Cannot login or access my former Virgin Mobile account

[br1anstorm]

I have a mobile phone originally set up and registered with Virgin Mobile over 20 years ago.  The phone handset (which is not a smart phone, has only voice and texts, no internet online facility or apps) is now used regularly by my wife.  It is on an open-ended Pay Monthly tariff.  Payments are made by Direct Debit.

The account was registered with Virgin Media.  I used to be able to log in via the Virgin Media website to check the details, but have not done so for some time.   Now an issue has arisen over the DD arrangement.  I need therefore to access, manage and possibly amend the account. 

I find I cannot do so at Virgin Media, for two reasons.  First, the original registration with Virgin 20 years ago had as login our "...[at] virgin.net" email address, which was closed down and ceased to exist many years ago as Virgin regarded it as a 'legacy' email address and would no longer support it.  So that email is no longer recognised.  Second, Virgin Media (whom I have contacted) say that all former Virgin Mobile accounts have been transferred or migrated over to O2, and the Pay Monthly accounts (such as this one) will have been "automatically registered" now to O2.  And it is true that the DD is now collected by O2.

But I cannot see how to login and access the details of that - former Virgin Mobile - Pay Monthly account via the O2 website.  And there seems no way of communicating effectively and directly with O2 to find out.  The telephone support line is impenetrable, the Help and Support FAQs irrelevant, and the 'virtual assistant' bot is useless.  There is an option to write and post a letter (yay!).  But no email or online facility.  The only option for online written help-requests is via this Community Forum.

I should note that I am able to access the O2 forum (as I am doing now), and can log in to "MyO2" because I have another phone which had an O2 number and PAYG account, on the basis of which I set up my own "MyO2" account.  But it appears I cannot add my old, original Virgin Mobile device/number/account to "MyO2"...... because when I click the option to do so, I get a message which says "... that number is already registered with O2".  Yes - but how do I access and manage that account?

Virgin Media have said they cannot assist as the account has been migrated to O2.

I therefore need to know (a) under what email address my old Virgin Mobile is now registered with O2.... because if it is still the 20-year-old redundant 'virgin.net' email, that will no longer be recognised and so cannot be used, for example, for a password re-set;  and (b) I will also need to know - and/or to change - the password required to access the account via O2.

Advice, guidance, and a solution to this problem would be greatly appreciated!

[MI5]

@br1anstorm 

You'll need a seperate login for that phone number.

We’re just customers like you but it sounds like you’ll need someone to access your account which can’t be done from here. If you message O2 on Facebook (https://o2uk.co/O2CFB) , Twitter (https://o2uk.co/O2CTW) or Instagram (https://o2uk.co/O2CIG) , they should be able to help you with this.
Thanks

[gmarkj]

You (or rather, your wife if it has her name on) can also call customer services on 202 from the o2 pay monthly phone @br1anstorm 

Alternatively you can call 0344 809 0202 from a landline.

[MI5]

Full contact details link here @br1anstorm 

Guide: How to find help & contact O2 

[br1anstorm]

Thanks to @MI5 and @gmarkj for those replies.  They confirm what I had expected:  that "...... you’ll need someone to access your account which can’t be done from here."

Quite so.

However - for various reasons - neither of us use social media.  So the further advice "..... If you message O2 on Facebook (https://o2uk.co/O2CFB) , Twitter (https://o2uk.co/O2CTW) or Instagram (https://o2uk.co/O2CIG) , they should be able to help you with this....."  is actually of no help at all.

I do indeed need to communicate directly with a human being at O2 who can access my account.  I don't mind whether that is a voice conversation or a dialogue by email.  But neither seems possible.  The option to phone the customer support staff is (see my previous post) "impenetrable".  We have spent several hours on hold listening to muzak.  The virtual assistant 'bot" is a threat to a normal person's sanity. There is no email contact channel.  There is no option to "raise a ticket" on the O2 website.  Which appears to leave as almost the only remaining alternative, writing a letter and sending it to a PO box in Winchester.  How efficient and customer friendly is that?  Or as my aged grandmother might say, "Good luck with that!"

I don't want to seem unappreciative and I am grateful for community members' advice.  I have no choice but to keep trying.  But the test of any product provider is how they handle any problem or query.  On that, O2 are not - so far - covering themselves with glory.  Rather the opposite.

[MI5]

@br1anstorm 

Call at 8.00am for best chance of avoiding a long wait.

[roy247]

Hi br1anstorm,

I would try this, it worked on my wife's phone today after 3 phonecall's with support which got no where.

If you have the My O2 app on the phone delete it, reboot the phone, and then reinstall the app, select the option saying you need to register, enter email and password, you can make a new password, add a security Q + A and hopefully it will work, it did for me after being told they can't reset a password and send a link to sign in, he wanted me to sign up to a pay monthly account from a PAYG to see if that worked for a phone that has very little use. Also got told that no one could reset the password apart from the user and didn't want to admit that they might have a fraud department (202) that could I would hope if required could do something.

[GW139]

It seems as if we are having similar issues. I thought I had switched from my VM sim to O2 smoothly until the O2 app disappeared the information, then"Add products " went missing from the online page and my contact number is "already associated with a different user".

I too was on the phone for over an hour, eventually got put through to "legacy" about a different issue but they failed to get back to me at the time agreed. They too tried to sell me a monthly package when all I wanted was to find out why my PAYG O2 sim had disappeared.

I knew things were going too well. I hope you manage to sort out your issue, goodness knows how many of us are going along in blissful ignorance of the mess these companies have built up.

[pgn]

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@GW139 wrote:

It seems as if we are having similar issues. I thought I had switched from my VM sim to O2 smoothly until the O2 app disappeared the information, then"Add products " went missing from the online page and my contact number is "already associated with a different user".

I too was on the phone for over an hour, eventually got put through to "legacy" about a different issue but they failed to get back to me at the time agreed. They too tried to sell me a monthly package when all I wanted was to find out why my PAYG O2 sim had disappeared.

I knew things were going too well. I hope you manage to sort out your issue, goodness knows how many of us are going along in blissful ignorance of the mess these companies have built up.

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Did you try the steps given in this same thread just above your post here, @GW139?

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly/Cannot-login-or-access-my-former-Virgin-Mobile-account/m-p...

Good luck!

[br1anstorm · Accepted solution]

Thanks @MI5 ... and to the others who offered advice.  Just to update and - I hope - draw this thread to a close, I did finally manage to speak to a real person in the O2 support team.  It was a little later than 8 am, the wait time was about an hour, and the support person was on the other side of the world, but hey - that seems to have become the norm.

And - after a further hour on the line, approximately a dozen text messages with codes, and repeated confirmation of my name and assorted other personal information, the support team member managed to clarify, and change, my username/email, and enable a password reset.  So finally, I can now log into and check the account on the O2 website.

And just to explain the problem:  the account was originally a Virgin Mobile account, registered using a virgin.net address. When it was "migrated" to O2, the username and email was still that virgin.net address.  But Virgin had previously - long before this migration - closed down that email on the grounds that as I had no other Virgin Media products or services, the email account was no longer supported.

So - Catch 22 - the O2 systems had my account registered with an email/username that no longer existed or was operational.  So it was not recognised, and could not be used to login or even to amend the password or other account details.

Thankfully with the help of the real human being in the support team, I now have a [new] valid email username to login, and a new password associated with it, and I can now view the account online via the O2 website.  I am relieved.... but I hope never to have to go through this exercise again.