My Critical Virgin Net Email Add has just been switched off - Please Help!

[JBsquared]

After 25 yrs my virgin net email address ;look slike it has been switched off. I do not have any active Virgin Media accounts

I have just read some other posts where others have had a similar issue.

As all of my life is linked to this address is there nothing I can do to re-instate / create an auto forward / pay or beg for help to fix?

Any tips gratefully received.

and its Christmas........!

[John_GS]

Hi JBsquared

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community.

I am sorry for the email issue - if it's not active on a existing cable account, it's possibly been sent for deletion.

I will PM you though to see if anything we can do.

Best,

[br1anstorm]

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@JBsquared wrote:

After 25 yrs my virgin net email address ;look slike it has been switched off. I do not have any active Virgin Media accounts

I have just read some other posts where others have had a similar issue.

As all of my life is linked to this address is there nothing I can do to re-instate / create an auto forward / pay or beg for help to fix?

Any tips gratefully received.

and its Christmas........!

---

Well @JBsquared... I feel your pain.  I'm in an identical situation.  Have had a virgin.net email account for some 25 years, first created back in the days of dial-up, and used as my main account ever since.  The only other account I have with Virgin media is a pay-monthly mobile account (which now i have difficulty accessing!).

It appears that about a week ago the plug was pulled on my virgin.net email, with no warning and no explanation.  I have posted separately in this forum (perhaps you have seen my comments already?).

Like you I got Virgin staff offering to look into the matter on the basis of a private message dialogue.  In my case, it has brought no joy.  Staff claim - incorrectly - that a 90-day "window" is provided before disconnection/deletion of an email account, to enable transition to another email provider.  This is not true.  I had no notice, and no 90 day grace period.  My email account was simply shut down.  And sadly, staff say there is no way of regaining access even to the last week's emails.  At Christmas that is a particularly cruel blow.  And I now face weeks of re-setting hundreds of other accounts which depended on my virgin.net email as a login.

I can't offer you any helpful tips.  I hope you may have better luck with the Virgin staff who have offered to help you.  But be prepared for disappointment.  Virgin Media management and customer services leave a lot to be desired.  I wish you well in finding an alternative - and better - email account provider.

[JBsquared]

Hi

Sorry to hear about the virtually identical issue.

I too did not get a 90 day warning and have had to quicly re set loads of accounts and try to deal with those that will only acceot a re-set if you confirm on the old account (impossible)

Thanks for sharing your experience

[jem101]

I would just like to say that this 90 day notice period / warning, is often mentioned but isn't actually true, or at least it isn't what you might think it is.

To use any of the VM branded email addresses, including the @virgin.net addresses, requires that you have a current VM broadband connection, so if you leave, then VM state that they will delete the email address after 90 days, NOT that they will give 90 days notice before they do it. In reality there are cases of email addresses lingering on for months if not years before suddenly being deleted, and this isn't a case of VM failing to give the 'required' notice, VM claim that the address will be deleted AFTER 90 days, now the fact that it might be ten years AFTER the 90 days is immaterial. 

Now some users have never been a VM broadband customer, their addresses dated back to the old dial-up days, in which case, the address should have been deleted within a couple of months after the dial-up service was discontinued (2015 I think?), unless you were in a position to sign up for a VM broadband subscription.

Now, admittedly, VM have done themselves no favours by not executing on their policy of deleting old (orphaned) addresses, within said 90 days, and allowing customers to believe they can carry on using them indefinitely (but, incidentally, in that case, who did you think was paying for the resources used?), and getting somewhat annoyed when the metaphorical rug was pulled from under them.

But, an analogy I have used in the past goes like this; imagine you are a member of a golf club, and as such have use of the subsidised restaurant and bar. One day you decide to leave (golf, not really being your thing), but find that because of the club's lack of proper record keeping, you can still use the subsidised bar and restaurant and you carry on doing so getting cheap meals and drinks. Until one day, the club gets new management and the first thing they do is to tighten up the procedures, and the next time you turn up, maybe to celebrate a birthday in the subsidised restaurant, the new bouncers turn you away for not being paid members!

Now, the question is, do you think this is unfair and would you expect the club's owners to give you 90 days notice before banning you?