Incident = I had two pre paid cell phones for my children ages 12 and 13. On March 2 I called Virgin Mobile to top up and I asked the rep to STOP auto top ups form the phones and she said she would. April, May and June we were billed almost $2,119 in charges that NEVER showed up in the payment history online at virginmobile.com! In the payment history the charges were only for the 6.95 month charge and occasional $20.00 top up and each month saying we needed to top up MORE. My bank statements continued to show debits sometimes 10 per day. After many attempts to speak to a Live Agent at Virgin mobile over several weeks, and dozens of hang up by the reps, I was told that my request in March to disable auto top ups was not processed because the account manager said they tried but that because I had a card on file to cover the monthly $6.95 charge they could not disable handset top ups but they never told me that at the time I called they said it was taken care of and a card would have to be used with V key code to top up! Consequently it was march after I called that the charges began mounting up. I don't know what happened to the phones (one was lost at school and I didn't know about it), or how we can prove we didn't make the calls and we didn't authorize payments but Virgin Mobile has a $49.95 unlimited plan and Virgin Mobile should have at least alerted me by email that these excessive charges were being billed and allowed me to switch over but the payment history on their website did not show all these excessive payments which was over $944.00 in one month and 44 top ups in one month.
I' am filing a dispute with Visa and anywhere else I can! This type of billing is abusive and each charge should have had to have my personal authorization and a pass code prior to topping up more minutes. The method used by Virgin mobile to pay for minutes is flawed and buyers beware the online records are inaccurate., also no paper bills are ever sent and difficult to retrieve past records. Customer Service with Virgin mobile is deliberately poor, including rude reps that actually disconnect or feign bad phone connection no matter what phone you call back on. When calling customer Service it is almost impossible to speak to a live person and the auto speaker does not allow for the caller to ask for live agent in a normal fashion. Virgin Mobile appears to make it very difficult to get customer service on purpose and refuse to make any adjustments. I called Virgin Mobile USA 6 times on June 13. Each time I called Virgin Mobile, I had an extremely difficult time getting a live Representative and each time I did begin speaking with a Representative I was told they could not hear me or they disconnected me. The last time I called I spoke with Jackie at Virgin Mobile and Jackie told me after checking my records that she saw that I called on march 2 to make a $20.00 Top p and I had requested that both the Virgin Mobile phones would not allow auto top ups from the handset phone but that later the floor manager over rode the request without me being notified.
It is ironic that from the time I called on march 2 to date, the top ups began automatically. The live agent at Virgin Mobile said the I had authorized the top up from the handset and I did not! I was never notified of these excessive top ups as a responsible phone company would do to see if the phones were stolen or if I would like to switch to the company's unlimited $49.95 plan. No calls or messages were sent tome to notify me that my request to not allow handset top up was over ridden No responsible adult would have authorized all of these top ups especially since a unlimited plan was available. I have no problem paying the $49.95 monthly unlimited plan as a point of recourse with Virgin Mobile but I absolutely have a problem with being charged over $2,000 for the same minutes I did not authorize. I could not even speak to a live agent without my V Code password, so why would Virgin Mobile allow top ups without the same security feature? This is an abusive and usury method of hijacking ones bank account and I fell it is a disastrous policy for consumers.
* july 20 my bank notified me that on the day i had to close my account (6/15/09) to avoid virgin mobile from withdrawing more funds, 5 more virgin mobile charges appeared for $21.95 each. I had to file another dispute today with visa. Apparently the new charges ddi not show up on the same day they were chargesd / same day i had to close the account. Virgin mobile deactivated my accounts and i cannot view the statements online now. The batteries were removed a week before so i know that no activity was made on the phones!
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