Trying to cancel a Virgin Pay Monthly contract due to loss of signal

sjk402

I have been a Virgin Mobile customer for over 5 years. During these 5 years I have experienced excellent network coverage within my home and anywhere I have travelled around the country.

However, as of the beginning of May 2011, my phone has lost all network coverage at my home address and other areas within my postcode, but I still receive a signal when I travel out of my postcode. As I use my handset 95% of the time within my local area this service is now inadequate and has caused great inconvenience for the last 4 months. Just to make this really clear this is not a case where my signal is bad within my home that can be solved by standing close to a window, it is a case of loss of all signal in a large area of my postcode, of which was perfect only 4 months ago.

Speaking to the customer service and technical teams at Virgin Mobile I have tried all of the following to resolve the problem: Inserting my SIM into another handset; Inserting another Virgin SIM into my handset; Using a brand new SIM; Hard reboot of the handset; Searching for networks manually; Providing 5 examples of loss of signal (twice). None of these approaches have helped. I have spoken to the customer service and technical teams a total of 14 times over a period of three months and the main consensus seems to be that there are problems with some of the cells in the area however the cell my phone connects to appears to fine, despite my clear loss of signal. I am also told regularly that an investigation is ongoing and should be fixed with 5 to 7 working days – it is now 4 months since I reported the problem. A major frustration is that each time (14 times) I am expected to explain exactly what my problem is, I then receive the same advice that I have already taken and tried, and then I am promised the same deadline which is inevitably broken.

As I have lost all confidence in Virgin Mobile resolving my loss of signal I have had no option but to contact the complaints department. On 17th June I sent a letter of complaint to the published address from the website, after one month I had still received no reply so I phoned customer services to inquire of its whereabouts. I was told that they had never received the letter. How convenient. I then send the same letter to the published email address, once again after one month – no reply (OFCOM state a reasonable response time is a maximum of 28 days). After 37 days I eventually receive an email full of apologies – this does not help my loss of signal though. Now that I finally had a contact number for the complaints department I could discuss my problem perhaps with someone who could actually help.

Again as I have no confidence in Virgin Mobile ever fixing my problem, and after the delayed action from the complaints department I think it is reasonable and fair that I have the right to cancel the remainder of my contract or I am credited the remaining months of my contract. So far the I have been credited 2 months service (an admission in my eyes that Virgin Mobile or T-mobile are accountable for my loss of signal) however it has been 4 months that I have been unable to adequately use my minutes, texts and data that I pay £25.53 a month for. I have cooperated with everyone in the Virgin ‘team’ patiently for too long now with no results, it is time now that Virgin Mobile allows me to terminate the remainder of my contract as this is the only fair and simple solution.

My situation at present is that I am waiting to speak to a member of the Chief Executive Department in a few days time to discuss my problem, hopefully he can be more helpful.

Sorry that was quite long, well done if you have got this far. Has anyone out there had similar problems? Discuss.

moneysaver

I am with Virgin mobile & have been for more than 10yrs. I live in a small village & moved here 18mths ago. The signal in & around my house since I moved here has been very low but I was coping with it. Over the last month the signal has been nil or non existent, but is ok when I am travelling.

My wife is on O2 network & the signal is fine all over the house. I have tried my sim in a few phones & get the same result. I am not going to go through all the hassle with Virigin as you did because I think they(T-Mobile) have changed something to do with the signal on the mobile masts near to where I live & they are not going to admit that are they.

I have ordered a free payg sim from Tesco mobile(not arrived yet) to try it first as they are on O2 network, if the signal is as good as on my wife's phone I will then go on contract with them. Tesco have a deal that suits me at the moment.

I have got a monthly rolling contract with Virgin & would like to keep my number. So I hope I can get a pac code from Virgin without any probs.



Moneysaver

moose77

Hi,

We have had a similar issue with Virgin mobile. My wife was encouraged to switch from her old LG to a new Blackberry ( with 24 month contract ) on the basis that the signal would ' be greatly improved' with a Blackberry because we have had signal issues at home for over 2 years.
The new phone arrived and you guessed it, no improvement. As my wife uses the phone at home for the majority of calls, this has been a complete waste of time and money, now Virgin will not release the contract without a buy out of over £300 and will not release my wife's mobile phone number, which had been transfered over from Orange.

We have called the Virgin customer dept. at least 10 times, and we have had 10 difference answers. However the outcome is still the same, we will not be released from the contract, without penalty - even though the signal we are supplied with from Virgin is not fit for purpose !!!!

At our wits end with Virgin, I hope lightning strikes twice !!!!!

moneysaver

Just called Virgin mobile & got my Pac code no prob over the phone. I will be switching to Tesco mobile asap.





Moneysaver

arryace_2

i am also waiting for a member of the CEO's team to look into the same issue as well as a disputed bill.
they have told me the problem is they have no control over the network.
also the network provider can decide who gets coverage when coverage is limited (apparently)

from next month they will be using the Orange network as well but it's too late i don't want to be a Virgin Mobile customer any longer as their customer service is as bad as their network coverage

gjchester

Unfortunalty no network guarantees a signal in all locations at all times and this will be in the T&C you signed when you joined.

This may not be what you want to hear but you are stuck with the contract unless you can prove that it's caused by negligence on the part of Virgin. It's most likely a network mast has died or been decommisioned, but agaan without knowing all the details you don't have a lost to go on other than the goodwill of the network.

Good Luck

sjk402

UPDATE...

Just received a phone call from the CEO's office letting me know that they will allow me to cancel the rest of my contract (14 months remaining) effective immediately. For people in a similar situation DO NOT GIVE UP and give the CEO an email - they sorted it out within minutes compared to months pleading with customer services/technical team/complaints departments.

Time to go shopping around for a new contract. Finally!