Help Phone swap = strange VM billing issues?

[ssjChris]

Got an e-mail this morning with an update. The $10 fee was ignored when I brought it up again (yeesh) but they refunded me $25. Apparently they charged me $35 then $25 according to their records... but it says $37.10 twice on my online banking. An unsolved mystery I guess... =S

 

[Draetheus]

I never got charged an extra $10, but two $37.25 charges posted to my account. I contacted them and they claimed my account was only charged once. They urged me to file a claim with my bank, which I did. Bank dumped the money back in my account so all is well there, but I wonder how this is going to impact Virgin's reputation with banks if people keep filing false charges.

 

[ssjChris]

I never got charged an extra $10, but two $37.25 charges posted to my account. I contacted them and they claimed my account was only charged once. They urged me to file a claim with my bank, which I did. Bank dumped the money back in my account so all is well there, but I wonder how this is going to impact Virgin's reputation with banks if people keep filing false charges.

Man, I want to dispute the extra $37.10 charge but then the guy in this thread said that his account was completely locked out due to him doing that. It feels like I'm dealing with sneaky criminals or something... lol.

 

[Mobstergunz]

i paid through Top-Up card was only charged $35 + tax nothing more it also renewed my month of service

 

[wigginst]

They emailed me back to tell me I had not been double charged. I emailed them the bank statement with both charges on it. We'll see where that goes.

 

[LBI]

SOOOO frustrated. I too did the HTC EVO swap and could not complete online. Now I look at my credit card and I have been charged 4 times for this, plus the $10. I have been on the line for 40 minutes now and 2 support staff, while waiting to speak to a supervisor. They claim their records show only one charge. I hate calling thier support line, i can never get off the phone resolved in less than an hour. So frustrating!

I will try that email someone suggested. If anyone gets resolved, let me know the name of the person that helped you, I want to call them directly!

 

[LBI]

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...

did you email this address? I recieved a response, but hestitant on providing my account information including PIN number.???

 

[ssjChris]

did you email this address? I recieved a response, but hestitant on providing my account information including PIN number.???

Yes, they're legit. The e-mail address was also proven earlier in the thread as well. They claimed to have refunded me $25 but I have yet to see it.

 

[LBI]

SOOOO frustrated. I too did the HTC EVO swap and could not complete online. Now I look at my credit card and I have been charged 4 times for this, plus the $10. I have been on the line for 40 minutes now and 2 support staff, while waiting to speak to a supervisor. They claim their records show only one charge. I hate calling thier support line, i can never get off the phone resolved in less than an hour. So frustrating!

I will try that email someone suggested. If anyone gets resolved, let me know the name of the person that helped you, I want to call them directly!

Just to give everyone an update...i did speak to a manager at the 888 number who opened a financial notification form. He did this yesterday and today I have recieved my 3 overcharged of $37.45 back into my account. He also did credit me the $10 transfer fee. Very nice guy and followed thru. Good luck to all.

 

[cutterjohn]

Yes, they're legit. The e-mail address was also proven earlier in the thread as well. They claimed to have refunded me $25 but I have yet to see it.

I couldn't do mine online on Saturday morning, and didn't have time to call their 800# (322-1122 BTW) and explained to the rep that I tried to change my plan/swap phones which just failed on me even though I had plenty of cash in the account, so they did actually refund me my $25, changed the plan to $35 + tax, but still charged me $10 to swap the phone which is fine as I got a free one going from OV to MT and then free again when I swapped to my OV while awaiting a replacement MT and then again free when I swapped in the new replacement MT along with offering a free month(started with no charging -> new batt -> still no charge -> replacement), so I can't complain there.

(I've got an Anker 3500mah batt + cover that should be here in tomorrow's mail(from Amazon) as this one unlike like MT TRULY DOES CHEW through the stock batt even with all radios/etc. off.)

 

[tcklord]

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.

Basically that is what happened, I had 3 charges actually from the same date 2 of 37.55 and one of 10. I wasn't even going to argue the 10 dollar one that much even though I did try in good faith to activate online. Like I would want to call a rep if I can do it online, lol. I even had my bank conference called in with Virgin Mobile tech support on Friday so the bank, CapitalOne in this case, could inform them they couldn't reverse the charge, I tried to give the rep another credit card and verbally agreed to let them make another charge on my account but they said they couldn't and I had to go buy the top up card. The further icing on the cake is that even with the dispute Virgin didn't get charged CapitalOne told me since it wasn't a lot of money they just eat the cost they don't try to recover funds from the merchant. So Virgin ended up getting paid 3 times for my month, 1 on my credit account, one I disputed on the account that CapitalOne paid, and then my top up card. They never actually told me to dispute but after they said they didn't see two charges of 37.55, I told them that was what I was going to do and they didn't say anything about it locking my account. Luckily on Monday morning they got to my email that I actually had to send to chargeback@virginmobileusa.com, the first tech told me to send it to fraudalert@virginmobileusa.com which was the incorrect address, and reactivated my account so I was only out of a phone Friday-Monday morning. I also forwarded my request to the SaveMe@thevirginangels.com which may have sped up the process. When I had talked to the rep on Friday that gave me the correct email address he said it would take 3-5 business days and I think I was lucky to get it working again the next business day. When it wasn't working I was unable to login to the website with my phone number and pin or do anything on the phone except on wifi. I would warn everyone to try everything you can to get the reps to refund you, don't do a charge back or your account will be locked.
Good luck to everyone, I am just glad to have my phone working again.

 

[trippin]

So I'm honestly glad I finally opened this thread, I have been ignoring it thinking it didn't affect me, but sure enough I looked at my bank statement, and I have two (completely different amounts) charged to me. I called, and explained, was on hold for 10 minutes, the guy came back and said my records showed I was charged twice but I was also refunded one charge (this all happened on the 8th, and he explained refunds take a few days to show up), I let him know I'm looking ONLINE at my statement and had nothing pending or posted for the refund.

He placed me on hold for another 10 minutes, then came back apologizing and said he went ahead and refunded the higher amount, and to check that by Friday it was refunded to me.

So here's hoping this guy knew what he was doing and I get my refund, I'm glad I didn't have a clueless or rude guy like a lot of you had.

Here's a tip, be nice to the guy, don't sound pissed, just explain the problem and if he says he can't find it, make sure to nicely let the guy know you'd like to speak to a manager to make sure you get this resolved. I didn't have to speak to a manager, but I've done tech support before, and if you were nice I would go out of my way to help you and try to bend rules or work on the call longer than I was supposed to (my job we had a 15 minute call limit, if the average call was over that we got in trouble).

Nicer you were, the more help you got. Be a dick and I would go out of my way to do nothing for you.

 

[lazybuntu]

I tried to activate my phone online and it failed. I received an email saying that it failed and that I needed to contact a live advisor.

After about 20-25 minutes on the phone (including being putting on hold four times), I was told that I would charged $10 from my Virgin Mobile account and that my new top up date would be July 10th.

Well, they charged my VM account $10 and then my credit card $37.10 ....

I'm still trying to get someone who speaks English well enough to help me through email.


Also, do you find it unfair that the iPhone will have a $30/month plan if you enable auto top-up? Why doesn't the Evo, which is the most expensive phone VM sells at the moment, have this option?

 

[ssjChris]

I always am nice to the VM people I talk to. But this support seems to be extremely dense. Foreign or not, I can barely stand them. They throw out so many empty promises that it isn't even funny, and it's very easy to get frustrated at them, yet what can ya do? They are the only ones that we can rely on until we can actually talk to someone that will actually do something for us.

That aside, I've been calling people in just the States for five years for my job, and I've never been mean to rude to anyone on the phone. Even to the people that treat me like trash or people that I know that probably won't help me (Dell I'm so looking at you), I still show respect to even chat support and leave them kind words as I know those jobs are usually pretty nasty. But the sad part of it all is that some people really don't care about your issue at VM and often leave us at a dead end.

As of this time, I have yet to see my refunded $25 but I'll wait a few more days as I'm in no desparate need to kill $25.

 

[cutterjohn]

I always am nice to the VM people I talk to. But this support seems to be extremely dense. Foreign or not, I can barely stand them. They throw out so many empty promises that it isn't even funny, and it's very easy to get frustrated at them, yet what can ya do? They are the only ones that we can rely on until we can actually talk to someone that will actually do something for us.

That aside, I've been calling people in just the States for five years for my job, and I've never been mean to rude to anyone on the phone. Even to the people that treat me like trash or people that I know that probably won't help me (Dell I'm so looking at you), I still show respect to even chat support and leave them kind words as I know those jobs are usually pretty nasty. But the sad part of it all is that some people really don't care about your issue at VM and often leave us at a dead end.

As of this time, I have yet to see my refunded $25 but I'll wait a few more days as I'm in no desparate need to kill $25.

*phppt* the second level "help" desk guy spoke better english than my neighbor, and it turned out he was Mexican, whilst I had guessed Philipino...

 

[ssjChris]

*phppt* the second level "help" desk guy spoke better english than my neighbor, and it turned out he was Mexican, whilst I had guessed Philipino...

I never said anything about them speaking bad English, lol. I just brought up the word "foreign" because I know a lot of people have a major problem with foreigners, especially in the States. I don't care if their English is perfect, I just want them to understand my issue, and to have them resolve it within a timely manner, as someone already said, you can be on the phone with Virgin for as long as an hour due to them throwing you to other people or higher ups.

Just last week, a guy put me on hold and five minutes later, a woman came in and assumed I had just called in so I had to reexplain my entire overbilling issue to her. I also called them yesterday concerning my Evo that I refused back on 4th (ordered on the 31st, cancelled on the 1st due to me buying one in store, and they shipped it on the 4th after me cancelling it), and they claimed it was still in my town as of yesterday. I call Fed Ex and they said Virgin has had it since the 8th, and my $317.99 was still never given back to me.

 

[texanator]

I got me this phone from BB (even got $80 from BB's buyback on Optimus V.. hehe), I knew about the double billing before hand, so I took it home to self activate using VM website.

Obviously I was going from $25/mo plan to $35/mo.

I tried to phone swap online. That failed. I had to call in. I got it activated and rep swore I would not be double billed $35+tax. He insisted charging $10 phone swap too... *sigh*. The next day american express showed TWO $35+tax charges and one $10+tax. So I opened a ticked from VM's website explaining the situation. Got a non-helping response about 30 hours later.
I replied to that one and also send an email to SaveMe@thevirginangels.com, they asked me to provide a screenshot from american express charges, I sent them the screenshot and asked to be refunded one of the $35+tax charges and the $10+tax charge (VM faq states phone swap is free when done online, but since the online did not work, I was forced to call in and in that case it should be free as well) ... and within 24 hours they refunded what I asked for.

in short, if you have this problem:
Do not dispute the charges on your credit card, get in touch with SaveMe@thevirginangels.com - worked like a champ for me. Disputing charges just gets your account disabled and more headaches.

 

[ssjChris]

Screenshoting our overcharges is a great idea. Guess I'll do the same. I still have gotten nothing back from VM as of this time.

EDIT: I just sent them a massive e-mail concerning my two ongoing issues (the $317.99 charge I should of been refunded for the phone they had sent back to them nearly two weeks ago and my overcharges for billing). I gave them a screenshot as well. I'm hoping to be refunded all of my money, if not I'm cancelling my service.

If that happens, is Boost any good? If not, who else is good in the prepaid market? I'm getting very fed up with VM as I don't think they will bother resolving my issues, but I guess we'll see.

 

[swerver32]

I see I was double+10 charged too. I was moving from a grandfathered plan, my wife was not and her swap went smoothly. I called and they denied it a bit but then credited me the $10. Just make it clear to them that you had no choice but to call to do the swap (which the website does say you will be charged for) because the free online swap wasn't working, so I shouldn't be charged. They are submitting some request to their financial dept. to check the double payment issue, and are supposed to get back to me in 1-4 days on that.

 

[KryptoNyte]

Virgin Mobile must have worked it out with my Credit Card company, as I see today that my account was finally credited. So, it does appear they are working on the issue.

 

[KryptoNyte]

I'll also mention that the credit card I had registered with them to auto-pay my monthly charges was removed from my account. I had to go in and re-add the credit card so that auto-pay would occur properly at the beginning of next month.