I just purchased an iPhone from Virgin mobile on a really attractive, non-contract plan...and I came home to read reviews but I'm only seeing bad things. Fortunately it can still be refunded, but I was wondering if anyone has had any experiences with them...

I don't like relying on these review sites, because its very likely the only people that will review the service is those that have major issues with it. So I'd appreciate any experiences that anyone has had with them!

lol whats the point of reading reviews after you buy it?

anyways ive been with virgin for almost 2 years, its okay for the most part, the only bad thing is i dont get any reception in mdcl for some reason

Originally Posted by SciMania

I just purchased an iPhone from Virgin mobile on a really attractive, non-contract plan...and I came home to read reviews but I'm only seeing bad things. Fortunately it can still be refunded, but I was wondering if anyone has had any experiences with them...

I don't like relying on these review sites, because its very likely the only people that will review the service is those that have major issues with it. So I'd appreciate any experiences that anyone has had with them!

The only problem I have with virgin is that the reception in some building basements is non-existent. But that may be because of my phone.

I mostly like them because they have pretty cheap plans and discounts.
After my first year with Virgin, they gave me a 40$ credit. They also gave me a 20$ credit for "inconvenience" when they switched from Virgin to Bell's system (My phone was down for like 2 hours between 3am and 5am). And I also get a random 5$ discount every month.

They are pretty helpful when you call or go to one of their booths (there's one in limeridge).

For Virgin, the long-distance works as follows (apparently it's different for different companies):

If you are in your local city (the town your number belongs to):
Incoming calls are local
Outgoing calls to the local city is local, outgoing calls outside your local city is long-distance

If you are outside your local city:
Incoming calls are long-distance
Outgoing calls to the city you are currently in are local, outgoing calls outside of the city you are currently in are long-distance.

Originally Posted by Jamalf

lol whats the point of reading reviews after you buy it?

anyways ive been with virgin for almost 2 years, its okay for the most part, the only bad thing is i dont get any reception in mdcl for some reason

Well I stil have 30 days to return it, so that's why. I went with the intention of getting a plan with telus but this one was just a lot better..

I've been with them for almost 2 years. I've been really satisfied with their service. Customer support is awesome. Their prices aren't too bad either.

I've been with Virgin for a couple of years and I really have nothing but good things to say. Great customer service, I've never had a problem with reception, and I think their pricing and plans are as good as any for smartphones. There was a period of about a week where I was unable to receive any texts but that was after a major storm on the eastern seaboard which apparently knocked out a lot of their equipment, so I can't really blame them too much for that. Other than that one hiccup, flawless IMO. Very happy with them.

Yep i've been with them for 2 years. good prices and good customer service. no real major issues to report

once they tried charging me like $20 extra for some service charge or some BS like that, i argued with them for a long time and lots of different people and they ended up dropping the charges

1) Virgin Mobile SMS texting is not compatible with MSN, etc. here in Canada. (This is because Virgin, for absolutely no reason, filters out such SMS texts to the required email address) The person on the other end has no way of knowing whether or not the messages get delivered, as there is no "failed message" notification (it sends, then gets filtered before reaching the phone).

2) Virgin regularly charges me for UNANSWERED incomingcalls (particularly, long distance ones) for an entire minute of conversation.

3) Their "local calling zones" are completely inaccurate. I got a Burlington number because I was assured that I could make local calls to both, Hamilton and Oakville (and anywhere in between). Turns out pretty much any call from Hamilton or Oakville is flagged as long distance.


As for the service itself, it's fine. I just don't like getting charged for no reason.

Wait... what's #1 about? I've never had the #2 problem you mentioned and I have the unlimited talk/text to 10 national numbers so I've never noticed #3 either... but I'm confused about #1 :p

I can pull up one of my latest bills and confirm that I'm being charged for unanswered, incoming long distance calls. (They say 00:00 and charge me 14 cents each) Which I get a lot of, since I'm frequently called from Oakville, and Hamilton.

#1 is saying that any attempt to use MSN Mobile (or as far as I'm aware, any other IM service) which converts online messages to text messages will not work on Virgin Mobile in Canada. This is because Virgin Mobile filters emails going to (#######@vmobile.ca), which is what you need to accomplish this.


EDIT: Since switching to FIDO (in particular, with per second billing) I haven't had any of these issues. But the local regions are smaller.

Ah. I didn't even know that there were services like that which used your SMS-to-email-gateway. I've used that before to send people SMS from my computer while my phone was dead or something, it just never occurred to me that there might be actual services using this system lol.

My boyfriend is with Virgin Mobile, and it's okay. We both use the phone, so we stretch his plan kind of thin.
It's $35 a month, and he gets:
- 50 free local minutes per month
- free local calling on weekdays after 7pm, and all day on weekends
- 50 free outgoing texts (free incoming texts)
- call display and voice mail

The only problems:
- it's a 2 year contract. He regrets signing such a long contract, especially for a plan that isn't that amazing.
- we constantly get telemarketer calls. We have NEVER given out the number to anyone besides friends and family, so I'm suspicious of whether or not Virgin has sold the number to telemarketer companies

We've never contacted customer support, so I can't say either way about that. The service is good though, no dropped calls or anything.

never been with a virgin


mobile messaging plan, only Rogers and Wind. A few people I've heard who had virgin either had no complaints, or the problems were random. See if you can unlock it and go elsewhere with your phone! (or get a decent phone, i.e. android/bb)

I had to come on here and update my post.

We just starting problems with the phone tonight. It's a touch screen, and the screen is barely working. He called in to the customer service an hour ago to see if he could get another phone (equal or lesser value) to replace the one he has, and the customer service rep told him that his warranty coincidentally ended 3 days ago (he's in a 2 year contract, but the hardware warranty is only 360 days). He said he needed to get a new phone, and they said he would have to pay $20 per month to get out of his contract - which would equal $240. They said they would cut that fee in half, as long as he bought a Blackberry and locked him into a 3 year contract of $50+ per month.

Basically, the customer service was useless and just tried to get more money out of him than to actually fix his phone. So now he is stuck with a broken phone for another year of his contract and they aren't offering anyway to solve the problem, unless he buys a Blackberry under a 3 year contract. Ridiculous.