Hi,
my email stopped working (i.e. no access) one week ago (Thursday 30th July) and I have been unable to access it online (laptop/PC) ever since.
The first attempt gave the standard message to 'try again in 1 hour'. I did this and have since been getting the page '403 Forbidden' every time I try to access my email account.
I can log in to Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile with no trouble.
I had an email from Virgin to say that somebody had accessed my email account and set it to forward all my incoming emails to various other accounts. This had been happening since May 1st and they only just informed me, telling me to check all emails from that date! But I have no access to my emails because they appear to have 'locked' me out?
I was only able to read this email because, for some reason, I am still able to pick up my incoming emails via Gmail on my mobile phone only.
Why would they send an email to an account they have shut down to inform you what has happened - perhaps an SMS would have been more sensible?
I called 150 on my Virgin mobile the following day, Friday 31st August, for assistance, and they reset my password and told me to delete all bookmarks for Virgin Media and try logging in to my email using a different browser.
I did all that and I still got the '403 Forbidden' page.
I called 150 again on Monday 3rd August and they went through the same process with me, which I told them didn't work last time, and funnily enough it didn't work again!
The assistant said he would have his Supervisor call me back to sort this out the following day (Tuesday 4th) at 12 noon.
12 noon came and went, as did 5pm, so I called them again - on 150 from my mobile.
The third assistant went through the whole process the first two assistants had and told me to try logging in (using my third change of Password and a third different Browser) in 20 minutes.
I did this and, funnily enough, it didn't work, again!
That's 3 calls, 3 different Passwords and 3 different Browsers (Edge, Chrome and Firefox - I was specifically told not to use Safari, for some reason!?).
I asked the third assistant for an alternative person to speak to just in case it didn't work again - she said it will work (as did the others!).
she gave me a number, which appeared to be freephone (0800 014 7398). On calling this the following day (today, Wednesday 5th August) the call preamble quickly slipped in that it is a service Virgin Media customers can PAY for?!
Virgin Media have caused this problem by not keeping my email Account safe in the first instance, and then locking me out of it 3 months after it was breached - there is no way I am going to pay to have it sorted out.
I stumbled upon this website whilst searching for answers to my problem online.
It appears several other people have been having problems with email, although I am not sure whether they are the same as mine?
I have now spent a total of 19 hours trying to sort this problem out (if you include 2-3 hours waiting for assistants to answer the phone).
I realise there are problems for everybody in these trying times, and assistance may be thin on the ground, but I am trying to run a business from home using this email address, and it is now becoming a serious issue for me.
If I can't get this sorted out soon, I will have to start using an alternative email for my business and I will cancel all my Virgin services (TV, Broadband, Landline, email and Mobile Phone).
Please, please, please help me, or else direct me to somebody who can help.
I look forward to a reply and many thanks in advance!