Why I'm here!

[TrashedDT]

I'll admit I'm new here and don't fully understand every thing this community will be able to provide me, but so far I'm satisfied with what I've seen. As for an introduction I'll share with the community what brought me to this forum.

To start I'm a disgruntled Virgin Mobile customer, everything that follows is my own opinion.

I switched to VM from T-mobile a few months ago because I was looking for a cheaper cell phone solution and didn't want to start a new contract. I purchased a LG Rumor Touch 2 for myself and purchased a Kyocera Loft for the misses. From the very beginning I noticed that customer support at VM was very poor. The automated menu ran in circles, and when I finally got a "Live Advisor", they had poor English skills and false confidence (I'll explain below). Later as I used the phone I noticed it had terrible restrictions on the phone functionality. Honestly I only had two problems with T-mobile, the price (at the time) and cell coverage in my area. In comparison T-mobile's customer support was like a Sparkling Sapphire and VM support was a lump of coal! Though VM had staff with poor English skills this wasn't the main problem.

Now I don't know if this was due to a language barrier, but the adviser would tell me, with confidence, one thing that I would find out later was wrong through another adviser! The first example I was trying to switch my wife's plan from the a Beyond Talk $25 - 300 minute plan to one with more minutes as she didn't use the internet much. After jumping through hoops with the automated menu, I spoke with an adviser and was told only the 3 different Beyond Talk plans were available! I accepted this and kept her on the same plan until one day I was calling about poor phone coverage for my phone. After our troubleshooting was complete she asked if there was anything else she could do. I jokingly asked if she could fix, my wife's phone plan, to which she responded "Yes!", in good English I might add. Shortly there after, she put my wife on a 1500 minute plan for $30!!

The second example is the one that put me over the top, and is now the reason I am leaving VM after only being a customer for 3 months! I desired to put my phone on the same plan as my wife's, the 1500 PayLo plan. I spoke with one rep and was told my phone didn't support that plan because it was a Beyond Talk Time Phone and could only be used with those plans. I didn't believe her though because my wife's phone was also a Beyond Talk phone and was currently on the PayLo Plan. I hung up, and spoke with another adviser. This adviser led me to believe that if I "Topped-Up", added funds to my balance, she could then switch my plans. I specifically asked if I did this would she be able to switch me over to the PayLo 1500 minute plan. She said confidently, "Yes!". I gave her my payment information and after the transaction was complete she said she was going to switch my plan. There was a period of silence, then she replied that she COULD NOT put me on the plan because I didn't have a PayLo phone!!! I was livid!!! I demanded that she transfer me to the department that allows me to cancel my account!! She quickly did, and I received a new adviser. I explained why I wanted to close my account and that she could prevent this by switching my plan. She said she was going to look into it, and placed me on hold. Sometime after being on hold for 3-5 minutes, I was disconnected. I called back a fourth time and the advisor gave me the same spill as the first advisor!

This was all yesterday to which I haven't called back yet! I'm currently looking for a new phone provider, and am leaning heavily towards Cricket! I'm hoping this forum helps me to unlock my LG Rumor so I may use it with them. I'm excited so far with the information I'm seen, even donated a little to help the site. I hope I will be able to contribute to future posts and thank the community for the opportunity to be here.

[rich hathaway]

your rumor 2 will have to be flashed to cricket to be able to be used,and i might ad that not all vm phones can be flashed.rumor 2 i am not sure.are you wanting to flash this yourself? or are you looking to have it done for you? if flashed it will be talk and text only. however there are a multitude of sprint and verizon or uscell and alltel phones that are easy to flash to cricket. with cricket most markets have a 35 dollar unlimited talk and text with long distance and caller id plan. 45 will get you 1 gig of data. hope this helps.

[captainkirks]

Cricket customer services is not much better. To get great pricing on services, most prepaid carrier go cheap on customer services.

[TrashedDT]

your rumor 2 will have to be flashed to cricket to be able to be used,and i might ad that not all vm phones can be flashed.rumor 2 i am not sure.are you wanting to flash this yourself? or are you looking to have it done for you? if flashed it will be talk and text only. however there are a multitude of sprint and verizon or uscell and alltel phones that are easy to flash to cricket. with cricket most markets have a 35 dollar unlimited talk and text with long distance and caller id plan. 45 will get you 1 gig of data. hope this helps.

Thank you for the information Rich! I noticed the $35 plan earlier today from the Cricket website, and plan to switch to it! Voice and text will be fine for me atm, I just don't want to have to buy a new phone to switch.

Cricket customer services is not much better. To get great pricing on services, most prepaid carrier go cheap on customer services.

Thanks for the heads up. My mother-in-law is on Cricket and knows a local store with great customer support, so I'm hoping they'll be able to help me out. I wasn't expecting great customer support from Virgin mobile, but never in my life have I been treated so poorly. I'm sure I'm coming off as a spoiled customer, but really I'm a fairly tolerable person.

[Dex]

Well if u have a cricket store with good cs skills I suggest goin there my store in Dayton is the best store with cs around the area so take full advantage

Sent from my Cricket EVO

[TrashedDT]

Well, I started up a Cricket plan! I retrieved my SPC for my Rumor Touch, but the rep convinced me that my unlocked rumor touch might not work in my area (long story), so I decided to just buy new phones. I got a TXTM8 3G and my wife has a MSGM8 II. Ran into a little hitch porting my old number over. I've had it for over 6 years, but apparently at one time it was a Cricket number so they put a hold on it for 24 hours. It's resolved now and everything is working great!