Saturday, December 6, 2008

Virgin Mobile – Outrageous, Annoying, Worse Service!

It started in early November when dear hubby decided to get a new mobile phone to replace his old Kyocera. I got a little jealous(LOL) he got a new phone so I decided to get myself a new one a week later. So I went online and ordered myself a new flip phone they had on sales and with free shipping. It arrived three days later. Great!

I opened the box, checked everything, put the battery on and I noticed right away that the phone is damaged. Five numbers on the keypad have no backlight. I had a similar phone(different brand) before and it had the same problem but not after had it abuse for many years though. At first, I wasn’t worried that much because they have (sounds like)an easy returns policy. But I was dead wrong, trying to get a refund or replacement for a defect phone you bought from them was a nightmare.

I wrote them an email about the problem on the very same day I got the phone and was asked to call their service center. Called the service center but gave up after several try. Darn! What a silly service center, it’s okay to talk to a machine but they do not even have the ‘number’ to choose from for return. So confusing! I thought had not caught it but dear hubby complaint the same thing too.

Eventually we got a live person on the phone, told her about the problem, did the troubleshot but still not get it fixed and she says we can return it but have to pay for the shipping. We paid for the defect phone and have to pay even more to return it! Can you believe it?

Unhappy with the answer, I called them again the next day and was told the same thing. So we packed the phone and went to the post office but decided to hold it as it cost us almost $5 to mail it back. We thought it's not worth to pay for the shipping and decided to call them again.

So there I was back on the phone again. After some calls, one lady finally did the right thing. YES! I should get a replacement phone and return the defect phone for free. We did the troubleshot again and activated my phone as she required. (I did not even have it activated). Okay to make the long story short, I activated the phone online but still need to call them twice because their system was down. Then called them again to make a replacement order but the phone was out of stock. Call them again the next day but still out of stock.

Did I told you that I have to explain the same thing repeatedly to two or three person each time I called? Yes, how annoying was that. I was so relief when the lady told me that she will make a little note on my account that we did the troubleshot and all I need is to make a replacement order. But guess what? They still asked me to explain things when I called the next day. Darn! By this time I told them NO, not again, please. I have been calling them for two weeks and was sick and tired of explaining the same thing again and again. Why do I need to explain to them again when they already know what they need to do? And I asked her to please just go ahead and put the replacement order whenever the phone available. But nope, they still need me to call to be able to make the order as if I enjoys calling, listening to their ads and later tell them exactly the same thing I have told them for week.

Two days later I call them again, luckily I only had to explain (again) once and later was told that an order was made for me the day before. Aaah? Okay, whatever. It was last weekend. They supposed to mail it on Monday. It was 6 days ago. I should get it in three days but it still not shows up. Look like I have to call them AGAIN! I paid for a new phone and I will fight for it even though it is just one piece of crap.

We have been using Virgin Mobile for about four years but now are looking for another provider. They maybe forgot that we bought their phone and paid for their service. Guess what? They are going to lose two customers very soon. Billy can have the two new phones to explore and play with. I have wasted so much of my valuable time calling and explaining things to them because of that cheapy phone. I had enough.

4 comments:

Dora A-Erb said...

Hi Hilda... sorry about your ordeal with "Virgin Mobile". My husband used those about 2 years ago and indeed it was a lousy "carrier". Now, we are using Verizon Wireless... we love it. We just renew or rather upgraded our 2 yr plan. It's a great plan... free unlimited calls to Verizon to Verizon. Free unlimited calls all over the country after 9pm and on weekends... now how cool is that?? Got me a new "touch screen" LG Dare abt 3 weeks ago... it's really cool, love it. I might share it with you guys one of these days... :) Bah, good luck hunting with your new cellphone...

Anonymous said...

wah.. if they deal with their customers..soon they ended up losing more customers...

KristyCK said...

Hi Dora,
Yabah....Virgin Mobile is really a lousy carrier. We are going to change our service when we get back from our big trip. Hmmm...we might go for Verizon too, we will see. Thanks Dora!

KristyCK said...

Hi Shirl,
I didn't surprise they are losing customer. Memang sakit hati betul. :-)