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Cut your monthly payment by $10

L

loveVII

Newbie
So I had put my Mom on Virgin Mobile for a bit when I gave her my old Wildfire S... But then I bought her a newer phone and we were porting her number to Page Plus...

Anyway. You have to call Virgin Mobile to get your account information to complete the port and when you call they of course route your number to the retention department. They asked why I was porting and I told them I had found a cheaper plan with Page Plus: $29.99 gets you 1200 minutes, 3000 texts and 500 MB data vs $35 with Virgin Mobile getting you 300 minutes and unlimited text and internet. For my Mom, who talks on the phone quite a bit, but almost never texts or uses data, this made more sense.

Anyway, they tell me they can drop my Mom's monthly payment down to $25 a month for the same deal (300 min, unlimited text/internet)... Well... Hmmm. Sorry. I already bought the other phone and my mom needs the extra minutes. Nice try, though...

BUT THIS GOT ME THINKING!

I'm still on Virgin Mobile... And I would LOVE to only pay $25 a month for my service... So about a week later, I call them up and claim to be porting my number to Page Plus, and sure enough, the retention rep offers me the same deal... "Woah! That would be great!" I exclaim... So that's the story of how I'm now paying $25 a month instead of $35...

Just wanted to share with my favorite community of people. Feel free to try this yourself.
 
deathsled said:
Isn't it worse that VM is charging you $35/month when clearly they will offer you the same service for $25/month?
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Deliberately lying and trying to defraud companies is part of why we have high prices in the first place.
 
TDOW said:
Deliberately lying and trying to defraud companies is part of why we have high prices in the first place.
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Pricing is often determined by what the market will bear. Having companies compete for your business is a practice I would also recommend. Doing so can save you considerable amount of money. If a competitor is offering the same or similar service for less, it would be a bit improvident to not consider switching as well as seeing if your current provider would be willing to compete. Its the benefit of a healthy open market.
 
I called and told them I needed the info to port to a new carrier. Within 5 minutes I had the 25 dollar plan. Nice and easy. Thanks OP!
 
Holy s#!+ this thread made my day!

Not only did they drop my payment, they dropped my wife's too!

So we go from 70 / month to 50!

Thanks for the heads up!
 
TDOW said:
Deliberately lying and trying to defraud companies is part of why we have high prices in the first place.
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Are you saying you wouldn't haggle with a car salesman? Or try to get a lower rate from your cable company?

That's not deliberately lying....that is a legitimate concern, with all that is going on in the world who wants to pay more for the same?....if another company is offering comparable services for less money, it is not a lie. VM could have easily said NO, but the choose to make their customers happy. I applaud VM.
 
Called via the number on their website, and all the guy would do was tell me he was sorry I was leaving and he just gave me my account number. Is there a specific line I have to call?
 
So, I've had unforseen consequence. My 4g stopped working after my plan updated. Spent the last few hours with the numb nuts @ support and they weren't able to solve it. Waiting for virgin to call me back.
 
Chingling said:
Called via the number on their website, and all the guy would do was tell me he was sorry I was leaving and he just gave me my account number. Is there a specific line I have to call?
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For me, I called once (the customer service number) and said I wanted to port but they didn't transfer to retention, only apologized that I was leaving. Later, I called back and said I needed my account number to port, they transferred.

Weird thing is, they said the offer expired but since I was a loyal customer since 2011 he'd make an exception, so I had the option of $25 for 300 mins, etc. or $40 for 1200 mins, etc.

I wanted to try this with my boyfriend's account but he opened up a new one two months ago, so I don't know if they were bluffing. Anyone else want to share what the rep said when he offered?
 
He told me I could have the 25 dollar plan and he tried to change my account but he said my phone isnt qualified so he said sorry and put 45 bucks in my account.
I have the Supreme so idk if that's why I wouldn't be able to get the deal?
 
I have the Evo and the best they could do for me was put $35 in my balance. VM should expect a call from me next month...
 
Dejmeister said:
He told me I could have the 25 dollar plan and he tried to change my account but he said my phone isnt qualified so he said sorry and put 45 bucks in my account.
I have the Supreme so idk if that's why I wouldn't be able to get the deal?
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Yeah it might be because you get LTE, but I don't see how that would matter. Only major cities have LTE, and in those cities there's more 4g than LTE. According to the coverage map anyway...

rs98 said:
I have the Evo and the best they could do for me was put $35 in my balance. VM should expect a call from me next month...
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Doesn't hurt to try calling back, it'd be a different rep anyway.
 
Glad this helped some people.

If it matters, I don't have 4G/Wimax in my area with Virgin...

And for what its worth, I did actually end up switching carriers about a month after I got my plan price dropped... With my usage, I only pay $26 a month with Ting (would be less if my gf wouldn't call me to ramble about nothing hahaha) and the service is better (plus it was a good reason to upgrade to a new phone! Let's go Optimus G!)

Basically when you call, you just need to say that you're switching to a carrier that offers a lower price. (I used Page Plus: $30 for 1200 minutes, 3000 texts and 500GB) You should get transferred to the retention department and they *should* offer you a lower price.

Also, when I called the second time to actually switch, Virgin offered me a discount on a new phone since my plan was already knocked down to $25/mth. I had already bought my Optimus G, so I didn't inquire further about how much of a discount, although my interest was piqued...

I had my account with Virgin for almost 3 years, which may have been why they wanted to keep my business so badly.
 
ZipLipZ said:
So, I've had unforseen consequence. My 4g stopped working after my plan updated. Spent the last few hours with the numb nuts @ support and they weren't able to solve it. Waiting for virgin to call me back.
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I guess that's the catch, I've noticed if I'm on 4g my Internet will just keep trying to load but never goes through. Have you heard back? I'll call today, I guess my phone will save some juice not scanning for 4g.
 
adamhos1234 said:
Not only did they drop my payment, they dropped my wife's too!
So we go from 70 / month to 50!
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Nice! That's a good deal.
loveVII said:
And for what its worth, I did actually end up switching carriers about a month after I got my plan price dropped... With my usage, I only pay $26 a month with Ting (would be less if my gf wouldn't call me to ramble about nothing hahaha) and the service is better....
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Yes :) I love the free voice roaming service Ting has compared to none with Virgin Mobile.
 
karlyy7x said:
I guess that's the catch, I've noticed if I'm on 4g my Internet will just keep trying to load but never goes through. Have you heard back? I'll call today, I guess my phone will save some juice not scanning for 4g.
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I never heard back and haven't had time to pursue it. Let me know if you figure anything out and I'll do the same. :)
 
Wow, and I haven't heard back either. I have tomorrow off so I might call back if they don't by the afternoon. I guess it's not too bad of a problem, but I moved to the city where 4g is almost everywhere.
 
Every time I call they say its not possible. I call trouble shooting say I need account info. They ask why I say I'm switching to page plus she says sorry for leaving I get transferred he asks why same reason then says its not possible to lower account plan. Any ideas?
 
EricH4753 said:
Every time I call they say its not possible. I call trouble shooting say I need account info. They ask why I say I'm switching to page plus she says sorry for leaving I get transferred he asks why same reason then says its not possible to lower account plan. Any ideas?
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Maybe VM Customer Service is starting to wise up?
 
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