Email account locked and unable to log in.

[Flemd]

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, so appears it has not been deleted yet.

I have followed the Virgin directions of adding an alt email address to the virgin media log in and reset passwords. But now i can not log in at all using either the original virgin email or the new email.

Can someone from Virgin please contact me to discuss how to regain access even if it is temporary? 

Thanks

[Matthew_ML]

Hey Flemd, thank you for reaching out and a warm welcome to the community I am sorry to hear this.

Just to confirm have you left us sorry?

If an old email has been deleted we are unable to get it back, once it has been deleted its gone for good sorry.

Can you just confirm anyway for us.

[goslow]

See multi-post below

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/can-not-log-in-to-virgin-net-email/td-p/5567747

[Flemd]

Hi Matt

Please see my other thread.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/can-not-log-in-to-virgin-net-email/td-p/5567747

[Daniel_Et]

Hi @Flemd, thank you for your response.

In order to look into this for you further, we'll send you a private message on here. Look out for the envelope in the top right-hand corner. 

If you're on a portable device with a smaller screen, click on the icon in the top right-hand corner and select "messages" from the additional menu options.

Regards,
Daniel

[Flemd · Accepted solution]

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.            

[Akua_A]

Hi @Flemd 

Thank you for your feedback on this case. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this issue. Unfortunately, we are unable to re-instate orphaned emails once deleted. We will take your feedback onboard and pass it on to the relevant team for future improvement. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any further help and we will do our best to help from here.

Thanks,

[Flemd]

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.

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[goslow]

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.

[Rosebush18]

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@Flemd wrote:

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.

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It’s more likely that VM simply don’t have any procedure for doing this, nor any policy to allow it. So, yes, while there is no technical reason why they couldn’t spin up a new mailbox and login account, some tech at VM would need to do this, no doubt he or she would need to log the time against a customer account - and you aren’t a customer!

Now although they could do it ‘gratis’ it could be argued that current VM customers ultimately pay their salary and might be miffed by being made to pay (albeit each a tiny amount) to subsidise a VM tech working for a non-customer. Again, probably they simply have no method of doing this - I suspect it’s all process-driven, there is no process for doing this, so it won’t happen!

Please don’t get me wrong, I really, really do sympathise with your situation, as do, I’m sure all of the forum team and indeed anyone you happen to speak to at VM. But it basically is a case of ‘computer says no’.