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Help Phone swap = strange VM billing issues?

K

KryptoNyte

Android Enthusiast
Anyone using a credit card to autopay each month, coming to the Evo from another phone (phone swap), have you noticed anything strange with the billing that occurred when you made the changeover?

I attempted to swap phones inside my internet account, selected the new more expensive plan, then the activation failed and we had to start over again on the phone with VM tech support (as did everyone else it seems).

You can see my VM payment history in the attached image. My credit card, however, shows that Virgin Mobile USA has billed my account twice for $47.90 on the same day!?
 

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I did my by phone with them and just noticed I was charged twice as well and mine was done before my payment was due.
 
If we could have some more folks please report in, and just let us know if you were billed once or twice regardless of activation, that would be great.

Virgin Mobile's customer service rep advised me to dispute one of the two charges with my credit card company, which seems like a very strange suggestion, as there is usually some kind of penalty that VM would also have to pay on the disputed charge.

If you have also had the double billing issue, please contact VM and report back with your findings.

Thanks.
 
You are not alone with a double charge. I was double charged and left with a phone that was unable to text. I placed more than 8 calls to their phone support with no success. The lady said I would have to wait a month to get my money back while they search things on their end which is unacceptable to me. Get in contact with SaveMe@thevirginangels.com

They fixed my texting problem and have refunded me.
 
Remember that vm charges $10 for a swap. Better off to call vm and ask them to waive the fee. reason I say this is because the tax is like $2 plus $35 + $10 swap. ~$47
 
Daniel, because Virgin Mobile's system is currently incapable of performing the phone swap for a current customer directly from the Internet account, I would contact them and ask them if they are willing to refund that swap charge, per their own FAQ;

Swap your Virgin Mobile phone online

If you are a new activation, or a current VM user that performed a phone swap, please check your credit card and report here whether or not you were double charged for the first month of service with the new phone.
 
I did the phone swap online by myself. Went through quickly with no problems. I was not charged 10 dollars and was not double charged. They charged for the following month the same day they should have.
 
G19 said:
I did the phone swap online by myself. Went through quickly with no problems. I was not charged 10 dollars and was not double charged. They charged for the following month the same day they should have.
Click to expand...

Well, I stand corrected. I do know that, at the time I activated, the website simply wouldn't tollerate an activation without VM live customer support. G19, what day did you get activated?
 
If you cant activate on line it gives you a 1800 number to call,(sorry I lost it) and by calling that number and telling them you had problems activating on line they have to activate it over the phone for free or thats what they did for my girlfriend atleast
 
I tried to swap online but it said I had to call. So I did call and they did not charge me $10 to swap. Just checked, and I have not been charged double either. Just the one $35 monthly fee.
 
I activated on 6/1 got double charged 35 and a 10 dollar fee. They won't refund either, so I am going to dispute one 35.
 
FYI, don't dispute the charge with your credit card company. I disputed one of the charges since I was double charged and they locked out my account. I had a hell of a time talking with support and I had to buy a $35 top up card and email fraudalert@virginmobile.com the pin, still waiting for them to reactivate my account. I can't even sign in online. I would have just ate the $37.55 rather than deal with all this. I even had the credit card company conferenced in with virgin's tech support and they wouldn't just recharge me or let me pay with a different credit card.
 
So let me see if I have this straight, tcklord. Virgin Mobile's user initiated website phone swap fails upon release of the phone (although not before charging the customer), and many early users have to call and have the activation performed by a customer service rep, who charges you a second time.

At this point, the credit card company clearly shows two charges from Virgin Mobile on the same date. The customer, in good faith, calls Virgin Mobile thinking there will be a very simple resolution only to find the VM customer service rep can't do anything about it because the "mystery" charge doesn't show up in VM's system, and then indicates that you should dispute the fraudulent charge with the customer's credit card company. The customer then asks the VM customer service rep to document, in the user account, that the customer was instructed to dispute the charge with the credit card company - we have to assume the customer service rep actually does document this in the account.

The customer goes ahead and disputes the charge, per the exact instruction from the VM customer service rep, and Virgin Mobile proceeds to shut down the account?

Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't appear to be a sound business practice.
 
So, today, I received a phone call, said it was from Virgin Mobile. It was a computer calling, ready to ask me a few questions about the overbilling situation. They launched into the first question at which point the call was dropped.

The computer attempted to call back about 4 hours later (same incoming phone number identified as Virgin Mobile) and there was silence on the other end of the line.

I give up. :shrugs:
 
I got charged an extra 10 too, which I was not aware about when attempting to swap my phone online a couple weeks ago. My issue is I was never told about the 10 charge nor did it even work when I swapped online. I still ended up having to call Virgin Mobile the next day to activate my phone. Sounds like a huge rip off to me.
 
I noticed the double charge and the $10 fee as well. And I'm still awaiting $317 from the refused package of the Evo that I cancelled with them over a week ago now (and they shipped it anyway). This isn't a good month for me and Virgin Mobile. =S

Hell, guess I'll try and see what I do about my double charge. I got an hour to kill anyway.

EDIT:
Oh yeah, I hate these guys now. I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall at this point. I told them that $10 fee was uncalled for that I was never made aware of it and then even on the website it says its free to do online, and since it was down I shouldn't of been charged due to their error. The woman I spoke to put me on hold and then I was switched to a new guy who didn't even know of my situation so I explained it again and he just brushed it off and said you have to get the fee blah blah blah.

Oddly enough, the VM site shows one $25 charge, then a monthly plan charge of $35, then a top up of $35. I shouldn't been charged twice at the same time. I don't even see the $25 (with tax) charge on my online banking page. I brought up starting a claim if they had no idea where the second $37.10 charge came from, and then the call dropped despite me having 2-3 bars the whole time.

I barely want to call back at this point. But I don't like being screwed over either.
 
same here, got doulbe billied and had to call back twice before I got my refund, and I have never heard of a swap fee either
 
I contacted Virgin Mobile support via Twitter. They gave me the e-mail saveme@thevirginangels.com (this was recently given earlier in the thread as well). Hopefully they will resolve my ongoing issues with VM USA. Guess we'll see...
 
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