Virgin passwords & SIM not recognised by phone

lr1277

Hi. Hope you can help. I am asking as I am tech support for my parents.
My parents have all Virgin services ie home phone, tv and mobile phones. My mum’s PAYG SIM is not being recognised by its admittedly old phone. However to get support from Virgin, we need to know the password. Is the required password the same as their password for their broadband and tv? Or is it a standalone password? Not that they can find either password. They have written the password(s) down but not in an organised fashion so cannot be found. I have looked on the internet and apparently there is a process for resetting the password, but I have not gone through it yet because I don’t know what information is required nor do I know if it resets the password for Virgin or just the mobile password.
Secondly, any thought on how to fix the SIM not being recognised by the phone? Is it a case of new SIM, new phone or something else? 

Many thanks 

Neil_Jones

What phone do you have?  Certain (really old) phones have issues with Virgin's mobile network.

If you have access to another SIM-free phone, stick the Virgin SIM in there and see what happens. That'll tell you where the problem is.  Note that PAYG sims do expire if not used after (typically) 180 days.

Grey_Critic

Virgin no longer do PAYG

lr1277

Neil_Jones said:

What phone do you have?  Certain (really old) phones have issues with Virgin's mobile network.

If you have access to another SIM-free phone, stick the Virgin SIM in there and see what happens. That'll tell you where the problem is.  Note that PAYG sims do expire if not used after (typically) 180 days.

Thank you for your question and suggestions.

In terms of the phone make and model, sorry no idea, I would have to find out. The problem is that every other phone we have takes a smaller SIM. Because this phone is so old, I think it takes the full size SIM.

I did wonder if the credit on the SIM had run out or expire as you suggest. But until we sort out the password, we can't talk to Virgin to find out the state of play.

lr1277

Grey_Critic said:

Virgin no longer do PAYG

Thank you. Neither my mum nor I knew this. But I see that the service operates till Jan 2022. So it is time to have a discussion about the way forward.

lr1277

A related problem to the SIM, which may not may not be significant, is that because the phone can't see the Virgin network, we can't call Customer Service from the phone.

flaneurs_lobster

If the PAYG phone was unused (for o/going call or text) for more than 180 days then the SIM (and the number associated with it) may well have been cancelled, along with any PAYG credit. Are there any texts on the phone that might indicate that this has happened? Is the number unobtainable if you call it?

If the service is dead then there is no point trying to access the SIM's account, which will be difficult without the SIM being active (to receive verification calls/texts) or without the account password. Companies are (rightly) being careful about swapping or changing numbers between SIMS to avoid facilitating fraud. Time was that you could go into a Virgin Media store with the phone and id and ask for help, AFAIK all such stores are now closed. 

Le_Kirk

lr1277 said:

My parents have all Virgin services ie home phone, tv and mobile phones. My mum’s PAYG SIM is not being recognised by its admittedly old phone. However to get support from Virgin, we need to know the password. Is the required password the same as their password for their broadband and tv? Or is it a standalone password? Not that they can find either password. They have written the password(s) down but not in an organised fashion so cannot be found. 

Mrs Le_Kirk had this problem last week, trying to change from Virgin PAYG to a contract.  All seemed to go well and the text(s) that she kept receiving from Virgin stated that all would be done quickly and smoothly, the number could be kept and credit would be allocated to the new account.  Only trouble was, whilst it was quick it wasn't smooth.  The phone would not make calls, send texts or receive data.  Apart from that it was fine!  That was when the fun started, phoning or using chat required an input of some letters from a security question that was allegedly selected when the phone was purchased, it is not the same as any other password and not the one for the phone on-line account!  Since the phone was originally purchased over 10 years ago, no security question/answer could be remembered (actually doubt one was selected).  Help came in the form of the Virgin Community Forum.  It took the adviser all day Saturday and some part of Sunday to sort it.  Mrs Le_Kirk now has a working phone with calls, text and data, credit transferred to the new account and some new security questions which is what they were NOT passwords.  The community forum lady was very helpful and tenacious.