Virgin withdrawing email addresses

fifeken

This worries me a bit as well.

I also have had an @virgin.net address for many years and don't want the hassle of changing. I've never heard it mentioned before reading this thread.

redpete

One of the things I checked with Virgin CS when I changed from DSL to cable service was to confirm that I could keep my existing virgin.net address that I'd had for many years, had just my name and no numbers in it. They confirmed I could so I went ahead. When the inevitable happened and I lost access to the virgin.net address shortly after the change I had many conversations with many people in Virgin to retrieve it, all to no avail.

sillygoose

I'm with Virgin media and detest them and their tactics. Neither do I trust them and I am sure they will be after my Blueyonder email accounts before long.

So I took the plunge and got my own domain, was a doddle as I bought a package so I am migrating things over to it in my time not Virgin's. Also means if Virgin media implodes into a black hole (tempting!) as long as I can get to a computer anywhere on any isp, even just a browser (webmail access) I can keep in touch.

If your a journalist it gives you the power to easily create mail addresses for temporary purposes for example, perhaps for survey respondents as and when you want.

The Amethyst package here has all most people need and includes a free domain registration when you join up.

jackieblack

soolin wrote: »

Is there an announcement anywhere please about this withdrawal of vitrgin.net email accounts? I've got one and I have heard nothing at all about it being withdrawn so am obviously concerned.

bcl999 wrote: »

Same here.

fifeken wrote: »

This worries me a bit as well.

I also have had an @virgin.net address for many years and don't want the hassle of changing. I've never heard it mentioned before reading this thread.

same for me too

Farway

Well I am another one with @virgin. net address, and I have not heard of this until this thread

Luckily I have access to other non Virgin addresses, so if true it will now force me to do what I had been planning for a while, which was move away from Virgin mail

Bit of a bu66er though as 123.reg have recently changed the forwarding method, so not easy to blanket delete & change the forwarding address

tehone

I've not seen any announcement / had any email, and I too have 3 virgin.net email addresses that I've had for about 14 years too, I can still login to them at the moment (I also have 3 ntlworld.com email addresses).

I'm sure they gave undertakings on their newsgroups/forums to keep these old email addresses when they migrated to virginmedia.com on gmail

victor2

It's a pain when something like that happens, but as others have said, the best thing to do is get your own domain and use that. Business-wise, I find it difficult to take anyone with a gmail, hotmail etc. type address seriously when it comes to business, especially if it has any connection to IT.
I've had an ntlworld address for years along with one on my own domain. Maybe that will go soon too. This is probably the encouragement I need to set up a footer on all my outgoing ntlworld email regarding my alternative address and reducing the ntlworld traffic.
Surprised they're ditching virgin.net without notice, you'd expect them to allow you to put forwarders on it, rather than kill it totally. Or am I just living in Utopia?:)

macman

Or save the £25 for your own domain and just use a Gmail account, completely ISP-independent in about 10 minutes.

Jolly_Roger

The wiping out of old email addresses was justified to me as getting rid of addresses being used by people who were no longer customers. In other words, they had left Virgin Media, but still accessed their email addresses, which suggests that Virgin isn't all that secure anyway!

Those of us that are losing access to webmail are mostly customers who switched from ADSL to cable. We are being punished for not using our newly allocated email addresses.

I was definitely told when I switched from ADSL to cable that my email address was totally safe for as long as I wanted to use it. Obviously a total lie told to me because I threatened to leave when they throttled me for, seemingly, watching too many iPlayer programmes!

I was also told that all three email addresses I had with the virgin.net addy were, in fact, no longer in use. Well, my main email address had 2000+ very recent emails stored on the server, but no attempt was made to check whether I was OK with having all of them deleted. Why bother? I am only a loyal customer, after all!

Ironically, I have also been told that Virgin plans to withdraw email addresses with the ntlworld.net extension, too. I was given one of these when I moved over to cable. Good job I didn't have that put on my business cards, wasn't it?

So, nothing is safe or sacred with Virgin. We are all going to become Virgin Media email account holders whether we like it or not. And, even if we don't, they take all our information away anyway...

nibs

This is interesting - twice today I have put in my email address only to be told that it isnt recognised. Its an ntlworld.com addy. Ive had it since launch day (cant remember what year that was - does anyone know out of interest)
I'm now thinking that I, too, might be about to lose all my emails.
I had better get everything in order incase it suddenly closes.
Thanks for the warning OP.