Does anybody have any experience with Virgin Mobile Canada they would like to share (for better or worse)?
My contract with Telus is coming up in April and I fully intend to switch. Right now, for my calling patterns it looks like Virgin’s Pay As You Go (with a $100 prepaid account) seems to be the best for me.
My wife’s on Virgin as well, so that means we can text each other for 0.05 (instead of 0.15).
I’m aware they round up by the minute, but I think I’m fie with that. I’m not a heavy user anyway (maybe 60 minutes a month) plus with all the extras I get with Virgin it balances out (free voicemail, free caller ID, no 911 charge and no “system access fee”, better customer service website, and better service overall I’m told).
I refuse to use Bell directly (I know VMC leases Bell’s equipment for re-sale so there is a connection there), but I won’t use them directly because of some issues I’ve had with their business practices in the past. I rule out Solo because they are a direct Bell re-brand.
I won’t stay with Telus because they’ve reverted to Bell-like practices and haven’t done enough for me until my contract came close to expiring (specifically when they refused to help me in any way with a discount or incentive of any kind on a new handset when mine got destroyed -despite me being a longtime customer without so much as one missed payment. Not even a discount of any kind!)
I’ve heard Rogers was good years ago but has grown more rapidly than their infrastructure (both hardware and personnel) can manage effectively. Also, you won’t get a great rate unless you can bundle everything, which is not an option for me right now -I’m happy with my TV & home phone services.
I won’t use any really small provider like the Petro Canada re-seller, or anything like that (doesn’t 7-11 have a resell too?). There were no good light-user plans available from Fido either. Mike is now Telus so they’re out.
So, the last bit of my research is to try and talk to some impartial users who have or currently use Virgin Mobile Canada. Anybody able to help me out? How’s the service? Reliable? How’s customer service? From what I’ve been exposed to (setting up my wife’s phone) they seem very good. They seem ‘to the point’… I like that. I know they’re geared to teens & 20-somethings, but I kind of like the relaxed approach.
I’m not impressed with their selection of handsets though. They have 6 to choose from, with a very low end model, a very high-end model and a few intermediates. I think I’ve chosen one though from the available options so it’s not like I’m taking one I don’t like… just that more choice would be helpful.