NTL/Virgin Media mobile deal gone wrong

porcelain82

I am disgusted and angry, so decided to rant here rather than bend off the ears of my family any further. Hopefully this way I'll get some (better) advice and warn some other people too.

December 2006 I saw the deal that Virgin were offering to ntl customers - 300 mins and 300 texts a month for £10. As I already subscribed to phone, tv and broadband with ntl I was entitled to a free phone - the Lobster 544. I was coming up to the end of my contract with 3 and this seemed like a good deal. As 3 could not match the deal, they offered me my current plan (500 mins and 100 texts a month) at 10 months free on a 12 month contract to keep as a back-up phone. I agreed as this meant my parents could use the phone for an equivalent of £5 a month. And all was right with the world, or so I thought .....

I was wrong ....

Less than a week after receiving my Lobster phone from Virgin I experienced a fault. I phoned and the mobile was replaced swiftly. A few days later another fault. And then another and then a fourth phone arrives and won't even charge. At this point I was offered a different handset of equal retail value due to the hassle I had suffered. I stupidly declined as I liked the features of the Lobster and hoped my run of broken phones would end.

It didn't.

So today I ring up about the 6th broken phone I have received from Virgin in less than 2 months and I ask to have the phone replaced with a different handset as offered before. At first this is agreed to but then after 30 mins on the phone (mostly on hold while the operator filled in forms or contacted other teams) I was told that no, that's wrong. I am actually not entitled to an exchange as my phone was a "gift". This means that because I did not pay for it I can only exchange it for a Nokia 1101, which is quite frankly a joke.

I am really angered by the service I've received here and the money I have spent on calls and taking time off work to wait for the exchange phone is not any less because I didn't pay £30 for the phone in the first place. Although they class it as a gift I could have stayed with my old mobile provider at half the price if I had not wanted a new phone. I feel that I am being wrongly treated but I'm not sure where I stand as they have offered a different handset, just one that is worth "nothing" rather than the as-new value of my current phone - £30.

Apologies for the length of this, I guess it's the anger. :mad: This experience has put me off Virgin Media as a whole and I am even considering cancelling all of my services with them. I have the address to complain to them, but would appreciate any advice for doing this. Do I have a case to complain about? Or am I over-reacting?

anti-shock

You could always contact Otelo as Virgin is a member and run this past them you can find some info at https://www.otelo.org.uk they have some templates for your complaint or you could give them a call .
Hope this helps .

epz_2

firstly the nokia is amazing 12 days battery life and fast as hell i love it and my works phone is a £500 pda that does more than most people will ever need.

second you paid !!!!!! all for the phone, arent tied to any contract so are free to leave at any moment and are getting a great deal with no stupid cash back offers, forms to fill in or call callcenters to bother. if you dont want to keep the deal, lose you job etc then you can leave at any moment.

oh and thirdly lobsters were always poor quality its because they are realy just rebranded korean phones not properly addapted to our network, when i phoned them up they had sold out so offered either a lg or the nokia. i asked for the lg but it was also out of stock so i figured i would take the nokia, its free and i wanted the deal not the phone. likely what happened is you have been given a couple of duff phones and the rest will be poor quality refurbs cause they are out of stock. its likely they only have the nokias now and phrased it in a way that upset you, good old ntl culture creeping in.

if you want to chance your arm you could offer to pay a bit if they discoun one of their payg mobiles a bit but frankly virginmobile isnt setup properly enough yet to start competing with all the varity of deals the other networks do.

hopefully the woulnt try as i hate all the cashback and free tv deals, i get the impression that the deal is aimed more at people like me who were happy with payg and never spent that much but couldnt be bothered sighning up to some weird and wonderfull casback 12 months free scheme.

superjaggybunnet

nice post epz!

You could also just put the Virgin sim into your old contract phone and put their phone in the bin or on ebay. Someone might give you a quid for it!!

chillerman

Know what you mean about this deal. I got it for my 13 yr old daughter with the Lobster phone. I to had to send it back about 5 times, and then they to told me that I could only have 1 type to be exchanged. After telling them that I was not happy with that and some hassle I was offered a Nokia 1112 or 2310. Seimans AX72, Sonny Ericson J100I, Motorola C139 and a BENQ Seimens E61. She went for the BENQ to keep her going till her b/day and to be honest she likes it better than the Lobster. I also asked for credit for the hassle I had concerning having to wait in and not being able to use the phone. I managed to get £10!. As a last thought, on my original invoice I was charged £2.99 for my original phone and not a gift as I kept being informed. As I said to the guy I think my invoice would stand up better in a court of law than his computor records!!!

porcelain82

Thanks chillerman, it's helpful to know that there is hope of a different phone and that someone agrees I'm not over-reacting.

I don't think the deal was that good without a phone included and the hassle at having these phones replaced repeatedly is ridiculous. I'm not prepared to just shrug and throw the phone away. Especially as I was told twice that I could choose from three different Motorola handsets and then this was retracted.

And thanks anti-shock, I'll check out those templates.

GeoThermal

while I sympathise with you, I can't agree with your comment that without the phone it is not that good a deal. Does any other sim only deal come close?

I do hope they resolve the situation for you though.