So. Last week virgin sales called me with an offer.
-Change to a new 24 month plan. 100GB data. Get a new phone (Samsung A32) and I'll end up paying £1 less per month.
Seemed ok so I went for it. The sales operator explained that my new phone arrives on August 13th. I thought that's ok, I'm in no rush.
Friday - I sign the new agreement electronically.
- Saturday, I see a little message pop up saying my new plan has started. Almost immediately after this, my signal drops, I am unable to connect to mobile data, and a little 'R' has appeared over my signal bars.
-I call Virgin media up, explain that my new plan has likely made my sim card drop out and the operator says take the sim card out and give it a wipe. Then says sorry and puts me on hold. For 25 minutes. I hang up, I have 2 kids that need feeding.
-Contacted VMedia on Twitter, and after an hour conversation, they said go to the forums they might have a solution there!
-Called again and they say I need to wipe the sim card with a cloth. Of course it doesn't work, it's a registration problem, I can tell that because of the timing. I go through about 6 different settings, give her the sim serial number and finally get told to switch roaming data on, and switch to Vodafone network. That gets me on roaming but still no virgin signal and no mobile data. I'm told it will now sort itself out ok, and I will be able to get on mobile data and phone people.
-Monday - no joy, still no signal, little triangle warnings noting loss of connectivity, no mobile data at all. No nothing.
I ring VM again and they say take the sim card out and give the serial number, give it a wipe etc. By this point I am just going insane. I can't get on any network. The operator contacts the faults team and FINALLY, after nearly 3 days, comes back with the answer......the sim has been deactivated, at their end because they need my new phone upgrade to take place before I am switched over to 5G and Vodafone service. So I have to wait until I get my new phone.
But my phone doesn't arrive until August 13th. That's nearly a month away. At this point I just said this was unacceptable, and wanted to escalate it. Operator said that will do nothing as there is nothing they can do. Sim cannot be reactivated, 100% need the new phone upgrade to happen before I am on a virgin network. WHY didn't the original sales person realise I'd be without a phone service until 13 August?
They can't re activate my sim. But...... they can send me a phone tomorrow if I pick a new one. I don't want a nokia I want a Samsung. So in the end she said you can cancel the new upgrade and she can send me a new sim card that will arrive in 3 - 5 days which 'should work on Virgin network'. Awesome.
That will be no mobile phone service for nearly a week, through absolutely no fault of my own. I wish I never upgraded and am now stuck with this new contract which I signed for 24 months when in all reality I would have left Virgin due to this appalling scenario.
I then phoned to cancel my plan as I realised am in my cooling off period for the new plan I had signed on 9 July. Operator didn't seem to know what I meant. Finally realised and he then tried to sell me a cheap renewal at a better rate. I explained I just want to revert to my old tarrif plan that has about 5 months left.
He then said that is not available. I am unable to go back to my old plan. I have to sign a new plan that locks me in for at least 2 years or go on a downgrade plan with less data and minutes. than I had a week ago!
Meanwhile, with no phone service, my daughter's School had phoned to say she had taken a knock to the head, but they obviously couldn't get through because Virgin have, for some reason deactivated my service until 13 August. Thanks alot Virgin.
At this point I was very nearly losing my rag. I said it's unacceptable. Tried to raise it to a manager but none available. Virgin are apparently phoning me on my landline 'soon'. That was over 3 hours ago.
I am now just absolutely upset, enraged and thinking how I can take some sort of action against this awful, awful company.
