Help Virgin Mobile - Quality of Customer Support

[KryptoNyte]

Now, I'm an adult, so I don't mean any disrespect to any particular age group or music genre, but does anyone else find it strange that when you're waiting on hold for VM customer support that they blast some pop/rock/rap music? Literally, to the point where the phone starts to distort the audio even when volume is low?

Back on the Optimus V, I even recall the occasional computer hold message that came on and said, "Parents take away your phone because you text too much .... ?"

Sometimes I wonder just how serious this company is about their service.

Have you had good experiences with VM's tech support? Were your hold times acceptable, and was the VM account representative actually able to solve your problem?

 

[mishmosh2000]

Hold times completely unacceptable. I had a billing issue and the rep said they couldn't do anything and suggested that the problem may eventually correct itself! WTF!

 

[agentc13]

I had mixed experiences when dealing with them. Most were positive, but there were a couple that were not.

 

[kevindroid]

ive not had bad experiences. some had no knowledge of the problem but tried to help anyway

 

[Faydes]

I've never had a problem in the first place >_>

 

[jophtcedo]

I've never had a problem with VM CS. They're always helpful with answering questions or solving problems.

VM has always targeted teenage and "20 something" customers... so all of their marketing and communications are geared toward those age groups. So is Boost to some extent.

I recently got hold of one of the India reps who tried his best to sound "hep" like the younger american crowd... but you could easily tell it didn't come natural. I'm sure they're somewhat trained to act that way in promoting company image.

The Evo V 4G is truly "cutting edge" stuff for VM. All of their reps are still in "learning mode"... but no doubt they'll get it down.

 

[Jaxmoto]

With VERY straightforward issues VM CS can be useful. For mroe complicated issues it has often been referred to as "do-it-yourself" customer service.

You need to research the issue and basically find the answer, then call up CS with a plan and basically tell them what you need done to resolve it.

It can be annoying, but remember that over the life of the service you may need them a couple of times. Would you rather pay $80/month to get roaming when you travel and good customer service, or $35/month for no roaming and shitty CS?

Also people have already posted the executive info here. It is basically a U.S. based team that handles escalation calls from normal CS. It is NOT to be abused. They are willing to help you IF you tell them you were referred to them by customer service and if you aren't calling them all the time (they aren't dumb, they know what is up but put up with it).

If you get an issue where CS tells you to wait 5-7 days for a tech callback, or they simply won't resolve an issue then just look up that info here and call the exec team.

 

[Deleted User]

Don't really think there CS is bad nor good. As for there "hip" I sometimes feel like dancing to the music like the one were those girls go dadada and etc. Although our new voice mail (Evo) is kinda weird, "You have reached SPRINT voicemal box of xxx xxx xxxx....they really like including the word sprint on there not to mention there CS sometimes play sprint ads.

 

[Jaxmoto]

Don't really think there CS is bad nor good. As for there "hip" I sometimes feel like dancing to the music like the one were those girls go dadada and etc. Although our new voice mail (Evo) is kinda weird, "You have reached SPRINT voicemal box of xxx xxx xxxx....they really like including the word sprint on there not to mention there CS sometimes play sprint ads.

It is entirely possible Sprint is working to roll VM into the Sprint name. They don't have their own prepaid service and VM is rather obscure, you have to know it is serviced by Sprint because it really isn't said much on VM's info.

"Sprint Prepaid" would be a better branding than VM in my opinion. VM was a fine name when they were all about really cheap phones and voice, but now they are moved into the smartphone realm and others like T-Mobile are putting out similar services under their own name (especially TM's $30/month 100 minute & 4g plan). I have to say I'm even tempted to pick up the Galaxy Nexus from Google and get their $30 plan.

 

[KryptoNyte]

....Would you rather pay $80/month to get roaming when you travel and good customer service, or $35/month for no roaming and shitty CS?...

Again, as an adult, I'm starting to wonder.

It would appear the old phrase, you get what you pay for, still stands.

 

[OverByter]

Again, as an adult, I'm starting to wonder.

It would appear the old phrase, you get what you pay for, still stands.

I've had issues like previous posters have mentioned about the CS reps not being very knowledgeable. However if you know what you're doing I've had nothing but good experiences. I've had months credited to my account on a few occasions because of my aggravation. After I filed a BBB complaint because of having 6 pos Triumphs in a matter of 3 months Executive Escalations actually called me and gave me a $75 adjustment to my account. They definitely try harder as far as I'm concerned.

 

[novak921]

As everyone has mentioned, CS isn't bad overall but like anything, getting a good person helps a lot. I've had some great experiences with VM but that's usually after I've jumped through the first CS people in order to get someone else.

 

[savage321]

Most of the time Virgin CS has been okey... Not this time. I just got back from a week vacation and I requested a replacement phone a week before I left (2 weeks ago). Ive called multiple times and every time I called they kept telling me they were out of stock and would send me a new phone asap. This whole time my 30 days to get a refund were winding down. Today I came home from my vacation and called VM. After being on hold for an hour the CS guy told me all I would get is a refurb phone and the whole 2 weeks I have been waiting for a refurb phone. He also told me they have the new phones in stock and have the whole time they just aren't allowed to replace phones with new phones. FML. I dont want a refurb phone, I paid 300 dollars I should get a new phone replacement. Out of the 10 times I called you would think someone would have told me the phone I was waiting for was in stock and I was waiting for a refurb phone. Now I have one day to return the phone with one day left out of my 30 days left. Oh and I have to pay out of pocket to package and ship my phone to Virgin Mobile. BTW I love the evo v 4g I just cant stand the constant rebooting (10-15 times a day) and I plan on buying a new evo from a retail store and not Virgin's website so I wont have to deal with this again.

 

[OverByter]

Or if you do buy it mail order then do BB or RS so at least you'll have a B&M store locally.

 

[smilindano]

I've waited a week to cool down before posting my horror story. I purchased my phone two weeks ago. It took about 3 days and no less than 12 calls - each time being told there was a system problem, going through 10 minutes of repeating what happened, giving my credit card # again, being told they were "doing me a favor" for waiving the $10 fee for calling them versus doing it online. It finally activated.

A few days later I noticed they charged me twice for the monthly fee. I called and they said they only saw one fee and to call my credit card. I went online and disputed one of the charges and it was promptly reversed. Guess what - it must have been the one charge VM saw because a couple days later my service was cut off. I called and asked why and was told different stories each time - need to send email to 1) fraud dept., 2) finance dept. or 3) can't remember the third dept. They would not activate my service until it was resolved. I offered to give them another cc # (stupid I know) to charge the monthly fee to and they said they would only accept payment with a VM GC - I could understand if I was a new VM customer, but I've had VM for 6 or more years. I just switched to this phone since I was thinking about cancelling my land line. I'm not sure sure now.

Anyway, I called my credit card - they sent back the money they pulled from VM and reversed the other charge and that worked - beats me how this fixed it.

Good luck to anyone else. Once it's up and running it shouldn't be a problem but God help you if you have a problem.

 

[ssjChris]

After recently resolving a month long refund issue with them, for the most part I had to keep calling as they would never call me back. The e-mail (saveme) from their support via Twitter always seemed to respond to me a lot quicker and solved issues a lot faster. Their phone support with the exception of activating phones, is a joke.

 

[Austrie]

Like OverByter said, you need too know how to talk to the rep to get results. Most of the time their debugging process don't work unless your activating your phone or restarting your plan; so normally you have to talk your way out it. And VM always send me refurb phones; barely anybody gets new ones(sad I know...).

I'm also okay with the music, though VM should be more professional; but you can't blame them. Normally only the younger group of people use prepaid(because they cant afford contract).

Finally, if you know how to complain, generally VM will try to actually help you. I normally get VM to send me replacement battery(s)(I only did it once) and phones(triumphs to be exact) on the first phone call; even free months of service. VM isn't the best company, but as others say, you get what you for. Right now VM is pleasing all my needs, they just need better data speeds and I liked them better before they started throttling. I'm just waiting for my Evo V 4G to come in next week.

 

[chadyboy81]

they seem to be on point. they were playing blink 182 i think they play a top 40 or somthing witch is better than elevator music the expect to have a younger crowd,granted.they are better than straight talk then again they all are a pain but it is what it is

 

[gatorgrabber]

My first experience with VM has been anything but positive. Switching from Verizon, they took 4 days, at least a dozen customer service reps and 250 of my first 300 minutes to get the old number ported to the new phone. Then, of course, the new phone wasn't configured properly to receive the old number...another 45 minutes of my life gone. Once it was properly working, the bad hardware issue reared its' ugly head. More minutes down the drain and another 4 day wait for the replacement to arrive. Amazingly enough, that phone is working perfectly. But then there's the issue of the missing time I'd purchased that has all gone missing. I purchased the $45 plan on 6/23 (when I bought the phone), being told that the next billing day was 30 days away. When they finally got the # ported on 7/1, VM didn't acknowledge any funds in my acct. Figuring that I'd sort it out during the next week, I added $35 to my acct. Then, of course, the phone croaked. I burned through those minutes just trying to get a working phone. Now that I have a phone that works, I get a text (7/6) that I'm out of minutes! Being that this is a business phone, I added $45 to get it up and running again. So to review, in 15 days (of which only 5 days the phone has worked) I've paid in $125, which, according to my online acct., gets me through to 8/7. I'm now letting the store I bought it from fix that issue (hopefully). Not once did I raise my voice, not once was I unreasonable...these folks are just totally incompetent. I'm trying to get this worked out; that failing, it all goes back and I try someone else.

 

[Austrie]

VM reps in general are incompetent, no story about it. Most of the time you have to explain a issue 3 times just to get it through their heads; but at least it gets through at some point.

 

[phw8558]

When I got my first phone with Virgin last year the 3G was out for about a week because I kept getting their foreign technical support who just tell me to pull the battery. Eventually I got a number for the american tech support who fixed the problem same day. By the end of that week I hated "Alex"

 

[mogelijk]

One thing I learned, never call VM techs from my VM phone but instead to always call from a landline.

As for the minutes issue, I'd suggest you get an app that allows Internet calling (such as GrooveIP or Talkatone), using them through Google Voice; this will allow you to make and receive phone calls without using your minutes.

 

[raynoldsk]

I have never noticed a high quality of Customer Service with *anything*. So I am happy not to be paying the higher price...

 

[Rolo42]

Would you rather pay $80/month to get roaming when you travel and good customer service, or $35/month for no roaming and shitty CS?

It would appear the old phrase, you get what you pay for, still stands.

I've had garbage CS from Sprint, so that axiom doesn't really apply here.

I have never noticed a high quality of Customer Service with *anything*. So I am happy not to be paying the higher price...

Ditto!

 

[septembersrain]

My customer service center is in the Philippines. Which wouldn't be so bad except my ex was a Filipino. Haha.

The wait times aren't so bad but with any call center that doesn't have naive English speakers, It's really hit or miss.

The times have become insanely longer due to the iPhone release. This has become problematic even for us dealers...