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Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk: $35 for Unlimited Data, Text, & 300 Minutes?
Shiny New Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk Plan is Enticing for Young Professionals
Virgin Mobile, a prepaid cellular phone service provider that was purchased last year by Sprint, just launched a new – and potentially game changing prepaid cellular plan, that they are dubbing ‘Beyond Talk‘. It might just grab your eye, as it did mine.
The base plan works like this:
- Unlimited data
- Unlimited text
- 300 anytime minutes
All on 3G and all for just $25/month! Update: Virgin Mobile has increased the cost of the Beyond Talk plan to $35/month due to high demand for cheap mobile data plans.
For young professionals, this plan is seemingly brilliant and flawless. I find myself using cell phones less and less these days, which is why I went with Net10 prepaid (you can check out my Net10 review) to limit my cell phone bill to just $15/month and have been looking at Tracfone to take it even lower (you can also check out my Tracfone review).
When I first discovered the Beyond Talk Virgin Mobile plan, I was super excited. I thought to myself, “wow, I can move to a smart phone and get unlimited data for just $25 per month. Finally, a plan that caters to exactly how I want to use a phone – unlimited data and text messaging, and a decent amount of minutes each month that I probably won’t use up.”
The Downside to Virgin Mobile’s Beyond Talk
The big downside to Virgin Mobile’s Beyond Talk plan is the price of the phones. According to Virgin Mobile, you need to buy one of their phones in order to be on this plan.
How much do these phones cost? $299 for a Motorola Triumph Android, for example. This can be cost prohibitive for many. The cheapest Android, the Samsung Intercept, is $99.99, which is not too bad. However, that phone is a few years old and a little behind.
If you go with Virgin Mobile’s Beyond Talk, note that you should calculate how much your plan really costs once you distribute out the cost of the phone per month. If you figure two years of life on a phone (lengthy these days), a $300 phone equates to an extra $12.50 per month vs. a free contracted phone from other providers.
T-Mobile is now running a $30 per month plan for unlimited texting, data, and 100 voice minutes that is also worth a look. And any old GSM phone will work.
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My name is G.E. Miller and 
Surely in a city as big as Chicago you can find a carrier which works for you…..
The LG Rumor Touch is an alternative to the Blackberry for basic smart phone functionality. Not bleeding edge, and not as full-featured as Blackberry or ipod, but good enough for many people–email, im, social networking, mp3 player, gps, maps, etc.
NO.. the LG rumor touch sucks. it restarts every time i close the keyboard and its super slow. you cannot download things like ringtones or pictures from Facebook, and you cant even use the mp3 music from a sim card as a ringtone! i could do that on my cruddy cricKet phone but not this one “/
T-Mobile prepaid is $100 for 1000 minutes. Good for 1 year. Text is .10/message. Works for me.
Virgin mobiles beyond talk is great..I have the lg optimus v android market included..phone program is like htc incredible..phones range from 40 to 200 online or check amazon.com..plAns well theres only three $25 for 300 mins $40 for 1200 mins and still save $20 if ur pick unlimited everything for $60 a month And no extra fee when u use ur mobile hotspot for pc or anything thats has wifi..i connect y dont u money aint nothin but A piece a paper so spend it on somethin worth it like A phone that can dont it al..busy mom with a android keeps me organized
Hi, I was looking into getting the Virgin mobile LG Optimus. I am wondering if I get the $25 plan which includes unlimited texting, will it really be unlimited to all other carriers (Verizon, AT&T, ETC…)
Thanks…
@Tasha…..Unfortunately, the $25 Virgin Mobile plan is no longer available to new subscribers. Those subscribers who were on the 300 minute plan have been grandfathered at that rate. The 300 minute plan is now $35 per month.
Even with the $35 plan, texting to US phones on Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. remains unlimited. If you’re not a big talker but text constantly, the $35 plan may be a good fit for you. Just remember you will be using the Sprint network only and need to make sure your locale is covered by Sprint.
I went to Radio Shack and purchased a $4.99 phone to use with this service! Although the phone is pretty old-school and reminds me of my cell phones of years ago, the features are wonderful, unlimited text, internet, and 300 minutes! I have been thrilled to death with it! They also had a $40 phone available in the store , but I was looking to go cheap, cheap, cheap so I didn’t go with that one. I may trade up at some time in the future, but for now (this is a second phone for reasons I won’t go into) this phone & service is the sh*it!!
so if i wanted the $25/month plan for unlimited text i can buy any virgin mobile phone and get that plan? please explain to me id appriciate it
@curtis…..I would NOT say you can buy ANY Virgin Mobile phone. You could buy any phone that is made for their “Beyond Talk” plans, get it activated on the $25 Beyond Talk plan before the new rates go into effect (2 or 3 days from now), and you supposedly get grandfathered at the old rate (under terms still unknown to most of us at this time).
My intention is to keep our two $25 plans as long as Virgin Mobile allows us. If our rates increase, then I will look for better value elsewhere. It’s as simple as that!
Red
Curtis, I wouldn’t completely trust Red Oscar. From my experience he’s getting paid to give good comments to Virgin Mobile (piece of crap mobile is what it should be called). LOok at all my comments and I’m sure that you won’t go with Virgin Mobile.
@Stephen….You are just too funny. I WISH I were being paid by Virgin Mobile (or anybody else for that matter). At this point, @curtis can make whatever decision he feels is in his best interest, with the information he has gathered from numerous sources.
My experience has been positive over the past 7 years. If you live outside of their service area, then you would not want to choose Virgin Mobile. If you travel a lot and need roaming, then you would not want to choose VM. But if your needs are well covered by Sprint’s area of service, then Virgin Mobile is an economical choice as a cell phone service provider.
I checked the link, sorry, looks like it isn’t up yet.
Oh, you’re being sarcastic! Bottom line is that there are a lot of people not happy with Verizon, and the site has been up for years. You don’t have to agree with them, but you have no right to tell them that they are wrong. The information deserves to be out there, so that people may choose what they do with that information.
@Red, sure you aren’t. My friends that have Virgin Mobile say it’s a piece of junk too. Curtis he’s a spokesman for Virgin Mobile definately because I’d say 60 to 80 percent of this message board (skimmed) is bad stuff on Virgin Mobile.
Red, I don’t travel outside of a Sprint coverage area. I stay in my area. Sprint and Virgin Mobile are both junk go to Verizon (I would say Boost Mobile but I haven’t ever had them and none of my friends or family has had Boost Mobile).
Virgin mobile: Drop 150 for the Optimus. 25 bucks gets you: unlimited text, unlimited, data, and 300 minutes.
To get unlimited data on Verizon, you need an iPhone. With an iPhone, you will drop 200 just to get the cheapest model. To get their smallest amount of minutes (450), prepare to drop 39.99/month. To get unlimited texts, drop another 20 bucks/month on top of that. To get unlimited data, drop another $29.99/month. At the end of your first month of service, you will have spent over $310, including tax.
In short, to get the kind of plan on verizon that you want on VM, you will spend 50 bucks more on the phone, and 65 dollars more on the plan per month, with insane overages if you exceed your minutes, and offensive late fees if you can’t afford the bill on time.
In two months on Verizon’s plan (including phone purchase, plan expenses, and taxes), you will have been able to pay for Virgin Mobile’s 2nd best phone, plus around 9 months of service after taxes.
I don’t care how good Verizon’s phones/services are. When Verizon is charging more for unlimited data than VirginMobile is charging for their 300min/unlimited text/unlimited data plan, then Verizon isn’t worth it.
@Jake: Obviously, your dumb. If your on the Verizon Prepaid plan, as I’ve stated before, you pay $20 per month for unlimited texting to anyone on any network.
Are you talking about the Verizon phone rates that cost 1.99 per day? Forgive me. Meaning that if you, like most people, have at least one call per day, you will be paying $60 per month for your phone service. Then, if you purchase the texting plan on top of that, your bill will be $80 bucks (before data). Then, add on 30 dollars more for unlimited data, and you’re up to $110 dollars per month for a phone.
Even if you never use your phone for phone calls, and only text and surf, you are going to be hit with 50 dollars per month for your bill.
Now, if you are talking about getting the 450 minute plan, with unlimited texting, that will cost $64.99 per month, plus the $30 charge for data, bringing your bill to $94.99.
On top of that, there’s the cost of the phone. Verizon’s Samsung Continuum, the closest thing Verizon’s prepaid has to the LG Optimus costs 244.99.
So lets do the totals (before tax) here:
Verizon pay by the day (with daily calls, unlimited text & data):
$110 per month + 244.99 (for phone)
Total paid at the end of first month: $354.99
Total paid at the end of second month: $464.99
Verizon monthly prepaid plan (450min, unlimited text & data):
$94.99 per month + 244.99 (for phone)
Total paid at the end of first month: $339.98
Total paid at the end of second month: $434.97
Virgin mobile prepaid plan (300min, unlimited text & data):
$25.00 per month + $150.00 (for phone)
Total paid at the end of first month: $175.00
Total paid at the end of second month: $200.00
Now who’s the one being dumb Stephen? Including the cost of the phones, it will take me 8 months at Virgin Mobile to match what you pay in one month at Verizon, and 12 months for me to reach your second month.
Jake, that’s pretty funny because I never have had ANY issues with my phone or service with Verizon Prepaid.
You might be lucky enough not to have had troubles with Verizon. I, and a slew of others, have. Every month, even though I had data and texting turned off (couldn’t send a text to save my life), and only used 1-200 minutes per month, my bill was getting hit with an offensive amount of overages that they would do nothing to reduce.
Even if that wasn’t the case, however, for that customer service that you use once every couple of months, you are paying 4 times as much. When you pay 4 times more for the same service, customer service had BETTER be good. And I’m glad you haven’t had a problem. But your opinion is not the opinion of the whole.
I encourage you to go to verizonsucks.com and see exactly what I am talking about.
I encourage you to go to my site that was just made today. The site is http://www.thisproductsucks.webs.com
@Jake: Sorry gave the wrong website it’s http://www.yourproductsucks.com. I made it today. I encourage you to give a review on any product or service you like or are unsatisfied with. Have a good day.
i have virgin mobile and everyone says that it drops your calls but idk llike none of mine have been dropped i like the coverage but i live in chicago and dont travel much out of the area so ive never had areas that arent covered. my phone the lg rumor touch is okay i mean its better than any phone ivee had before. i like it i guess my parents pay my bill and they wont do any contracts and this one was the cheapest so im happy for what i get with 25$ cause i looked into other companies and their so expensive so virgin mobile is good if you dont have much money like my parents
Why not Strait Talk? I switched 3 phones from Sprint after several months of overages ($130 to $140 a month). Now I can count on the same $105 every month as I have for the past year since switching. My wife and son do not text or use the web so they are on the 1000 min a month plane. I am on the $45 unlimited plan. We all use the CDMA (Verizon towers)for great coverage but from time to time I switch back and forth to a smartphone on GSM (AT&T towers)to get fest web at conventions and swap meets. They, ST, have been great about switching phones for me and we still have our original Sprint numbers that ported in easy (The first GSM took a while for the data to kick in but once you have the sim card its fast). And as some one suggested the sim will fit my modified smart phone (have to watch the data usage that way, like no movies or streaming).
And one other thing….my reception is phenomenal. The people I talk to often comment on this. It’s better than my AT&T service. I haven’t been out of my home state with the phone (PA) but have been in many different areas and never one problem, no dropped calls, no breaking up. Texting is super fast too.
I have had the loft for 2 months now and it is great. Loads up email and internet in under a minuite. Apps are good like google and weather and it has a gps to use with google maps. Ok camera too. Dont need thier extra gps service for 10 per month.
U cant beat this service with anything else out there.
Quit crying about crackberry $$$ and enjoy cheap phone and Inet service.
U gotta have a phone cause of the name??????
I find the with the loft, they keys are difficult to use. I use to love texting but do not with this phone. Also, every time I top up I have to call them and tell them I want the $25 plan. What a pain.
is that how it works…u just buy the $25 top up card and call them to get the unlimited plan??….also why does it go up to 60 a month with blackberry i dont get it…
dude your a idiot. why don’t you go buy yourself one of these phone plans?
@Bayan, @Lisa: Don’t get it there PHONES AND CUSTOMER SERVICE/TECH SUPPORT IS JUNK!
I bought a Straight Talk phone for 100.00 from Walmart. I have to say I’m pretty happy with it, for 30 dollars a month, you get 1000 mins , 1000 texts and 30mb of data, I really don’t think the average person would even use everything up I know I don’t. And it has a better than average camera, way better than alot of expensive phones that i’ve compared it to. Ok just wanted to share!!
Julie you are so right. Straight talk is the best value out there, and if you got a smart phone, as I did, you must agree that $45 a month for unlimited service is really the best value. I get unlimited web, that’s apps, downloads and email, plus unlimited voice and text. Pretty happy with my Straight Talk too, oh, and I got it a walmart, paid for it at the register, no hazzards, great!
i send 4000 texts a month so that wont work for me…
Stephanie, my first cell phone provider was Straight Talk and I had no problem with their service until they started making my phone go on and off by itself, when i called tech support they were always rude. So I went to Virgin Mobile and had lots of problems there. After that I went to Verizon Prepaid. $20 for unlimited text to anyone in the US, that’s awesome because all I do is text on it. Verizon Prepaid also gives you $2 extra to your acct per ever $20 you add to your acct. They don’t charge you for the $2 extra that they add to your acct and when you purchase a phone (existing customer or not) they give you $10 to $20 put on your acct just for creating a prepaid acct with them. They have reasonable prices and their Samsung Gusto is good as well as their Pantech Caper. Over the 3 companies I’d pick Verizon Prepaid as my first pick (best), Straight Talk second (they’re ok but not as bad as Virgin Mobile), then Virgin Mobile (worst).
Every 1 Star review you read about Virgin Mobile is painfully true. I had the absolute worst customer service experience of my life. Spent probably 8 hours wrestling my number back from them after their grossly incompetent phone agents failed to activate my phone time after time. A true disaster. Wouldn’t refund a dime of my unused airtime, in spite of the legendary hassle they put me through. I advise any and all prospective users against Virgin Mobile with every ounce and fiber of my being.
thank god its not only me its literally a war with customer service the phones are ok, the plan is great and so is the service but forget about customer service, dont think you can transfer your number easy 1,2,3 it will take up to 30 days and 1 phone call a day…oh and if they hang up on you dont worry thats normal, just call again. yes you need to pay for the phones but thats the price you pay to get cheap monthly, you’ll save in the long run and only join vmobile if you want the 25$ plan its the only one thats worth it…im currently battling vmobile for my number that they suddenly “lost” its been 10 days and they assured me in 48hrs it will be restored along with the remainder of my minutes but what about the 10 days lost ? well wish me luck…
Transferred my phone number to Virgin from AT&T. After speaking with customer service to set up my account, the automatic process took about 30 minutes for my AT&T service to stop and my virgin phone to activate. MUCH quicker than the 72 hours the customer service rep said it would take. Promise little & deliver much?
Virgin Mobile is by far the very worst provider I’ve ever dealt with. Yes, $25/$40 is inexpensive, but isn’t your sanity worth a little more? Positively the lamest, most ineffectual customer “service” I’ve ever encountered. They DO NOT GIVE A FIG — not about you, or your difficulties, or about fixing them. Someone else wrote, “For $25 a month, what do you want?” Well, I want VM to provide the service it advertises and collects payments for — unlimited data. More than 50% of the time, I cannot connect to the Internet. I recently went ELEVEN DAYS with no Internet connection whatsoever. “Network connection failed.” “Time out.” “Bad request.” And VM didn’t give a fig in the least. They collected money for a service they’re either unwilling or unable to provide. Sounds ILLEGAL to me. Do yourself a big favor — run don’t walk away from this sham of a company.
you obviously didn’t read their ‘terms of service’…
just some of the small print.
no calls longer than 2 hours- they will terminate calls that go over 2 hours.
unlimited does not mean unreasonable
and the catch all one:
We may place restrictions on accessing certain Content, impose separate charges, limit the amount of data you can access or transfer, or otherwise limit or terminate services.
they also don’t guarantee access to all services all of the time. there may be disruptions in service and they don’t give refunds
—it takes a long time- but you’ve gotta read their ‘terms of service’ and their ‘privacy policy’ if you want to know what you’re really signing up for.
@angel_Boy…. 1. I got my phone from radio shack and the associate had no problems with activating it and everything. 2. When I had VM I would be on the phone for more than 2hours voice calling and texting all the time so obviously your statement is bogus about VM’s privacy policy and terms of use (none of which they stick to or abide by).
My son and his wife both ported their AT&T numbers to VM’s BeyondTalk plans with minimal hassle. They had some billing issues because my son selected the wrong radio button on the web site; but VM customer service helped them get that resolved and now all is well. They love the BeyondTalk plan and both have the Optimus V phones. My youngest son will be switching from AT&T to VM at the end of this month when his contract expires.
I myself have been a VM customer for nearly 7 years now and have had nothing but good luck with them. My wife and I both have the BeyondTalk plans (I have the Intercept and she has the Rumor Touch). Not bad for a couple pushing 60. I love to save money and love no contract plans.
Red
I currently have T-Mobile, but in my “bad credit” days I used Virgin Mobile on several occasions. I never had a problem with them. Setting up the phone was a breeze, and could usually do it on the internet with no assistance from CS. Even ported numbers with no problem. Phones would be working within minutes. I’m considering going back to VMobile after seeing this $25 unlimited service. I get essentially the same package with T-Mobile and it’s $80 a month.
You must be polite. I get the same treatment from Strait talk by being polite, using Mams and Sirs, but some of the rude folks I know get some nightmare treatment. It does not pay to get rude with any one holding the power to lose your number and turn your phone off and on. I find that by trying to make their day better they usually go out of their way to make mine better.
I think this will be a perfect plan for my son who’s turning 10 next month. I will give him this as a birthday present. I will probably get him a rumor touch. His older sister already had this phone with Sprint service and she has no complaints.
This plan is perfect for kids since they hardly ever talk anyways, just text and checking out youtube videos.
DO NOT GET VIRGIN MOBILE THEY ARE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE SERVICE !!!
MY PHONE HASNT WORKED FOR OVER A MONTH SOME HOW THEY MESSED UP THE SHIPPING AND I HAVENT RECIEVED IT. DO NO EVEN BOTHER!!
WHEN I FINALLY RECIEVED THE PHONE IT WAS THE SAME ONE WITH THE SAME PROBLEMS !! ALSO RANDOMLY WHEN YOU TEXT MESSAGE SOMEONE IT WILL REPEAT FOR 24 HRS EVERY 15 MIN SEND THE RECIPENT THE SAME MESSAGE 5 TIMES. MY BF HAD OVER 600 MSGS FROM ME AND THIS SERVICE DID NOTHING ABOUT IT. SAVE THE TROUBLE AND GO WITH ATT OR VERIZON……
godness m, this sounds like a nightmare…phone nightmare. I really fell for you, it’s so important to have cellphone you can trust and a company that supplies good customer service. I swtiched to Straight Talk and their service and coverage is great. It also works on the verizon network or att acording to the area you live they will supply the network that gives you the best coverage and it’s also prepaid for only $45 a month you get unlimited service.
When buying a Strait Talk phone get a model ending in “C” (CDMA)to be on Verizon and a model ending in “G” (GSM) to be on AT&T.
Actually att go phone with text also sent the texts over 3-5 times randomly in 24hours. That is why I’m on this site reviewing virgin m. So if that is not something you enjoyed, don’t go with att. It pissed me off so bad since It depleted my text message count for the month, I had to get another type of service, no more att ever.
Try t-mobile’s $15 unlimited txt msging plan. No phone calls but I use Google voice whateve
You have somewhat of a point… it might be $50/mo for the plan including the phone, but you didn’t compare that to what it would cost say.. using another carrier..the same phone.. and tell the difference
But on another note.. i am/was thinking of switching over to virgin.. but it scares me to no end.. that once i get comfortable paying 35… they can just up there rates at any time.. which yeah i know i can leave. but who likes switching carriers? i don’t.. jmo
@ Dood – I didn’t compare the cost of phones from other carriers, b/c most offer free smart phones with a 1 or 2 year contract. For not getting the contract, you’re basically paying up for the phone with Virgin Mobile.
I’ve been with Virgin Mobile for less than a year, but I still have the $25.00/month rate. They grandfather their old clients in. I can purchase a new phone, or switch and still have the same rate. The only way they can change the price on me is if I change my minute plan (which I have no intention of doing).
So if you stick it out with Virgin Mobile, your rates should stay the same.
BAD! BAD! BAD! Virgin Mobile is the worst cell phone company in existence! I was a customer for a couple of years, and I loved the low rates, but then I wanted to add another phone to my account, suddenly my credit card (the same one as for the other phone) was not good for them, (although they kept charging auto top-ups to it). I pursued this issue for several months, to no avail. It seems, they just couldn’t care less. Now my card is about to expire, and the new card I want to register isn’t good for them either. OK, I want it fixed. Suddenly, they charged 22 top-ups to my “bad” credit card, all in one day. When I complained they said to take it up with my bank; Which I did. I then cancelled the credit card, and switched to TracFone, guess what? It is cheaper and they treat me like a person. I did in a few hours what Virgin Mobile could not do in 7 months!
I have had that experience with every company I elected to “auto Pay.” Now I know better. Call them up once a month, and take 2 minutes to purchase the next month’s worth of services.
Hello, everyone. I am/was wondering if I should get the BlackBerry Curve 8530 with the $25/mo “Beyond Talk” plan for myself. However, I haven’t seen much talk of the BlackBerry within these comments. So, if anyone could enlighten me about the pros and cons of owning a BlackBerry with Virgin Mobile (minus the extra $10 for BlackBerry Messenger/App Store/Maps), it’d be extremely appreciated.
Sincerely, Timmy. (:
You could get a blackberry, but truth be told, RIMM’s blackberries are kind of dying off. I wouldn’t really recommend that, and would encourage you to get an android phone instead. The LG Optimus V is very reasonable at $150.
Yes, once you get a few opps in, like CYO 7, the Android is awesome!
The Kyocera Loft phone for Virgin has a full qwerty keyboard, looks like a Blackberry (2.2″ screen) and has a lot of other features, without the $10 Beyond Talk plan surcharge. List price is $70, but it was on sale this past week at Radio Shack for $30! (sold-out before sale ended 12/24). Looks like one can still be found new elsewhere for around $40-$50. Not the best phone, but great for the money.
The best advice I can give is DON’T DO IT! I have not even had my phone for 5 hours and it already does not work and customer service has hung up on me 4 times. One of the times they actually told me I should call Walmart for help. I did as a last resort and Walmart said they don’t even sell Virgin Mobile. One person said they could not return my phone unless I tried to get it fixed first and that they were transfering me to their technical support dept…then they hung up. Worst experience ever!
You are allowed to return your phone for any reason for up to one week after purchasing, as long as you take it to the place you purchased your phone.
If you purchased your phone from Wal-mart, they were the one’s giving you the run around, not Virgin. They were admitting you had a bad phone, and encouraged you to replace it.
I purchased mine from wal-mart. After that one broke, I called Virgin Mobile’s tech support and they gave me the 5 after the walmart one came straight from Virgin Mobile’s offices. So they both suck.
Yeah. I remember when Verizon kept replacing my Razr, as well. 7 in 5 months. Some phones just suck.
@Jake: I wasn’t talking about Verizon. With Verizon I have had no problems. Virgin Mobile, however, I had to get 5 replacement phones (they were all free because I was under warranty).
If my job was answering a phone to help folks solve their problems and they were rude, raining on my day, I may take a little joy in sending a storm of problems their way. I would get paid the same whether you liked how things turned out or not. Your experience makes it sound like you are a rude dude!
Do I have to get the beyond talk plan to activate the lg rumor touch? or can I just keep my old pay-as-you-go plan for the lg rumor touch?
No, you have to have the beyond talk plan.
Well,
You Could Go On The beyond talk plan For A Bit Then Call Them Up And Tell Em’ You Want To Go To The Pay-As-You-Go Plan (Of your choice) and they’ll do it right there and then.
You’ll be switched over within an 30 to 40 minutes!
Call VMobile and give them all your account info (10 mins)
+
VMobile’s Computers do what they do (20 – 30 mins)
=
Your on the pay-as-you-go plan that you wanted!!!
LG never was a mobile phone maker and they have all hardware and software engineering problems. They are loosing the market progressively, as they experiment customer’s money for making a better mobile and not their own engineering…!!
I had two bad experiences and I couldn’t do anything about it. I never heard that this could happen with Nokia or Samsung products… I’m frustrated and I truly think that they have to stop making mobile phone… They have to leave job to the companies who are able to handle it. Who leaves the job of a mason to a plumber? Of course LG… Don’t buy their phones anymore…!!
I have been with VM since 01 and was never real happy but did not use the minutes. My phone broke recently. It was Christmas Season so I ordered a Wild Card for $20.00 which included a free month @$30.00. Nice phone but lousy voice reception. Plan includes 1500 minutes, 500 text, 10 mb of internet. I have used 255 minutes of talk time, 300 text & 1. mb of net. Will top up for one more month, then try the lg900g on net 10 and make a final decision. Not much of a phone user but do want clear reception. BTW: I am in the Portland, Or. area.
Would like to hear what others have experienced w/ Net10 or VM in this area.
Girlfriend and I were being charged $120/mo for 2 phones with 1500/t unl/text&pix no data and service in our area about 30 miles north of Denver and east of Boulder sucks. Can’t use phones inside the house except for occasional text, to talk outside gotta restart the phone to get better signal. Cancelled service, got Virgin Mobile Kyocera Loft phones, black friday deals through Radio Shack for $30 each and have the $25 beyond talk plans. Setup was slow; took a full 24 hours for hers to be activated. If you’re porting a number to VM, don’t activate the phone online, call them. The website and packaging doesn’t cover this but if you activate online first, they have to reverse the credit card charge when you call; goofy but it’s how they work. Call center was in Nicaragua, at least it’s on this side of the world, eh? Nice folks but don’t get them talking about life in Managua or they’ll get mixed up and screw up your order.
Service is about the same as it was with Sprint, which I expected. The phone is severely disabled, cannot watch Youtube, can’t stream music, can’t grab most stuff off web. You can use a picture you took for the wallpaper but not directly, it’s a 2 step process. You can make a custom ringtone but it’s a pain in the ass process which involves upgrading Opera on your phone and sending an mp3 file to a web based email service and then saving the file.
Still, $52 instead of $122 (and the $122 was without data) is the shit. I can’t wait to upgrade to an android phone through this service.
Chris
I bought the Samsung Intercept Android phone ($170) for my daughter on the $25/month plan. Good Phone, no contract, great plan.
Trying to join Virgin Mobile has been a BAD experience for me.
First the 1229 Silas Creek Pwy, Winston-Salem, 27127 Radio Shack rep. sold me the phone with the knowledge that I wanted to keep my old number, but activated the phone without doing such.
I get to the parking lot, call a friend and he tells me I have a different number. So I go back into the store and an hour later I leave having spent $200 but still using my Verizon phone, with the understanding that my phone should be working with my number “soon”.
Called 888-322-1122, Virgin customer service, several hours later only to find the genius at Radio Shack had given the them wrong Verizon account number, so I correct that with the rep. and was told it should be working “soon”.
Next evening, like 25 hours later, the phone switches over but is telling me I need to add money.I go online to try and resolve the problem but the phone number and password Radio Shack provided me wouldn’t work. So I set up a Google account online, to use their sweet phone dialer to call Virgin cutomer service, but much to my surprise, closed at night. Can you believe that? A company this size providing cell service closed at night.
Well here I am with no phone at all, except of course I can dial out on the net, but no thanks to Virgin Mobile.
I read all the bad reviews and said “nooo that wont happen to me”.
Yeah, Get you some!
Oh yeah, and the Optimus phone sucks. No connection, and you can watch the battery meter drop.
it sounds like your problems started with radio shack- and virgin mobile had trouble correcting what radio shack screwed up. don’t blame virgin mobile for radio shack screwing up
Checking Virgin Mobile’s website the offer 2 phones under $200.
the LG Optimus v and Samsung Intercept and others.You dont have to but a Blackberry.
They both can both can used with the beyond Talk plan.
Now they have a new cell phone Lg optimus V. And its only 150$!!!
So you don’t have to pay 10$ more like on Black Berry!! And still pay 25$ a month!!! Awesome!!!
The absolute worse. Had to e-mail twice and call to have internet activated. Told phone didn’t have capabilities it did. Phone is stuck in “Canada” zone so many US sites with vids, etc. won’t run. Oh well…only paying extra for unlimited data. Any other company and it would be considered a scam.
The phone wouldn’t activate. Support kept telling me it was activated. They couldn’t understand that it said “device not active”. I spent a day trying to fight thru the language barrier. The phones on their side were breaking up and one rep clomplained about problems with the phone he was using. They wouldn’t take the phone back until I disputed my credit card charge. I have to pay to ship the defective phone it back to them amd then maybe I’ll get a refund. If they sent me a free phone I wouldn’t use it because their suppport is so bad I won’t rely on them.
Best Buy is running promotions for the Optimus, which is definitely a good alternative, it’s at least a solid phone. Still $120, but a new android phone with all of the pros as earlier.
And also, Virgin Mobile is on the Sprint Network, which does not use SIM card technology.
I just got a LG opitmus V from virgin mobile about 3 weeks ago, the $ 25.00 month was a good enticement to buy a smart phone.. the Service seems to be ok and I like the phone, but the problem was trying to get the virgin mobile, sort of rude, live adviser to port my number from net10.. I went back and forth with them several times giving all the correct info and they never got it completed. Not to say that I had to call to find out what was the status because they wouldn’t even let me know that the porting wasn’t going thru. I was never able to find out if net10 didn’t want to release the number or if virgin mobile did even bother to send the request, since everytime I talked to them it seemed like they didn’t care. Oh Well, I finally sent them both a frustrated e-mail, ( No response at all ) and activated the phone with a different number, but not before trying at least two times on their website and having to still go thru the freaking live adviser to complete it. I will use their service for awhile to see if it is better than their costumer service. This is my first review on any company, but it looks like that we as costumer have lost all the respect and good service from most of these greedy USA companies. Boy! is so hard to be satisfied nowadays with any company or product.. Oh Man, where are we going from here?!! REVOLUTION?? technology is being made to evolve as evil.. as I read all those reviews about anything , I wander where can we get those old feelings of happiness from buying anything? Thanks for reading.. lets buy less and less from those companies.
I had the LG Rumor 2 from Virgin Mobile for not even 1 month. After 1 month the LG Rumor 2 started up and stopped at the load up page that says “HELLO”. I immediately called Virgin Mobile Tech. Support and Tech. Support said that my phone was defective and Virgin Mobile would send me my new LG Rumor 2 overnight at no cost to me. I got the Virgin Mobile Rumor 2 the next day. Then I had to call tech support again because that phone was defective after 2 weeks. I ended my service with them after they had sent me 4 or 5 phones and all of them with the same problem. Virgin Mobile Tech. Support was very unreliable and unhelpful. I have had nothing but problems with Virgin Mobile’s Technical Support. If you ask me DO NOT go with Virgin Mobile as a provider. I have had Verizon now for about 6 to 7 months with no problems what-so-ever with my phone. I SAY GET VERIZON PREPAID.
Does anyone have the answer to my question? i want to get the beyond talk plan. But I dont want to pay $200 for a phone. So, can i buy any Virgin mobile phone and use it. No one can give me a straight answer.
@James To answer your question, you can use any VM phone that is configured for their BeyondTalk plan. Most of their flip phones are for their PayLo plans, and these won’t work with BeyondTalk. However, if you are diligent, you might find an older model phone at Walmart, Target, Meijer, etc on clearance that are BeyondTalk phones. Just yesterday, I saw an older LG phone at Meijer on the clearance rack for $37 that was for the BeyondTalk service. This can get you started with your service, then, when you are able and want a nicer phone, you can purchase any other of their phones designed for the BeyondTalk plan. Maybe one day we will see the Optimus V on the clearance rack for under $100. Technology moves fast and good hardware falls out of favor very quickly. Still, I don’t mind using yesterday’s technology if the price is right.
Red
You CAN buy a filp phone, use PayLo for 3 or 4 months,
Then Call Them Up And Tell Em’ You Want To Go To The BeyondTalk plan (Of your choice) and they’ll do it right there and then.
You’ll be switched over within an 30 to 40 minutes!
Call VMobile and give them all your account info (10 mins)
+
VMobile’s Computers do what they do (20 – 30 mins)
=
Your on the BeyondTalk plan that you wanted!!!
Seems like you’re a Virgin Mobile employee. Quick get away before Virgin Mobile goes bankrupt from poor customer service people and Virgin Mobile’s phones.
What about entertainment on their plans? Do they provide some credits for ringtones, graphics, videos downloads? I’m thinking of moving to them from Verizon and just making some research before I do that.
@Miles….I’m not entirely clear about your question regarding “credits” for ringtones, graphics, etc. If you purchase one of Virgin Mobile’s Android phones, then you can download from the Android Market whatever you desire. If I want ringtones or graphics, I download from the internet and install them to the SD card for use. Your monthly plan money does not go towards the purchase of ringtones, graphics, etc. That money is for your plan minutes and unlimited text and data usage. Hopefully you can find more than enough free entertainment from the Android Market and the web. That stuff if what you get from the “Unlimited Data” part of the plan.
And for a “heads-up”, Virgin Mobile will soon add a third Android phone to their lineup. They currently have the Samsung Intercept and LG Optimus V. They are soon to add the Motorola Triumph to their BeyondTalk plans. Hopefully pricing and availability to be announce in the near future. It sounds like a pretty sweet addition.
Red
Don’t waste your time trying to do that unless your getting reimbursed for all the time and money you spend on it. See my comment above for my explanation. It was posted March 19th at 1:12am EDT
@Miles. I would stay with Verizon because I had the $25 unlimited everything per month plan and I was constantly on the phone with Virgin Mobile’s stupid tech support. I would get cut off because they hung up, not able to understand the tech support people, went through 5 phones because the phone kept freezing, finally I had enough and told them “you can get me a Rumor Touch because this Rumor 2 is a piece of crap.” they replied “we can’t do that sir but we can get you a completely different phone called the Kyocera” I said “ok let’stry that.” When I call to activate my phone afterwards they asked me “is there anything else I can do for you today.” I told them I wanted credit for the 3 days and nights that I could not use a phone. Then they never gave me any credit for that phone or any other phones that broke on me. So I used up the rest of my month with them. At this time I had been with Virgin Mobile for 3 months and I went straight to the Verizon prepaid plan. I’ve had Verizon for 9months today. I haven’t had to call customer service at all or if I did it was because I forgot to pay them for the next month on prepaid. I am very satisfied with everything about Verizon. But, I had Straight Talk for about 3months and had the same problems as I had with Virgin Mobile. Overall, I would saystick with Verizon even if it’s an experiment with Virgin Mobile unless someone is going to reimburse you for everything you pay to them.
yup . vmobile sucks . been on here for 4 years . customer service is horrible and the phones aree too expensive . there had only been one group that really help me which was the one they send you over to when you have too many problems .. i forget the name of it though . but bryson was the most helpful . for anyone who is thinkin of joinin DONT DO IT . id say get boostmobile . my bf uses it and it was originally $50 unlimited everything but soon as you pay your bill on time it drops . he now pays either $45 or $30 for it . and he gets great service like me . good luck anyone using vmobile it sucks . and they dont let you do anythimg with personalixing your fone . cant even hack it . i have the rumor 2 …
I’ve bought an Optimus V phone for both my wife and myself, and after one month I cannot complain and have nothing but high marks for VM. I left Cingular/ATT after 9 years to make my move to VM after LOTS of shopping around. WHY?
> An upgrade on ATT for phones, data and text would have ended up costing double what I was paying for voice service ONLY.(approx $65 a month for 2 phones, 700 minutes)
> Most phone companies dont have a decent 4G system where I live, so why pay extra for 4G and a 4G phone when the service is NOT available yet?
> Sprint would have been my best bet, but still would have cost almost $150.00 for our 2 phones including tethering for 1 phone, including my wife’s corporate discount
> Sprints no-contract arm is who??? Virgin Mobile of course. (BTW, Boost Mobile is a Sprint company too, last time I checked)
> My wife talks very little so she has the $25 plan, I use mine more so I have the $40 plan. Total $65 for 1500 minutes, unlimited data, and unlimited texts.
>Sound familiar? It should because Sprints $129.99 a month plan includes 1500 minutes. Add in $20 for two 4G enabled phones that work at 3G speeds where I live and you’re at $150 a month
> Porting problems? It took about an hour to get both of my phones ported
> Billing problems? Buy top-up cards and do it online, you’ll save the cost of taxes doing it that way. Who even CALLS customer service for a top up anyway? All this can be handled online
>Customer service problems? Those guys actually were great. They gave me a few hints regarding my service. Did you know that the guys at the retail stores get a comission for activating your phone?
>” Connection problems”, “webpage won’t load” problems? Check your settings- this phone has so many features that you are probably disabling things without knowing it.
> This phone has so many features I can’t even mention all of them here.
> I realize that the “youth” market is the target of VM, but I’m 51 and this is my first smartphone and I’m sold. I use ALL of the features: talk, data, and now even texts, which I never used before
I have a feeling that most of these complaints are actually customer’s problems and are due to their failure to understand the TOCs or even the basic operation of the phones. Thats IMHO!
Give them a couple months, you’ll have NOTHING good to say about them! Guarantee!
@Stephen…..Personally, I have to disagree with you. I’ve been a Virgin Mobile customer for over 7 years, and have had nothing but good luck with them. My adult children switched to VM from AT&T several months ago and they too have had great results.
My experience with Virgin Mobile has been so good that we recently pulled the plug on our AT&T landline service after over 30 years. Like Spexter above, I’m not the target Virgin Mobile customer (I turn 60 in a few months). But for great service at a reasonable price, I don’t think you can beat Virgin Mobile.
Red
Most things like the phone breaking, constantly dropping calls (and I live in the business district), phone locking by itself, services being unavailable when your at your own house where you have coverage, not accepting top up cards (activated) they have or credit/debit cards they say they’ll take, passwords, hacked acct, or Virgin Mobile taking money out of your account when you DON’T have anything for them to be taking money out of the account for (including monthly fees). Those are all problems I had w/ my phone or acct that I had to call them up and give them my info 200million times. If you’re smart you won’t get Virgin Mobile go to Verizon Prepaid sure it’s $50 for unlimited web, text, calling to anyone in the US but that’s just $5 more for a service that I’ve been overly satisfied with. It’s worth the extra $5. If you don’t call or go on the web that much just get the $20 unlimited texting to anyone in the US and you pay 99€ when you use the web. Check verizon out I know they say it’s a $1.99 but it’s not really 99cents. The plan I have is 99cents for calling/web access per day I use it.
I just visited Verizon’s website for pricing info and there is no $50 plan shown. From what I see the monthly charge is $95 dollars a month for unlimted calling and text but no data. Add in $30.00 a month for data. Add in a $30 activation fee. There are a couple less expensive options but for very few minutes of calling time.
If I want to pay $125 a month I’ll go with Sprint for TWO phones. Customer comments on Verizon’s prepaid plan indicate that it is by far the most expensive prepaid plan out there.
No thanks.
Spexster: you weren’t looking at prepaid!!!! Look at their prepaid plans. You never buy data plans for Verizon Prepaid.
Go to:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=prepayItem&action=viewPrepayOverview
If you don’t get what you want there i’d call or visit your verizon (the big one)
Hi, I’m considering switching to Virgin Mobile, so I’ve been reading reviews to see if that would be a good choice. Many people seem to dislike calling the customer service. Well isn’t there an online way of doing it? Can’t you fill some form and have any problems addressed online? I’m pretty sure you can, and seeing how many people hate calling the customer service representatives, that might be a better idea. The email will probably be sent to the same people, but its not like that matters, because there’s no language barrier. (I’m sure the customer service people can figure out how to copy and paste the text into an online translator.)
Well I wouldn’t even know if that could work, but it seems a lot more sensible than calling them…
To that point, I’ve never come across a telecom company with rave reviews. They are all hated by many vocal critics.
Most things like the phone breaking, constantly dropping calls (and I live in the business district), phone locking by itself, services being unavailable when your at your own house where you have coverage, not accepting top up cards (activated) they have or credit/debit cards they say they’ll take, passwords, haclked acct, or Virgin Mobile taking money out of your account when you DON’T have anything for them to be taking money out of the account for (including monthly fees). Those are all problems I had w/ my phone or acct that I had to call them up and give thdm my info 200million times. If you’re smart you won’t get Virgin Mobile go to Verizon Prepaid sure it’s $50 for unlimited web, text, calling to anyone in the US but that’s just $5 more for a service that I’ve been overly satisfied with. It’s worth the extra $5. If you don’t call or go on the web that much just get the $20 unlimited texting to anyone in the US and you pay 99€ when you use the web. Check verizon out I know they say it’s a $1.99 but it’s not really 99cents. The plan I have is 99cents for calling/web access per day I use it.
@Daniel……In my 7 years with Virgin Mobile, I’ve had to call their customer service twice. Both my problems were self-inflicted but resolved quickly. A friend of my son recently signed up with VM. For some reason, his 3g service failed to activate. Voice and texting worked fine, but he had no data service. That this occurred on the July 4th weekend didn’t help, but within 48 hours of his contacting their Customer Care people, they had the problem all straightened out. He now seems to be a very happy Virgin Mobile user. I ask my son all the time how Ryan is liking his Optimus V, and he says he just loves the phone and the great deal he gets with Virgin Mobile.
I don’t care how much @Stephen hates Virgin Mobile. I have never had a problem I couldn’t fix myself or that the customer service people didn’t get corrected in a timely fashion. Now that I have dropped my landline, I have fully committed my telephone service to Virgin Mobile. To me, that’s putting my money where my mouth is.
Red
Daniel, don’t listen to Red Oscar. He’s a spokesman for VIRGIN MOBILE (or as they should be called Piece of Junk Mobile)
Daniel,
Save yourself hours of frustration and speaking to people who you can barely understand who promise to fix your problems but never do. DONT DO IT! I bought my daughter one last week and she cant send or receive texts. Their customer service is beyond bad!! It is absolutely not worth the headache!!! I HATE VIRGIN MOBILE!
Ummm…. any reason you just didn’t exchange the phone where you bought it at if there were problems? That would seem like the easiest approach. I guess complaining weeks later works too…
Stephen:
Seriously… your a troll right? No one can honestly be that stupid I hope. Lets see… so far you have a $50 unlimited verizon plan, a $20 unlimited texting plan, A $25 unlimited Verizon plan… How many phones exactly do you own from verizon? Your problems with Virgin mobile were self inflicted…I can tell from your posts your the kind of user who can’t dial his phone without customer service holding his hand. 99% of your problems could have been solved online in two minutes if you had a clue what you were doing. Tech support is only 1/2 the equation it relies on the other person having at least an average IQ to understand whats going on. After reading your posts I wouldn’t sell you a phone where the settings menu was accessible. Virgin Mobile rocks. All my friends are on it. If you know anything about phones there is no where else you can get a deal like this. Well except for Stephen who pays whatever he wants to for his Verizon bill this month. It’s a great company, and if your in a sprint area the service is excellent. There will always be lemon phones no matter what company or carrier, it happens… no big deal you exchange it. If it keeps happening then the problem probably isn’t the phone (cough cough STEPHEN)
I am an older lady (54 this year). I work from home and, while I do travel, it’s not regular beyond yearly/bi-yearly vacations. I used to have Net10 and was fine with that. But sending/receiving pictures and connecting to FB proved a failure with their basic phones that held the capability. We have grandchildren that we like to get and send pictures of. Three days ago, I got a VM phone at Target. I paid 130.00 for a Samsung Intercept.I signed up for their unlimited, 35 dollar, monthly plan and am very satisfied with it so far. I am not accustomed to a touch screen so got the slider keayboard. No need! I haven’t even used it for my texts! I am using the touch screen far easier than I thought I could. Haven’t tried pics yet but that will happen this weekend. I do not work for VM so have no horse in this race, however, as a professional SEM copywriter, I DO know the benefit of good and honest advertising. Especially online word of mouth from consumers. If, after a month or so, there are other odd charges, broken services which were promised or other shenanigans… I will come back online at each and every consumer site I see and relay that information as well. But, so far, I am happy with this service and the phone.
Momma,
Amen to that! It’ been a few months for our two phones with no problems AND we’ve recommended the phone and/or service to family and friends and they too have had similar success.
My only gripe is how phone price keep dropping! I just saw the new HTC available at both Best Buy and Radio Shack….ugh! MY phone isn’t even broken in yet but damnnnn…….i want a new one already. Maybe I’ll pass the “gently used” Optimus down to my 13 year old.
@Spexter….Personally, I’d hang on to the Optimus V, it’s just a great little phone. I can’t see where the Wildfire S and Optimus Slider are that much better, and worth the extra phone cost. These new handsets have the same screen resolution, so you get no improvement there. I know the Wildfire S has Gingerbread, but is that really worth the money of buying a new phone?
If you really want a bigger phone, either go for the Triumph, or wait to see if the LG Marquee makes it to Virgin Mobile. Personally, I went for the Triumph on Cyber Monday and am waiting for the FedEx driver to deliver it to the house. Merry Christmas to me!
The HTC wildfire, in my experience is a hunk of junk! Constant freezing, texts not delivering, or get this texts will send and appear to my friends as Japanese characters/symbols. I live where virgin claims to cover actually the website says in my area I have the best coverage……I think they need to update their maps. I have little or no single and connecting to the internet. Haha well forget that! And the battery life on this baby sucks. Horrible battery life. Oh supposedly in 2012 virgin will slow down users internet speeds after you’ve used a certain amount….which is fine but that kind of makes the unlimited have more limits. But oh well I’m just saying that so people know if you are big data consumers you may Google this 2012 data limits for virgin. It’s on there website. But back to my wildfire yeah its a hunk of junk. The keyboard froze on like when it wasn’t supper to be my screen stopped responding for a minute orto when I would tap it to do somethig else. Keep in mind I have had this baby less than a week and have not installed any applications on it and have hardly any texts. And and there customer service is a nightmare!!!!!! I can .. understand their customer service representatives. I don’t believe they are based in the USA, Australia, or the UK or Canada…..because it was almost impossible for me to understa.d them. I had to ask for one guy to repeat himself constantly, which I felt bad. Anyway calling their customer service in my experience has been horrible based on not understanding the customer representative’s English. They are horrible stay away is my advice. I mean if you just use your phone for emergencies or talking you’ll probably be fine, call quality isn’t the best on his wildfire s either. And there virtual advisor Alex…..the robot you get before you get a live customer service representative……well that virtual advisor is horrible too. He likes to hang up on you:(:(::(:( ……..HTC wilfire is a hunk of junk…and read reviews on virgin mobile’s service and phones…..even on virginmibiles website the number of negative comments is over the top. I’m returning my phone in less than a week and proudly never returning nor doing business with virgin mobile.
Ah I see parts I used bad grammar wrong form of their ect….and supper should be suppose ect… And other misspelled words but my take home message was the main goal
:)
Personally, if I were you, I would return your Wildfire to the store for either a replacement or a refund. Anyone can get a bad handset. But it is also important to make sure you live in an area where Virgin has service. Virgin Mobile works on the Sprint network, but they have no roaming provisions. So if you live outside of Sprint’s native area of coverage, you’ll get no service regardless if your handset is good or not.
I have no experience with the Wildfire S phone, but every person I know who uses the Optimus V (7 total including 2 that I own and use personally) have had no major issues with that handset. But again, you need to operate within the Sprint area of coverage, or no phone sold by Virgin Mobile will work. That’s just the way it is.
As I said in my post I live in an area where virgin mobiles maps say I have the best coverage…it lies. uBecause I don’t get much coverage
And that’d great you had awesome experiences with them I hope you continue to. I have read numerous horror stories and very few positive stories about virgin mobile.
HTC wildfire has many problems i agree but the live advisers always hang up. you can reset the phone without loosing your contacts by typing in ##847446# this will bring you to the set up menu from there you click done on the screen and then power off your phone take out the battery wait 15 seconds and the phone should be reset when you power it back on hope this helps ive had a phone like this with VM from similar problems but it was a earlier flip phone if anything i would go with the LG Optimous V i own one and they dont have problems at all and ive owned it for about 3 months now Hope the reset code Helps You
TO: VIRGIN MOBILE COMPANY CORPORATE USA
To whom it may concern:
I don’t know if the right individual will get this letter but I hope it will get into the right hands .
About a year ago I became a customer of your company . I have purchased two telephones and registered them and was enjoing a good service and always recommended your company to all of my friends and relatives. I have registered a credit card on your site attached to every account and I have always paid my bills on time. So I would sy that your company has gained a valuable costumer .
So why would a company force me to leave and look for another provider ?
Here is my story:
I have purchased a android phone initially for account 410 340 5005 and I was enjoing it and learning how to use it. Later your company has released anew telephone called “MOTOROLA TRIUMPH” so I decided that I may want to switch o a more advanced telephone. I started to look around on the web
For a good price of this type of telephone. One day I have found one on a site:CRAIGS LIST. And someone was selling it for 225.00 so I decided to purchase the phone from that individual. I have met the seller in a local mall and after he showed me the telephone I asked him is why he selling it and his answer was “financial dificulties” well it sounded genuine . Before I made the purchase I have called Virgin mobile and told them exactly what I am doing and asked them about the phone. I provided IME number and asked them to check if the phone is not stolen, if it can be registered to my account ,and if it will be supported with no problem by your company? The answers I got were all positive. The person from your company asked me if I want to make the switch then , and I told them that I will have to get home and charge the phone and familiarize myself with this new handset. So later in the evening I went on your site and did a very easy phone swap with no problems. I started to enjoy the new phone. So it came to be a big surprise when Yesterday my phone sopped to work and the only place I could call was your company. I have spoken with 3 different individuals . None of them was able to help me:
Here are some coments:
1. You should not bought a phone from the street used (well check E-BAY, Craigs List and many other sites and people buy and sell used phones all the time) the main reason to save money.
2. When I asked them why my account was frozen I was told because of the phone belong to someone elses account (so just because due to incompetency of your personel I should be penalized? I asked them about the handset and they said it is ok . But if they were competent enough on their job and having the ime number they could have checked and know that this was a replacement phone send to some dishonest customer that sold it to me.
I asked what were my options ? the answer was such:
1. Purchase the phone and they will lift the suspension of the account (*when I asked how much the ansver was $299.00 (keep in mind I already paid $225.00 for it . the ansver was that we can do nothing about since this is an” replacement phone”
2. They suggested that I should return the phone and once they get it , they will lift the suspension of my account and I will be able to register back my previous LG handset that I still own.
3. When I said that why don’t they do it right away and I would send the phone back the next day they said no. that is not how it is going to be done? They need the phone first.
4. Then I decided to switch away from you to another carrier using another used phone that I purchased on E-bay. No problem the only thing I was not able to port over my number that I had for the last 10+ years. Do you think this is fair?
5. All of my suggestions were kind of ignored and I felt that your company does not value a customer as much as I imagine they would.
So here is what I did today ? I have switched to another carrier, I will not send the phone back to you since You had the opportunity to tell me that this was a wrong phone for me to purchase (but since due to incompetent employees in that department I have lost the $225.00 and I was asked to pay another 299.99 for a phone that Best Buy is selling for 249.00. No one realy cared what I had to say and they all said that they understand, but they can do nothing…etc.
I would like you to see if you can correct the wrong that was done to me by your company .
I am willing to pay no more than a $100.00 to put the phone back in service the way it was before, since I am in this predicament due to the incompetency of your personel. I already lost $225.00 plus the new activation with another monthly carrier $45.00 plus a bunch of accessories that I have purchased for my MOTOROLA TRIUMPH (new batteries , a car charger, a phone holster. A screan protector etc.
And now calculate how much will you loose if I start talking bad about your company and your customer service . Because even if you loose one customer it is much more that you want to get dishonestly from me.
I’m on my 3rd Samsung intercept and they want to send me a fourth. I use this phone for both personal and business. Because of the calls not coming in, voice-mails not received, lost/missing texts, inability to make or receive calls, days talking to Virgin-mobile; I have lost sales and business, not to mention the cost of my time dealing with this awful company. The reps are ill-mannered, incompetent, unable to listen, have no authority, are drones and ineffective. I have been disconnected 3 times when requesting a manager. I refuse to take a 4th phone of the same type. I’ve paid phone insurance since 2010 about $120, then had to pay a $65 deductible for 1st replacement (by the way the Intercept was $200 when I bought it; it now cost $99..you do the math). I requested another phone where I could use the $65 towards an upgrade…since their phone WON’T work. The upgrade cost $200…so if the $65 was used I would still be giving them $135 more. However, that was not an option. Of course, I will take my business elsewhere. Found Straight-talk $45 unlimited everything plan LG Optimus Q $180. DON’T get sucked into the propaganda that Virgin-mobile is the only one.