Thanks, Mixture.
You confirmed what I thought, my friend (honest) has spent the time since she called me and I posted the question on the phone to Virgin.
Finally, she got someone who was not a script monkey but a university undergrad earning some pennies by working as a techie. He walked her through her part and did whatever he had to do at his end and she's a happy(ish) bunny again.
So a thank you to Ryan Heatman, Virgin's techie extrordinaire.
(he must have the patience of a saint to have done this, she can wind me up with two words!)
I would still like to know why they did what they did, though, changing someone's email name without warning, strange.
VnV
edit: Not my iphone,
her iphone ! I use a Blackberry.