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Coming off Virgin
White Monk
11-08-2011
Both my wife and me have Pay Monthly contacts with Virgin Mobile, and I had another PAYG one as backup. Taking services from Virgin Media means that we are reasonably happy with our Pay Monthly arrangements.

We have family abroad and the recent hike in SMS charges from 20p to 30p tipped the balance for me to swap my Virgin PAYG to Lebara, who only charge 10p for SMS worldwide.

To do this, I needed to get a PAC to keep my number and arrange for an unlock code for my Nokia 6300, which I got from Virgin.

On 19th July, I rang 789 and had no trouble obtaining the PAC and the agent dictated it to me over the phone there and then. She said that Virgin Mobile would confirm the number by post. I gave the code to Lebara and the swap was done on the 20th July.

Also on 20th July, I rang 789 to get the unlock code, to be told that the handset was not obtained from Virgin and thus could not be given the code. I checked through my files and found the invoice and rang 789 again to be told the same thing, but this time I persisted and got through to an agent who managed to find the transaction on their system. He informed me that the unlock charge would be £15.32, which seemed reasonable to me. I gave him my email address and asked them to send the unlock code by email if possible. He said that that was unlikely and that it would come by post in due course. I checked my credit card online and found that they took the £15.32 the same day.

I've gone through this routine twice before with Tesco and T-Mobile and had no problems getting the codes within a week by post. As nothing had appeared in the post by 31st July I decided to follow up with a webmail. In the past Virgin have normally responded to my webmails by the end of the next working day, i.e.within 48 hrs.

They took my money over three weeks ago and I've heard nothing either by email, post or phone. Just wondering if this behaviour is now par for the course with Virgin?

How long should I wait to escalate this further and to whom?
Haruhion
11-08-2011
I thought they are required by law to supply your PAC within a few days? Someone with more knowledge and clarity on this will come along I'm sure.

Were you told what the £15.32 charge was for? I would guess it is because you were on a pay monthly contract as I didn't think Virgin would charge for a PAC. I'm glad I've steered clear of them!
Roush
11-08-2011
Originally Posted by Haruhion:
“I thought they are required by law to supply your PAC? Someone with more knowledge and clarity on this will come along I'm sure.

Were you told what the £15.32 charge was for? I would guess it is because you were on a pay monthly contract as I didn't think Virgin would charge for a PAC. I'm glad I've steered clear of them!”

Read the post again... the PAC has been supplied. It's the phone's SIM-lock code that is outstanding.

Originally Posted by White Monk:
“How long should I wait to escalate this further and to whom?”

Call Virgin tomorrow and escalate to a senior representative.
Haruhion
11-08-2011
Originally Posted by Roush:
“Read the post again... the PAC has been supplied. It's the phone's SIM-lock code that is outstanding.”

Don't get rude with me. I overlooked it because I didn't find it very clear.
Roush
11-08-2011
Originally Posted by Haruhion:
“Don't get rude with me. I overlooked it because I didn't find it very clear.”

Firstly, I wasn't being rude, just pointing out you'd either misread or misunderstood the post.

Secondly, I don't see how this is unclear:

Originally Posted by White Monk:
“On 19th July, I rang 789 and had no trouble obtaining the PAC and the agent dictated it to me over the phone there and then. She said that Virgin Mobile would confirm the number by post. I gave the code to Lebara and the swap was done on the 20th July.”

Haruhion
11-08-2011
Originally Posted by Roush:
“Firstly I wasn't being rude, just pointing out you'd either misread or misunderstood the post.”

Firstly, telling me to re-read the post as if I'm some sort of invalid who needs to be lead to water to drink, is frankly quite insulting. Simply point out the error, and proceed.

Quote:
“Secondly, I don't see how this is unclear:”

Secondly, it doesn't matter if you see it as clear or unclear. You didn't ask me how I found it unclear. For all you know, Polish could be my native language, or I could generally have poor reading skills. It isn't for you to decide or assume. I'm telling you I found it unclear.
call100
11-08-2011
Escalate the problem ASAP....Demand a refund and get your phone unlocked at the local market for probably less....
If you continue to get problems and you have other Virgin services phone retentions and tell them you are thinking of leaving Virgin completely over the incident. They will probably help more than the ordinary CSR
White Monk
12-08-2011
Originally Posted by Roush:
“
Call Virgin tomorrow and escalate to a senior representative.”

Originally Posted by call100:
“
Escalate the problem ASAP....Demand a refund and get your phone unlocked at the local market for probably less....
If you continue to get problems and you have other Virgin services phone retentions and tell them you are thinking of leaving Virgin completely over the incident. They will probably help more than the ordinary CSR”

Thanks for your support. Have got a busy morning, but will move this on this after lunch
mrvgarg
12-08-2011
Originally Posted by Haruhion:
“Firstly, telling me to re-read the post as if I'm some sort of invalid who needs to be lead to water to drink, is frankly quite insulting. Simply point out the error, and proceed.

Secondly, it doesn't matter if you see it as clear or unclear. You didn't ask me how I found it unclear. For all you know, Polish could be my native language, or I could generally have poor reading skills. It isn't for you to decide or assume. I'm telling you I found it unclear.”


* Troll Alert *
White Monk
05-09-2011
Due to other issues at home, this has been on the back burner for a while.

I wrote to Virgin on 16th August on this matter after sending emails and phoning 789 prior to that.

No response to the emails.

No response to the letter.

Decided to ring 789 this afternoon and spoke to a very apologetic adviser.

Latest news is that there was an error in the first application for an unlock code to Nokia.

The application was re-submittedby Virgin to Nokia on 18th August.

Virgin insists that these codes can take up to 30 days to process. So I may have to wait until 18th September.

Without being rude to the adviser, I let her know I was a pretty unhappy bunny because of the lack of any communication from Virgin, by phone, email or post.
call100
05-09-2011
If you had gone down the market you would have had it done by now......Sorry..
White Monk
05-09-2011
Originally Posted by call100:
“If you had gone down the market you would have had it done by now......Sorry..”

That's what my daughter did when she moved from O2 to Orange - cost her 20 quid
call100
05-09-2011
£10 to get my O2 Galaxy S2 unlocked...
carnivalist
07-09-2011
The thread title made me laugh for some reason.

(I'll get me coat).
Glomper
07-09-2011
I've always got unlock codes within 3 days, and PAC codes within 2 from Virgin.
White Monk
07-09-2011
Originally Posted by carnivalist:
“The thread title made me laugh for some reason.

(I'll get me coat).”

I'm glad I've brought some happiness into someone's life
White Monk
07-09-2011
Originally Posted by Glomper:
“I've always got unlock codes within 3 days, and PAC codes within 2 from Virgin.”

Virgin insists the problem lies with Nokia.

What handset did you have?
Glomper
07-09-2011
Originally Posted by White Monk:
“Virgin insists the problem lies with Nokia.

What handset did you have?”

Lots of different ones over the years.

And never paid a penny for the service(s).
White Monk
07-09-2011
Originally Posted by Glomper:
“
And never paid a penny for the service(s).”

Hmmm

They sent me a letter at first stating the charge would be £15.

When I spoke to the adviser on 789 in July, he said the charge would be £15.32, irrespective of the type of handset or whether I was a heavy user or not. The guy had a UK accent and seemed embarrassed to impose the charge

We still have two pay monthly accounts with them, and the bills never exceed £20 for either of them. They are both still under contract, so I would be the loser if I had threatened to leave them.

It would be tempting to leave Virgin when they came to the end of their contracts though
White Monk
19-09-2011
Originally Posted by call100:
“Escalate the problem ASAP....Demand a refund and get your phone unlocked at the local market for probably less....
If you continue to get problems and you have other Virgin services phone retentions and tell them you are thinking of leaving Virgin completely over the incident. They will probably help more than the ordinary CSR”

I gave 789 a call on 5th September and was informed that Virgin had re-submitted the unlock request back to Nokia on 18th August and please would I wait up to a further month for the unlock code.

So I did.........nowt arrived, cos none was sent.

So today I called back and requested my £15.32 back, and was politely told it would take at least a further ten days to get the money back to either my bank account or credit card account, "because of the backlog". I asked how long to get it back to my phone account, I was told before the end of the day.

Advisor was most apologetic and fully understood my feelings to transfer my mobile business to T-mobile, dump VM for Sky and get my landline from BT...........

Anyone out there recommend someone to unlock my Nokia 6300 in North East London (anywhere between Dagenham and Finchley), please
call100
19-09-2011
just nip down to the local market....Always a mobile store with unlock facilities there...
White Monk
03-11-2011
Originally Posted by call100:
“just nip down to the local market....Always a mobile store with unlock facilities there...”

..... but an envelope turned up this morning from Virgin Mobile with my unlock code in it Not bad service really - just over three months

I would say that my patience had been rewarded, but I'd not bothered to get the phone unlocked, as I had already bought a replacement SIM-free Samsung for my new provider's SIM. So, I've got an unlocked Nokia now
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