Virgin Mobile greeted with mixed feelings
Virgin Mobile’s entry was widely welcomed by telecoms consumers with many stating that they felt that this new provider is what is needed to shake up the market. Since then the reports and feedback regarding Virgin have been lukewarm, with various articles pointing out that the promised savings are not as substantial as they initially appeared.
Many new Virgin Mobile subscribers are also complaining about both the service levels and support from the new cellular provider. E-mails from Virgin Mobile subscribers to MyADSL suggest that the service levels are not where it should be.
Recent postings in the MyADSL Forums points to problems with using the new Virgin Mobile SIM’s for data services. Subscribers are also complaining about the poor customer service levels where the company does not get back to them as promised.
Comments like: “So I have waited two weeks. I have emailed the data services email address. No reply. That’s not good enough,” and “They just don’t get back to me….maybe they don’t have the answers themselves,” are now starting to appear in the Virgin Mobile forum.
On the HelloPeter consumer website there is also a mixture of compliments and complaints. With 43 compliments and 29 complaints its ‘balance’ is in the black, but it is clear that all customers are not entirely happy with the service they receive.
Nicholas Maweni, Virgin Mobile’s ‘Public Pleaser’, denied that they are experiencing any problems. Maweni said that he is unaware of any of the problems mentioned by MyADSL members.
This response from Virgin’s ‘Public Pleaser’ is rather disheartening since another Virgin Mobile spokesperson confirmed that they are experiencing teething problems and that they are addressing the issue.
“Correct in saying we are having a few technical difficulties with billing, however we are doing everything possible to correct the problem,” according to the Virgin Mobile statement on the HelloPeter website.
It looks like Richard Branson and Virgin Mobile’s promise of great customer service and that they ”will attend to our [Virgin’s] customers’ needs in a matter of seconds” may be just another set of empty promises, something that consumers in the local telecoms arena have become accustomed to.
Virgin Money
Complaints about Virgin Money have also been plentiful on the HelloPeter website, ranging from Virgin’s inability to deliver services, poor customer support to problems with taking hold of cards from the courier service.
A Virgin Money spokesperson told MyADSL that they are well aware of the problems, and are putting measures in place to address these problems.
According to Virgin Money the overwhelming response to their product is the main cause of the delayed service delivery, but that the unanticipated high number of Internet applications aggravated the problems. Virgin anticipated that around 15% of the applications would be made online, but currently around 50% of applicants are using this route.
Virgin said that the current delivery time of a card is around 2 weeks, but that this time will definitely decrease significantly soon.
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