Not organized in billing
Dopple billing
No recordings of payment
Not willing to listen
Just terrible terrible service
Beaund words

I have a landline, so only use a cell phone for outgoing calls, in an emergency - like when I'm on the road or when Comcast screws up & my landline is inoperable. So, Virgin Mobile was the perfect choice for me. However, my lifestyle has changed somewhat & now I do get some (important) incoming calls to my cell phone. The cheap flip phone I got from Virgin Mobile worked OK, but at its highest volume, I could not hear it ring when I was driving or was anywhere there was background noise. Also, I decided I wanted texting capability. Because I'd been happy w/Virgin Moble, I checked their website for other plans & phones. I found my bill would increase substantially if I added text/data to my plan & of course, I'd need a new phone. So, I started i'net shopping. I found a plan w/another carrier that gave me fewer talk min. (which is fine for me) but also gave me the text/data capabilities I wanted for the same mo. Rate as I was currently being charged by Virgin Mobile! And they offered a great Smartphone at a reasonable price. So, I signed up w/them & bought their Smartphone. I did NOT cancel my Virgin Mobile service immediately, because I wanted to be sure I got good reception, no dropped calls & that I liked the new service & phone (I had a 30 day trial period). I used the new phone/service for just a couple of days & loved it, so I called Virgin Mobile to cancel that service - they do not allow you to cancel online, they make you call & sit on hold... for a long time, of course. The c. S. rep I got said I had to speak to an "Account Specialist" to cancel.

"Maria", the "Account Specialist" - who had such a heavy Indian accent & talked so fast that I had to ask her over & over & over to repeat herself & speak more slowly, telling her I could NOT understand her - did NOT want to cancel my service, until she had put me thru HELL. She tried to get me to answer questions about my new phone/service, which I refused to answer. I kept telling her I had a new phone, carrier & new phone number & that I just wanted to cancel Virgin Mobile, NOW - I had to repeat this about 6 times! Then she then offered me a "free phone"! By now was fed up & almost yelling, I told her if she did not cancel the service, immediately, I would contact my state's Atty. General & also would file a complaint w/the Better Bus. Bureau. Finally she agreed to cancel my service. When I asked about a credit for the balance of the billing cycle, after cancellation, she told me because she had cancelled my service, she was unable to get that info. As the credit would only be for a few days, I chose not to argue with her & just demanded a cancellation confirmation number, which she gave me.

I also told her there better NOT be another Virgin Mobile charge on my credit card bill & that I was done with Virgin Mobile FOREVER, because of HER!

I then sent an e-mail to Virgin Mobile, telling them that due to this experience, I would never do business w/them again! And I recommend you don't do business with them, either!

Background:

My fiancee and I finally left Verizon and went with Virgin. Why? Because Verizon would not let us get new phones without agreeing to a new, twice the price plan, with a two year contract, but, that's another review for another day.

We each now have Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk service, which if you're unfamiliar, is a prepaid plan with three options, each of which include unlimited text, web and data. We both happen to use the $25/mo plan, which gets you 300 anytime minutes as well. The other options are a $40/ plan that includes 1200 anytime minutes, and a $60/mo plan that gives you unlimited talk minutes. If you want unlimited use of Blackberry's BBM service, that's an extra $10/mo. I use this on my Blackberry curve, which at $35/mo, is cheap for a hybrid personal/business phone, and my fiancee has the Rumor Touch, so it's not applicable.

The basics (or, how it's different from Verizon, Sprint, etc):

-You own the phone from day one:

You buy the phone, examples of which you can find for as little as $5 at Target, or, as much as $200 for some of the current Android OS models in Best Buy. Want simple and cheap? Done. Fancy and costly? They've got those too. Unlike Verizon, if you want to upgrade the phone, you just buy one, and add it to your account. Try getting a new phone from Verizon without a new one or two year contract and you'll see how nice this aspect of Virgin is.

-You add funds, you don't get a bill:

When this feature works, it's nice (see below for when it doesn't). So you have a $25/mo plan. It starts on the 1st (or whenever you activate the phone). Every month, around the 25th or so, you add $25 to the account, and viola, uninterrupted service for a flat, no surprise fee. Virgin deducts the appropriate amount from your available balance on the specified date. The unlimited text, web and data work, although there are rumors of a 5GB cap on data, I've never run into anything. The minutes are accurate too. If you don't talk much, like we don't, this plan is perfect, and if you do, spring for the $60/mo plan, which is $19.99 cheaper than Sprint's offering as well (for why that's funny, read on). You can add money several ways, credit/debit card, bank account, and my favorite, Top Up cards. There are no taxes on the account, unless your state charges taxes. If your state does, order the Top Up cards for the account from a state that doesn't, and viola, true flat rate cell service. Got a Target card? You can save 5% off of the Top-Up cards at Target using the card, making the actual cost to add $25.00 to your account about $23.50.

-About the service:

All of the phones available now (as of 05/16/11) run on Sprint's 3G network. Why? Here's the funny part about the cost of the unlimited plan: Virgin is owned by Sprint, making their $60/mo plan a steal compared to Sprint's $79.99/mo. There are no 4G capable phones being sold by Virgin yet (coming in August I've heard). So, if you want to know if you'll have service somewhere, check out Sprint's phone and 3G coverage maps. We live in New England, and so far, only in the Allagash area of Maine were we without coverage (there is no cell service there, only Satellite). There are no free minutes, unless you get the $60 plan. If you make a call, that call comes off of your minute balance, always.

Now, the not so good part.

There a a few known issues with Virgin that seem like your average, money grubbing corporate scam type issues:

-Potential for theft/loss of funds:

I received a charge for $0.15 for "XTRAS" on my statement the second month I had service. I called, and asked how an unlimited plan could bill me for "XTRAS" that I didn't knowingly choose. Five calls and several emails later, the funds were returned, with no explanation. I know that $0.15 is a pittance, but I was concerned that there was no reason for it, or, explanation for why it happened.

It turned out I should have been concerned. Two months later, the same thing happened to my fiancee. This was a problem however, because of when it happened relative to when her bill was due. The $0.15 was deducted from her balance the same night that her payment of $25.00 should have gone through. This made her available balance $24.85, and meant she did not have enough in her account for her new month. She went without service for three days while Virgin lied to us, and bounced us from one call center to another.

In the meantime, I searched online for "Virgin Mobile XTRAS Fraud" and found literally thousands of complaints dating back to 2005. This suggests that not only is this a known issue that should have been addressed years ago, but that Virgin routinely uses this tactic to generate additional, fraudulent, revenue. I finally got sick of dealing with Virgin's inept India based customer service, and being told things like: "it's a daily web use fee" (on an unlimited web use plan?) or, "it's a fee everyone pays" (that just appeared out of nowhere, and has no attached explanation?), or, receiving email responses that were so grammatically butchered, that I was unsure of their intent. So I called the CEO's office of customer care for Sprint, and filed a complaint, and received a response the next day, from someone who spoke English, and was competent.

I highly recommend that if you have any billing issue, or any major issue really, you skip the regular 800 number, and go with Sprint or Virgin Mobile Executive CS (do a google search, the number changes every six months or so). The problem was resolved, and I was told it won't happen again. (It better not, because it will cost Sprint a fortune if it does; a benefit of having a lawyer in the family).

Summary: A cheap alternative to some of the major players, based on a fairly solid network. However, keep an eye out for added fees, as this company will steal your money if you let them (just like 99% of the large companies out there)