Lisa's Blog

I love Virgin Mobile. I have had no complaints in the 3 years I've had my cell. They have good customer service, and a really cheap pay as you go plan.

But now Virgin Mobile Canada is pushing me out.

I had a credit card set up with my account so when I'm getting low on funds, it automatically tops up my account by $15. That credit card expired in July so I called in my new credit card.

The customer service woman was unable able to attach my new credit card to my account. When I gave her my address, she said it doesn't exist in her computer. Pardon me? After a back and forth battle of me repeating my address in different formats and orders, she said she'd have to pass it on to their billing department and they would call me back.

Almost 2 weeks later I dropped my cell phone in the toilet and it doesn't work anymore.

So now I need a new cellphone.

I researched all my options, all the cell phone types and even looked at the packages offered by other cell phone providers, but I jumped right back to Virgin Mobile and selected a phone that was a notch better than my old cell.

I tried to buy it online at Virgin Mobile but it wouldn't accept my credit card. Either of my credit cards.

I called in to Virgin Mobile again and got no where. Virgin Mobile can not charge my credit card because they don't have my street address in their database. If I alter my address to just use one of their streets, then my credit card company refuses the purchase because the address doesn't match my address on their accounts.

Thinking that maybe we were somehow wrong, I looked up the addresses for our postal code on the Canada Post website. Canada Post has one extra entry in their database, and that is the one for our address. Somehow Virgin Mobile does not have this highway in their database, so I bet not one of my neighbours' has Virgin Mobile service either.

The customer service rep promoted my original request to urgent. That was last weekend. I still haven't heard back.

I didn't use my cell phone that often, but it was a comfort thing - knowing I had it if I needed to call Jeff (can't call him from work since it's long distance from a land line), or if I had car problems, or some other emergency. It was nice to have when we traveled too.

My only other option to stay with Virgin Mobile is to find a store carrying their cellphones, and then always topping it up with phone cards. I checked the only store in town that carries Virgin Mobile cell phones and they did not have it.

Are you listening Virgin Mobile Canada? Your customer service reps are great, but I choose not to move to a new address so your database can verify my address.