Warning Virgin Media E-mailing

[CorrieQueen]

Just to warn those of you who have signed up to VM broadband and have an email accont with them in the last 7 months or so, that ALL emails over 90 days old are deleted automatically without your consent. And yes they can get away with it, and no they are not bothered, so complain away and they will deny any calls you have made and never return your calls anyway. Apparently its in their terms and conditions, which I can't see, but keep quoting it time and time again. Don't expect any level of customer service, because it doesn't exist.

 

Does anyone have any knowledge regarding Data Protection ? and whether they can do this, I want out of the contract, but they are threating the usual. Many thanks.

[Conniff]

I can't see any connection between this and the dpa.

[europa16]

I've got a VM email account, and I just forward them to Outlook, so I've got backup and I can delete them when I please. If they are that important, then you should have a backup.

 

I'm too sure how DPA comes into this, maybe someone could shed some light?

[CorrieQueen]

Many thanks for your responses.

 

Ok, I've just been on to their totally useless customer services department. And aparently now I'm told that, every time you sign up to a new service you sign a whole new contract for every service you have with them. So for example, if you take the TV package out in Jan 2007, then take broadband in June 2008, you are tied in for both services until June 2009 ! Can they keep getting away with this ? they quote the same old, its in the terms and conditions, but I can't remember seeing any terms and conditions through the post as everything was done over the phone.

[yourbank]

Any chance you can get them to quote the exact term in the contract that gives them the right to delete emails?

I have the cable terms and conditions and have yet to find it....

Company Terms and Conditions (On Cable)

[Conniff]

Here yah go:

 

 

 

 

1. Email Box Usage: Virgin Media will monitor email box usage taking appropriate action within the following guidelines:
   
2. When you register with us you are entitled to five email addresses. The email address you agreed to during the registration process is your "primary" account and the remaining four email addresses are your "secondary" accounts. Your primary and secondary Post Office Protocol (POP) mailboxes each have a disk quota. Quotas are set out at Email - Help me - Virgin Media. Any emails received when the mailbox quota has been reached will be rejected.
   
3. Emails (whether read or unread) that are over 90 days old shall be automatically deleted.
   
4. Where data has been deleted or barred and mailboxes disconnected, we will not store or reserve either your data or your username.
   
5. Each email sent from your mailbox must not exceed the maximum email size in order to help customers manage their quota. Maximum sizes are set out at Email - Help me - Virgin Media
   

 

I have just realised that is non cable T&C, I can't find (yet) email T&C for cable but will continue to look.

Edited October 3, 2008 by Conniff

[Conniff]

It is in the non cable terms and conditions as above, but I have read through the entire cable section and there is nothing about the conduct of mailboxes contained within it.

 

There are instructions in the email help, but that can't be included in the T&Cs that you are signing up to. The help section does mention the 90 days though:

 

Virgin Media > help > internet > email > email > mailbox management

 

I would do as youbank suggests and ask them where in the T&Cs for cable this 90 days is mentioned. If they point you to the email help, you can let them know that the help section is not included in the terms and conditions.

[CorrieQueen]

Many thanks YourBank and Conniff for you hardwork and advice, I really appreciate your help with this, I am so frustrated with the whole thing. How do I know whether I have cable or non cable ? I rang to cancel all the other services, then they hit me with the new contract thing, again they never pointed this out when I signed up for BB. I thought that I would have each service on separate contracts and never agreed to clump them all together. Many thanks again.

[Conniff]

Non cable is plugged into the telephone socket.

[JonCris]

Hi I'm interested to know why the retention of emails by the ISP is important

 

If I enter into correspondence with someone I set up a folder & paste my emails into it

[CorrieQueen]

Many thanks Conniff. I have emailed VM again tonight, really doubt to get any sense from them though.

 

 

 

The importance of the retention, is that this is personal mail to me and that I am old enough and responsible enough to manage my own email account without intervention from big brother. Also, I am not the only person who naively believes that emails are there in your inbox until you decide to delete them. Do you really save all your email onto your computer ?

[JonCris]

Corrie don't get me wrong my query was fueled entirely by curiosity. I agree completely with your sentiments that YOU should be able to decide when to delete YOUR messages................... & yes I do copy those emails I deem important to my computer

[WebMaster]

Many thanks Conniff. I have emailed VM again tonight, really doubt to get any sense from them though.

 

The importance of the retention, is that this is personal mail to me and that I am old enough and responsible enough to manage my own email account without intervention from big brother. Also, I am not the only person who naively believes that emails are there in your inbox until you decide to delete them. Do you really save all your email onto your computer ?

 

It's nothing to do with big brother, I'd imagine it's simply for practical reasons. 3 months mail for however many millions of customers they have could potentially take up a huge amount of space. They probably don't have the resources to hold mail indefinitely for all users.

 

That said, if the warning about the 90 day rule is buried away in the small print, I can see a lot of people getting ****ed off when an important email suddenly disappears.

 

The most practical solution would be to fetch your mail over pop3 or imap, rather than webmail. That way you'd have a copy of it in your desktop mail client

[CorrieQueen]

Corrie don't get me wrong my query was fueled entirely by curiosity. I agree completely with your sentiments that YOU should be able to decide when to delete YOUR messages................... & yes I do copy those emails I deem important to my computer

 

Sorry JonCris if my last message sounded slightly terse, it wasn't meant to be, but will give you an indication of how frustrated I am feeling at the moment.

 

I guess the whole point is that if I was made aware of this mad 90 days clause (which as Coniff has pointed out, isn't actually in the t&c's) then I would never had used that email account for important stuff and use my hotmail instead. I also worry, what if I do save onto my hard drive and my computer drive fails and I loose all those emails with it. At least if they are saved in my email account, I can access them still. Which makes me think how much I rely on this whole paperless society we are encouraged to buy into, when in actual fact like many options there are major flaws.

 

*note to self, back up PC regularly !*

[CorrieQueen]

It's nothing to do with big brother, I'd imagine it's simply for practical reasons. 3 months mail for however many millions of customers they have could potentially take up a huge amount of space. They probably don't have the resources to hold mail indefinitely for all users.

 

That said, if the warning about the 90 day rule is buried away in the small print, I can see a lot of people getting ****ed off when an important email suddenly disappears.

 

The most practical solution would be to fetch your mail over pop3 or imap, rather than webmail. That way you'd have a copy of it in your desktop mail client

 

Ooo Webmaster you swore

 

Can you please come round my house and show me what to do ? I haven't a clue what pop3 or imap are, let alone how to direct my mail to it.

[locutus]

Email - Help me - Virgin Media

 

That should do it.