Forum Discussion

Flemd's avatar
Flemd
On our wavelength
10 months ago
Solved

Email account locked and unable to log in.

Hi Virgin support My email has become locked. It is an old Virgin.net address and i have already posted about this and confirmed that the address is still 'active' or at lest still deliverable to, ...
  • Flemd's avatar
    Flemd
    10 months ago

    Outcome

    Despite the help from Molly, VM are instant that they will not/cannot re-instate my email, not even temporarily. Even despite the harm and disruption that the instant loss of a 30+yr old email address has caused. Personally this has meant significant distress as I was in the middle of a number of issues with several official bodies such as the DWP and NHS. Along also with a couple of job applications and communications with a group that help people with dyslexia. The loss of many official documents, loss all email contact addresses and finally making changing/updating contact/log in emails impossible with some and very difficult with others due to the inability to access verification emails.

    I want people to understand that having worked in IT I know full well that this is a policy decision by VM, not a technical issue. The Virgin.net domain and servers still exist as does the ability to manage virgin.net profiles. Profiles and mail boxes are regularly back up and if action is taken quickly enough, then mail boxes could be retrieved and profiles reactivated. At a minimum a profile can, be recreated and linked even if backups of the mailboxes have been deleted. Typically, a profile will be deactivated/deleted then an automatic process will delete any data associated with that profile, as in the mail box. How often that process runs will depend on the business needs and how often space on the server farm needs to be kept free.

    Don’t get me wrong, I full accept that VM do not offer free email hosting, even though they used to. And I full accept responsibility for me stopping using a mail client so that emails can be stored and saved independently off webmail.

    The issue for me is the complete lack of understanding by VM just how imbedded into everyday life our email address now are, and the complete lack of care and understanding this policy of deleting ‘orphaned’ email accounts without any notification is. For a company these days to display such a lack of ‘Duty of care’ is just unacceptable. If this was to happen to someone with mental health issues it just not bare thinking about what the consequences could be.

    Personally I will never buy into and VM product, nor recommend them as a company to use or work for or use.            

Flemd's avatar
Flemd
On our wavelength
10 months ago

Thank you Akua for your reply. Your policies unfortunately prevent you from being able to offer any more help.

And please lets be clear, transparent and honest.... it isnt unable to re-instate orphaned emails it is UNWILLING to re-instate.

 

goslow's avatar
goslow
Alessandro Volta
10 months ago

Disappointing to read that VM has not granted you temporary access to recover info from the mailbox.

Some regular contributors on here will advise that this is in line with VM's T&Cs and it is tough luck for you. I can't say I buy into this argument on the basis that VM has consistently failed to follow through on its 90 day deletion policy for all customers and this has created uncertainty in how/when/if the policy is applied. In some cases (and seemingly your own) the mailbox in question has operated for decades so to shut it down with no immediate warning whatsoever does not seem to be very reasonable IMO.

If it was me, I would be escalating a complaint to ICO about VM's policy of doing this without warning to accounts which have been in use for a very long time.

You have to make a formal complaint to VM first of all (very likely to be closed down quickly with a gobbledegook nonsense reply). You can then complain to ICO.

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

This will not be a quick process (likely several months so unlikely to result in recovery of your data). The outcome would, however, be useful to know for anyone else in future posting on here, if you decided it was worth the bother.

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    10 months ago

    In the case of many of the users of these legacy mailboxes, they aren't knowingly trying to blag a 'subsidised meal at the golf club'. Many are under the genuine belief that they have been using a free email account which they began using decades ago and would have indefinite access to.

    The point about former customers using a mailbox they are no longer paying for isn't in dispute (either from me or the OP). It is entirely reasonable for VM to follow a fair process to delete these legacy mailboxes which are no longer funded by the user.

    It would be reasonable for VM to issue a notification for anyone using such a legacy mailbox that the 90 days rule had been missed for their mailbox (for a mere 30 years in this case!) but it is now going to be implemented with no additional delays and no exceptions beyond the 90 days.

    It is not reasonable to delete mailboxes which have been in use for decades without giving any present-day notice that it is going to happen (particularly given how an email address has now become an essential part of a person's identity for important everyday tasks).

    If I was making a case to the ICO it would be along the lines that VM has not reliably followed its published present-day policy of 90 day deletion and that VM has been totally inconsistent in how/when/if mailboxes are deleted. This has led to confusion among users and a lack of transparency in how the policy is implemented. The passage of significant amounts of time and changes in companies running the service has only added to the confusion. VM has continued to process and store the customers' personal data so should, therefore, have a responsibility for how it is handled which includes the idea of it being handled fairly.

    If anyone of the users who has been affected by having their email account closed does decide to process a complaint with ICO, it would be interesting to hear the outcome and the reasons for any ICO decisions (either in favour of the customer or in favour of VM).

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    10 months ago

    If anyone does complete a complaint with the ICO, and feeds back the outcome on here, we might get further clarification on all these points.

  • Flemd's avatar
    Flemd
    On our wavelength
    10 months ago

    I will speak to the ICO to see what their take on this is.

    I think what bugs me the most is that I did also have an active VM account that i could log in to independently of my email, so it would be technical incorrect to refer to the email account as 'Orphaned' as it was linked to a VM account. That said it wasn't a paid for account. But once locked out of my email i followed the process on the VM site to reset my login to a non VM email address as this suggested that this would allow access to email again. But what it did was remove my VM account completely...

    I also don't remember if Virgin ever was my ISP, i believe there was a time you could get 'free' email hosting from Virgin. I used Freeserve for many years as my ISP and then ZEN, but no memory of using Virgin. 

  • Flemd's avatar
    Flemd
    On our wavelength
    10 months ago

    Well that's a step in the right direction.