Locked out of NTL World account

[estellell]

I've been locked out of my NTL World email account since yesterday evening, so this morning I tried changing my password, but the Virgin website kept hanging on the security question page.

I spoke to a Virgin agent this morning, who tried resetting my password, but it still wouldn't work. I spoke to another agent this afternoon who hasn't been able to suggest anything other than posting the problem here (and waiting another 24 hours before I can log an issue ticket).

Can anyone suggest what I should do to unlock my email account? Given that I use it to run my business (more fool me!), it's quite urgent!

TIA

[coenoby · Accepted solution]

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@estellell wrote:

Can anyone suggest what I should do to unlock my email account? Given that I use it to run my business (more fool me!), it's quite urgent!

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For me there are 3 issues here;

1) VM customer services fobbing you off by suggesting you post here.

You are certainly very welcome here 🤗 and I am sure the forum can help you. However, the fact is that most of the first responders on this forum are VM customers like myself. So why does an VM employee think a community forum can solve a technical problem with the VM system?

Why did they not raise a ticket for you? I guess it was just easier for them to tell you to post here.

Sorry about that but my rant on VM customer support is now over.      

Now I'll be constructive and try to help.

2) VM's forgotten password process does seem to have its problems as you've found.  However, the Forum Team (VM employees who support this forum) should be able to either get your password reset or if there is an underlying problem they will raise a ticket with the relevant technical team. One of the Forum Team will contact you via this thread and get your details by private message.  I will check back later tonight and if you are still waiting I will escalate your post to the Forum Team.

3) Using VM email for business.

Your VM email account comes as part of your VM Broadband package and strictly speaking, business use is not allowed under VM's Home Broadband Terms and Conditions - but I am not going to make a big thing of that.

The more relevant concern is that VM's email service is a very basic service intended for light personal use and is simply not good enough or suitably supported to be used for serious business use. To be fair, I think you probably know that already.

You also need to consider VM's recent change of strategy on their email service. Since May 2022, VM have stopped issuing email accounts to new broadband customers and existing VM customers can no longer create additional new email accounts. At the moment VM have said they will continue supporting existing users of their email service but, at the very least, these recent changes show that VM do not regard their email service as being a priority going forward.

So, you definitely need to move your business email away from VM. There are a lot of options such as:

• setting up your domain name and associated email address for your business
• using something like Gmail's paid for business email service
• simply using a free personal email service from one of the leading email specialists such as Gmail or Outlook.com

The choice is yours but don't continue to risk losing business or creating problems with your customers by continuing with VM's email service.

Re-reading my post, I hope you don't think I am having a go at you, I am just trying to be constructive based on my experience as a long term VM broadband customer and small business owner.

To sum up, in my opinion your best way forward is

1. to get your email account password issue picked up by the helpful VM staff on this forum and then
2. you really need to consider the best way to support your email requirements in respect of your business.

Hope that helps.

Coenoby

[Gareth_L]

Hello estellell

As @coenoby has advised its a shame that our Customer Service Team pointed you here as this could have been easily resolved over the phone.

Any way less of that, We are very happy to help.

If you don't mind, I will need to send you a private message to pass security. 
If you can check the purple envelope top right of your screen that would be great. 
Regards     
Gareth_L
 

[estellell]

Thanks for your reply: I'd come to the same conclusion about setting up an email account specifically for business purposes - having pondered it for years, this has finally made me do something about it!

[coenoby]

@estellell 

Sadly, I do think that is for the best.

Hopefully you took up @Gareth_L 's offer of help to enable you to regain access to your VM email account. The Forum Team are much better at resolving issues than the Customer Services Team. 😉

Coenoby

[Adri_G]

Hey estellell, thanks for your posts and replies on our help forum.

We're sorry to hear what your previous experience was on your previous calls with our team, have you been speaking in regard to this with Gareth_L via private messages and did you manage to get the issue resolved yet? 

Let us know where you are with this and if you still need our help, happy to offer it.