virgin.net email swindle: Tell BBC Rip Off Britain

[therevd]

For any other people affected by Virgin Media's decision to abruptly cut of virgin.net email access before they could do anything about it, please join me in submitting a complaint to the BBC programme "Rip Off Britain". If enough people complain we might just have sufficient leverage to get an adequate response from the high-handed Virgin Media staff responsible for robbing us of access to our previous emails and contact lists.

No doubt someone will tell me that I should have organised my twenty plus years of emails and contacts better but whoever made this decision should know that by and large, many the people affected are now relatively elderly and not as tech savvy as many younger folk, which meant that the time given between the email announcing the termination of the service and being denied access to their virgin.net email was only a few days and the means of achieving help from Virgin Media to find out what was happening and do something about it, so poor, was insufficient to enable us to rescue our existing emails and contact lists.

[jpeg1]

Why have those who may have used their mailboxes the longest been given less notification than those under the current 90 day policy?

Just out of interest, the 90 days deletion isn't being consistently applied to more recent broadband cancellations. My VM email is still working after a much longer period. 

[therevd]

Replying to my own message to say a big thanks to Sam [REMOVED] a resolution specialist at VM. He was able to get me access to the virgin.net email account I had lost access to less than a fortnight following my 30 days notice email. I have now been able to download the emails I wished to keep and obtain a list of contacts to inform them of VM's intention to close my existing email account. Losing the account is not such a big deal now. The hassle I had before getting things satisfactorily resolved was in my opinion totally unnecessary and unacceptable. The initial help I received was not from VM staff, who by and large obfuscated the issue, but from another customer "goslow" who responded helpfully to my post, linking me to someone at the ICO, who then suggested I contact the data protection officer at VM - To raise a subject access request visit - https://www.virginmedia.com/help/dsar-faq 

I advise anyone who has lost access to virgin.net email prematurely as I did to get in touch with them.

[goslow]

Useful info for anyone in a similar situation. Glad to hear you at least got your data back.

There are a number of posts popping up stating that the closures have taken place before the deadline the customer was given.

[Peteypablo]

I'm looking into the legality of it, I don't think they can delete active accounts without alot of notice, my partner is in tears, she's lost everything, she can't even start her Christmas shop because she's lost access to all her accounts, if I can sue I will. 

[jpeg1]

Your partner is not the only one affected by this, but it doesn't seem that Virginmedia has actually done anything illegal.  There is a lesson to be learned for the future, to keep backup records of your contacts rather than trusting them to a free email account..  

[jack84]

My email has also been closed down after over 20years. I originally signed up when it was dial up and have had my virgin.net email ever since. It was closed yesterday without any prior warning. For some reason although I do not have broadband etc with them and haven't for many years my account has remained valid. I can still sign in online now although I needed to change the email adress I signed in with (could this be the 30 days notice). I followed all the online instructions; however I am unable to access my email account or use the forward emails function. When I contacted them they said that I couldn't access forward or retrieve my emails as I wasn't a Virgin customer. They appeared to be confused as I gave my account number so this hasn't been deleted yet but they wouldn't put me through to a tech advisor as they said I wasn't a customer.

I have no problem with virgin no longer wanting to provide email services for non paying customers. What I have issue with is them deleting my account without notice. I would have happily paid a fee to keep it open whilst I transferred inportant emails and altered my contact details with companies if this had been given as an option. 

Alternatively they could have sent an email with a link to allow you to transfer to a different email (I would have paid a one of fee for this too) None of this has been offered. I can't even seem to fill in a complaints form as I am no longer a customer.