unable to receive emails even as webmail

[HeatherPW]

My email address won't receive emails. I have changed the password and security question, checked there is no forwarding going on. I can't get emails on laptop, phone or iPad.

The helpline raised a ticket but I have been told it will take 'a good 48-72 hours' to fix, which is highly unsatisfactory. 

Is there anything else I can do? 

[coenoby]

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@HeatherPW wrote:

Is there anything else I can do? 

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A few ideas:

1. I know you say you have checked for forwarding but have you also checked the filter rules to see if a rule or rules have been set up to move incoming emails to another folder in your VM email account, or even to delete incoming emails? Sign into webmail, select the cogwheel icon then select Settings > Email > Filter Rules >. If there are any rules set up that you don't know about it suggests someone has hacked into your account and made changes to hide the fact they are using your email address. In that case you need to change the password and password recovery question again and also run a full AV / Malware scan.
2. You could send a test email message to your VM email address and see if that comes back with a non delivery report or an error message of some kind. That might reveal the reason new emails are not being received
3. Also, you could check that new incoming emails always appear at the top of the Inbox. Sign into Webmail,   Open the Inbox folder, select Sort and check that  "Date" and "Descending" are only options selected.

Finally, you do not mention anything about outgoing emails. Just to confirm, does that mean that you can send emails from your VM email account but just not receive incoming emails?

Coenoby

[HeatherPW]

Thank you.....I can send emails although the test ones I send to myself don't arrive. 

I have checked the forwarding and the filters but will do so again. 

The order of emails is correct - latest at the top.

Thanks again for your suggestions. I'm off to call the helpline again. 

[HeatherPW]

Hi again. All is normal, no filters, nothing on a sender blocklist, all incoming emails set to sort with newest message on top…..called virgin and no help but they have agreed to escalate. Obviously no email since 1 am  Thursday morning isn’t a good service grrrrr….

[coenoby]

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@HeatherPW wrote:

I can send emails although the test ones I send to myself don't arrive. 

All is normal, no filters, nothing on a sender blocklist, all incoming emails set to sort with newest message on top….

Thanks for coming back with the updates.

Did you send those test emails from the the email account that cannot receive emails or from another account?

Ideally it would be better to send test emails from another email account. If the test emails were sent from a second account you could then check for any resulting error / non delivery messages.

If there are no resulting error messages received by that  second email account it would suggest that the test emails were delivered to your VM mailbox but they were then diverted to another email account or simply deleted. That could be:

• a filter rule or autoforward in your webmail account - but from what you have said that seems unlikely
• the emails are being removed by the email app or client of one of your other devices.
• a similar filter rule on a device controlled by a hacker who has access to your VM email account or knows your password

On the other hand if the second email account receives error messages the contents of those error messages /non delivery reports would help identify why your VM email account is not receiving emails.

I hope that makes sense.

Coenoby

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[HeatherPW]

Thanks again 😀

The test emails were sent by my gmail account- no error messages received, but the emails send ok. I also sent test emails from both the accounts linked to the virgin account. Same thing. They just disappear. 

I changed my password twice.

I had another round with the helpline who are still unable to do anything except tell me to wait up to five working days- shocking. I said I would change ISP and I was told they would escalate the problem, but who knows? 

[coenoby]

@HeatherPW 

Thanks again for the update. The fact that no error message or non delivery reports were returned to your Gmail account suggests that the emails are being delivered to the VM server. What happens after that is a mystery.

One thing you might like to consider is that like most  ISPs VM no longer provides VM email accounts to their new broadband customers or allows existing customers to create new VM email accounts. VM have said that they continue to support existing VM email accounts but their change of policy regarding their email service does suggest that they do not see their email service as a high business priority going forward.

Whether you switch your broadband service or not, your best bet would be to run down your use of your VM email accounts and migrate across to Gmail or one of the many other free email services offered by dedicated email providers.

Coenoby

[HeatherPW]

Good advice, thank you. I have thought for a while about just using gmail, which I have had for a long time as a back up for when I had problems. I can start the switching over process straight away. My immediate problem of course remains....the service from Virgin generally has been poor for a while but this is the worst it has been. This is the fifth day for me with no emails at all. Using the helpline is a cumbersome process, too. 

Thanks again. 

[Kain_W]

Many apologies for the issues faced HeatherPW,

Welcome back to the community.

Can I ask regarding this, have you received any error messages or codes at all when sending to the proposed email?

Secondly is it just one email that is affected?

Regads,