I am an European tourist in the US. I bought a phone with Virgin mobile and my phone number was 914-299-7305. My first bad experience was finding out that I don't have a Virgin mobile coverage at the address where I was staying, although I was assured by the person who sold me the phone that this would not be a problem. But I was OK with that, because I had my European phone connected to AT&T and I was reachable. I used the Virginmobile phone to make outgoing calls primarily. But then on 7/7 my phone got suspended. From Virginmobile support they told me that I was using 2 different credit cards to top-up. Of course I did - I replied - This is because your system does not recognize my own credit card (probably because it's European) and this is why I'm asking friends to top up for me. Then they told me that one of the credit cards owners asked for a refund. I called both persons right away. This was simply not true. Nobody had asked for any refund whatsoever. I called Virginmobile support again and said that this was not true and that my account should be reinstated. The operator said that in order to get my account reinstated, I should fax a copy of both credit card to a fax-number or an email. This was possible for one card, but was impossible for the other as the other person is on vacation and is away from any faxes or the Internet. Furthermore, this is not my problem - I explained. Finally they promised to reinstate my phone within 4 hours. As you may expect, and I wouldn't be writing this otherwise, this did not happen. On the next day I called again and after being forwarded and redirected I ended up talking to an account supervisor. We argued for about 30mins she kept on telling me that I had to lose 2 hours of my time to deal with paperwork and I kept on explaining that what I did was not illegal in any way and that Virginmobile had absolutely no right to suspend my account and deny to deliver the service which I paid for. Finally the connection broke up because of bad coverage.
I am not a conflict person, but what Virginmobile is doing is simply unfair. From a customer's point of view they are taking money and then finding a way to cut and refuse to deliver the service which you charged for. And everybody keeps saying that it's the customer's right that matters. Right now I am left with the following questions, which nobody answered:
1. Even if we assume that suspending a phone because of credit card inconsistency is OK, then why did not Virginmobile reinstate my account after finding out that there is no problem?
2. Why did the Virginmobile live advisor lie to me that one of the credit card owners claimed illegal transaction and asked for refund?
3. Why did the next Virginmobile live advisor lie to me that my phone would be reinstated in 4 hours (although I assume she did that with all best purpose to truly reinstate my account)
4. Why does Virginmobile require absolutely useless paperwork provided that no problem is present?
5. Finally why does Virginmobile charge customers for a service that is later canceled with an illogical explanation? Is this not equal to taking money and not delivering service from a customer's point of view?
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