Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
Some customers of Virgin Media’s (O2) broadband service have been struggling, often for several weeks now, to regain access to their email accounts – those belonging to secondary account holders. The issue began after the ISP made a change to their ID system that seemed to lock related users out with a “FORBIDDEN” message.
ISPreview has always advised our visitors not to rely upon the email services provided by your broadband provider, not least because it can make it harder for you to switch providers (i.e. you run the risk of losing access to your address). Often it’s far better to sign-up with one of the many free email providers (e.g. Gmail, Outlook/Hotmail) or pay a small amount for a dedicated service.
The latest situation is perhaps yet another example of why it’s risky to entrust email access to your ISP. In this case, the problem mostly seems to be centred on those who have a secondary email address on their Virgin Media account, such as might occur when a family member or small business wants to establish their own (additional) email account under that of a primary account holder; a fairly common practice.
In the case of Virgin Media, the provider hasn’t allowed customers to create new email addresses for several years, but they’ve continued to maintain support for those that already had the service. Unfortunately, some of those in this group, primarily users who previously created an additional email account, have been struggling to regain access to it for the past few weeks.
Some example complaints about this issue can be found here, here, here and here, but there are many more online. Credits to Timandra and Michael for bringing all this to our attention.
Sample Complaint by mames
“My daughter has a secondary email account with my virgin media. She has been unable to access her emails for over 2 weeks now as it comes up with a error message saying 403 forbidden and tries to google translate the page from Luxembourgian. We rang last week to sort this but was told the account was locked then had a new password created. She couldn’t even get to the page to enter this password without the forbidden sign coming up again. We rang again an hour later and was told it was actually a global problem and that many people were having the same problem. They said someone was working to try to resolve it. It has now been over 2 weeks without her email account and she uses this email for healthcare, work and her landlord.”
Sample Complaint by TSinDistress
“My husband is the primary account holder after becoming a VM customer in 2011. I am the secondary account. We have both had @virginmedia.com email addresses since joining.
3 weeks ago I suddenly received the message FORBIDDEN whilst trying to access my emails. I immediately rang and reported this, was given a ticket number and told many customers were experiencing this problem which would be resolved within 10 days. I then went on holiday to an area where internet access was not always available, but when it was still received the FORBIDDEN message.
I rang for help this morning, was given another ticket number with the suggestion I was now back of the queue and someone would get in touch. No-one has – not since the end of July.
Like so many email is my primary source of contacting others and I don’t have secondary access to email addresses. I have a small business too and am at risk of losing income.”
Sample Complaint by Timandra
“Are you aware that a very large number of Virgin Media customers have been frozen out of their emails?
On 26th July I joined their number, when my screen went blank and the word FORBIDDEN appeared after sending an email. I have twice raised this matter with VM, been given a ticket no. and told the matter would be resolved in 10 days. But it has not. And no-one seems to know how to resolve this, although one possible route I could take might jeopardise my husband’s (primary) account. I am the secondary account holder. I can’t even look at my email address book. I have checked the community forum and facebook pages with no answers in sight.”
In response, VMO2 informed ISPreview that the “vast majority” of secondary account users who have started the single sign-on journey have completed this process successfully without issue, but they do acknowledge that a small number of customers have still experienced the issue described above.
The operator states that they have been able to resolve the issue for many of those who raised this with them, such as via password resets and/or advising secondary email account holders to set up their own VMO2 ID to allow access. But anybody with ongoing problems is advised to raise it with the provider’s support team.
A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said:
“Since its launch in July, millions of customers have successfully set up their new Virgin Media O2 Identity. Backed by the latest security features such as passkeys and biometric authentication, single sign-on gives our customers a more simplified and consistent experience when accessing and managing their online accounts.
We’re aware that a small proportion of secondary account users have experienced issues accessing their email accounts when setting up their new IDs, and we have been able to resolve such cases when customers have raised them with us. Anyone who is experiencing an issue is encouraged to contact us directly so that our specialist agents can help.”