Yesterday found that I couldn’t send email on mobile device, mails went into outbox with message ‘Unable to connect to SMTP server’. Could send mail via web browser. Contacted Virgin support and told problem with mail app on my devices and no problems with my services which I did not agree with. Subsequently put through to Virgin Homework’s Gadget Rescue department who said they could fix problem for a £9.99 month add on to my Virgin media package, I said that I don’t want additions to my package and was told there would be no charge if they couldn’t resolve the problem and they would call back in 20 minutes. I then called customer service to say that I didn’t want additional service added to my current services and didn’t think I should pay to solve a problem that was of their making. I was then put through to someone who I was told would fix the problem at no cost to me, I was told that the problem was that Virgin media were tightening security and that they needed to create a system generated 16 character password which they required a third party email address in order to generate it. I gave my Google mail email address, and password was generated and I was told to amend my app mail setting for incoming mail and outgoing mail to use this password, this I did but I still had the same problem and was now starting to get a little annoyed , I complained that I had spent many hours talking to various Virgin support people and still had the same problem, I was then told it was Norton Anti virus causing the blocking of me sending emails to which I said I have been using Norton for years and did not believe that was the problem, anyway the support person said he had spent a long time on the problem and could do no more and I needed to get support from Virgin Homework’s gadget rescue dept. Very reluctant and unhappy I again contacted Virgin Homework’s, and told they would instruct me what to do and no charge if they couldn’t fix problem. So went through app mail settings and as I already knew there was no problem there, then checked WAN IP address and inputted this on SPAMHAUS which showed there had been two reported vulnerabilities on that IP and it had been blocked for outgoing mail by Virgin and that was the problem. So Homeworks couldn’t fix it so there would be no charge, I was then transferred to another department who said they would raise a ticket to get the block removed from that IP and it would take about 5 days. I have no idea what vulnerabilities were reported on IP or what could have caused them or if they originated from elsewhere, I use ASUS Zen mesh system with active AI protection and nothing shown on that and nothing indicated from Norton 360 so no idea what caused IP issue. As I originally thought the problem I had was due to actions taken by Virgin media and not Mail apps or Norton. So I turned on my VPN ( don’t regularly use it) to use a different WAN IP/server and bingo problem solved. My initial call to Virgin was around or just before 3pm it was now 10:50 pm so as a double check I phoned Virgin Homeworks and assured that the addition of their service had been cancelled and I would not be charged. 9am this morning, checked emails and there was one from Virgin media showing that Virgin Homeworks had been added to my services and my next bill was £9.99 extra, the other email was a welcome to Homeworks. I now had steam coming out of my ears, so again rang customer support and eventually got Homeworks removed from my service package. Why on earth did it take all that time and phone runaround to get to the cause of the problem, makes me wonder on tech support competence ?
