on 27-01-2023 08:30
Switched from virgin media 5 years ago due to house move no Virgin available at new house. Have been successfully using blue yonder email account since then. Just moved to new broadband provider and now can’t access blue yonder account. 30 years worth of history needs to be retained.
Now my password doesn’t work. Happy to use iCloud going forward but need my emails to redirect to iCloud from blue yonder and to have access to historic emails. Was with Virgin for 20 odd years that’s about £20k so I think this is a reasonable request from an ex user.
Thank you I hope you can help?
Answered! Go to Answer
on 28-01-2023 14:20
Hi 4258bill,
Welcome to the community and thank you for posting.
I am sorry to hear you do not have access to your email account.
If the address has now been deactivated, I am afraid we will be unable to reactivate it however, we would be happy to take a look from our side to confirm the status.
To do this, I will pop you over a private message to the purple envelope on the top right of this page.
Speak soon,
on 27-01-2023 10:16
Unfortunately for you VM's email service is supposed to be discontinued 90 days after an account is closed, although due to VM bungling this closure many customers have (like you) used it free for years after leaving. Some providers (notably Sky) keep email accounts open indefinitely, but VM never intentionally did. Seems likely that they've caught up with you, and I'm guessing the account has been closed and deleted and in that case you've got any emails saved on local machines, but anything on VM's servers is now irretrievably gone.
What can you do? Nothing, I think. VM won't raise a ticket for a expensive non-standard service request to recover the deleted account of a former customer. They probably could if (eg) the police or security services requested it, but for you or me, nope. You allude to paying £20k to VM for services previously, but that was exactly that, services previously rendered, not as payment for the enduring provision of an email service that if you'd bought as a standalone service would be about £40 a year.
Your legal rights here are nil - there's no contract between you or VM, so neither contract law or consumer rights offer any protection. As a technicality, accessing VM's email servers when you aren't a paying customer would potentially qualify as an offence of unauthorised access under Section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990. VM have also committed an offence of rather greater severity, in that they breached GDPR by retaining and processing your data after the contract ended (although you continuing to use and access the data could easily be read as continued permission, albeit without creating an obligation on VM).
In practical terms VM aren't going to prosecute you, and I reason you'll not be taking action against them but the failing of both parties does help emphasise how you really have zero rights in this situation. I appreciate that's not what you want to hear, but that's how it is. It also illustrates that if you aren't paying for a service, then you have no rights. Think about that if using any email service for which you're not paying, such as Gmail or Outlook type freebies.
on 27-01-2023 10:23
Thank you for a very detailed explanation. All I require now is redirection until I have updated my contacts with an alternative email address. Is this impossible to achieve?
Thank you 😊
on 27-01-2023 10:50
If the email service was still available you could add a redirect to incoming email. But if it's no longer active there is nothing to be done.
on 27-01-2023 11:02
The password is locked so does that mean it’s inactive? The last email received was yesterday.
thank you 😊
27-01-2023 11:25 - edited 27-01-2023 11:26
Closure of orphaned accounts seems to happen in stages. If the email was working yesterday it's just possible that it might be reopened for long enough to recover something.
For this to happen you'd need a member of staff to pick this up and offer to help. You'll have to cross your fingers for that.
on 27-01-2023 11:28
Please can a member of staff help with me being able to add a redirection?
Thank you very much I appreciate your help 🤞
on 27-01-2023 11:33
Just to add, you won't get a redirection. The best you can hope for is very brief access to allow you to manually copy what you need.
on 27-01-2023 11:59
Thank you if manually is all we can get we still have the inbox to search which I assume is saved on our iPad as still visible. When our utility providers email blueyonder I assume they’ll get an undelivered? Scary as email is a form of ID so we’re pretty stuffed by the sound of it. Also got 30 years worth of business history within. Foolish to move house 🏡
Is it worth calling Virgin or is anyone from Virgin able to help? 🙏
on 27-01-2023 14:01
Consider trying a password reset from here, Forgotten your Password? | Reset Here | Virgin Media. Should that fail then best to wait for a forum team member to respond.
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