Virgin Media touts itself as being one big company that can supply all your communication needs.

I have moved 1/2 mile from a house with a cable supply (ex NTL, who I've been with for years) to a house with no cable. Sure, says Virgin, we can give you broadband over the phone line.

What they didn't say is, you can't take your email addresses and the account will be run by a completely separate company, Virgin Net instead of Virgin Media. They only said that after I called them umpteen times and waited in long queues. My question is, why on earth would I stay with them if they can't do something this basic?

I asked to speak to Customer Services and they refused. How cool is that? Needless to say, they have lost my custom.

Most people who want a continuous email account do not use ones tied to a provider. Why commit oneself to one supplier when you are likely to want to switch every so often? As such we cough up the extortionate sum of £5 PER YEAR to an email provider that is independent. Or we pay nothing for a webmail account.

Partly because the broadband service came with a phone and TV that was attractive to me. Partly because some organizations won't accept free email addresses for registration. As an early adopter of cable services, it met my needs. The point is that Virgin makes a big deal about being a one-stop shop. But they can't cope when the medium changes from cable to phone line. Any answers to that one?