Email account credentials stopped working & can't reset password

[the_eyleys]

This happens periodically with any of our email accounts which is a royal pain as the password reset doesn't work properly.  I can still(!) log into My VirginMedia with the credentials failing in outlook, and if I go to change password it asks me to Change e-mail address.  If I choose Generate New App Password, it asks me to change the e-mail address.

You don't appear able to use an e-mail address you've used to unlock an account previously and I have now run out of accounts to use.  However, I don't think that matters, as the last time I tried this morning I got to the change password screen and tried to select a new password.  Whatever I put it, 100% following the rules about characters not allowed and required characters, it keeps saying "There was a Problem Registering that Password".  I have tried probably 20 different passwords, all following the so-called rules, and none of them work.

I have also tried this on 2 different browsers and systems to make sure is not a cookie/cache issue.

The system is simply not fit for purpose.  If I can't work out how to reset a password despite working in IT then how would my mother even begin to get her head round this, she will never move to Virgin for this reason alone.  Losing e-mail, some people's lifeline with no un-complicated way of restoring it is simply unacceptable.

So what do I do now please?

[Reece_MH]

Hi the_eyleys 👋

We're very sorry to hear about the issues you're facing with your email service.

Due to recent changes in our security policies, it is now a requirement to use a 3rd-party email address (such as Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) to be associated with your My Virgin Media account, this will then allow you to update your passwords as expected.

Please can you try re-associating your My Virgin Media with a 3rd-party email, and then verifying this, and then attempting to set your App Passwords?

Are you able to access your Virgin Media Mail directly through our site, here?

Thanks,

[the_eyleys]

Hi Reece,

Thanks for the reply.  Tried that already, reassociated with a 3rd party address and still won't accept my attempt to change password, whole system totally broken.

Spoke to CS yesterday on WhatsApp who claimed to have manually changed the password for us and said to try after an hour or so.  Still no joy 24 hours later.

Called them back today and have now apparently been escalated to tech support, little confidence they know what they're doing to be perfectly honest.  Nearly a week without e-mail now is unacceptable.  I've sent a number of e-mails to my own address (not my broken wife's address I'm talking about here) and none of them are arriving, even though Outlook is successfully sending/receiving on my account.  VirginMedia e-mail is a complete joke.

Really not sure where to turn next, this is being looked at and been quoted up to 72 hours, but I ain't holding my breath.

And no, as mentioned above, my wife can log into My VirginMedia with her credentials, but when she tries to get e-mails from there, she gets the message "Your Virgin Media Mail account is currently unavailable".

[John_GS]

Hi @the_eyleys 

Thanks for coming back to us. I'll send you a PM now to assist further.

Best wishes.

[the_eyleys · Accepted solution]

Sorted thanks to John_GS and his patience, the whole process of how to reset a password [for an account that stops working for absolutely no reason obvious to the customer] is horrific, taken days of trial and error to sort out, but finally got there.

Boo to hopeless VM Customer services on WhatsApp that "promised" to fix the issue within 72 hours - oink oink oink - and thanks again to John here who sorted it, not without its bumps as mentioned, but it is at least now sorted.

Until the next time VM, at which point we'll probably just leave completely, life's too short to spend the best part of 10 days on and off trying to get a company you're handing over [not insignificant sums of money to] to sort out an e-mail problem of their making.  Unacceptable and amateurish.

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for the update @the_eyleys on the forums. 👋🏼

I'm glad to hear that my colleague has been able to assist.
I will feed this back to his manager and ensure credit is attributed.

Reach out to us if you need anything else and we'll get it sorted.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[Laurarob1nson1]

Can you help me with the same issue? I've spoken to VM directly and can't seem to fix the issue. identical to below:

[BigBaldTone]

I have, today, experienced the exact same issue - and I too am stumped and I too work in I.T.

Could someone please explain how best to resolve this, as I just cannot access email at all - and despite changing my email address, am not getting any validation emails!!!

[Megan_L]

Hi BigBaldTone,

Thanks for using the Community Forums to get this issue with your email password looked into, I am sorry if this has been causing some frustration 😥 I would be more than happy to look into this for you!

Can we first ask if you've been able to login top your email previously, or is this the first instance if you're a new customer? 

Are you able to login to your MyVM Account without issue? If yes, could you please try changing your MyVM password first and then use that to also login to your email. 

Please let us know,

Thanks,

Megan_L