I pit Virgin Mobile

The BBQ Pit
1

Several months ago, I decided I’d get a cell phone to have for emergancy and convenience purposes. Since I knew I wouldn’t be using it that much, I decided I’d get a pre-pay phone, which doesn’t require monthly bills and pretty much perfect for what I’d need. Virgin Mobile looked like the best deal to me, so I went ahead and purchased. Well, after having that phone for a few months, the antenna breaks off, and it doesn’t look like I’d be able to repair it. It’s okay, though, because I’d been thinking of buying a new phone for awhile anyway. No love lost. I go ahead and buy a nicer one, hoping that it would keep up sturdier. I get home and activate it online, and it says it should be working in about two hours (this is at 8:00PM). By the next morning, it still isn’t activated, so I call them back. They have me run through the steps to configure my phone that they had me do when I activated the phone (which I’ve already done 10 times by now, trying to get it to work). They tell me to go ahead and wait the full 24 hours it can take to activate the phone, and if it’s still not working to give them a call back. Well, 9:00PM that night rolls around, and I give them another call. Again, they have me do the same steps that I’ve done before, thinking maybe magically it will fix it. Guess what? It doesn’t. Still, I keep my cool. I’ve only had the phone a day, sometimes there’s kinks in the system. The girl tells me that they will open an investigation on my phone and within 48 hours they’ll call me. 48 hours comes and goes. I decide I’ll give them a little bit extra just in case. I don’t want to be a nuisance after all. So on the morning of the fourth day (yesterday), I give them another call. This time, I’m automatically patched through to a live person rather than having to go through all the menu options. Oh, good, I think. Maybe I’m finally being patched through to someone who knows what’s going on. Guess what? this time they don’t even ask me to enter in the configuration settings again! Instead, they tell me that my case was picked up by a tech support agent the day before, and the issue should be resolved by that evening. If not, give them a call first thing in the morning (this). Well, the evening comes and goes, and I’m still not able to make phone calls. I’m a little bit frustrated, but I figure I’ll be able to call and they can at least tell me what’s going on. I figured wrong, though. This time, I have to go through all the menu options again, finally speaking to a live person. I give them a run down, and guess what I get to do again? Configure my phone! I try to put a little resistance, saying I’ve already done this every time I’ve called before, yet the issue has been resolved. Still, I’m polite, no sense in taking my frustration out on him. Well, he tells me, the investigation is still being worked on, and guess what? It should be working by tonight! If it’s not, call back in 24 hours! Somehow, this doesn’t restore my faith, as it’s the same thing I’ve been told several times before.

So, here I am pitting Virgin Mobile’s customer service division, and whoever decided to structure it the way it is. Yes, I’m glad I’m not speaking to “Sandy” in India, whose accent I can’t pick through enough to understand, but there’s still a fundemental problem in that the people I’m talking to seem to be two trick ponies. First, let’s check your phone configurations and make sure they haven’t changed since last time you called and it didn’t work, and second…just call us back in 24 hours if it’s not working, and you’ll get to do the same thing. Seriously, would it hurt to transfer me to someone who knows what they’re doing, or at least what exactly is going on? I still plan on being nice and polite when I call back tommorow, but I really wish I had a better picture of what was wrong, and a good time-frame of how long it take to fix it. I’ve had this phone for almost a week, and I’ve not been able to make one phone call with it.

Stay tuned for an update tommorow morning when I call back…or maybe earlier this evening if the issue is resolved! (Hah!)

Wait…this is the pit, isn’t it? Hm…Hell! Damn! Fart!

2

I don’t know much about these pay-as-you-go plans/phones, but couldn’t you return the phone for a new one where you bought it?

3

I’ve had service through Virgin Mobile for a couple of years now, and the few times I’ve had to call customer support they were helpful and attentive.

Sour luck for you - sorry.

4

I was going to post the same thing- that’s definately not the norm for their customer service. Sorry you’re having a bad time of it. I’ve had my Virgin Mobile for about 3 years now and love it.

5

Call and demand a refund for the days when the phone wasn’t missing, for one, and start asking what sort of compensation they’re going to provide for the inconvenience. Escalating the call to management would be helpful. If they fob you off with excuses, explain that you’ve been told several times to wait, and nobody has contacted you back; ask for that person’s name, and, if possible, a direct number and say that you will call THEM if you don’t hear from someone and the problem isn’t fixed. If they can’t do it, ask to talk to someone who can. You’ve been more than reasonable in terms of waiting for bogus deadlines to pass.

Qwest once had DSL/phone service that didn’t work consistently for 3 weeks! It turned out that the neighbor kept cutting the phone line and only the 3rd tech finally reported it. I got a credit for the whole time.

6

I recently got a Virgin Mobile phone. (I was getting soaked by Cingular, since I only use a few minutes a month at most. I cancelled Cingular the day my contract was up!) Setting up the phone with Virgin was easy and customer service was very attentive. I even ported my old Cingular phone # over, and that was quite seamless, and fast (they said it typically took 3 days to make the transition—it only took a few hours).

I am very sorry to hear of your troubles. I am wondering if it it’s a bum phone, and you should return it.

7

The thing about returning the phone right now is that 1) I’m not sure if the place where I bought it would accept returns on it, 2) I’m not even sure if it IS a problem with a phone, it could just be a network snafu taking awhile to straighten out, and 3) if it isn’t a problem with the phone, switching out for another one now may worsen the problem. And cancelling service right now doesn’t exactly seem like a good idea to me, as I’ve already got about $50 worth of pre-paid time on my account (I came across a good deal where I’d essentially get $10 worth of time for free)

I really hate to be the obnoxious customer that yells at everyone to get things done, but I’m afraid I may have to start getting sterner over the phone if they won’t tell me what’s going on.

8

From my understanding of Virgin Mobile, you can use your Virgin phone # on a new (Virgin Mobile) phone, and presumably your minutes too. I found that out when I was porting my Cingular phone # in—they assumed at first that I was porting an existing Virgin phone #. They made that sound like it was super-easy and a pretty routine procedure. Of course I’d ask about the keeping of the minutes before I did anything. But I cannot imagine that you’d lose them for switching phones.

I’d ask Virgin Mobile (yeah, I know, like they’ve been really helpful so far) if this could be a phone issue, and if exchanging the phone might solve the problem.

If you’ve had the phone for a short while and you have your receipt, you should be able to return it. It won’t hurt to ask, anyway.

9

Quick, can’t-get-laid boy, to the Virgin mobile!

10

I’ve had mine for a bit and I’ve never even had the need to call customer service. Lucky me!

11

xgxlx, try for another phone. I had an issue with my first one (it was a Kyocera), which was resolved by exchanging it. It was within 30 days of purchase–as a matter of fact it was within a week of purchase because the thing was just simply defective. New one works fine. All I needed for the return was the receipt. They would have liked the packaging back, but they settled for just a receipt.

fluiddruid, since it’s pay as you go, there’s no refund. xgxlx can’t use up minutes if the phone doesn’t work!

12

Dude…paragraph…please…

13

As others have said, it may just be an issue with the phone itself, and a new one will fix it.

On the other hand, if you do wish to pursue Customer Services, escalate it to at least supervisor level, if not management. I had a real problem with O2’s customer services a year or so ago - the only way I could get anything out of them (they owed me some serious money for not cancelling my contract, even though I’d given them more than 30 days notice) was to go about three or four levels up, at which point someone became very helpful indeed.

14

Hah sorry, I was writing under the influence of rage. On a lighter note, I do believe that was the longest post I’ve written on the SDMB.

Maybe I should get mad more often.

15

I can’t believe you quoted the whole thing just to say that.

Not that I don’t agree with you, but seriously. WTF?

16

If those customer service reps can give you the info that you want, they WILL! Asking for a “supervisor” is something that I reccomend when the first line of defense can’t seem to get the picture, but getting stern with the first person you talk with is likely to get you nowhere. Imagine someone cursing a blue streak at you as a result of some ignoramus you’ve never met, at first you want to remedy the situation, but as he tells you how incapable you are of helping him, your sense of responsibility wanes.

Be calm. It’s not easy, but it’s far more effective because it does not trigger people’s natural defense mechanisms. Ask for a supervisor, most of the time you will get a qualifying question, just persist and the person will be glad to get your issue off their hands (depending on which company you’re talking about).

I have a Virgin account myself, no probs here, but then again I ordered my phone online after doing some thorough research. No shipping fees! Return your apparent dud of a phone, if it’s feasable, go to a Sprint store or other Virgin dealer, buy a phone, and talk on it within a couple hours.

Good luck dude.

17

He’s clearly an English teacher, how dare you question his motives?

He is assimilating with today’s youth by using the term “dude”, and gives clear guidance for avoiding future occurrences of this error. He’s helping those of us that are annoyed by grammatically incorrect statements, by implying that the above mentioned statement was “whack”.

I feel his pain, and I heed his lesson. (Unless he’s a girl of course.)

18

UPDATE!
Called this morning, and it turns out that the lovely people working on my problem don’t work on the weekends, so guess what? If the issue isn’t resolved Monday…call back. I figured today isn’t the day to try to escelate, seeing as there’s no way to get information from the people that actually know what’s going on, as they’re not working.

19

I went through the same thing with Trachoma.

After the third call, I did research on my own and found that I had a CDMA phone but I needed a TDMA phone.

Even armed with this information, it was hell trying to convince the Indian customer service lady. They seem to be trained to just ignore what you say unless it’s a direct answer to one of their questions.

In the end, I convinced them it was my phone. I sent them back the phone (at my expense of course) and they sent me the right type of phone.

20

The only problem I’ve had with Virgin Mobile: They gave me a number from a very recent canceled account. (Previous cutomer hadn’t told her multitude of friends and family that she no longer had that number). And they refused to give me a new number.