[ Official] Virgin Mobile Positive Experience Thread

[TheCellphoneGuy]

I've figured since there is a defectors why not make a positive VM thread as well. Basically post here if your VM experience has improved (ex speeds, call quality, etc.) or they've done something nice for you as a customer (ex gave you a discount, promo code, etc.)

I'll start:

When I got T-Mobile Monthly 4G back in January, I've put my Virgin Mobile account on hold and decided to add money to it every 60 days. The reason I didn't sell it was, because it's still cheap and has a bigger 3G Network. When I go out of town with T-Mobile it doesn't take long for the EDGE (2G) symbol to appear. Anyway, today I received a letter from VM which said "Service Notification". Before I opened the envelope I thought that they probably send me a message about their planned data cap or maybe they were about to terminate my account for not making any payments since January.

When I opened the envelope I was pleasantly surprised. VM said that I didn't make any payments in a while and to "help me financially" they offered $10 credit if I added at least $15 to my VM account, making the total $25. I've thought to myself "Why not?" and I added the money.

I naturally wanted to test out the speeds and I wasn't impressed when I got 100 kbps down with 500+ latency, but I didn't give up there. I ran a "network refresh app" and got speeds over 1 mbps. I thought that maybe it was a glitch but I still kept getting pretty high speeds. They would drop to 300 kbps every now and then but were much better than what they used to be before.

Finally I checked out Sprint's tower upgrade map and indeed a nearby cell tower had a data speed upgrade. Overall I got speeds over 1mbps more times in a row than I ever did and they were done during times when normally I would get crappy speeds (5 to 8p.m.) . If this was only a small tower upgrade and I saw a major speed change then the speeds should really be amazing once Network Vision rolls out in NYC.

I previously believed that VM cared the least about people on the $25 plan and they would love to have us off that plan, but it seems that it's not the case, at least in my situation.

I can only hope that these speeds will continue to get better, especially when that data cap hits.

BTW, it still seems that all the data is being transferred via a server in Kansas like it was before.

Edit:

Just ran two more speed tests, this time via PC (tethering for testing purposes)

[cookedgoose]

Funny. Just tested VM vs TMO. It's 6:31pm, so not sure whether this is representative of my area/demographic during normal usage.


VM: 272ms ping, 637kbps download

TMO: 606ms ping, 2.31mbps download

Comparison test conducted inside my house where data speeds are normally less than half of each. Seems to me both are faster than usual right now..

[TheCellphoneGuy]

Funny. Just tested VM vs TMO. It's 6:31pm, so not sure whether this is representative of my area/demographic during normal usage.


VM: 272ms ping, 637kbps download

TMO: 606ms ping, 2.31mbps download

Comparison test conducted inside my house where data speeds are normally less than half of each. Seems to me both are faster than usual right now..

Just ran two separate speeds test on both VM and TM. I got the highest speed ever (in my location) on Virgin Mobile and what I get an average at this hour on T-Mobile.

Funny, the VM speed test seem to match your T-Mobile speed test (speed wise). What's going on, are all the data users on Sprint asleep in my area?

- On Virgin Mobile

- On T-Mobile

[cookedgoose]

Just ran two separate speeds test on both VM and TM. I got the highest speed ever (in my location) on Virgin Mobile and what I get an average at this hour on T-Mobile.

Funny, the VM speed test seem to match your T-Mobile speed test (speed wise). What's going on, are all the data users on Sprint asleep in my area?

- On Virgin Mobile

- On T-Mobile

Given that we're both in major cities such as SF and NY, you would think Sprint would do a better job of upping the speeds to similar levels in both.

[TheCellphoneGuy]

Given that we're both in major cities such as SF and NY, you would think Sprint would do a better job of upping the speeds to similar levels in both.

I agree. What they are currently doing is kind of a temporary solution, at least until "Network Vision" rolls out. The cellphone tower near me was improved, but there are still others that need improvement and some of them will never deliver high speeds (on 3G at least), because the areas are so populated with active Sprint data users (but that's a problem that even Verizon has). The fact is EV-DO Rev. A was designed before Android and IOS, when phones were much less data consuming (that is not to say that they (Sprint) shouldn't improve data speeds as much as they can).

Some good news for you though, it seems that San Francisco will be one of the first markets to get "Network Vision", at least according to this source:

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/21...-running-list/

A big thanks goes to 503ducati (here on Howard Forums) for finding this.

I honestly can't wait till "Network Vision" arrives in NYC, especially one they refarm the iDEN spectrum, it will improve building reception for me big time, something that T-Mobile won't really be able to solve, since they don't have the 800 MHz band.

[exuberance]

VM has topped up for me twice, $20 and $10, for one of my old accounts (although i no longer used it, so it eventually expired).

My main account has never missed a payment, and has never received any perks from VM. I'm lucky enough to where I have never had to call VM's customer service, and i've only had data outages a few times last year (when there was an abundance of VM outages). Overall I'm content with the $25 plan. I might even be happier if VM released better phones. If I had to pay $35 per month, I would start looking at t mobile's coverage in my area.

Lately the 3g speeds have been quite poor. I'm on wifi most of the time, so it's not too bad; just highly annoying the few times i do want to use 3g. I hate being bound to VM-specific phones only, but BACKside IHO has done wonders for the OV.

on a scale of 1 to 10, i'd rate my experience with VM as 7/10. Mostly b/c i'm grandfathered on the $25 plan. lol.

[BadCredit1]

Every time I have an issue, VM has always fixed it.

In the past 4 years, I've had 3 or 4 phones malfunction in one way or another, and VM has always sent me another phone within 2 days. One time, they sent me the wrong phone(and it was a downgrade), and even then, they fixed the situation by sending me another new one.

About 6 months ago, my Triumph's HDMI-out port stopped working, so they sent me another Triumph, BUT, they sent it to the wrong address. After a 1-day investigation, they apologized and offered to send me a new one, but by then, I had found my receipt from Target, and returned it on my own. But it was still great that they admitted their mistake and offered to send another.

[hchen42]

At the time of this post, I have been with VM for 364 days. I purchased a LG Optimus V from Target. I ported my number from TMobile where I was paying $45.90 ($10 of that was for useless tax) for 1000 minutes, no data, no text. Activation took 90 minutes. VM rep on the phone was nice and courteous and spoke clearly.

I've probably had 3 data outages/problems where 1 I classify as severe as no data was receivably while the other 2 , I had to manually force it to 1x speed. None of the 3 times lasted longer than 24 hours. I haven't experience outage in over 4-5 months. In my neighborhood in NYC, I can consistently get 1.5mbps/900kbps afternoon-evening time. During morning/early afternoon, I was still able to receive 800kbps/500kbps. At work, the speed has improved. During the first 10 months or so, the speed was about 100k. The past month, I could consistently get 200-300k/80kbps during morning time. In the afternoon, I have been getting 500k/200kbps.

So far, I've never had problems with billing. I used topped up card.

So considering I am paying $20 less than my prior plan and received more service (text, data), and never a voice outage, and the last data outage came about 4-5 months ago, I can't really complain much.

[BadCredit1]

In the past year, I have only experienced one data outage, and that was about 4 days ago, and it only lasted about a half hour. 2 years ago, data outages would happen at least once a week, and last for hours.

[vmobi]

1 data outage in the past 4 years, no messaging errors, and no voice service problems with VM USA. The data outage was part of the BlackBerry data problem @ a year ago. Virgin Mobile USA even provided a free month of service when I contacted them, even though it was a RIM data issue. Customer Service had been decent in the past but the new level of VM customer service can only be described as 1st Class. I have recently called them with a problem with a phone swap and they gladly assisted with trouble shooting the devices and completing the phone swap without charging a fee. The csr's seem to be very knowledgeable about the current devices and service and seem to have reduced and eliminated wait times.
No company/service is perfect but Virgin Mobile/Sprint prepaid seems to be providing better customer service. Now if they could expand their product selection and service options, they would be Best in Class once again.

Sent from my LG-VM701 using HowardForums

[Scottee]

I've been with VM for about a year and a half. Reception and data speeds are great here in San Diego. Only had one data outage when the whole network had a problem. I've never had videos lag when watching Youtube. I did used to have to reset the data connection when unplugging my phone from charging, but haven't had to do that in over 6 months. (Optimus V)

Overall, I'm totally happy to have left my $30 Sprint Sero plan, which I would have had to pay $10 or $20 more to have Android. Now I have Android AND only pay about $22 a month (Target Redcard + their holiday gift card deals).

I also would love if VM wouldn't get any more popular, as less network usage from others is better for me!

[Jill-o]

I am ALWAYS reluctant to call CS for ANYTHING because of all the horror stories about bad reps. I experienced some of the WORST CS reps at Crapfone, which is why I changed to VM in 2005. I think I only called them a hand full of times with issues, and each time they handled it with courtesy and speed. So far, each person I had to deal with was polite, friendly, and seemed to know what they were talking about. Best part was my issues, however minor they were, were rectified in a matter of minutes. I will stay with ANY company that provides excellent customer service, and I have left companies for poor customer service...

[GTwannabe]

I've been rolling out VM USB modem connected Cradlepoint routers in our dorms without cable/DSL service. So far, they're working great. Users are blowing through ~9GB/month and no worries about overage charges on VM.

[Fuzzbox]

After finally ditching my Intercept for an optimus V (I just couldn't wait for the HTC One) I have been incredibly happy with my service. I thought it was VM being flaky but it was clearly that I had a bad phone. Yes, it's not the speediest service, but for all I do, it's just perfect, and for the $25/mo, I can't beat it anywhere.

[Leslieann]

I've been with them for many years now.

If you try and compare them categorically with the competition, they will probably only win on price, but that's not a good way to measure things. However, taken as a whole, Virgin does quite good and fits my needs.

I'm very happy with them.