Disconnection for abuse

[Thunderballs]

I have been a customer with Telewest/Virgin for over 10 years.

Until today I had their VIP package of V+ on full pacage wit SKY Sports and Movies, Unlimited Landline Calls and 20mg Service.

In July I got a letter from their Internet Security Team in Newport.

"We are writing to let you know that we've noticed emails being sent from your internet connection that can be deemed offensive.

Sending offensive emails is not allowed under the terms and conditions of your contract. It's important that these emails stop - otherwise we may have to suspend or cancel your Internet Service.

If you have any questions, just leave us a voicemail message on 01633 710 142 - If you leave your name and number we'll give you a call back, within one working day.

Yours sincerely,

[EDIT:Name removed]
Virgin Media"

Attached was a traceroute for an email one line which include the mispelt "F" word and asshole.

The email originated in a hotmail account and was sent to an gmail account - so it hadnt been sent from my virgin email address and indeed the hotmail account wasnt mine/in my name.

On receipt I had complained to customer services but was directed to the number of the voicemail given in the letter.

10 or so days later my intenet connection failed and after the usual rigmarole of checking it was nothing to do with a problem my side - rang tech support.

To cut a long story short, after many calls over a period of hours and reroutes to different departments it was ascertained a suspension had been placed on my account by th "Internet Security Team" and I was told to call their voicemail and leave a message.

I hit the roof !

They cut off my service so I can't work for an afternoon and then after hours of conversations trying to get them to work out why they have cut off my service I am told to ring a voiccemail.

I have to say I am well aware of customers that have been sent similar letters for downloading "copyrighted" materials but having the msnoop on emails alledgedly being sent from an internet connection and playing Mary Whitehouse was a new one on me - nevermind blaming me as the guy that paid their bill.

Eventually with some considerable digging I got the name of a [EDIT: Name removed]who undoubtedly needs some customer service training becasue he was furious i had made so much noise that I had gotten through to his department circumventing the voicemail by insisting customer services, technical support and "Customer Retention" variusly got me through to a real live person not a voicemail.

After a fraut conversation it was assertained that they were indeed kicking off about the mispelt F word in this email sent from a hotmail account to a third party organisation and the word asshole.

The only justification he had for sending me the letter and subsequently cutting me off was that someone had reported the email as offensive and he tried to have me believe it was his professional obligation to warn me as the account holder becasue I was contravening the T+Cs.

There was no suggestion that this email was part of a spam/hate/bullying campaign etc it was a one off.

During the conversation he said they had sent me another letter, which I had honestly not seen and this was to do with an offensive message left on the voicemail given in the letter and it was a combination of the above email and the message that was why my account was suspended.

He couldnt play me the voicemail but he did say that "[EDIT:Name Removed] was grossely offended by it" and I again reinterated I wanted my Internet service reinstating. At no time did I swear at him or loose my temper but by God after 3 plus hours of this i might well have done.

The conversation ended wit him demanding I made an apology for leaving the message and a commitment that I would not use their service to send potentially offensive emails (t oanyone) neither of which "offenses" I had personally "committed". When i pojt blank refused he saifd hed review the "case" in the morning and go from there. I was boiling.

After I put down the call - I di go and look at some of my "junk mail" and indeed found an unopened letter from virgin.

This letter was the one [EDIT:Name Removed] had been referring to. It read

"due to the highly offensive message that was left by yourself on our voice mail "can you please tell [EDIT:Name Removed]to go F""K himself" following our communication with you, we now require a full apology and retraction from you.

If we do not receive it we will suspend your Internet account without notice. We may then disconnect you if the apology is not forthcoming. In addition to the written apology we require a written commitment from you that you will in future abide by our Terms and Conditions.

You have 7 days to send the communication by email/fax or in writin. If we receive any more offensive messages from you, or if you abuse any other parties via our services we will remove all services from you.

If you then switch services to another provider and continue t oabuse that service we will also arrange for those services to be suspended &/or disconnected.

Yours sincerely

[EDIT:Name removed]
Virgin Media"

Needless to say I wasnt reconnected the next morning and although my name wasnt on this apparent voicemail or the email the guy who spoke to me "recognised my voice " funny becasue it was the first time id spoken to him and again demanded an apology or I was going to remain suspended.

My acount is now suspended - no BBand still, phone cut off , TV down to a minimum and several hours of more conversations have resulted in me being told the only course of action I have is call the voicemail !

I have taken the other one - Im off.


Edited to remove staff names.Please remember to edit any further communications that you post here.

[Toto]

Originally Posted by Thunderballs

<snip>

Needless to say I wasnt reconnected the next morning and although my name wasnt on this apparent voicemail or the email the guy who spoke to me "recognised my voice " funny becasue it was the first time id spoken to him and again demanded an apology or I was going to remain suspended.

My acount is now suspended - no BBand still, phone cut off , TV down to a minimum and several hours of more conversations have resulted in me being told the only course of action I have is call the voicemail !

I have taken the other one - Im off.







I

LOL, you do know that voicemails can be kept right?

So, following a letter sent to you about abuse of the VM service, they received a voicemail advising the sender of the letter to Eff Off, and you are surprised you were suspended. OK, you can claim it isn't you by all means, but who opened your letter and decided it would be funny to place your account in further jeapordy by impersinating you in a voicemail? C'mon sir, do you think people are really that niaive.

You seem to assume that because the email that was sent from your account wasn't a Virgin email address that it couldn't have come from you? You need to understand how IP tagging in email headers works.

[WHISTLED]

Im with Toto - Doent take a great deal of reading between the lines does it!?

account wasnt mine/in my name.

[Thunderballs]

I appreciate the reading betqween the lines and there is not much to be said other than the email wasnt from me and it was sent to a third party nothing to do with Virgin - i know it was sent from my connection but what has that got to do with Virgin ? The fact of the matter is that an individual complaind to Virgin - they cut me off. It is like your postman knocking on your door and saying i opened a letter sent from this house and it includes some naughty words in it - if you the house owner dont stop we wont deliver any of your mail. They were not able to play the voicemail back to me and told me it didnt include my name. But this issue aside - I and they were left in the ridiculous position of suspending my Internet service until I as the account holder made an apology for the "abuse" in the email sent from my connection to a third party and the voicemail message that had apparently been left on their voicemail that didnt include my name, whilst continuing to pay them over a hundred pounds a month for the TV and Phone Service and the suspended Internet.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Toto

LOL, you do know that voicemails can be kept right?

So, following a letter sent to you about abuse of the VM service, they received a voicemail advising the sender of the letter to Eff Off, and you are surprised you were suspended. OK, you can claim it isn't you by all means, but who opened your letter and decided it would be funny to place your account in further jeapordy by impersinating you in a voicemail? C'mon sir, do you think people are really that niaive.

You seem to assume that because the email that was sent from your account wasn't a Virgin email address that it couldn't have come from you? You need to understand how IP tagging in email headers works.

I agree with you.

[grubbymitts]

Who else calls BS on the whole thing? Good trolling Thunderballs, but really, regardless of terms and conditions, VM aren't going to start disconnecting people for swearing in emails either from their own servers or sent from Hotmail to a third party. Well done. I suggest 4chan/b/ for your next /i/

[Toto]

Originally Posted by Thunderballs

I appreciate the reading betqween the lines and there is not much to be said other than the email wasnt from me and it was sent to a third party nothing to do with Virgin - i know it was sent from my connection but what has that got to do with Virgin ? The fact of the matter is that an individual complaind to Virgin - they cut me off. It is like your postman knocking on your door and saying i opened a letter sent from this house and it includes some naughty words in it - if you the house owner dont stop we wont deliver any of your mail. They were not able to play the voicemail back to me and told me it didnt include my name. But this issue aside - I and they were left in the ridiculous position of suspending my Internet service until I as the account holder made an apology for the "abuse" in the email sent from my connection to a third party and the voicemail message that had apparently been left on their voicemail that didnt include my name, whilst continuing to pay them over a hundred pounds a month for the TV and Phone Service and the suspended Internet.

Hmmmm, the letter about the email implies that if you didn't stop sending those kinds of emails, your account would be suspended or cancelled, simply that.

If nothing further happened in terms of those kinds of emails being sent, then your account would remain untouched, or at least that's what you could imply from the first letter. However, this "ridiculous position" you claim that you and VM were in seems to be wholly down to you. An offensive email was sent, you were warned, then somebody other than you as you claim followed up the offensive email with an offensive voicemail message BEFORE your account was suspended. I wonder what any normal person handling those chain of events would think?

It appears you had an opportunity to rectify the situation by apologising and go away and lick your wounds for a while. I only hope the other option you took was worth it. Good luck with your new service provider.

[spiderplant]

Originally Posted by Thunderballs

i know it was sent from my connection but what has that got to do with Virgin ?

You, as the account holder, are responsible for what is sent on your service, regardless of who sent it. This is from the Terms & Conditions you agreed to when you took the service:

D Using our services

1. You are responsible for the way the services are used. You must not use the services to do any of the following acts or allow anyone else to use the services to do such acts:
1. Send a message or communication that is offensive, abusive, defamatory (damages someone's reputation), obscene, menacing or illegal;

<snip>

If we believe that you are using the services in any of these ways, we are entitled to reduce, suspend and/or terminate any or all of the services without giving you notice.

ps. Why is this in the TV section?

[Graham M]

Good point *moved*

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Thunderballs

I appreciate the reading betqween the lines and there is not much to be said other than the email wasnt from me and it was sent to a third party nothing to do with Virgin - i know it was sent from my connection but what has that got to do with Virgin ? The fact of the matter is that an individual complaind to Virgin - they cut me off. It is like your postman knocking on your door and saying i opened a letter sent from this house and it includes some naughty words in it - if you the house owner dont stop we wont deliver any of your mail. They were not able to play the voicemail back to me and told me it didnt include my name. But this issue aside - I and they were left in the ridiculous position of suspending my Internet service until I as the account holder made an apology for the "abuse" in the email sent from my connection to a third party and the voicemail message that had apparently been left on their voicemail that didnt include my name, whilst continuing to pay them over a hundred pounds a month for the TV and Phone Service and the suspended Internet.

You *are* held reponsible (both by Virgin, and the Authorities if any legal action is involved) for anything sent from your connection. This is one reason why it is important to secure any wireless networks you may have.

Oh, and I am fairly certain it is actually an offence to send offensive mail.

[eth01]

Lol. Interesting to say the least.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Whenever I've phoned Virgin Media with an account or service related issue, I've been asked to verify that I am who I am by confirming my account password. I assume that you have kept your password secure?

[Saaf_laandon_mo]

So if I log onto hotmail using my virgin broadband connection and write an offensive email, littered with swear words, I could have my broadband cut off? Is that right? I'm asking because I'm curious, not because I send offensive mails.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Originally Posted by Saaf_laandon_mo

So if I log onto hotmail using my virgin broadband connection and write an offensive email, littered with swear words, I could have my broadband cut off? Is that right? I'm asking because I'm curious, not because I send offensive mails.

Yes, if the recipient complains, and hotmail are logging the IP used to connect and in turn a complaint is then made to Virgin Media.

[ShaneC]

Well done to virginmedia, other ISP's don't give two hoots who abuses their AUP. Even if it wasn't you why didn't you offer to find out who it was and to have a word with them?