Virgin Mobile fiasco – update #5 (closure, HOPEFULLY)

Dare I tempt fate and say it, but I think I’m finally free of Virgin Mobile.  I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but I took a page out of a colleague’s book and made such a nuisance of myself that hopefully they just hurried up the process.

Here’s how it went down:

27/08/2009

You’ll remember that I spoke to “Cole” and the story he gave me.  Well, after I lodged the complaint on Hellopeter I decided to give the call centre another call and just see for myself what the heck was happening.

Honestly, Cole was a smooth-talking fellow, but I didn’t believe one word coming out of his mouth, so I thought I’d try for a second opinion.  Wishful thinking?  Perhaps, but I was quite surprised when I made this phone call.

• 16h09 – Called contact centre, spoke to “Jodene”. Very helpful, very professional, a little more clued-up and pleasant to deal with than some of the other monkeys that staff Virgin mobile’s call centre.

  ME: “Hi Jodene.  I asked to have my post-paid account to be migrated to pre-paid 3 days ago and this has not happened.  What’s taking so long?”
  Jodene: “Hi.  Let me see.  Sir, I’ll have to check with my supervisor, please hold.”
  *Puts me on hold for about 3 minutes*
  Jodene: “Sir, your migration will happen at the end of the month”
  ME: “Okay, that’s fine, but can you make sure that the payments I made are reflecting and that I will NOT be debited on the 1st?”
  Jodene: “You will not be debited if all the payments are allocated. It seems that all is in order.”
  ME: “Jodene, thanks.  Can I ask that you send me an e-mail with everything you just said – that the migration will go through on the 1st, that all payments have been allocated and that I will NOT be debited on the 1st?”
  Jodene: “Sure, what’s the address?”
  ME /gives/ her address, spells it all out twice.
  ME: “Thanks Jodene, I appreciate your help.”
  Jodene: “It’s a pleasure sir, goodbye.”

  At this point I was asked to rate the service and I said that I was satisfied.  Although, i never received that e-mail that Jodene said she would send to me.  I suppose if I had received perfect service from Virgin Mobile I would have been dreaming.

28/08/2009

I quickly popped off to my local FNB Premier Banking suite to put a stop payment order on the Virgin Mobile debit orders, just in case they decided to carry on taking my money for a service that I had already cancelled. 

Overkill, perhaps, but I wasn’t going to take the chance of letting a debit order go through and then sit with a 3-month battle to get a refund. 

My banker said all was in order and that Virgin was not going to get any more of my money without my permission.  Yayness.

• 12h14 – I was in a client meeting so I missed a call from Virgin Mobile in response to my post on Hellopeter.  I got a pretty garbled voicemail that said something along the lines of: “Your account migration has been done and your bank account will not be debited.”  Admittedly the line was pretty bad and the guy leaving the message wasn’t the best English speaker, but I got the gist of the message.
• 13h15 – Did a balance enquiry on my phone to check if my account had been migrated.  First I did a “Credit Account” balance query and it gave me my airtime balance, so I immediately thought that my account was not migrated.  But I then did a “Prepaid Account” query and instead of the usual “Oops, you are a credit account holder…” I got a prepaid balance.  Could it be? Has it happened?

I’m not one to count my eggs before they hatch, so I’m reserving my cry of “FREEDOM!!!” for when I have successfully ported to Vodacom.

Until then, I have about R2,800’s worth of unused Virgin Mobile Airtime to offload.  Thinking of offering it up at a 40% discount to whoever wants it.  I’ll just do an airtime transfer and use the cash to save up for that R3,000 pay-in on a new iPhone 3GS – when there’s actually stock in SA.

Virgin Mobile fiasco – Update #3

And it continues:

26 August 2009

• 10h50 – Called Virgin Mobile’s call centre. Got through to “Tsego”.  Gave her my reference number.

  Tsego: “You requested to have your account migrated to pre-paid.”
  Me: “Yes.”
  Tsego: “I see that they have not received the request to do so yet.  When did you put the request in?”
  Me: “48 hours ago”
  Tsego: “The process usually takes 3 days.”
  Me: “I was told 48 hours.”
  Tsego: “No sir, it takes 3 days.”
  Me: “Not what I was told previously, but okay.”
  Tsego: “You can try and call us again tomorrow.”
  Me: *sigh* “Okay, thanks.”

To quote an acquaintance: “Virgin take instructions like cats take to herding.”

The Virgin Mobile Fiasco – Update #2

The process of cancelling my Virgin Mobile Contract continues from where it left off here:

24 August 2009

• 09h40 – Called Virgin Mobile call centre (123) to confirm if payments have been allocated.  Call centre agent (forgot his name) says payments have been captured.Me: “Okay, is my account now converted into pre-paid”
  Agent: “Not yet, we need to put in a request for this to be done.  Do you want me to do that now?”
  Me: “Yes please.  how long will it take?”
  Agent: “Usually between 24 – 48 hours.  You’ll get a call to confirm that this has been done.”
  Me: “Okay”.
  Agent: “The request is done.  Please write down this reference number xxxxxxxx, if you don’t get a call in 48 hours, call us back and we’ll see what the status is.”
  Me: “So when this is done, all debit orders against my account will be removed?”
  Agent: “Yes.”
  Me: “Thanks.”

25 August 2009

I thought I’d push my luck and see if the conversion process is done:

• 10h41 – Called contact centre and spoke to “Siyabonga”.  Quite an unhappy person by the sound of things.  He told me that the conversion has not happened yet.Me: “So we’re on track to have this done in 48 hours?”
  Siyabonga: “Yes.”
  *Hangs up*
  Me: “Kthxbai.  Prick.”

Why am I starting to get worried?  Just to be sure, I’m going to FNB tomorrow to put a block on any debit orders from Virgin Mobile – in case they decide to take more money than they’re entitled to as they seem to be accustomed to doing.

And so, it continues….  I’m scared.

The Virgin Mobile fiasco – Update #1

So I thought I’d document my experiences cancelling that God-forsaken Virgin Mobile contract that I had to suffer through for the last 10 months (See here and here).

18 August 2009

• 12h44 – called Virgin Mobile call centre (123) and spoke to “Conrad”.  Very nice guy – helpful and happy.  Informed me that to cancel my contract all I would have to do is pay the outstanding balance on my handset and convert my post-paid account into pre-paid.  “Then you can port out but you’ll lose your accumulated airtime, which is sitting at R3078.”

20 August 2009

• 10h00 – called Virgin Mobile again, put through to billing enquiries.  Spoke to a “Emmaleen”.  I asked what the process was to cancel my contract.  She said that I must make the final payment for my handset, then fax confirmation through so that she can have the payment allocated against my account. 

  Emmaleen: “But we can’t allocate your payments today, our systems are down.”
  Me: “Your systems are always down.”
  Emmaleen: “Okay, bye.”

• 10h19 – Made payment into Virgin Mobile’s Nedbank account.  Faxed proof of payment through.
• 11h00 – Receive a phone call from Emmaleen confirming receipt of fax.  She informs me that an invoice for September has already been generated and payment for September is still due.

  Emmaleen: “Would you like to pay immediately and then we can cancel your debit orders or do you want to wait until your debit order comes off and cancel later?”
  Me: “No, please cancel it immediately.”
  Emmaleen: “Okay, as soon as you make that payment I’ll send it through to our payments department and we’ll allocate those for you”
  Me: “But if I make a payment now, won’t it affect the amount I paid to settle my handselt?”
  Emmaleen: “That’s up to our ‘WOW’ department who will sort that out.”
  Me: “Okay”. – but secretly inside I’m saying “Oh gods, here we go…”

• 11:11 – Made another payment to Virgin Mobile for September’s invoice and faxed through proof of payment.  Received e-mail confirmation from Emmaleen that she has received faxes and is allocating payments.