on 19-09-2024 09:39
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
Answered! Go to Answer
02-10-2024 21:24 - edited 02-10-2024 21:27
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.
02-10-2024 21:41 - edited 02-10-2024 21:48
VM's failure to observe its 90 days policy has had two directly opposite results.
We see the complaints of ex-customers who have unexpectedly lost their email accounts after many years.
And we see others complaining of hacking/misuse of accounts that they believed had been closed years ago.
Neither of these would be happening if VM had simply closed accounts when they said they would.
It takes a particularly awful version of customer care to achieve both results at once. But Virginmedia managed it.
on 03-10-2024 11:41
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.
on 03-10-2024 17:46
The time you are referring to was a dial-up service over the telephone line, where you paid for the call and VM or one of its predecessors took part of that charge in payment for the email service. So it was never free.
I'm not suggesting for a moment that VM have handled the email service wonderfully, but if they decide to close the email from anyone not using their broadband service there is really nothing you can do.
a month ago
Change of approach from VM as of today, it seems
a month ago
Well that's a step in the right direction.
a month ago
Actually that is probably correct now you mention it. I think initially i used Freeserve as it just cost the time using the dial up service and then swapped to Virgins subscription free dial up service, again charged via BT lane line. Then my first ADSL was with ZEN.
So technically i never signed up to Virgins T&C's as i was never a subscription user. So how does that work in terms of what they are telling me now?
a month ago
That's simple. You were using the dialup service, and then you stopped using it. That was the end as far as VM was concerned. Anything you got after that was just a bonus.
Did you ever get, in any contract you have had with VM, a promise (or even just a mention) of an email service?
a month ago
Ive no idea, it was back in the 90's 😂
Anyway, that is by the by, i've always said i understand that apparently it wasn't a 'Free' email service. It is the deletion of the email and its mail box without notice near 30yrs later that is the issue and totally irresponsible. Clearly VM have now recognized this as it appears they are now sending out emails to people in the same situation as i was.
a month ago
VM has never been accused of being excessively helpful to its customers, so if you're not even a customer you won't be getting much at all.
Finally they are catching up with the situation they allowed to develop over the years.