Virgin Mobile was a great service provider back in 2001 when I joined, I was with them for 6 years and I wish I had chucked them earlier.
Here are some of the reasons why: -
[LIST=1][*]They axed all of their free information services[*]They system of topping up by debit card was always on the blink [*]Never any good signal[*]Costs were always going up, never down[/LIST]
Calling cross network was 35p per minute, which never came down! considering Virgin was the smallest out of the UK main 5 networks, it would have been better for them to have made it cheaper as chances are if you call a mobile, it won't be a Virgin one!
Calling within the same network is usually a lot cheaper so people like to chose networks where the people they call are on as well. If Virgimn want to attact customers, the cross-networking fees should have been a lot lower.
I e-mailed them about this and they said that they incur charges which have to be passed on. The cross network costs also applies when calling a T-Mobile phone even though they are physically the same network (T-Mobile powers Virgin). They said that even though they are the same network, T-Mobile still pass fees onto them! Personally I think its a scam to get more money.
Many times I tried to top up using my debit card, I would often hear a message saying that they were having some technical problems and can't top up just yet, which left me with quite a few problems.
One time I called them about this and I spoke to a manager who asked me what type of a call I needed to make, so I explained that it was a quick call to a friend on another network, so he said he would GIVE me £1.50 as I was a good customer (he could see I had spent a bit from my records) so that I could make the call and it I would not have to give it back or anything. That was nice. So I made the call, no problem. I used about 75p of the free credit. When I was eventually able to top up, the other 75p had disappeared! So much for £1.50 free credit!
Another time I got caught by one of those subscription services which kept taking £1.50 every now and then and Virgin would NOT allow me to unsubscribe unless I could send in some proof that I was over 18. I had to call what was then known as ICSTIS to get them to stop it.
I was getting very poor signal, so I e-mailed them and all they could say was that they did not have any plans to improve the signal in my area. They claim to cover 99% of the UK population and I am in Birmingham. There's just no excuse plausable!
I was told that the Viurgin Xtras service menu on my phone would automatically get updated as ir had some defunct features on it, it nbever happened. Release Radio and Jukebox were long discontinued and you were still charged for calling them.
They had a system caled Glue where if you introduce someone to the network you get £10. I must have introduced at least 3 people and got nothing!
They had a system where if you spend over £30 in one month, you get 10% free the next month. They stopped this and did not inform me. They changed it so instead of free airtime, you get money off a new handset. They told me that this was mentioned in their information which they send out to customers. I never received any of their newsletters even though I was with them for so long.
My wife occasionally got them and they spelt her name wrong. Whenever I did see their literature, it would say about calls prices going up and never coming down and using patronising language like if you are not happy, you are always free to terminate your services. This roughly translated means "If you don't like it, get stuffed! Ha ha!"
When I bought my first handset, I was told that I was buying the set outright, meaning I could put another SIM in and use it. At the time it was only Orange which would loick the phone into the network, When I bought my second 'phone, foolishly from Virgin, it was locked and they never said anything about it. There was one occaion I needed to use an Orange SIM in it and of course it would not work.
Shortly after I had my second 'phone i bought three games from Virgin for it at £4.99 each. my phone developed a fault and I lost them all. I e-mailed and they said they were concerned but could not do anything becasue I bought it from a shop and not directly from them. However on this occasion they would give me £10. In a way that was nice of them, but I was £4.98 down.
They always went on about how their pay as you go is cheaper than contract. then they started doing contract. Eventually I thought I would give this a go. When I eventually wanted a contract 'phone they turned me down. So I went to another network for one.
They really do not care about their customers and their service is just getting expensive and worthless. It makes me sick! I think it's got worse when Richard Branson sold the company to shareholders. when it was owned fully by him it was nowhere near as bad. But what are the chances of him owning it all again? Zilch!
Thank God I've gone from there!
Here are some of the reasons why: -
[LIST=1][*]They axed all of their free information services[*]They system of topping up by debit card was always on the blink [*]Never any good signal[*]Costs were always going up, never down[/LIST]
Calling cross network was 35p per minute, which never came down! considering Virgin was the smallest out of the UK main 5 networks, it would have been better for them to have made it cheaper as chances are if you call a mobile, it won't be a Virgin one!
Calling within the same network is usually a lot cheaper so people like to chose networks where the people they call are on as well. If Virgimn want to attact customers, the cross-networking fees should have been a lot lower.
I e-mailed them about this and they said that they incur charges which have to be passed on. The cross network costs also applies when calling a T-Mobile phone even though they are physically the same network (T-Mobile powers Virgin). They said that even though they are the same network, T-Mobile still pass fees onto them! Personally I think its a scam to get more money.
Many times I tried to top up using my debit card, I would often hear a message saying that they were having some technical problems and can't top up just yet, which left me with quite a few problems.
One time I called them about this and I spoke to a manager who asked me what type of a call I needed to make, so I explained that it was a quick call to a friend on another network, so he said he would GIVE me £1.50 as I was a good customer (he could see I had spent a bit from my records) so that I could make the call and it I would not have to give it back or anything. That was nice. So I made the call, no problem. I used about 75p of the free credit. When I was eventually able to top up, the other 75p had disappeared! So much for £1.50 free credit!
Another time I got caught by one of those subscription services which kept taking £1.50 every now and then and Virgin would NOT allow me to unsubscribe unless I could send in some proof that I was over 18. I had to call what was then known as ICSTIS to get them to stop it.
I was getting very poor signal, so I e-mailed them and all they could say was that they did not have any plans to improve the signal in my area. They claim to cover 99% of the UK population and I am in Birmingham. There's just no excuse plausable!
I was told that the Viurgin Xtras service menu on my phone would automatically get updated as ir had some defunct features on it, it nbever happened. Release Radio and Jukebox were long discontinued and you were still charged for calling them.
They had a system caled Glue where if you introduce someone to the network you get £10. I must have introduced at least 3 people and got nothing!
They had a system where if you spend over £30 in one month, you get 10% free the next month. They stopped this and did not inform me. They changed it so instead of free airtime, you get money off a new handset. They told me that this was mentioned in their information which they send out to customers. I never received any of their newsletters even though I was with them for so long.
My wife occasionally got them and they spelt her name wrong. Whenever I did see their literature, it would say about calls prices going up and never coming down and using patronising language like if you are not happy, you are always free to terminate your services. This roughly translated means "If you don't like it, get stuffed! Ha ha!"
When I bought my first handset, I was told that I was buying the set outright, meaning I could put another SIM in and use it. At the time it was only Orange which would loick the phone into the network, When I bought my second 'phone, foolishly from Virgin, it was locked and they never said anything about it. There was one occaion I needed to use an Orange SIM in it and of course it would not work.
Shortly after I had my second 'phone i bought three games from Virgin for it at £4.99 each. my phone developed a fault and I lost them all. I e-mailed and they said they were concerned but could not do anything becasue I bought it from a shop and not directly from them. However on this occasion they would give me £10. In a way that was nice of them, but I was £4.98 down.
They always went on about how their pay as you go is cheaper than contract. then they started doing contract. Eventually I thought I would give this a go. When I eventually wanted a contract 'phone they turned me down. So I went to another network for one.
They really do not care about their customers and their service is just getting expensive and worthless. It makes me sick! I think it's got worse when Richard Branson sold the company to shareholders. when it was owned fully by him it was nowhere near as bad. But what are the chances of him owning it all again? Zilch!
Thank God I've gone from there!
