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New to Virgin Mobile... No DATA!! Still Not WORKING!

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New2VirginMobl

Newbie
Coming to you using this forum after reading a lot of great information in the past... I thought I'd share with you my story of a frustrating time with Virgin Mobile.
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Hi everyone out there in the Technology land. I wanted to get my voice heard with issues I've been having with Virgin Mobile. My family and I just ended our 2-yr contract with Verizon with our trusty little LG Octane phone and now upgraded my wife's with Virgin Pay Lo $30 plan and bought her the Samsung Montage at Target for only $19.99. Verizon wanted to charge us $59.99 to keep the same plan we were on which included 450mins. They said that our phone... the LG Octane is compatible for a 'Smart-Phone' and wouldn't charge us any cheaper. I could not believe they were so very high priced and this little phone is the same as a Smartphone.

So for $50.00 we ported our old phone number over to Virgin Mobile and have a good phone and service with 1500 mins/1500 text messages... not bad at all. 6 months ago I bought me my phone... the LG Optimus Elite at Best Buy for $99.00 $30 dollars cheaper than Virgin's website of $129.99 at the time and it was right down the road for me so I thought why not and got me the $35 Beyond Talk plan w/Virgin Mobile. I've enjoyed streaming audio to and from work (30 miles each way) for about 6 months now... until April 11th I noticed my trusty Tune-in Radio failed to connect, I showed 3G and full bars but wouldn't connect. So I didn't think much about it until the next week when I kept trying... email, browsing even picture messages just would not connect at all. I called their customer service and then their 'Advanced Technical support' line and after about 20 times over the course of a week, also I went to three different Boost Mobile/Virgin Mobile stores tracked down a tech with over 2yrs experience and he was on the phone with 'Dealer-support' and it was determined that it was my phone that was the problem as they showed their network was up and running just fine... they did show an outage on April 11th but this was resolved. So instead of reading horror stories on this forum about getting replacements over the mail from Virgin Mobile I used my insurance I got when I bought my phone at Best Buy and went back and exchanged my old phone for a newer LG Optimus Elite phone... (now $79.99) I didn't even open up the new cell phone package for fear it might hurt the battery when they activate it. So I had the lady swap it out, I went home, charged the phone completely and turned it on the next day... I checked with excitement my email, browsing, etc... with 3G blinking at me and FULL bars... and still not working!!!! Getting Unable to connect... I reprogrammed and phone again just like before with my old phone, ran the 'My Account-I need help' link and still Data could not pass. Same exact issues I was having from the previous phone. Why?

So I have come to you all today asking for help on this. I called customer service/tech support (India) and I would rather run a knife thru my hand than call them ever again... the worse customer service known to man is there... after calling them I have not received not one call back giving me any help at all... I have emailed them, called them over 20 times in 1 week and amazing when I call them the phone drops the line either when I'm on hold or when we're talking! Whats really weird is I have not had not 1 call drop when I call anyone else... except for when I call Virgin Mobile customer service!!! Figure that one out!!????? The phone showing with Full bars and 3G flashing... I use my wifes phone showing full bars and it drops the line as well... customer service or technical support hasn't called me back when I asked them. I have called corporate headquarters phone as well and left messages and still nothing is helping.

What IS working?????? My wifi when connected IS working, I can stream audio/video browse, etc... not a problem. Some people have told me Sprint is updating their towers from 3G to 4G here in the Phoenix, AZ Valley area but again when I call to get any info Virgin tells me there are no reported outages going on at all. They haven't offered anything to me, suggested anything either... I just do not get it and understand why this is happening to me and only me. The rep at Virgin Mobile store told me he hasn't heard of this happening to anyone ever before!!!! So I am at my wits end... I have reported this to Virgin Mobile to the Better Business Bureau and don't know what else to do. Only thing I can do is sit and wait since I can't even return this phone now since it's been over 30 days. (Best Buy's return policy)

I will not pay $35 for next month though until Virgin tells me what's really going on and why it's not working. A Virgin Mobile rep told me to change my phone number... ($10 charge) and this might fix it... dumping more $$ to get something fixed that wasn't my fault. This is the question I have... why isn't it working? Very frustrating, so very frustrating. I was told I'd be compensated for the data not being used... don't know how... my account has only used 15megs of data total! haha, amazing huh!?

Thank you for your time.
 
Thank you for the link, I'll check it out!

Yes I know other people are having this same issue...

Funny how Virgin Mobile store rep w/experience said he hasn't heard of this happening before... might not be the best thing to say to a customer. Actually I read the post and my phone is running on 2G now...
http://androidforums.com/lg-optimus-elite/649000-mobile-data-troubleshooting-steps.html#post5209793

I wonder if Virgin throttled me back last month and didn't release/clear it for this month... April 11th I was only at 15megs though and not at 2.5Gig... weird.
 
Join the club. If you look at VM's Facebook page it's littered with tons of complaints and their customer service is completely clueless.

I've lost 3G connection since my month restarted earlier in the week and indeed the only solution is to get them to restart your month, which they are very reluctant to do. After many calls and escalations I have been unsuccessful. It's the same old scripted troubleshooting steps - airplane mode toggling, mobile data checkbox toggling, battery pulling, MDN/MSID editing, and reactivating.

People on FB have confirmed that a simple restart of their month fixed the issue...

I'm so infuriated with the way they have handled this that I am porting out when my new phone comes in. It's a shame, because I was quite happy with my OpV. Reading on FB and in other forums, this is the final straw for quite a number of long-time subscribers.
 
You can file a FCC complaint here: File Complaint | FCC.gov

That can sometimes get their attention.

Edit: I also came across a few phone numbers that should lead to American customer service/techs. I haven't called any of these numbers but it's somewhere to start. 817 is an area code in Fort Worth, Texas:

866-553-9807
855-250-5271
817-698-2096
817-215-3658
 
It's not the Virgin network, it is the Elite. That phone has known data issues. It will show connected to the 3g network while it is actually connected to 1x. Check out the Elite forum for more info. If I were you, I would return the phone and get a different phone.
 
This is a riot.

https://www.facebook.com/VirginMobileUSA/posts/618590564835611

I completely understand your frustration in regards to this process Slam. However, in order to resolve your issue we must provide troubleshooting steps. If you would like to restart your plan, you must top up your account. –Cristal G
Click to expand...

There you have it, folks. Sink more money into your account in order to fix VM's screwup.


Here's a post from someone who took it upon themselves to fix the problem:

https://www.facebook.com/VirginMobileUSA/posts/618254588202542

fixed my own 3g/data problems by restarting my month via the website. THEN called virgin mobile for a refund. they tried to credit my acct for only the days I lost service (towards the month AFTER the one I just restarted) but I insisted on a refund to my cc for that amount. we'll see if they follow through. the calls took less than 15 mins. i'm still unsure if I want to stay with Virgin Mobile beyond this month.
Click to expand...
 
Actually to think about it my month started on the 30th and then I restarted my month on the 5th, for April... then I started to have trouble... starting April 11th... perhaps this caused it... maybe I'll restart next month after the 5th of May... say like the 10th or whenever they say that it's fixed for sure! Maybe get a credit just to start it up again and see it 3G will work before dumping in $35 for another month.

Great ideas, thanks!
 
I am without ANY service for three days now. Every Sprint customer I know is roaming.. or "extended" as they call it. It seems Sprint is completely down in my area. I can't make calls, use data, send texts or anything. I called VM and they compensated me with free minutes.

Don't know if the outage I am experiencing is local or nationwide but just thought I would share.

EDIT: service finally just came back up here :)
 
I don't know where the post went, but someone else over on the FB page just restarted their service and got their 3G back after VM refused to restart it for them.

I doubt that they're going to get their money back either...
 
That is just wrong... so very wrong how a company can't help you except to pay them more money and it fixes it! Virgin Mobile needs to figure out how to help people again!! I'm tired to hearing them on the phone apologize... no let me correct myself... not apologize but say monotone "I'm sorry your having trouble with your data..." not a care in the world when they say it... like robots.

Say does anyone speak Indian so we can learn how to speak their own language when we call VM?? Maybe then they'll hear us. I don't mind getting no data or even voice... heck I don't mind if I'm crushed on the ground with a heavy wall that's fallen on me... what ticks me off is while I'm down I see tons of people who stop and don't help, saying "I'm sorry your having troubles" and not doing anything to help. Or at least tell me details and offer to help. VM customer service and even tech support don't explain anything to me... after April 11th they said it's been resolved!! So I did everything they asked me to do reboot, re-program and even bought me a new phone!! And the service was still down!! Terrible customer service! If this goes on another week I'll be forced to getting no phone... T-Mobile and Sprint is way too expensive at $50 or more a month. Verizon wanted $60 for only 450 mins and that is just insane... I'll be using email from home and go back to using other peoples cell phone when I need help right!?? hehe since everyone's got them I wouldn't need one... just use one when I need help in like an emergency.

Oh well Virgin Mobile... we're still waiting for you to do your jobs and start explaining to us and fix these issues please!
 
The obvious solution is to vote with your wallet. After all, this is prepaid. ;)

On the other hand, it sucks because I've had my Optimus V for a year and it's an awesome phone especially with MiRaGe + Link2SD for all of my apps. Never had a problem with it. I guess it will enjoy an early retirement and become a burner phone joining my OG Droid.

T-Mo's $30 plan is very enticing if you don't talk a lot or don't mind using Google Voice + GrooveIP. On the other hand I use around 200 minutes/mo. and Straight Talk looks promising though I'm not too crazy about their data policies.
 
Caveat emptor if you take it upon yourself to restart your month. From the same person who restarted her month as I linked above:

https://www.facebook.com/VirginMobileUSA/posts/620283751332959

Hey virgin mobile. A rep promised a refund on my credit card for days i was without data, but your social networking team says i can only have a credit. So who is lying? I have lost trust in this company and my t-mobile SIM card is on it's way. I'm glad i didn't spend a lot on my virgin mobile phone. $16 credit is useless on an account that I'm going to discontinue. Good luck on your network upgrades (that come without warning and have no estimated end) and thanks for not telling anyone what their real problems are. P.s. if you have 3G/data problems, get virgin mobile to restart your month. It was an instant fix for me and for others. They'll resist, but some people have gotten lucky and got a rep to do it for free. I paid to restart my month, and it looks like i won't get reimbursed for it. It was worth it to confirm the fix here on this page but it'll be the last payment they'll get from me.
Click to expand...
 
UPDATE:
I called Virgin Mobile asking for an update after I was emailed saying that their issue has been resolved! I called Virgin M. and again after 20 mins of troubleshooting calling from a different phone, dropping calls 3 times, reprogramming, etc... still cannot receive any data. I was given ticket number and said they will escalate up to their engineers I told them it has already been escalated a few weeks ago when I called, the lady couldn't understand this... (severe language barrier) so I have to wait another 72hrs (3-days) for them to tell me it's been resolved and then I'll find out my data won't work. I did ask them to restart my month thinking that this can help she refused to do this without me paying another $35 so I'll just wait and see what happens... we the customers shouldn't have to pay them more money all to find out our services aren't working. Let them give us money we've already spent for use to test out the services after an outage has been reported... if and once it's working then I'll pay them another month of service... let it be up to us the customers to choose!... sounds fair to me!
 
Yet another Update: you'd better get a pillow and coffee to keep you awake...


Spoke w/Jessie at 10:50am who put me on hold immediately without asking me for over 10 mins when I told her the ticket number who then told me there was NO outage... the outage from April 11th was resolved on April 19th... so there was no need to tell me there was an outage and to escalate this. I insisted to speak with a Supervisor, she put me on hold for another 10 mins. I spoke with 'Eva' at Technical Support... I again insisted to speak with a supervisor... she finally after 30mins of being on hold and every 5-10 mins reps promising me they will be xferring me to their supervisor then after another 10mins more on hold the call was dropped!! So I called back and wasn't nice... why does it seem we the customers have to be angry to get anything done?? So I spoke with Supervisor 'Emerson, Employee ID number: 512380' who would not give me his last name even though they have my last name...and there I began the long story of my issues, letting her know this so called 'outage' issue I was told when there wasn't one, no contact from Virgin for help since April 11th, etc... I was told: customer service did not have the tools to fix my account to troubleshoot this so he put me on hold (again) and I spoke w/ 'Jesus' at Technical Support and asked for these 'tools' to help troubleshoot my account.



He said they are using a 'New System' or software Network Access Identifier (NAI) that is showing my account incorrectly... like a pass-phrase... what they are showing on their system isn't showing on my phone... ??? ok... whatever. He said before when I called technical support they didn't see this 'other screen' on this new software in their NAI. Just a matter of paying attention to their screens which wasn't done. He said he was calling me from Mexico and other call centers are from the Philippines. Perhaps they start over in India and then if they realize their English isn't that good they xfer to better english. I was told I'll need to do a factory reset on my phone... again. He said this has been a 'known issue' since April 11th. He did note on my account of this happening and people there telling me wrong information and they didn't look on their screens like they should have.

He said he would need to do a RTN reset: which he said does a much deeper than a factory reset.

##786#
select reset, then it will ask me for a code
enter the next code
this will do the RTN reset and will prompt me to activate.


after this reboots and completes to test out any data by browsing, checking email, etc... and if not working then to call back.

he said that a compensation is $1 a day of no service... however what about no data a day?? yes... if asking for more than a $1 a day ask to speak to a supervisor.

When we ended our conversation informing him that I'll run this RTN phone reset I looked on the phone and found we had been speaking for 1 hour 20 mins.

He told me doing this RTN would fix the problem! yeah! so I backed up my phone again on my computer, and did this RTN reset...

After this I ran the Activation and got Error: 06-07-5920 Contact Virgin Mobile at your Service 1-888-322-1122

after reboot again, I was able to get it to activate! yeah right!?? wrong!... I ran the browser to google.com... unable to connect error. enabled airplane mode, disabled airplane mode, disabled data, enabled data, ran the I need help under My Account... Voice went thru... Data did NOT... red dot again... same as before. Ran email, logged in... unable to connect error... same as before. Still not working after that... they said it was a network outage which was resolved on April 19th!!!!! I am thru... selling my phone on craigslist for $20!

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So I called Virgin M. back went to Technical Support asked to speak with this 'Jesus' again and he didn't know who he was....?? he agreed I was speaking with Jesus before but didn't xfer me to him... ok fine so I told him to just read the notes and I had to tell him 6 times before he clearly understood that I ran the RTN reset on the phone already and finally after spending over 3 hours just today trying to ask for help and couldn't get it I told him for them to figure this out because it's not my phone, not their towers but my account or their software that is causing this and then let me know via text messaging, email or by phone when this has been resolved. So very cheap, this is why its their pricing is the cheapest... 'You get what you pay for' rings loud and clear!!

I have reprogrammed my phone to all 1's now and will not use Virgin Mobile until they fix this!

What are other people paying for Sprint/T-mobile? Can I use the phone... the LG Optimus Elite on other carriers at all?? Fill me in for a way out!! please!????
 
"Solution : Go to T-Mobile and get the 30 dollar Web exclusive plan and get a nexus 4 from Google. :p"

...sorry all I see on Tmobile's website is their starting plan is not $30 but $50... please share link showing this.

Unsupported Browser

Thank you!
 
Personally, I'm on the T-Mobile prepaid $30/month plan. The reason some don't like it is that it only gives 100 minutes per month (additional minutes are 10 cents each). The upside is that there is 5 GB of data at up to 4G speeds, afterwards it is throttled to 2G.

Unfortunately, Virgin Mobile phones only work on Virgin Mobile. Even CDMA carriers like Ting, which allow you to bring Sprint phones, doesn't work with Virgin Mobile phones.

This is one big advantage of GSM carriers, especially with a phone like the Nexus 4, is that phones can be transferred between mobile providers merely by swapping out the SIM card.

There are lots of choices with GSM carriers; for example (besides the T-Mobile $30 deal) are Solavei ($49/month unlimited talk, 4 GB unthrottled data, with voice and data roaming), Straight Talk ($45/month unlimited talk, around 2 GB unthrottled data), are a few of the options. There is also Lyca Mobile, which is relatively new in the US, that offers a $30 unlimited talk but only 100 MB of 4G speed (then throttled to 2G) or even a true pay per use plan (2 cents a minute talk, 4 cents per text, 6 cents per MB 4G data). These all use T-Mobile's network, though Straight Talk lets you chose between T-Mobile or AT&T's network when you order your SIM card.
 
interesting... thank you... yes Solavei seems good... er at least their website shows full coverage... I wonder if they are like Virgin Mobile where they use Sprints towers. Too bad T-Mobile doesn't have like a unlimited data/text and 300-600min plan like Virgin does. I could exchange my phone again at Best Buy and change carriers like T-Mobile would be maybe my only option.
 
miediev said:
They hid it because they want people to pay more. It's at the bottom of this page: Prepaid Cell Phone Plans, No Annual Contract | Monthly 4G | T-Mobile

Also if you click the smallish link that says 'Which plan is right for you >'
Click to expand...

Actually, you can see the $30 plan towards the bottom of the page you link. In bold type it has, "$30 Unlimited web and text with 100 minutes talk," then in smaller type underneath, "100 minutes talk | Unlimited text | First 5GB at up to 4G speeds".
 
Solavei does look interesting, it uses t-mobiles network and throttles data at 4gb according to cnet: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-57567902-233/solavei-offers-unlimited-no-contract-phone-service-for-$49-per-month/
 
New2VirginMobl said:
interesting... thank you... yes Solavei seems good... er at least their website shows full coverage... I wonder if they are like Virgin Mobile where they use Sprints towers. Too bad T-Mobile doesn't have like a unlimited data/text and 300-600min plan like Virgin does. I could exchange my phone again at Best Buy and change carriers like T-Mobile would be maybe my only option.
Click to expand...

Solavei uses T-Mobile's towers. Personally, if you can afford the $300 or $350 (for the 8 and 16 GB versions), I'd buy the Nexus 4 direct from Google. Great phone for a relatively inexpensive price. Best Buy should be willing to return your phone if you show them your issue with data that hasn't been resolved.

If you want a less expensive phone or need to buy it through Best Buy, you might consider the Optimus L9 ($199).
 
yeah I would be forced to going with a phone from Best Buy so I could use my phone's insurance at $14.99 I bought so I have a year to choose to upgrade or replace if I need to. Hopefully (crossing fingers) Virgin will fix my issue FAST... I'll give them 3 days... my month recycles on the 6th of May so we'll see.
 
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