On this page, I'm going to tell you about all the time, money and effort I wasted when I was with Virgin Mobile. Hopefully, if you're thinking about going Virgin, I'll put you off, because believe me - it's not worth it!

Problem 1: I ordered the phone on line with my brother's credit card. Despite changing the details in the "Deliver to" box, the phone was sent to him, registered to him, and the free insurance was taken out in his name.

Problem 2: After going through a lengthy registration change process, and programming in all my numbers, my new phone started switching itself off, and "Data Crashing" and I had to remove the battery and re fit it in order to do anything. On the advice of Virgin Mobile, it was sent back.

Problem 3: Replacement phone was promised, and it arrived the next day. It was, however, a "Reconditioned" handset (ie. It had been used before, broken and repaired.) It was complete with chips, scratches and all. I rejected it, sent it back, and a new phone was promised the next day.

Problem 4: The next day came and went, and guess what? - No new phone! I eventually managed to speak to someone with authority, and they agreed to send me a a phone upgrade.

Problem 5: After a few weeks, for no reason, the phone started to show "Network Search," and I couldn't make or receive calls or text messages. These spells each lasted 10 - 30 minutes, so I phoned Virgin Mobile. They told me to write down the times they happened.

Problem 6: Once I had a note of 5 occurrences, I got in touch with Virgin, but Shame On Me! The times I wrote down were "7.30 - 8.00" and they wanted "7.42". After ten minutes of ranting and raving, I eventually gave up, and collected more examples.

Problem 7: Once I collected the examples, I sent them off to Virgin to get in touch with the network operators (One 2 One). While I waited, I was told to borrow a friend's phone, and try my SIM in that. I said NO and explained I couldn't borrow a friend's phone indefinitely, and it would have to be unlocked if I could. They decided to send me a new SIM, and in doing so, cancelled my old one. For three days, I was without a mobile as the SIM was sent by post.

The

Hate Page

Problem 8: The new SIM made no difference. I finally got through to Virgin Mobile, who phoned the network operators while I waited, and was told this: It was a known network problem that should have been fixed months ago. It's scheduled to be fixed some time, but there's no fixed date. Too bad, just put up with it.

So, what did I do? I unlocked my phone (for free, of course) and got a new network - one that works!

Many thanks to Bob Parker from Australlia - he emailed me to tell me that Virgin Mobile's claws have come out over there too. He had problems having his SIM card delivered, they denied ever recieving emails, and they have been charging his credit card for random amounts.

Read all abour Bob's woes on his own "Virgin Mobile Hate Page" at ~http://members.ozemail.com.au/ ~bobpar/probcomp.htm

Bob is the source of some great anti-virgin mobile propeganda.  He's emailed in a few times and suggested this site - it's like a Monty Python sketch, but the sad thing is it's true!  It bears a number of similarities to my problems, like "we need to know when the problems occurred" and "no, that's not good enough - we need to know when they occurred between..." Unbelievable, but strangely unsurprising!  Cheers Bob!

If you've had similar problems, please contact me.

Want an alternative network? Try o2 - I've had no problems with them at all.

Please Observe, Mr Branson!