A Romford woman says she has been left at her “wit’s end” after the Virgin Media email address she had relied on for two decades suddenly stopped working, cutting her off from her bank, her bills and weeks of paid work.
Jodie Lincoln, 31, an NHS community pharmacist, discovered at the start of September that she had been “booted out” of her inbox. The address dated back around 20 years to NTL, the cable company later bought by Virgin Media.
At first she assumed the problem was linked to broadband faults in the area, but those were fixed within days while her email stayed out of reach.
Ms Lincoln says she rang Virgin “every day” for the first fortnight and described the customer service she received as “shoddy”.
“They keep closing my tickets without my consent and marking my record that I am satisfied with their response,” she said.
“Six weeks on and there is still no resolution – I’m at my wit’s end. The complaint I raised will expire in 28 days which doesn’t make sense because I haven’t been offered a solution.”
She says the lockout has plunged her into a “financial crisis”. She lost four weeks of self-employed work, forfeited pre-paid tickets to events and found herself unable to get into her online banking.
“It’s not that I can’t just access the mailbox but like the email account has been wiped off the face of the earth because every account I have an email with – including my bank, HMRC, my food delivery – don’t recognise I have an account anymore,” she said.
Locked out of her bank, she could not move money to cover her bills or her mortgage. Friends clubbed together to help pay this month’s mortgage, and she has been forced to take on extra work to stay afloat.
“I’ve been able to get by because friends clubbed together to help pay this month’s mortgage but it’s not something I should be expected to do,” she said.
The fallout has gone beyond money: certificates linked to the account have been lost, and she says she may have to retake exams to replace them.
“I’ve been left to suffer and there is no sympathy from Virgin for the headache this has caused me,” she said.
“All I want is to get my life back. Forget watching a series or connecting to the internet – I just want my bank to recognise my email. I’ve had this address for over 20 years so there are a lifetime of accounts connected to it.”
Ms Lincoln lives in the London Borough of Havering in east London.
Virgin Media’s response
Virgin Media has apologised to Ms Lincoln and says her email account has now been restored.
“We apologise to Ms Lincoln for the delay in resolving her complaint. Our team has now restored access to her email account, and we’ve confirmed this with Ms Lincoln,” a Virgin Media spokesperson said.
Her case had been handled through the company’s formal complaints process. Ms Lincoln said support tickets were repeatedly closed without her consent and marked as though she was satisfied, and that her complaint would expire in 28 days without a solution being offered.
Customers in the UK who remain unhappy after raising a formal telecoms complaint can ask for a deadlock letter and take the case to the industry ombudsman, CISAS, once eight weeks have passed since the complaint was made.
What to do if your email account disappears
If you suddenly lose access to an email address you use for banking and bills, act quickly to protect your accounts:
- Try your provider’s official account-recovery tools first, and keep a note of every ticket or reference number.
- Add a recovery phone number and a backup email address to every account you can still reach.
- Contact your bank directly – by phone, in a branch or through its official app – to update your contact details and check for missed payments.
- Do the same with your energy and water suppliers, your mortgage lender and your mobile provider, so bills and council tax demands do not go astray.
- Log in to your HMRC personal tax account or call the tax office to check which email address it holds for you.
- Download or screenshot important statements, receipts and certificates while you still have access.
- Consider moving critical accounts to an email address from an independent provider, so a broadband or TV dispute cannot lock you out of your money.
- If a formal complaint goes nowhere, escalate it and ask for a deadlock letter so you can approach the ombudsman.
Consumer groups also advise keeping a separate list of every account tied to an old address, so nothing is missed when you switch.
