginmedia email, which confusingly I dont use anymore to sign into VM, and it was accepted.
Now I think this is okay all done. You must be joking VM have gone out of their way to make setting these things up a pain in the ass. I go to sign into my VM account with my VM email address and password as I always have and I am told the username/password combination is incorrect. I don't understand why so I assume I must have entered my password incorrectly but no I had not, so I think VM is confused but I'll click on Forgotten Password link. I do this and go to enter my email address as prompted where I am informed that virginmedia email accounts can no longer be used to login to my VM account?????? wth, after several panic attacks and letting the air turn back to normal after being so blue, I discovered that the non-VM email address I entered to create the 3rd party client password was now my login for my VM account. Not only did I not initially realise this I ended up changing passwords several times because the VM help kept insisting I needed to create a new password, I therefore got stuck in this loop for a while until I closed my browser down, went outside to cry and then return back to try again. Well the upshot is my VM email acount exists in the ether and can only be accessed by using the app system generated 4 word password, which if you forget to note it down, can't say they tell you this but I might be mistaken, there is no way on earth that you can just look it up to remind you, you have to start all over again and generate a new app password, change your email clients settings, AGAIN, and die of exhaustion.
I have now discovered, as I took a small comfort break, that if like me you forgot to note the password all your other devices that link to your VM mail account need to be changed, so I need to start the process of getting a new app password. I can't wait for a new provider to appear in my area so I can jump overboard into the safety of a new up to date lifeboat with a welcoming and helpful crew, as SS Virgin(probably not one now after all the shaftings they have taken over the years)media is sinking to new lows in customer support and dealings, especially in areas where they are the only viable provider. Please Lila connect hurry up on your expansion to my area Please, Please, Please, I am so desperate.
Sounds bad I know but it actually is, I have been a customer for over 30 years (C&W, NTL, Virginmedia) and just lately VM have been apathetic, complacent and unhelpful, and this transition to app passwords, though for the right reasons, their implementation is pathetic. I am okay with IT it was my line of work for over 20 years but it took me a while to wade through what was going on, imagine me being some older person with no IT background and I imagine they would actually panic, I know I initially did, and probably have no idea what its all about, as help from VM is hit and miss, half the time the support staff don't listen because they only go by scripts provided and even though you have already done what they are telling you to do, they insist on reading out their script prompts like a chatbot with a heart beat. It would actually be nice if support was not off-shore as it can be challenging at times.
This is my rant over and done with, and as it will not be read by anyone in VM I expect the crap they keep feeding us, their cannon fodder, will continue unabated. Love the TV, Telephone now is crap, Broadband is great for speed but all ancillary factors, emails etc., are now so frustrating. As I said above hurry up Lila and connect me. P.S. Half the price too !!
