Virgin Mobile USA
Reviews and Complaints

Whatever you do, don't buy the Virgin Mobile MiFi 2200, for several reasons. Here is what happened to me.

I purchased the unit at Walmart and came home and immediately set it up. There is no confirmation visible that you've been set up successfully, therefore, I submitted my payment method three times. They accepted it twice which should have given me two months of service. NOT! They have failed to attribute one of the payments, so when it was time to renew, I got no message, they just cut the Internet Access. The MiFi shows it is connected to my computer and shows that it is receiving flow back and forth online but they cut off Internet Access. So I called and paid another $40 whereupon they were supposed to turn the MiFi back on. That was the 11th of October. So I called and they said yes, they'd received the payment but the MiFi icon indicates I still have no Internet Access. Then starts the horror of dealing with their socalled tech support. They have exactly two tricks up their sleeve to try to get your access back, one is to go online, which you can't do because your MiFi has no access. So then you type in the company website in the address bar, no luck. Then you type in a number address and that takes you to the setup wizard for the MiFi. You enter all your information all over again and it is supposed to get you back on. No, it doesn't. Then they tell you to stick a pin in the hole in the back of the MiFi to reset it. So you do that and you redo the setup wizard one more time. Neither works. Then they have you move the MiFi that has been working for a month all around the room and close to the window, still nothing works. So they decide to open an "investigation". They allow themselves 72 hours on this investigation to solve the problem or come up with some suggestions. I called back after the 72 hours because they made no effort to contact me. I went through all the procedures described above again to no avail. That tech support agent then decided he would, you guessed it I bet, "open an investigation." And don't get me started on the tech support. The first two people I called I couldn't understand at all. I've seen this complaint several times from other disgruntled customers. In the original effort to solve the problem, I spoke with three different agents that same day. Only the last one made any real effort to help me but all she knew to do with go through the setup wizard again online with the number address and to reset the MiFi and to put it close to the window again. If I put it any closer to the window than it already was, I would have to open the window and stick it outside. The third agent is the one who infortmed me they have 72 hours to resolve the issue and that I would have to pay for it while I had no service.
And let's get to the service from the MiFi. HORRIBLE. You cannot watch any video on Youtube as it buffers every two seconds, literally But I could do enough other stuff that I kept it and was planning to continue with it indefinitely.
There is no satisfactory contact information for their company or their tech support. I can't even get my overpayment funds back and I'm told they will not refund anything. There is no reason for anyone to get this device, which on its own is not ready for prime time except in very few places and rare instances. Get the broadband stick instead and from someone else who cares whether you are a satisfied customer or not. These people really couldn't give a rat's ### whether your unit works or not.
Then I Googled this morning, ON DIAL-UP, who owned VirginMobile as Branson had a great reputation. Sprint has bought them. That should explain a lot except that Sprint's stuff works. They have made the Virgini MiFi run so slowly you can't do a lot of things, in exchange for the $40 unlimited feature.
So I started posting my dissatisfaction with them on Friday and lo and behold, a Virgin Mobile customer representative picked up the complaint. She contacted me on Facebook and asked if she could help. That was 11 a.m. Friday and because I'm having to use dial-up until the cable company comes to install Internet service late next week, I couldn't get to my slow, slow, slow Internet connection until Friday night. Guess what, too late. They don't work on the weekends. So I am now six days without thee MiFi connection, at all, and I have the privilege of paying for the service I'm not getting. Stay as far away from these people as you can. Sprint doesn't care much about customer service but they've given no care at all to the customer in this sideline business of theirs.

I have been arguing with Virgin Mobile and Discover for months.

I started my Virgin Mobile, no contract agreement about four years ago. All of a sudden, in June 2010, instead of charging me 10 cents per minute for calls, Virgin Mobile charged me $1 per minute. I only use my cellphone when I am traveling on business, but it so happened that in this instance I used 120 minutes worth of calls to keep in contact with my home. That should be a charge of $12, but when I received the bill, $120 was automatically deducted from my Discover card.

My usual monthly phone bill is less than $8 a month. When I called Discover to get the charges removed from my bill, the person handling their complaints said that Discover had received thousands of complaints about this same thing. During a four or five day period Virgin Mobile's computers had gone haywire and overcharged everyone. The charges were credited to my account.

Today, I got my latest Discover bill and discovered that Virgin Mobile had denied the credit and debited my account again!

First problem, there is no way to talk to anyone at Virgin Mobile. When I called them the first time I talked to an overseas operator who said there was nothing she could do.

Second problem, if Discover receives a complaint like that about charges and if the company that originally made the charges denies them, there is really very little you can do.

So, I have contacted the NJ BBB, second time, to complain. I have sent registered letters to the president and CEOs of both Virgin Mobile and Discover and am now waiting to see what they do next.

Third problem, Virgin Mobile has been automatically debiting my account each month, supposed to be $5.95 for the monthly service and 10 cents per minute for calls. I have a credit in my account for $20, so I am going to leave the account active for another month and see if I get a response from anyone.

I went into my account online and cut off the auto debit program, I hope. I am now afraid to use the phone AT ALL, because Virgin Mobile might decide to go haywire again and charge me $1 per call. ABSURD!

In November, when I have used up another $7.00, supposedly, I will cut my Virgin account and throw away the phone!

I have been a loyal Virgin Mobile customer for four years--but I am sure fed up with them now. I have one of their most expensive phones, which will also now be totally useless.

Hubby was called by Thuso from VIRGIN MOBILE selling him a contract. Hubby was not happy with the phone that was offered he then inquired on the N97. Thuso initially said this phone was not available, however called back a day later and explained the we could get this phone on a R199 contract. After asking Thuso numerous times if he was sure that this was correct he explained that he was very sure and we agreed to sign up for the deal. He went through the whole application process, confirming details and bank details and at the end advised that the phone would be delivered in 5 working days. I decided to call this morning to enquire on delivery time and was told that this phone was not available on the explained contract. I asked the manager Brandon Pillay to invetigate and what I had said was correct however they do not want to give me the phone that was agreed on. Legally a verbal contract is as good as a written contract right? What are my legal rights regarding this issue? Is it my fault that the consultant was not trained properly? Or is this how VIRGIN MOBILE normally operates and thats why the contracts are done telephonically? Answers anyone?

I have a pre-paid service with them, for so-called 10cents a minute; I use the phone only once in a while and yet miraculously those minutes wind down and I'm automatically debited whenever my account has less than $5.00 in it.

About September 14th and 15th I called my fiance at work twice and wouldn't you know it, on thos two days they debited $10.8. Now, that is the amount of the usual debit, but the thing is that I was only on the phone for only 5 minutes on both days!

When I sent an e-mail asking about these automatic top-ups, I received the standard "You'll receive an answer in 24 hours". Well, two weeks later, after not having received a reply, I resent the message and then got an automated e-mail that " we will respond as soon as possible". Guess what? No reply to this day and it's Wednesday, October 6th, 2010!

I had reported to the above metioned cell phone company that i am not a lcient of theirs and that they should stop from deducting any money from my and my husbands acount. We submitted all documentation to them, following susequest invstiagtion it was conformed by their advisors Semello and Eugen that they would process teh refund of R 2743.00 on 04/10/2010. As we speak the money is has not been refunded, i have been on the phone with Virgin Mobile since 8:00 am this morning and nobody can give me a staright answer, each time i request to speak to a manger, im informed that Collin Dupree is in a meeting. It is clear that they think im going to just let them get away with stealing my money.

I was contacted by a Virgin Mobile Telemarketer on [protected]. She launched into her marketing pitch informing me that my number has been selected to receive a phone and R100 airtime. She made it sound that both the phone and airtime would be free. The telemarketer warned me that our call was being recorded, after which she asked me whether I would be at home or at the office next week. She asked for personal information. At this point I enquired exactly how this offer works She proceeded to tell me that I will have to pay R100 each month. I said that I was not interested in paying an additional R100 to my current cell contract. She then threatened me and said that our call is being recorded and that I apparently have just accepted the offer by telling her that the phone should be delivered to my office-this is incorrect, seeing that she only asked me where I would be the next week, she never alluded to the fact that this question is being asked in order to deliver the phone. I was quite shocked by their conduct Fortuitously I was alerted to this trickery by asking the correct questions, I am however concerned that other unsuspecting receivers of this type of call might be conned.

I had service several years with this company and i started having problems trying to make or receive calls from my cell phone which i have never had problems before. I called this company and finally talked to a person after many tries and it was hard to understand him, to make a long story short i have excess money in my account and trying to get these people to refund my money and to cancell my service and after several emails and many telephone calls it is a nitemare and you know im still sitting in the same place as i started out, any suggestions.

I phoned the Virgin mobile call centre because i wanted to get a new handset and change my contract - I have been a subscriber for the last 2 years and my current phone has been paid up. The agent confirmed that my phone is paid up - i asked if I could get a Blackberry and a new plan and she said that Virgin Mobile does not have Blackberry's, only Nokia, Samsung, HTC and Sony Ericcson - she did not have an explanation why they do not have other phones. I requested a Nokia E75, and she said that they do not have that either. I asked her about changing the contract to another plan and she told me that she would check for me, and get back to me about that. That was more than a month ago - I would like to know why I should continue with a provider that cannot give me a handset that I require, or let me know whether I can upgrade my contract or not. I cannot remember the exact date of the incident.

I have never had a Virgin Mobile Account, i had gone through the application via telephone and was considering taking up a contract with Virgin Mobile. Without receiving a contract or a cellphone or being informed of the order being processed my Account was debited for R1408.00. I have been trying for the last 3 months to get my money back. NO ONE ANSWERS THE CALL CENTRE. NO ONE RESPONDS TO EMAILS. NO ONE IS INTERESTED IN ANYTHING WHATSOEVER. I HAVE TRIED DAILY. I HAVE SENT 10 EMAILS A DAY. I STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED MY MONEY. IT IS NOW 3 MONTHS LATER !

I say its unethical for such a large company to be so ineffective. I want my money back !

I purchased your mifi card on sept. 8, 2010 and have had problems with it since I got it. It will not stay connected to the internet, and is slower than any dial-up connection I have ever used. This is the only internet connection I have at the moment, and I am very disappointed in the service. I expected better from virgin mobile, and from a 3g broadband mobile connection, I expected a little more speed. Is there something that can be done about the problem of being disconnected from the internet every few minutes. I have called costumer service several times a week and have been walked through the reset steps so many times I know them by heart. There is a cell tower directly across the street from me and I always have an excellent signal, so why does my connection keep dropping?I pay $40 for unlimited internet access, and find my internet access is very limited when I can get access
At all. My account number is [protected] msid [protected]
I truly hope this can be resolved soon.
Thank you
Vanessa demoe

I recently joined Virgin mobile for the simple reason that with the one contract i would recieve 1000 free sms's a month. I thought this would benefit me as i sms more than call. However this was not the case ever since i joined my sms's dnt deliver, sometimes i dnt recieve sms's or they come through 10 or 15 at a time, days later. The network is constantly down and gprs then is unavailable most of the time. That is not all, when i decided to port my number from cell c to virgin, i was told it would take 3 days, i took over a month to port my number. Then the day it was ported my sim was inactive for 24hours, the next day when i was told it would be fixed i found i could only recieve calls and sms's but not send any. I have been trying to reach a team leader or manager countless times on the phone through customer care but every time i get dissconected, they drop the call or re-route my call back to the customer care line and i have to then start the process all over again. I am very disappointed with the service, or lack there of from Virgin and if i could i would never have joined them in the first place.I will say that i will never recommend Virgin Mobile to anyone i know.

I am most unhappy with Virgin mobile, besides never having signal and my texted messages never beieng delivered ( Personally I believe this is because they cannot keep up with all, the 'unlimited sms's') My biggest problem is that I took one of my phones in for repairs (Nokia 5610 Xpress music) and one of the sales ladies told me that my phone has slight water damage, i asked her how this was possible and she continued to tell me, that it wasn't from being in water but more that when I type, I sweat so my sweat is absorbed into the keys of the cell phone, now keep in mind this phone at the time was only a few months old. I've had many phones over the years and they, never seemed to become water damaged from my 'Apparent, overly active sweat glands' Even though many people I know with the same phone have had various problems, with it Virgin Mobile swears that it is very 'reliable' and refuse to fix the phone unless I pay (the phone is still under warrenty) I've told Virgin Mobile 1year before my contract ends that I WILL NOT be keeping my cell phone contract with them, and will no longer refer anyone to them. Many people value my opinion on cellphones and service providers.

I have reported the very same issue on numerous occasions to Virgin Mobile and they still run the show like a circus. They sold a contract over the phone to my mother whom is a pensioner and widow, they have done so by calling her on her Vodacom contract cell number. There were numerous questionable ethnics in the whole transaction which Virgin Mobile to date cannot provide any evidence with.

They did however uplift their phone from my mother the 9th of July yet they keep on deducting from her bank account! How can they deduct monies for services not rendered?

Got a new Virgin Mobile phone and number and requested that my old cell phone number be ported to Virgin Mobile. Was told that it could take 24 hrs and I could be without service for up to 6 hours. After 8 hours without service I contacted Virgin Mobile. They were going to escalate it to engineering because everything on their side looked fine and this would take 24 to 72 hours. Waited 48 hours to see if any update, no update - escalated again, another 24 - 72 hours. When making calls I would receive a message the account could not be validated and callers received my voicemail. After a week of that I contacted them rather upset and someone tried to assist me in troubleshooting the issue herself. She ended up completely losing my number and my account and would not transfer me to a manager. Contacted a manager the next day and he saw what happened on my account and was able to get the number back - I assume because I got an auto email stating welcome to Virgin mobile here's your new phone number which was my ported number. Tried the phone still didn't work, and now callers are getting the message the number is not in service. I called them again and it got escalated again, and then again and then again. Today (13 days later) I was told by a manager that it was never escalated and that I have been lied to for the last 2 weeks. I am still without a cell phone and am ready to change companies, but can't beleive that they lie, don't follow up and don't have any consciensous.

I called vm on 49 to confirm buyout - contract expires 2010 but phone faulty - wanted upgrade - on79 called to confirm bank account details and was ensure that if I paid up the handset and air time used fully would be able to upgrade once payment received - transferred nedbank to nedbank with the full amount at 10h34 on 79 - and here we are on the 239 with more than 8 faxes; emails; paper trail of names and promises and absolutely nothing - I call every single day - I have spent at times 90 minutes waiting and holding and being transferred to numerous people - I have been promised to get calls back - I have been promised that this person would do this personally and ensure my query was sorted - I have been assured that notes have been put onto my every call - yet when I call - there is nothing - no-one can pick up an amount which was transferred with the correct reference and contact names & numbers - the best is - you are not allowed to speak to someone in authority - nor will the general manager take your calls - you can only speak to a call centre consultant and I need to reserve my words iro the service - mr. Nathan williams - gm - I need answers please!

I have complained about them on this website before. They then did contact me but they activated the wrong cell number on my account! It took about 1 hour 30 minutes on the phone to sort this out. I also subscripted for itemised billing. After numerous calls I eventually received my itemized billing for July. I've been on the phone at least 9 times to get the itemized billing for August but it does not exist. This means that I can not claim the money back from work! They also invoiced me for R731.00 - when I have a Prepaid R500 account which means they load R500 worth of airtime on your phone in the beginning of each month therefore it is impossible for me to use more that R500 without buying airtime from a shop! I was never informed that their would be a migration fee or a signing up fee therefore I will fight this !

The call center attendents has put the phone down on me so many times it is not even funny anymore. It is just shocking. No one knows what is cooking and you can never ever speak to a supervisor! The one lady promised to phone me back that was about 3 weeks ago and I am still waiting.

Virgin again! I am so sick and tired of fighting with Virgin mobile, you are garenteed not to get anyware with them. I had a cellphone account about three years ago with Virgin Mobile, The account was closed and paid up on the 30 of jan 2008 Amount R1592.03. We called the callcenter to get the settlement amount which was given to us and we paid the account. After a month Virgin contacted me for payment? Quite confused, As the account was supposed to be closed as we paid the account finished. This was resolved, and Virgin agreed to pay what ever was outstanding as the callcenter person gave us the wront amount to be paid to settle the account. I have now tried to open a account with teljoy, Thay tell me Virgin has listed me on ITC as I have not paid my cell account to my suprise! This account was paid two years ago 30.1.08 amount R1592.03 by Wheeler Bell properties Ref Number [protected] into Account [protected] BC 145405 Virgin money. According to Jeffery Errayh there was a software glitch with migrating cell numbers and the account was reactivated, Now I am sitting with the problem!

Since 9/3/10, Virgin Mobile has had ongoing issues with text capabilities as well as service issues and has YET to explain what's going on. I called 12 times yesterday, with 10 of those calls ending with loss of contact when they're live advisor line dropped my call. Both times I actually made it through to a real, live human being, I was given a prescripted explanation that answered NONE of the questions I was asking, and was very difficult to understand as the advisor barely spoke English. Not only have they not offered an answer as to what is going on or when it will be fixed but their help line is UNHELPFUL!

It took me 7 phone calls & more than a month for Virgin mobile just to come and collect my faulty phone that was only 3 months old. It took them over two weeks to get it back to me. When I received it my 8gig memory card was not inside-which comes standard with the phone. I phoned trough & was met with an arrogant response from the repairs department, Lincoln bluntly accused me that it I didn't give the sim card in with the phone and that I didn't tick the block where it says simcard thus I didn't give it in. I then checked my forms and there was no place to tick anything off.

I spoke to Nthato Moabelo who promised me that he will sort the problem out and get back to me on which I had to fax the letter I filled in. Nor he or Juliet Ndlovu could tell me why this letter didn't have the tick box on. I was asked to 'ignore' the repairs department & that they will get me a 8 gig memory card. More than a month later, several emails between myself Nthato Moabelo & Juliet Ndlovu & unreturned phone calls from both- I still have no memory card.

This is definately the most tactless, unreliable company operating in SA. Colin du Preez do you know what is going on in your department?

It saddens me to have to complain on here once again about Virgin Mobile. After my last complaint on 20.06.09, I was contacted by Jarred on 21.06.09 who undertook to sort things out. On Thursday, 30.07.09 I was asked to supply my contracts in order to rectify the problem which I sent to Jarred on Monday 03.08.09. By 12.08.09 I had still had no feedback. On 14.08.09 I got a call from Claudia to say that they had not received the docs and that I was to resend them. She undertook to revert by close of business that day. I resent docs immediately. I have had absolutely no response from anyone at Virgin Mobile since then. As from 17.08.09 I have taken to emailing daily requests for information - to which I have yet to receive a reply. I trust this will receive immediate attention - I have been paying for sms's for the past four months after taking out a contract which undertook to give me FREE sms's. I have absoluletely had enough and am at the point where I am prepared to completely cancel my entire contract with Virgin Mobile and take my business elsewhere.