My elderly parents' @virgin.net email accounts no longer work - without warning

[KathyBriggs]

My elderly parents (80+ years) have had two personal @virgin.net email accounts since they first signed up to the internet about 20 years ago with Virgin. Back then they had dial-up but have now got broadband via BT. 

They used to use the email account hourly/daily (via Outlook on a Windows OS laptop) staying in touch with family and friends and using it for all their online banking needs, online shopping and supermarket orders, etc. They also volunteer in the community so this is their way of staying in touch with people. They have Nokia phones - no smart phones for them.

Suddenly they can no longer send or receive emails via Outlook and it is distressing them. They've heard of viruses and scams and are worried they have been victims of fraud. I don't believe they have. A quick search and I see others have had this problem too when the business was sold to TalkTalk. I did not know about that - and neither did they.

They have had the same landline phone number for the last 57 years (I'm not exaggerating) and they don't understand why an email address would no longer work.

When anyone sends them an email there is not mail failure message or bounceback. The emails seem to be going to a blackhole. I've used MailTester.com and it is saying their email addresses are not valid. The mail server is mx.tb.ukmail.iss.as9143.net

Please can you help me support them either reinstate their email accounts or transfer them to a new account? They have been shielding since February 2020 and their laptop and phone has been their only connection with the outside world. I could even cope with walking them through creating a new mail account but I'm not sure how to retain all their existing mail if the account is now closed. And how do they update all their existing accounts with a new email? The thought they have lost everything is making them very anxious.

There should be all the data in their Outlook - but I'm not sure - and its hard to support them over the phone.

Please help

[Gareth_L]

Hello KathyBriggs

Sorry to hear this has happened 

I have a feeling it may not be possible to get these emails back 

All our .net addresses were moved over to talk talk around 2014

A few may have been missed and remained active on accounts 

We have recently done a fresh sweep of outstanding .net address and I feel this is why they have stopped working 

If you mind sharing your Parents details by a  Private message 

Then I can have a look at this for you 

If you can check the purple envelope top right of your screen that would be great 
Regards     
Gareth_L

[Gareth_L]

Thanks Kathy 

Bad news the 2 email accounts have been closed

Basically they are classed as orphaned and will not be able to be be activated again

This page we have will explain in a bit more detail why it has happened

Sorry again 

Gareth_L

[jem101]

---

@Gareth_L wrote:

All our .net addresses were moved over to talk talk around 2011 ….. snip

Really, no they weren’t!

@KathyBriggs although Gareth is mistaken regarding the history of the legacy virgin.net email addresses, the fact remains that to continue using it, you needed to have a live VM broadband account, if your parents moved to BT then the email address should have been deleted a couple of months later. This doesn’t seem to always happen and these things linger on until such time as VM get their act together and start cleaning up the old email accounts.

I’m afraid to say that, realistically, you need to assume that the email account and all of the mail contained within it so now gone.

[KathyBriggs]

I'm not clear why this can happen without warning and without a grace period to be able to download important emails and contact details.

Who can I telephone to be able to have them reactivated - even if it is for a short period of time?

[KathyBriggs]

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/Closure-of-former-customer-email-accounts/td-p/39...
According to this Virgin community post, my parents should have received an email warning giving them 30 days' notice of account closure.

This did not happen.

[Gareth_L]

Hi Kathy 

Sadly these are not able to be reactivated 

Sorry it's not the answer that you are looking 

The link I sent in my previous reply explains what has happened

Gareth_L

[Graham_A]

Unfortunately there is nothing that VM are able to do to reinstate the email addresses.

However, the emails received prior to the deletion of the accounts should still be accessible via the Outlook email client.

[KathyBriggs]

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/aug/04/how-did-virgin-media-manage-to-lose-my-email-account

I continue to search and it appears it is possible to unlock the accounts. This is all I am asking while I help them transfer to another email account.

[dannylau]

They can be unlocked but not undeleted