Changing over to Virgin Mobile

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4cer

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Hey guys, me and my mom are thinking of changing over to Virgin mobile from Vodacom.

So i need to know if there are any serious issues or any of that, cause obviously she needs permanent up time :)

oh and also those R300 P.m contracts where you get R300 airtime and unlimited sms, what is the total monthly cost, like what do they charge for extra, like itemised billing and that.

And are th SMS's truly unlimited, and if you take a contract can they just end that at any time... like end the promotion...

thanks guys
 
Virgin rocks :D They just don't support 3G or any of that. I think their best internet service is "Edge" at the moment. Which is fine if you don't need it, I guess. I'm with Vodacom, other half is with Virgin. The unlimited SMSs are permanent. Although, they do caution you against "abusing it" in the Terms of Service - I guess like mass SMSing constantly or something.

I'm not sure about the itemised billing since everything gets e-mailed to us. I know the last one we got was basically just how many calls you made, what the total costs were, etc. But I'm sure you can request for the paper all-in-one jobbie...

Only problem we've had with Virgin is that dealing with some of their staff is... trying. They tend to assume you don't know how to use your phone :)
 
well i have 4 meg so not too phased about 3G support hey.. just need calls to always work and to have good coverage and that.

lol, ok.. well i also want my bill e-mailed.. but just want to know what a say for example R300 contract really costs :) Like vodacom weekend everyday at R120 but then plus this plus that ends up being R160, and you have to take those extras.
 
I see...

I just hunted down the PDF of the bill. They didn't add any extra costs to it, if that helps? It's all-inclusive. The only thing is as I said - they seem to let you make voice calls outside of your airtime balance up to a specified limit, depending on whether or not you ask them to remove/lower that limit. That will obviously be added to your monthly bill. Beyond that, I don't see anything else billed for.
 
My experience with Virgin is quite different and so bad I rate them lower than Nashua and Autopage.
Network quality sucks if you ever use data, while it is 50c a meg, it only works half the time.
The 'service' from the call centre is the worst I have experienced in my entire life - I called twenty times over 6 months (had a lot of problems) and each staff member proved to be more incompetent than the next. If you have a data problem (like say they're stealing your data or you need something simple like settings for a new phone), then they can't help you (lost R100 to them for calls I never made, because they 'accidentally' attached my number to someone else's contract). If you think the other networks are scamming you Virgin's twice as bad. My mother accidentally entered the wrong pin and then the wrong puk number, their sim cards don't have a second puk number, so they told her to throw it away because it couldn't be saved (lost another R100).
The free SMS thing doesn't include per second billing. So unless your needs couldn't be served by an SMS bundle with one of other networks, then maybe, personally I wouldn't waste my time.
They don't have 3G and they never will (that's Cell C's decision) so if you need it then don't bother.
To be sure I tried them again last month and nothing's changed, I threw my sim card away after a day.
If you need to be able to end your contract at any time, wait a month of two thanks to ICASA regulations all networks will offer similar services.
Seriously don't waste your time with this network unless you like frustration and poor service. PS: This was the first time I realised a seemingly lower price just isn't worth it if you get service this bad.
 
4cer said:
Hey guys, me and my mom are thinking of changing over to Virgin mobile from Vodacom.

So i need to know if there are any serious issues or any of that, cause obviously she needs permanent up time :)

oh and also those R300 P.m contracts where you get R300 airtime and unlimited sms, what is the total monthly cost, like what do they charge for extra, like itemised billing and that.

And are th SMS's truly unlimited, and if you take a contract can they just end that at any time... like end the promotion...

thanks guys
Click to expand...

Consider that you'll get the same phone for R150 or less on MTN, Vodacom, or Cell C. No per second billing on that Virgin contract (same rates though). I think if they end the promotion they'd probably let you keep it for the duration of your contract (and that's how they sold it to you, so the ASA would back you up, but keep the ad just in case). If you need flexibility go for a Mychoice or Control Chat.
 
I agree that the call centre is even worse than Telkom's, and that's a mean feat to achieve in any event.

That said, 4cer, it seems you want to do number porting and then use a "contract" service for the unlimited sms's. As good as that sounds, I think Virgin Mobile is way too short sighted to give you that service.

They will most likely tell you it's only available if you take out a new number and new contract and phone. I doubt you'll be able to do it just by porting ;)

Your choice at the end of the day.

I'm still with Virgin, albeit an unhappy customer. But even Vodacom or MTN won't offer me the cheap sms's that I get through Virgin at the moment (on a prepaid plan), so I have the right to be vocal about them, because I use them and frankly, if you can afford something better, then go with something else ;)
 
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