Originally Posted by Kathy2

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.

Go into a Virgin mobile store! Going in person to complain usually yields much better results. Complain! Its not to hard to renegotiate or get your way as long as you're persuasive enough. Good luck.

Originally Posted by RyanC

Go into a Virgin mobile store! Going in person to complain usually yields much better results. Complain! Its not to hard to renegotiate or get your way as long as you're persuasive enough. Good luck.

He definately complained hard. But we thought customer service over the phone would get better results. We'll go into a store tomorrow. Thanks for the advice!

Why won't they just let you buy a new phone for the old plan? It doesn't make sense... o.O

Originally Posted by jhan523

Why won't they just let you buy a new phone for the old plan? It doesn't make sense... o.O

I have no idea. We tried everything, but they will only fix it if he gets a smartphone and a 3 year plan. It's so unreasonable. Their hardware craps out and he's stuck with the bill :(

Originally Posted by Kathy2

I have no idea. We tried everything, but they will only fix it if he gets a smartphone and a 3 year plan. It's so unreasonable. Their hardware craps out and he's stuck with the bill :(

That's pretty ridiculous... did you end up going in person yet?

Sorry, Kathy2, but I feel no sympathy for you. The person on the other end of the phone is just following policy and standard procedures. The fact that your warranty expired before the problems occured sucks, but that's life. Don't forget, it's not Virgin's phone, it's the manufacturer who made it, so don't blame Virgin for a faulty phone (which I'm not saying you are). The thing that the person offered you (to cut half the cancellation to sign a new 3yr) is Virgin's "upgrade" policy. They'll cut your ECF by half as long as you resign with them. You ALWAYS have the choice of buying a new phone outright, for full price which some phones are pretty cheap and you wouldn't have to resign your contract. As for your plan, you're seriously getting ripped off. That may have been a decent plan back then, but certainly not now. For $35+tax, you can get this plan:

150 anytime mins
unlimited evenings and weekends starting at 7
unlimited local incoming calls
unlimited texting to anywhere in the world
caller ID

Originally Posted by MacAttk

Sorry, Kathy2, but I feel no sympathy for you. The person on the other end of the phone is just following policy and standard procedures. The fact that your warranty expired before the problems occured sucks, but that's life. Don't forget, it's not Virgin's phone, it's the manufacturer who made it, so don't blame Virgin for a faulty phone (which I'm not saying you are). The thing that the person offered you (to cut half the cancellation to sign a new 3yr) is Virgin's "upgrade" policy. They'll cut your ECF by half as long as you resign with them. You ALWAYS have the choice of buying a new phone outright, for full price which some phones are pretty cheap and you wouldn't have to resign your contract. As for your plan, you're seriously getting ripped off. That may have been a decent plan back then, but certainly not now. For $35+tax, you can get this plan:

150 anytime mins
unlimited evenings and weekends starting at 7
unlimited local incoming calls
unlimited texting to anywhere in the world
caller ID

I know it wasn't the customer service rep's fault, I don't blame them. I'm blaming Virgin/LG in general for the warranty being so short (and the hardware being so cheap) and for the upgrade policy to be so expensive.
When you say "You always have the choice of buying a new phone outright", do you mean he could pay for the same phone, get a new one with working hardware, and continue on the same plan he has now? Because the only offer he got was the Smartphone plan. He would buy another version of the same phone if we could, but they didn't offer him that.
Thanks for any help!

As for the plan, we know it's crappy, but at the time it was pretty decent. We were pretty desperate to get new cell phone plans ASAP since I was going away for the summer, and this one seemed mildly attractive at the time. I agree that, now, it's crap.

Originally Posted by Kathy2

I know it wasn't the customer service rep's fault, I don't blame them. I'm blaming Virgin/LG in general for the warranty being so short (and the hardware being so cheap) and for the upgrade policy to be so expensive.
When you say "You always have the choice of buying a new phone outright", do you mean he could pay for the same phone, get a new one with working hardware, and continue on the same plan he has now? Because the only offer he got was the Smartphone plan. He would buy another version of the same phone if we could, but they didn't offer him that.
Thanks for any help!.

sorry for the late reply, but yes! you can pay for the same phone (full price) which probably isnt much now and it'd have a brand new 1 yr warranty and everything and you could continue on the same plan. what that specific rep told you was bs and clearly he doesn't know anything about his job. i'd call back and talk to someone or you can just go to a virgin mobile kiosk and do it