I sent the letter below to the CEO of Vigin Mobile over a month ago. Thus far, there has been no response.
Can anyone suggest a decent, inexpensive prepaid cell phone service?
August 14, 2008
Daniel H. Schulman, CEO
Virgin Mobile USA
10 Independence Boulevard, 2nd Floor
Warren, NJ 07059
Dear Mr. Schulman,
Ref: Virgin Mobile phone number (XXX) XXX-XXXX
I purchased a Virgin Mobile Marbl phone from Target on April 23, 2007 and signed up for an account through your Web site on April 24.
The phone has never worked properly. Here is what I wrote about the problem to your ourteam@virginmobileusa.com email address on July 17, 2007:
We bought a Kyocera Marbl recently; our phone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX. The battery lasts less than a day when fully charged, even when no calls are placed or received. Even a short call makes the battery last for a lot less time. Furthermore, the low-battery warning is pretty much useless, because the phone konks out almost immediately after the battery is displayed.
I received a response (tracking number XXXXXX) telling me that I had to call to troubleshoot the phone. I passed this on to my wife, who actually uses it.
She made two subsequent attempts to call you. The first time she called, she found your telephone menu system so time-consuming impenetrable that she eventually gave up. The second time, she did manage to find her way into the supposedly correct queue for speaking to someone about the issue, but she ended up waiting on hold for so long that, again, she eventually gave up.
And then, since we are both very busy people, the phone simply sat, unused, in a drawer, and we continued to pay Virgin Mobile $20 every 90 days for a phone that we could not use.
A long time later, in March 2008, I ordered a new battery for the phone from a third-party site, Factory Direct Cellular. My reasoning was that since the battery was probably the problem, and it was apparently too much of a pain to get decent help from Virgin Mobile, it was easier just to pay to replace the battery ourselves. Unfortunately, it didn’t help – the phone continues not to work properly, even with the new battery.
Today, I decided to try one more time to get Virgin Mobile to address the problem. I called and spoke to one of your agents, explaining that we had tried on at least two prior occasions to get Virgin Mobile to address the issue and had been unable to do so. The agent with whom I spoke (after navigating your obnoxious menu system and waiting on hold for several minutes) apologized for the trouble, claimed that the phone was still under warranty, and said that she would transfer me to the department that would be able to arrange to send out a replacement.
The second agent, with whom I spoke after being transferred (after once again waiting on hold for several minutes), contradicted the first agent, informed me that the phone was not under warranty, and said that her “hands were tied” and there was nothing she could do about the problem. I asked to speak to someone whose hands were not tied.
The third agent, who claimed to be a floor supervisor, once again insisted that she could not replace the phone. I explained to her that she could see clearly from our account records that we had almost never used the phone, and that we had tried twice within its warranty period to get Virgin Mobile to address the problem. She claimed to have no record of that. I offered to fax to her a copy of the email message in which I first notified Virgin Mobile that the phone wasn’t working, and she said that would not do any good.
You sold me a bad phone, and you’ve provided me with bad service. You’re about to lose me as a customer because of it, but you can keep me as a customer for the foreseeable future simply by replacing the bad phone you sold me and apologizing for the bad service my wife and I have received in our repeated attempts to get this problem addressed.
The alternative is that I’m going to use the cash balance on my account to purchase a phone from your Web site, auction it off on eBay in an attempt to recoup at least some of the money you’ve stolen from me, cancel my Virgin Mobile account, switch to another vendor, and then tell everyone I know, in person, through my blog and in postings to Internet forums I frequent, to avoid Virgin Mobile like the plague.
It’s your choice. I look forward to your prompt response.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Kamens
My experience with Virgin Mobile was worse than that. First of all they drafted $20 out of my bank account which didn’t show up in their computer. I’ve tried to add minutes on their website twice and it didn’t go through so I called instead. Then the last time I called, the person I talked to sold my debit card information and someone charged $773 to Norton Software and $508 to Corel Software on my debit card. I spent two days at my bank trying to get the money back from these software companies. Norton returned the $773 the next day, but Corel was very uncooperative and I had to file a police report on Corel. I hope to get the $508 from Corel soon. I have talked to the staff at Virgin Mobile about the $20 that needs to be added to my phone including faxing them a copy of my bank statement showing the withdrawal and nothing happens. The person who sold my information on my debit also stole $20 from my bank account. These people are crooks. As soon as my minutes run out, I’m going to AT&T.
How do you know for sure that it was Virgin Mobile people who stole / sold your debit card information?
Having read these comments, I can see that there are many frustrated VirginMobile users out there. However, I hope that your frustration will not drive you to click through all the VirginMobile adverts that come up on google when one searches on “virgin mobile sucks” unless you really do want to use their service. Burdening the company with expensive click-through charges would likely diminish the resources the company has available to pay for ESL lessons for its call center operatives.
Yes, count me n. I’m another one fed up with the no-customer service. Trying to speak to a responsive human is well nigh impossible, and when, or more correctly if, you get through to a human, said human apparently does not understand English. Or he/she is deliberately obfuscating, or is possibly stupid. Whatever the cause, the effect is the same; one cannot hold a meaningful conversation with Virgin MobileUSA customer service.
Fortunately I only buy cheap phones and don’t let the balance run too high, so if I throw the phone away, I will not be losing too much. I wonder if Richard Branson realizes what damage is being done to the Virgin brand name through the lousy service offered here, since I’m sure many people do not know that the airline and phone company are now completely separate.
ok – for those on the hating virgin mobile bandwagon – this is funny –
I have had Virgin mobile for myself and or my kids for about 8 years. No big issues, some really crappy phone (yes the marble was the worst of the worst…) some ok phones – I am a creature of habit so I hesitate to change – plus their unlimited plan kept getting cheaper and cheaper…
ANYWAY – I have been shopping around for quite awhile because while their single user rates are competitive – there is no family rates or shared plans – and MOST OF ALL – technology lately has taken a leap and all of a sudden my phone is so out of date Im almost embarassed to use it. I want a grown up phone! Then – Virgin mobile brings the blackberry on board- so I ALMOST considered staying – but they want to charge me $299 for the same phone everyone else is pretty much giving away. SO, I wrote a letter and basically said , I ve been with you guys for almost 8 years, Ive been shopping around – there is no longer a reason to stay- unless you can give me a deal on the new phone or somehow make it worth my while….drum roll… their response was -“sad to see you go”…. Really? No, “stay and we will knock off $50 bucks, a free month for your loyalty,…no?…nothing, just “sad to see you go”…. So guess what Virgin – you got it. Im gone. But not without a note or two on the www about your amazing customer loyalty……..
Virgin mobile sucks!!!!!!
Before I got my vrigin mobile rumor2, I asked them clearly (3 times) about having an access to corporateemail thru exchange. They all said yes. WELL HELL NO.. when I called customer service, the person said sorry we do not have this service. YES you are right their customer service is in philipines. Then I tried call forwarding feature as described on thei website.. called customer services and again same answer – THIS FEATURE IS NOT PROVIDED.. Huh?
On top of it.. I saw my credit cad bills – I was charged $74.46 (4 times) in a same day. why? because their website keep giving me an error ” there is a problem in a credit/debit card and hence I tried 4 times”.. so credit card companies are paying Virgin mobile and Virgin mobile does not see it.. HMMM wondering who is getting my money then?
Virgin Mobile Sucks: Lack of clear & straightforward disclosure on Top up expiry time.
WARNING: anything under $100 gets you ONLY 30-60 day’s max.
I am starting a class action lawsuit based on lack of concise & consistent disclosure at each available web site & mobile section where Top up is offered.
Info on expiry in relation to top-up amount is non-existent in areas on the site where Top up is offered.
If you or anyone you know is interested in joining in this class action lawsuit please contact me at: virginmobilelawsuit@gmail.com
Yes, Virgin Mobile sucks. I have also had nothing but problems with them. I would try to log onto their website, and it would say the phone number and/or password was wrong when it was not (for more than 1 account). I tried canceling my service, and was told that there was “no one around who [could] do that.” Yet my phone did not work, either, so I ended up getting charged for 3 months of service that I did not use before finally getting through to someone and insisting that my service be canceled.
So yes, Virgin Mobile sucks. That is why I did a search on “virgin mobile sucks” and followed a link to this blog. I couldn’t agree more.
But what I get a kick out of here are all the insinuations that the customer service was bad because their reps are in the Philippines. I would bet a tidy sum that most of those saying things like this couldn’t tell a Filipino accent from a freaking German accent. These people need to get a clue themselves before accusing others (i.e., those stupid foreigners) of being beneath them. I never spoke to anyone in the Philippines when I called Virgin Mobile, and I called them quite a few times. And since my wife, and thus my step-daughter, and all of my in-laws, are Filipinos from the Manila area, I’d say I have a pretty good idea of what a Filipino speaking English sounds like.
Furthermore, my niece works in a call center in the Philippines, and she would be fired in less than a heartbeat if she spoke like that to customers. If the reps were really like these people are claiming, and if they really were located in the Philippines, then it is the company they should be complaining about, since it obviously does not hire anyone concerned with customer satisfaction. But oh no, it’s really all because they’re Filipinos (i.e., stupid foreigners), claiming to have American-sounding names like “Joyce” (Breaking news: MANY DO), all of which are morally and intellectually inferior to “us,” right?
Ah, yes, American “superiority” at its finest…
Kuya Ian – I understand that some people are being racist, but that is not most of our intents. We are talking about the ones Virgin hires, the ones who don’t know much English. It’s very hard to communicate.
Wow! I wish I had read this web site blog session 3 months ago! My father gave my son, his grandson, a virgin mobile phone that he had pretty much been given for free because of one of their desperate attempts to get new customers. My son activated it with my points earning credit card. No problems so far. The phone worked for 3 months. No problems yet. The phone quits working, and you (are F#cked) ! My wife and I have tried everything that we know of to stop the continuous charges without having to cancel my favorite credit card. That sh*t don’t work! If you have a credit or debit card that has any connection to do with virgin mobile, cancel,kill, eradicate, do what ever you have to do to get away from them. To put it as the beginning of this blog says. Virgin Mobile Sucks!!!
I am so glad to have found this site to see others who are unhappy with this worthless company! These f***er’s refused to switch the money I have leftover from my last phone over to my new one because “the account isn’t active”. What the h*ll does that have to do with anything?! It’s still my money and I’m still using their service, just with a different phone. And if the other phone isn’t active, why can I still login online with that phone and PIN number and can see the account info??? Luckily, it’s just a little over $10 that I’m losing, but when you’re flat broke trying to survive day by day and don’t have a penny to your name most of the time, that $10 would be helpful. I have tried talking to them on the phone (waste of time, takes forever to talk to someone, then when they “transfer” you, you get hung up on). Emailing them’s a waste too – they claim to get back to you within 24 hours…not one of the emails I’ve sent them has been responded within 24 hours. The customer service reps (if you can even call them that) are worthless, don’t know what they’re doing, and refuse to help. I’m just so sick of all this crap. I’ve had Virgin Mobile for the past 6 years and I’m getting fed up.
We had a phone that was bought for our young kids (emerg phone).
The phone never work. We tried to order a new one, that one didn’t work. They insisted on sending us chargers that were never compatible with the phone. So we finally got thru to an agent not in the Philippines, thank god, that’s a whole other story. We reached someone in Mexico who sent us a new phone different style ect. That phone didn’t work. Then we attempted to once again reach someone in the Philippines who enjoyed playing games with us. I’d say we were hung up on a rough estimate of over 100 times. This is no exaggeration. Then we were called, [nasty names deleted – jik], other names that didn’t even know existed. Shocked but told them we would report their behaviour, to which they laughed and said who cares, we will never get caught.I don’t understand how Virgin can remain a company when this seems to be standard for their joke of a customer service? I’ll be switching also and will file all kinds of reports against the bogus company. I advise a huge class action lawsuit, anyone else been abused like this?
I agree ive had virgin mobile for over a year and overall i think they SUCK!!! In march of 2009 the ceo said that they would have touch screen phone and here it is January of the next year an still nothing>
I would write about my now 4-days-and-counting pissing contest with Virgin Mobile but it would take too long.
Shorter version is : my bank processed my payment on Jan 4th. My service was cut by Virgin Jan 4th. For Credit Card fraud.
I don’t own a Credit Card.
My parents picked up a phone for their 6 week vacation. Service was cut Jan 4th. For Credit Card Fraud.
They paid CASH for a top up card at Walgreens.
Now we are all out $$$ and none of us have service.
And it took 9 phone calls for just yesterday to even GET to a so-called supervisor.
Strangely enough, the only response I’ve had is from their Facebook page, and that’s only after I announced that taking payment for a non-delivered service is Theft.
I hold no hope though since I’m still waiting for a “24-hour response” to an email I sent about another issue on December 2nd.
They charged me $10 in automatic top up a WEEK after I paid $40 for my monthly bill. So the month actually cost me $50.00.
I say we get a class action going.
Virgin Mobile has made so many mistakes with my account. August 15 I bought a phone and 100minutes of time. I did not sae the bill as I was going on holiday and forgot to file it a home. I needed the phone for travel and business. Two months later they cut me off, Oct. 15 saying I had only purcahsed $50 of time, not $100! I called the Philippines 3 times and got no help what soever. The sales rep where I bought the phone called head office in Toronto and explained my problem, ie. no bill. Head office said to retrieve the bill from the store and the sales rep just laughed and said they don’t keep copies in the store. She said to fax the copy of my debit account expense ($159. 50) to her. One month later I have no phone, no reply and Virgin Mobile has my money. I will never do business with them again.
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING
I have been hassling with Virgin Mobile for the last 3 months. I signed my son up and it started off fine. But his phone had a problem and we thought oh thats okay it’s under the 30 day warranty. We returned it and got a new one but that one didn’t work either so we called and they said “sorry you have already had the max amount of returned phones”. I thought they were joking how is it our fault. We have already called over 20 times and they have put us on hold for hours.. No joke. They have also just decided to hang up on us when we were frustrated. Finally we had enough and on the 15th day with them we returned the phone for a full refund. They would not give it to us even though they said they would multiple times. I finally got the 109 dollars back by having my credit card company deal with it… But what did the people at virgin mobile do?… they decided to cancel my account with all the bonus minutes and top up stuff in it. I was down 300 bonus minutes and over 70 dollars. I was furious. Now I am dealing with them to remove my account wich they have cancelled. So now have this no good phone which I can’t use and have lost over 58 hours on the phone with them. Several supervisors said they would call me back but they never did. I am through with virgin… they are a scam artists. Don’t get started dealing with them.
[Please note: I prefer to keep profanity to a minimum on my blog. I have therefore edited this comment to remove unnecessary profanity. -jik]
WOW! I have had nothing but problems with this [profanity deleted] company!!! You can’t re-activate your phone from the phone, the online re-activate/top up doesn’t work either, if you call the 800 number or any number you get the passive aggressive [profanity deleted] Phillipines who play a “Who’s on 3rd?” game with you with no cultural ability to actually answer a question. All they do is keep saying yes, i understand or yes, thank you, ok.. It’s like that character on Mad TV played by what’s his name asian guy who imitates the crazy mechanic who refuses to answer a question with any coherent or relevant response. They once charged me twice and [profanity deleted] my bank account resulting in bank charges and it took me 2 HOURS on the phone, first with God know who before I had to INSIST on a Supervisor who finally acted like an American company representative and understood and credited me back one free month for damages. WHAT I HAD TO GO THROUGH TO GET THAT IS A MOVIE IN ITSELF!!!! I use their cell phones… 2!!!! We loyally fly their airline… You would think they would give a damn. I am about to go directly to their head corporate office on behalf of all of us and do a short film on it. Where is Heraldo Rivera when you need him? I HATE YOU VIRGIN MOBILE!!!!!
stay away big rip off!
LOL!!! I am glad that I am not the only one who has had a problem with this fucked up company. I have had my phone since December of 2008. I have only payed with my debit card once and I called weeks ago and told them not to charge my card for anything further and to remove it from their system. I was assured that it was removed and that ntohing further would be charged to it. Well over 24 hours before my top up was due I got a card from Walmart which actually took my cash balance $10 over my monthly fees. Well how about the still charged my bank account. And when I called them on the matter, I was assured that the money would be back in my bank account within 24 hours. LOL!!! 48 hours later, and still no money. I am super mad. I have to wait for them to put money that I didn’t authorize them to take back into my bank account. WTF!!!! I have had Virgin Mobile for almost a year, been through two defective phone with them, and now I am COMPLETELY done with them. I don’t recommend this company. I have notified the Better Business Bureau and filed a complaint. I have also open fraud charges with my bank.
I am very unsatisfied with Virgin Mobile. I first had bought a VM Slash in June 2008 only to be return 2 weeks later due to dropped calls and taking too much away from my balance for minutes. Then Virgin release new monthly plan and the Kyocera X-tc. At first when I bought it June 26, 2009 it was excellent until July 20, 2009. Somehow, I was without notice switched to a basic rate with no notice when I had the $39.99 monthly plan with unlimited messaging. There was nothing they did nor could do so I figured I would top up to add money to my balance. Sure enough, Virgin cancelled my phone number and gave it to someone else. I was furious and was so furious I considered a lawsuit. They made me re-activate my phone, Put me on a basic rate, and changed my number and Vkey. So now i will be switching back to Net10 when they were better than Virgin to begin with. I also vow to never use the Virgin Mobile service again for all the trouble they have put me through. This is definitely not something a fourteen year old boy should deal with when choosing a cell phone carrier.
I bought a VM flicker phone a couple of months ago the pre pay plan. The thing is worthless. It does not even ring the call goes to voice mail. When I use up my minutes that is if. I am going to try somehing esle.
Virgin Mobile is a legal “RIP OFF”!
Purchased $70 in cards and a phone two days ago for the unlimited calling.
Today, my phone is off!
A company that offers a product through WALMART, and basically sells you something they can’t seem to manage.
I am taking all of this $%#! back to WALMART and demanding a refund.
There the ones who sold me this bogus phone plan!
I used to work for Virgin Mobile, about 3 years ago. Well, actually I worked for ICT Group, which is a contractor that does all of VM’s customer service.
This is the same company which used to have the AOL account, and ended up being sued by the Justice Department. One of the managers on VM used to be on AOL, and would brag about how many people they defrauded, and thought it was all quite funny.
At that time, ICT had two call centers in the US handling VM calls. One in Spokane, WA and one in Colorado Springs, CO. I don’t know if either site is still active or not.
At the time I was employed there, they were more concerned with the agents using certain catchphrases, and selling other services, than they were in actually addressing the problems. As long as they maintained a certain quality percentage rate during specific monitoring times, they got paid. The rest of the time it didn’t matter.
Unfortunately, this is the face of modern customer service. If you think you are speaking to an actual employee of said company, think again. Almost all modern companies in the US use contracted call centers to handle their customer service. Some of them are good, and some are bad. Virgin Mobile/ICT is one of the worst.
In the end, you get what you pay for. It is a really cheap phone service, and you are not going to get much else from it. 🙁
Virgin Sucks!!! I am on my 3rd phone in less than 5 months. Either the phones or the coverage is *hit. Stay away!! Nothing is more frustrating than dealing with their manual, phones or website, unless you call them!! That is the worst.
I just bought a Virgin Mobile Marbl and the phone actually has a manufacturing defect so the battery wont get into the phone. Ugh.
I see this all the time when taking calls, make sure the person you get(i hope you can understand them) has your Top up profile set to JUST KEEP ON FILE FOR TOP UPS. The other setting USE FOR MY MONTHLY CHARGES will automatically charge your card on file for your plan. Ask them to read it to you. Make them change it! Things are going to get worse once the remaining US based support leaves at the end of June. God help you all them, dealing with Manailla and Nicargaua. Write to VM and tell them of your digust of having to deal with foreign based workers.
Three times I changed my option of having my VISA debit card automatically debited to NOT having it automatically debited, only to find that it has been switched back. I live on Social Security, and I did not want the debit to go through my bank before my Social Security check was in my account. So, three times my account was overdrawn because of Virgin Mobile, and three times I paid overdraft charges (total of $105). This might not be a hardship to the average person, but, it can mean the difference of whether I buy groceries or not. Two days ago I contacted customer service to complain about this. Today they again automatically debited my bank account, even though I was in the process of communicating with customer service about this problem. Here is the email I sent to them a little while ago:
Can it be possible that your company has actually debited my account for the third time since I requested that you no longer automatically debit my bank account? Twice I have selected the option of NOT having my card automatically debited in Account Services, only to find that it has automatically been switched back. I just sent you an email two days ago saying I did not want this done any longer, because my Social Security check sometimes does not come into my bank until after the 11th, which is the date the automatic debit occurs, and, guess what? YOUR COMPANY DID IT AGAIN TODAY!!!!! This has left me with a $30.00 overdraft in my bank account, plus a bank overdraft fee of $35.00 on top of that, or a negative balance of $65. It seems unfathomable that, in the midst of trying to get this straightened out, this could actually have happened again. Of course, you guys will simply deny that you are at fault, because what do you care about one customer when you have millions of others? I will never be able to prove that what I say is the truth. The day before my account comes due next month, I will be canceling my service with your company forever. I am elderly and live solely on Social Security. Every dollar is very important to me. Now, thanks to your company, I have no money to buy groceries this week.
I would love to hear from any other customers who have had this happen.
I hope Sir Richard enjoys his caviar and steak!
F. Porras
Virgin mobile just terminated their contract with their US based customer support. After July 1 all customer support will be offshore. So now they are putting thousands of home based workers out of jobs. Good do dealing with all those wonderful foreign based agents in Manilla and other offshore destinations. The US based workers actually cared. About customer service. It may be time to port out to a real phone company
Have you ever tried one of their Top Up Cards, they print the PINS so lightly that when you scratch off the covering with a coin it takes the PIN right along with it. Then ou end up playing some sort of numbers game over the phone with the Service reps which usually ends in them having you file an investigation with them, faxing receipts and copies of the card, waiting a week and hoping they can give you a credit. WTF!!! Every other pay card system I have used has another number on the actual card they can reference to tell you the value or at least proof that you bought it. So for the $50 I spent to get going it has cost me over 100 hrs of time!!! What a waste!!!
Virgin Mobile Service Department is an insane loop of automated utter frustration. Communicating with SMOKE SIGNALS is easier!
Just got disconnected again with Bulls*%t service. Paid for a ringtone…never got it or a refund. STAY AWAY from Virgin Mobile!!!!!
[bleep – ed.] phone sucks.
It appears to me Kyocera Sucks as well. People have had problems with the Oyster and the Marbl.
I have two different phone of the same model. Kyocera Oyster. Both of them have had the same exact problem. The display on the screen has went bad. Obviously, I can’t use text or dial a number, or see who is calling if I can’t see the screen. I can use speed dialing. Anyways I called customer support to see if they could do anything for me. They had me do some trouble shooting (i.e. take the battery out and press the off button, to discharge EM). Before the problem was intermittent. Now the problem is constant.
If this had only happened once I could see it. But this is the second time this has happened. The bad part is I just TOPPED UP! Yesterday. Twenty Dollars lost. I am very angry with them right now.
Beware the Ides of March indeed.
yeah,I am getting over billed, and a run around that would be comical but Im not laughing.Ill be watching this site and am willing to sign on to a class action.
ohh theresa did they leave you on hold or let the music play until no sound oh wait the recording comes on and say if you like to make a call please hang up and try again try 7 times starting at 8:14 am
I HAd a very very hard time with virgin mobil reps
January 20, 2009. I purchased the unlimited plan in November 2008 and every month I pay my bill using my debit card via automatic billing. I was charge 88.19 for my bill for the unlimited plan but today i was on the phone talking to my daughter and I kept hearing a beeping sound so I told my daughter I will call her back. when I got off the phone my phone balance said I had only 3.00 and needed to purchase more minutes. Mind you this the second time I had to go thru this with virgin mobile. I had already purchased the unlimited plan for 79.99. Which was already prepaid for. I called customer service and the representative said there was nothing they could do about it and that the only thing that they could offer me is for me to pay an additional 49.99 to get on the 400 minute plan. How can they get away with stealing people money? I asked to speak to a supervisor and the customer services rep told me that she isn’t available. I asked them why do I have to pay again when I already paid to have the unlimited plan. I’m going to dispute my credit card transaction until they give me what I’ve paid for. I am going to file a complaint with the better business and is going to hire an attorney. So if anybody is interested in filing a class action law suit against virgin mobile, please contact me at madeabailbonds@aol.com. Virgin mobile do sucks! This is crazy!
January 20, 2009. I purchased the unlimited plan in November 2008 and every month I pay my bill using my debit card via automatic billing. I was charge 88.19 for my bill for the unlimited plan but today i was on the phone talking to my daughter and I kept hearing a beeping sound so I told my daughter I will call her back. when I got off the phone my phone balance said I had only 3.00 and needed to purchase more minutes. Mind you this the second time I had to go thru this with virgin mobile. I had already purchased the unlimited plan for 79.99. Which was already prepaid for. I called customer service and the representative said there was nothing they could do about it and that the only thing that they could offer me is for me to pay an additional 49.99 to get on the 400 minute plan. How can they get away with stealing people money? I am going to file a complaint with the better business and is going to hire an attorney. So if anybody is interested in filing a class action suit against virgin mobile, please contact me at madeabailbonds@aol.com. Thanks Virgin mobile do sucks
I had An issue with virgin mobile in regards to roll over minutes of 794 that should have been able to I bought a top up card from a well known merchant for 30 dollars and they did not activate the card so virgin mobile blaims me for a retailers cashier not activating the phone and they denied my payment through pay pal which by the way all of their supervisors blamed me but when it comes down to it that is all they did to me was lie they said if i bought a new top up card they would refund my 794 min. but all they did was give me 400 min. which i also paid for. I also informed them that this phone was bought for a disabled person so that he had a phone with min. that would not expire as easily as other companys but they do not care if they are breaking laws as long as they get their money. When asked the first person said they would put me on hold and hung up the second sent me to a supervisor who said she is the one that denied my 794min. and then the supervisor wanted to continue to argue with me seeing that there was no point in talking to her as she was the one that shot off too many lies one right after the other then i spoke with the last supervisor who also talked out his behind as he would not let me get a word in edge wise to explain the perils of their ways I asked for identification of all i spoke with on the Phone with all they said was their first name Karen if that is even her real name said she could not give me her last name and that they do not have employee ID # that they could give me this just shows that they not only do horrid service but that they do not actually do not work in the United States of America because as a former business owner every employee in the USA must have an employee ID# How Many Laws are they really breaking ?
I had An issue with virgin mobile in regards to roll over minutes of 794 that should have been able to I bought a top up card from a well known merchant for 30 dollars and they did not activate the card so virgin mobile blaims me for a retailers cashier not activating the phone and they denied my payment through pay pal which by the way all of their supervisors blamed me but when it comes down to it that is all they did to me was lie they said if i bought a new top up card they would refund my 794 min. but all they did was give me 400 min. which i also paid for. I also informed them that this phone was bought for a disabled person so that he had a phone with min. that would not expire as easily as other companys but they do not care if they are breaking laws as long as they get their money.
I send the email to the following emails. Let us send more emails to them so that they can know how ill trained their customer service is and how they are losing customers
pr@virginmobileusa.com, ourteam@virginmobileusa.com, jayne.wallace@virginmobileusa.com, praya@ruderfinn.com, corinne.nosal@virginmobileusa.com
Got the emails from the following page
http://virginmobileusa.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=11
Sucks is a less of a word for Virgin Mobile. Here is what I went through. and what i emailed to them.
They suck, I mean really suck big time. Big sucker and bunch of losers
I have a Virgin Mobile Phone .Yesterday I called customer service and got a unacceptable Customer Service.The reperesentative are ill trained and do not know how to solve the customer issues.They have no sense of speaking and does not even understand the customer’s issue.First person hung up on me when i requested for a supervisor. (That is an insult in United States, may be it is not in Phillipines where the representative was from)(I Forgot to catch the name of the first person I spoke to since he hung up on me)When I called in Second time, the person gave her name as “Joyce”, when requested for providing me means to identify her such as he ID or Last name so that I can have my notes, she did not provide me. When asked to transfer to a supervisor, she said there was no supervisor available after a brief hold, And asked me funny question like “Are you going to Sue me?” After a long debate and On persistance I was told that I can be routed to escalation department.After a wait I was transferred to “Ann” who identified herself as a supervisor and again hesitated to give her ID or means to give her identification for my notes.How can I prove that I spoke to Ann, there might be more that 1 Ann in your company, if I had a means to identify that I spoke to Ann ID # 12345 at 9:35PM EST that would be fruitful.On top of that the supervisor told that she will put notes in my account, when asked how would I prove or see what comments she had written, she said I can check the comment by coming to her office. When told I am in United States and not Phillipines she could not understand the difference between my location in United States and Phillipines. That was the most horrible customer service experience in my life where even the supervisor was also such a dumb and did not try to help the customer’s point of view.When asked what is the corporate address of Virgin Mobile in USA, even the supervisor did not know that. She said there is a big corporate office in Phillipines. I have not experienced such a dumb supervisor, let alone the regular customer service representativewho we dumbo as it is. First one being rude and hanging up, second one saying no supervisor was available and then transferring me to one. Please for God’s sake please train your customer service to give a better service to its customer. And make them understand the difference between united States and Phillipines. Please teach them the norms of United States if they are to give their customer service to customer’s in united states. Please explain that hanging up is a big insult in united states and using of words like please, thank you, or appologies are common courtsey terms in United States. Please better train your staff.
A very unhappy customer of Virgin Mobile
Sorry to hear that I was having a similiar problem about a ring tone I never order and I got the run arounds with them sitting waiting forever nasty manager that don’ give a crap I am military and a good many of them uses Virgin Mobile and we are deploying again soon and I am starting to encourage each and everyone of them to get another service I got the number to the CEO office Daniel H. Schulman to see if calling his office help 1-908-607-4000 Fax 1908- 607-4822 My unit and I came up with a plan to flood their office with so many faxes that they would have no choice but to answer all I want is to be refunded for the last 3 months of being billed for $9.99 for something I did not order. It is bad enough we are gone from home and our family but to have a company steal from you while you are tryiing to stay alive is another thing! There will be a lot of Military Customer they will loose once we start sending out email to other service member telling them to avoid this company at all cost.
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It was a blessing in disguise that that happened to you. Virgin Mobile is on the brink of going out of business. They are just a re-seller for Sprint and they are losing customers like a siv. They can barely afford to keep their customer service people employed. That’s why no one calls you back. Everyone is busy dealing with complaints.
Their phones are garbage. The only thing they have going for them is their price. But pretty soon everyone realizes that you only get what you pay for.
They are just a fly by night company that won’t endure 2009.. Everyone with a Virgin Mobile phone should switch to another carrier before they go out of business and you lose the money on your balance.
You’ve been forewarned.
Abandon ship!
Ask my wife to tell you her Virgin Mobile horror story some time.
I use T-mobile’s prepaid plan. Their razors cost more, but their blades cost a lot less, i.e. it costs more to buy the phone initially, but the cost per minute is less, particularly if you buy more at a time. I figure I wind up spending somewhere between $7 and $8 per month.
May I ask why you didn’t contact Kyocera? This seems like a hardware problem.
Of course it’s a hardware problem. But OEMs do not support or provide warranty exchanges for the phones they sell through the cell companies. All of the cell companies operate the same way — if you buy the phone through them, then you’re supposed to go through them for support and warranty claims.
And, in any case, this is really beside the point, since I shouldn’t need to go directly to Kyocera to get a replacement for a phone I bought from Virgin Mobile.
Note, also, that unlike Virgin Mobile, which has a record (or should have a record) of the fact that I attempted to get the phone replaced or repaired within its warranty period, Kyocera has no such record, so if I went to them, they would be totally within their rights to blow me off.
This isn’t about getting a new phone. It’s less than $20, for God’s sake. It’s about Virgin Mobile’s complete lack of caring about proper customer service.
Wow, my daughter had a similar problem… she was about to hunt down a THIRD battery for a phone she had just over a year, and then had a nasty surprise with minutes vanishing from her account.
I’m blogging about it like mad… at this point it’s 3 blog entries JUST about the damn Virgin Mobile Ho’s… Sorry, I find I’m getting ruder, the more difficulty we’re having communicating with the company.
We did some comparison shopping online (just the night before last actually) and read consumer review till we felt we were going blind… and then decided on either US Cellular (who we wouldn’t have considered till seeing the reviews for them) and T Mobile…. and then went to the stores for both and compared the phones and plans. My daughter settled on US Cellular, I think mainly because they had a broader selection of phones, including one she actually liked. “If I’m going to be using it for years” she says, ” It shouldn’t be a phone I’m not totally happy with.”
http://www.trinlayk.blogspot.com
May I ask why you didn’t contact Kyocera? This seems like a hardware problem.
Oh, I doubt I’ll get anything from Virgin Mobile. If they were going to respond, they surely would have responded by now. But here’s the funny thing… I bought a phone from their Web site for $49.99 using my cash balance, then put it up on eBay, and it sold for $53 plus shipping. Yes, somebody paid me more on eBay then it would have cost them to buy the phone directly from Virgin Mobile.
I even told the buyer that this was the case and offered to allow her to cancel her bid since she was obviously unaware that she could have gotten the phone for less from Virgin Mobile. She thanked me for my honesty but said it wasn’t worth the effort and I should just go ahead and send her the phone.
Good luck with getting satisfaction.