Virgin phones. Rip off or paranoia?

[ChrisA]

I have a dedicated mobile for 'business' use. a Virgin mobile. As a rule, I leave this on silent, and collect messages and VM's when convenient. Something I have noticed happens with Virgin that I do not see anywhere else:- You dial up to pick up your VM's and get the message - "We are having technical difficulties at this time, please call later". (This is after the generic preamble of Welcome to your voice message system etc etc). So, this futile call is probably about a minute in length. Didn't think much of this at first. Until I realised that I am being charged to be told that they are having difficulties, and then charged again later when I call back. Now, sure, once in a blue moon this would be acceptable, but this happens on average every other day. It occurs to me how convenient this is for Virgin to be forcing people to call back again and again to pick up a message, and thereby creaming off more money on top of their already exalted phone credit prices. Hmmmm.

So, rip off or paranoia? Surely Branson has enough money already?

[Sheik Yir Erse]

Strange thing about this Chris is (as I understand it) Virgin have a virtual network - i.e. they use the masts of the other providers, O2, vodafone, T Mobile and Orange. i.e. there are no Virgin transmitters per se. Therefore for them to have 'technical problems' might point to an issue with the crossover between them and the network providers. I find it hard to believe that the actual network providers have issues, or you'd have millions of disgruntled O2 subscribers, etc.

Therefore problem looks to be in Virgin's territory, especially if it's that frequent.

Have you complained and demanded a refund?

[general jack o'niell]

phone me at home, if i'm not in phone back later, its worked for me for many many years, why have a mobile at all?

[daftdog]

Do Virgin charge for voicemail retrieval??

I thought they had free voicemail retrieval on both PAYG and Contracts with them..

I was looking at getting one for my son on the deal advertised on tv with Virgin media. (4 for £40 TV, Phone, Broadband and Mobile) would cost me an extra £10 a month for his sim and 100mins, 100txts any network..

It says on their site that its voicemail retrieval is free..
Contract http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/genericContent.do?contentId=tarrif.whychooseus.sm075
PAYG http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/genericContent.do?contentId=payasyougo.tarrif.shop.sm018

As Sheik Yir Erse says, have you complained??? if not, do so, they might credit you with a few minutes to use..