Forever Tainted

I have been a customer of Virgin Mobile since May 2010.  Never have I had a problem until today and this problem is not only unacceptable but the customer service and steps to resolution I’ve received in response are completely lacking.  I simply will not accept this kind of service.  No paying customer should.

I have a Blackberry Curve.  In addition to my National Calling plan, I have the regular Data Plan.  This evening I realized that none of my data services were working: the BBM, the Email, nothing.  I called Virgin to ask what the problem was – I spoke to a representative by the name of Joe, who couldn’t answer any questions as to what had happened, except that changes were made on my account 6 hours prior.

Joe could not tell me who made the changes or why.  Joe could not tell me who authorized the changes.  Joe could not tell me anything other than, “the data service was removed and then put right back”.  My Blackberry is not working, clearly it was not put back right.  And who the hell are they to change my services without my authorization or even knowledge anyway? I signed a contract for those services.  Joe had no answers. 

Could this be another way for people end up in court with $62,000 phone bills that are reduced to a mere $17,000?

Rather acutely explaining to Joe why his justification just wasn’t cutting it and I wanted real answers, I demanded to speak to a supervisor.  Eventually, I got the Virgin Mobile Supervisor, Cory on the line.  Cory though friendly, with a more knowledgeable and professional persona, was not able to offer much more than blanketed information, “I cannot tell you who, but there was a change made on your account.  I will forward a complaint for you.” 

After placing me on hold and consulting with another supervisor, Cory returned with, “It’s possible you had an old data plan that was lacking something, so they’ve changed it to update it to a newer one.”   Still totally unacceptable to be making changes to my service without my prior knowledge or consent, he insisted he would still forward my complaint on through – not mentioning my services were still not working.

It was only when I told Cory while he followed up on that end, I would hang up to make sure my services were now working or I’d call him right back, that he advised me my services were not back… And it would NOT be working for 3–5 business days.  That’s how long it’s going to take Virgin to fix what Virgin broke.  Are you kidding me? You can add a service in an instant, create a new account and let a customer walk away from a sales booth with a working phone in the time it takes them to fill out the contracts (on weekends and evenings as well as ‘business days’ - by the way it’s Wednesday evening now), but you can’t fix something you broke for 3-5 business days?

Cory explained he could not make ‘them’ work any faster.  And it was only after I insisted, that Cory confirmed he would refund me the measly $15 that the data-plan would have cost for the month.

The complete absurdity, the reality of this situation is worth WAY more than $15 and Virgin should compensate for it generously, or let me out of my contact without penalty (I have 2 years or $20 for every month left on my contract) so I can walk away from this inadequate, unethical, non-service immediately.  I happen to be away from home, off the island right now.  BBM is how I communicate with the people I love.  This 'mistake' is keeping me from my family when I probably need them the most.

I am absolutely disgusted by this…

So this letter is sent to Virgin at team@virginmobile.ca, posted on my blog at www.stilltainted.blogspot.com, linked as a note in Facebook, and spread just about as far as I can imagine by as many other means as I can come up with.

And I will continue to actively protest out loud my disdain, and Virgin’s lacking even a remotely acceptable response, until this issue is resolved and possibly long after if the resolution doesn’t include major compensation for the 2-year inconvenience of me having to pay them for such insufficient, unreliable service to back up my phone plan.

I pay my bills on time, or in advance every month, and I even over-pay most months so that I have a positive balance.  I keep my end of the bargain.  How is it Virgin doesn’t seem to offer the same ethical responsibility in response?

I would really like some answers, and I'd like them prior to 3-5 business days.