Email Issues

[BlackAdders1973]

Hi,

I had been a loyal VirginMedia customer for well over 10 years but then recently moved in with my partner who already has services with another provider so cancelled my account with VirginMedia. However this was cancelled back in October 2021 and I have recently been experiencing severe lag trying to access my emails via an email app on my smartphone plus I can no longer log into my VirginMedia account as it is now closed. I have tried numerous times contacting VirginMedia recently either via phone or their WhatsApp group only to be eventually told that my email account would have been closed after 90 days? and I would have been notified of this (which I 100% have not) I urgently need access to many important emails I had received and placed into folders I had created but now am unable to do so. I had been told by VirginMedia Whatsapp group that a member of IT would contact me within 4 working days however no one has done so after well over 8 days. I contacted the group yet again only to have to go through everything and be told to call Customer Service which again has been and is a waste of time. I am completely frustrated and angry with this as it is causing me a lot of stress and as stated before am in urgent need of accessing these emails so I can simply forward them to another address I now have. If no one can assist I really want to know how to make a formal complaint about the lack of assistance and disregard for someone like myself who remained loyal to a provider for many years. Please urgently assist/advise.

[用心棒]

If you have not done so already done consider trying the following options:

▸ access webmail directly via the following link Virgin Media Mail

▸ use an email client, like Thunderbird or similar, to access the account — recommended settings for IMAP SMTP are:

Incoming (either IMAP or POP3)

Account type	IMAP
Username	richard.branson@virginmedia.com
Server port	993
Authentication	Password
SSL/TLS	Yes
Server host	imap.virginmedia.com

Outgoing (SMTP)

Account type	SMTP
Username	richard.branson@virginmedia.com
Server port	465
Authentication	Password
SSL/TLS	Yes
Server host	smtp.virginmedia.com

Be aware that IMAP reflects changes between email client and server, i.e. as webmail does.

Backup the emails synchronised to your email client and make accessible copies of the most important, i.e. print to PDF and store elsewhere and/or print to paper.

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[BlackAdders1973]

Hi

Thank you for your response which is much appreciated however I am unable to use the Virgin link as it will no longer allow me to log in with my old Virgin account user and password as I assume they have cancelled this now as customer service advised me they did. Also I am not entirely sure what you are suggesting with the second option of email client - surely this would be asking for my old account details?

Kind regards.

[用心棒]

Second option was suggested because your previous stated there was laggy access to email. Have I misread your earlier post?

[BlackAdders1973]

Apologies if it was not very clear, I can briefly access some of the important emails via my Samsung email app however they appear to be taking ages to load each and every email once opened in this app, sometimes the email will just close out before I can forward it to my other email address so I am assuming this is happening because Virgin have closed the account? I am wasting so many hours/time on trying to get the numerous emails forwarded, surely it would be easy for Virgin just to reinstate the email for me temporarily to enable me to action this? I am also not sure how to follow your steps you have outlined with Thunderbird and wary that I may lose everything.

[用心棒]

That you have some level of access to the email account does suggest strongly that: (a) it can be accessed using an email client; (b) the laggy issue is specific to the phone and/or its network connection. Try using a different network with your phone to see if that resolves the laggy issue.

[BlackAdders1973]

Thanks for your further response. In regard to a different network on the phone I am either trying to access the emails through 4G or my current broadband wifi supplier with still the same issue of the emails not loading fully to be able to forward them. What exactly will the Thunderbird email client do? And do I need to follow the option you outlined word for word? Thanks again so far for your time it is greatly appreciated.

[BlackAdders1973]

Also if I am right in thinking about your comment on using the email client, I have already set up gmail to import all old messages in my Virgin inbox however this does not help the fact that I am trying to access/forward emails from unique folders I have created under my Virgin mail inbox can you please advise?

[用心棒]

When setting up Thunderbird it will in most cases automatically configure itself to use the correct configuration. Once it has it will downloaded all emails so they are available locally, i.e. folders and messages. Hopefully from there you are able to do what you want but if not post back here for further help.

[用心棒]

Another option to consider is using something like MailStore Home – Free Email Archiving and Backup for Home Users to create a backup locally and then upload that to gmail.