Email

[russellwhite]

Hello I can no longer access my [REMOVED]@virgin.net email address. It stopped working last week and I am unable to access via any device. I have a broadband and TV package with virgin but this email address predates that account, I set it up in 1998, and was never linked to the broadband account. Could you please restore my access and also link the account to my broadband account. 

[MOD EDIT: Personal and private information has been removed from this post. Please do not post personal or private information in your public posts. Please review the Forum Guidelines]

[jpeg1 · Accepted solution]

This probably applies to you:

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/Orphan-Email-accounts/td-p/3492073

[russellwhite]

Thank you that does seem to apply, any idea how you go about attaching the old email address to the current broadband account I have with virgin? I have rang them twice and got nowhere.

[jpeg1]

You'll need to wait for a staff member to pick this up and offer to help. 

[Paulina_Z]

Hi @russellwhite,

Welcome to our Community Forums! Thank you for your post, and I'm sorry to hear that you've had some issues with your mailbox recently.

I understand that you have an active broadband account with us at the moment. We will do all we can to locate your old email address and help. To do this, I will need to confirm a few details with you over Private Message. Please keep an eye out for a purple envelope at the top of your Forum page. I will be in touch soon.

Thank you!

[cmoss9946]

Same for me, had my email for 10 plus years, now has been removed, even tho my partner now has the Account at same house number. 

Can someone please get in touch to restore my email address as I have Payslips going into it. 

Thanks. Chris

[Corey_C]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your post and for reaching out to the Community Forums. Just to clarify, did your partner always have the account or was there an earlier account? Email mailboxes are linked to media accounts and if a media account  gets cancelled, the linked mailbox also gets cancelled. 

Cheers,

Corey C

[cmoss9946]

Thanks for the reply.

Originally the account was in my name. I then closed the account and my other half then started a new account.

I still had access to my emails upto 12th Dec, my issue is my Payroll payslips are linked to my email. And trying to get them to understand I need it changed is proving difficult.

[jem101]

@cmoss9946  Ah that explains it. When you closed your account then the email addresses associated with it would be marked as orphaned and should have been closed after 90 days. Your other half opens a new account, but the old email addresses wouldn't automatically get transferred across to it.

Now VM have a procedure called a Move and Transfer by which email accounts can be transferred to a different broadband account BUT there are a couple of massive caveats to this;

Firstly if it can be done then any and all emails account currently associated with the 'new' broadband account get wiped out immediately - this isn't negotiable, it's part of the process.

Secondly VM are now much stricter on when this can be done and I believe that now both the old and new broadband accounts have to be in the same name (which presumably is not the case here).

I'm sure that a VM forum member will contact you again and confirm this but in the meantime, I would strongly suggest that you work on the basis that the email address and mailbox is gone and not coming back. Setup an alternative email provider and start the process of making the changes - you might be lucky and they can restore access for you but it may be only temporary and I really wouldn't rely on it happening at all.

John

[Sololobo]

Originally posted in Jan. 2020, the requirements for implementing a "Move and Transfer" of an email address are noted in post #40 here:
https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/Can-t-log-in-to-virgin-net-email/td-p/4140683/pag... 

I have no reason to believe they have changed substantially since then.

In some instances we are able to transfer the orphaned email account to an active Broadband account however certain criteria need to be met before we can do this. These are;

• The email address in question must be active
• The disconnected account and active broadband account must have the same account holder
• It must be the account holder who contacts us
• Full DPA must be passed on both accounts

If the above criteria are met we are able to attempt to transfer the email address. Another thing to note is that if the disconnected account has multiple email accounts attached (Primary and secondary) all email addresses will be transferred. Any email addresses tied to the active broadband account would be disconnected and replaced by those from the old disconnected account. 

I originally believed that all four criteria noted above had to be met before a "move and transfer" could be carried out, but the above requirements are tempered somewhat by the information/clarification provided in post #11 in this thread from March 2020:
https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/Transfer-old-email-to-new-Virgin-account/td-p/416...

When we do a move & transfer we ensure we clear DPA on the new account and the old account before transferring. As a rule we wouldn't do it for accounts in different names, but when we have reason to do so we'll clear DPA on both accounts as well. If the former account is no longer active then we don't have enough information to clear DPA, and therefore we can't transfer any of the email accounts.

The issues being faced here are:-

Is the old account still considered to be active, especially as it's no longer accessible?
Will the requirement for the same account holder be waived?
Is the old email address/account holder still considered to hold an account, even after that account has been closed?
Can both parties successfully pass DPA requirements, with one account being closed and another in a different name?

 Only VM can answer these questions, but don't expect the answer hoped for.