I use thunderbird, yesterday I sent silly test emails to/from the NTL and Gmail addresses . . all received ok.
I also remembered a while ago having issues checking my bill (somewhere in the moans & hates thread probably) and had to supply VM with an alternate email . . for security or some such bullcrap.
Makes me now wonder if this was a prelude to the killing of VM emails and an excuse to get an 'outside' email address which they will now use for bills etc