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Topic Review (Newest First)

  • 06-11-2016, 05:42 AM
    VMVictim
    Hello again tavenger5. I'm REAL late in replying. I think they treat "topping up" as a periodic maintenance fee to keep my service active.

    I called Virgin Mobile (VM) yesterday (June 10) because my new top-up date was today (June 11). This time, my experience with VM was a positive one. My balance yesterday was $375 and a top-up for 90 days costs $20. A year ago I was able to top-up for 1 year at a time rather than every 90 days, so yesterday I told them I wanted to top up for another year. Yesterday they deducted $80 from my account thus reducing my balance to $295.

    So now I have an additional year of service with no additional cost to me! Plus, I do not have to worry about periodically having to use enough pay-as-you go minutes to keep my balance below $380 so that a $20 top-up would keep me below the $400 cap they imposed on the account.

    Note: Background for those who don't want to read the entire forum thread, VM will suspend an account if its balance exceeds $400. This is a hard concept to grasp because it does not make sense to me or anyone I have communicated with about this. I'm talking about a positive balance of $400 which is enough money to allow me to make a 1 minute call every day for 1600 days (VM charges 25 cents for the first minute of call time each day).
  • 11-03-2013, 08:08 AM
    tavenger5
    Okay, that's strange. So why do you have to keep topping up if your balance is so high?
  • 11-02-2013, 06:44 PM
    VMVictim
    Maybe I was unclear, or maybe it's because VM's position/policy is so idiotic, but it is hard to explain this.

    VM did NOT say I owed them $400. They said I had to get my positive balance below $400. For some stupid reason, they shut down my service after I gave them so much money in incremental payments over the years and used the phone so little that my balance rose above $400. So I bought a phone from them on this account in order to get my account below $400 so that they would reactivate my account.

    I still have to top up periodically to keep the account active. To play their silly game, I need to use my phone more so than I have in the past so that I can get my balance down below $380 before the next $20 top up. And, I'll need to continue this silliness before each subsequent 90-day top-up occurs.

    -- VM Victim
  • 10-28-2013, 05:56 AM
    tavenger5
    Thanks for the update. So, I still don't understand why they think you owe them $400?
  • 10-27-2013, 10:20 AM
    VMVictim
    I'm finally getting around to posting an update: tavenger, you had a good question -- Virgin Mobile (VM) would/could not change to my hand-me-down iPhone because it is not from VM. Since it's been so long after my initial post, here is a summary of my ordeal.

    SUMMARY:

    VM suspended my account because my balance rose above $400 and I could not make any phone calls. That's a positive balance, i.e. $400 worth of voice calls and text messages on my VM "pay as you go" plan (pay per call/message basis). In order to re-activate my account, in July I ordered a $15 Kyocera Kona phone from VM to get my account down to $385. Ordering a new phone was my only viable option to keep my "grandfathered" plan -- see my prior posts for details. I then had to top up that same day to keep the account active, so I topped up by $10 bringing the balance to $395.

    My "grandfathered" old plan was $15 every 90 days; but it is more like VM "fathered" it -- it's now $20 every 90 days instead.

    Also, in order to keep my "fathered" plan, I have to continue to use my old Audiovox flip phone that I purchased around 2006 when I first signed up with VM! Too bad; I would have liked to use the Blue Tooth feature in my car with the new Kona phone I just bought. I'm keeping the new Kona as an emergency backup phone, but using it would force me into a new, more expensive plan.

    I've been making more calls than I did in the past, and got my balance down to $379.41 in September so that my automatic top up in September brought my balance up to $399.41. I have to get the balance below $380 by 12/6 when my next automatic top up of $20 occurs so I don't go above $400 and get suspended again.

    OTHER DETAILS:

    VM customer service was horrible with misleading, and contradictory statements. I must have made 8 or so calls to VM to try to resolve this issue and spoke to supervisors on at least two occasions. Several agents (including a supervisor) told me they could not send me any information on my plan. Since it is a grandfathered plan, there is no information available on their Web site.

    I can check my balance from my phone once per day for free. A second check costs $1.50, which is an outrageous cost.

    I may stock up on replacement batteries for my Audiovox. I can get them through Amazon for $3.65 plus shipping.

    -- VM Victim
  • 07-29-2013, 05:30 AM
    tavenger5
    I can't see any downside as long as they can actually activate the phone. Is it compatible with their network?
  • 07-23-2013, 10:01 PM
    VMVictim
    VM can transfer my account to my iPhone 3GS for $10.

    This sounds like a good solution.

    Is there a downside that I'm not thinking of?

    -- VM Victim
  • 07-23-2013, 07:30 PM
    VMVictim
    I have 2 days to decide which phone to buy to reduce my balance below $400 so that VM will then re-activate my account, else my $400 disappears.

    One option is to get a real cheap (& dumb) phone, then use up all my balance (via blue tooth when commuting to and from work), and then go to a new carrier that will offer a more satisfactory plan. However, I tend to be a penny-pincher, so the $20-for-90 days plan with VM may be hard to beat. I can get a Kyocera Kona for $15 from VM with a battery rated at 29 days of standby time. It has 3G, a 2.4 inch screen and a "Mobile Web" browser. I could buy 2 phones and use the battery from the second phone as a backup, & have a second charger to keep at the office.

    On the $20 plan, it costs $1.50 per MB of data but I would use data sparingly, e.g., to check the roads if stuck in a bad traffic jam. The Kona user manual says you can scroll a Web page up & down but I'm not sure if I can scroll a map left & right, or if I can zoom. I also worry that data could end up costing a lot if the phone gets lost or stolen & I'm not aware of that theft/loss right away; or if some Web traffic is happening unbeknownst to me; or if I goof up somehow. I read about a VM user in Australia that did a utorrent download on his laptop (unaware that it was tethered to his VM cell phone at the time) and ended up with a $10,000 phone bill.

    Another option is get a better phone with a larger screen, better scrolling, software or hardware QWERTY keyboard for texting, ability to load various apps, etc.

    Is there an Android app that will monitor data usage in real time and allow me to shut down data if I reach a limit I specify? Could a thief bypass that protection easily and run up a large bill?

    I do have a hand-me down iPhone 3GS (3.5 inch screen) without phone service on which I use Wi-Fi so I could get free Wi-Fi where available. The battery is still decent, but I'm not sure how much longer the 3GS would be usable.

    Would I be able to use an Android phone with another carrier?

    I would appreciate any advice to help me decide.

    -- VM Victim
  • 07-01-2013, 11:10 AM
    jamjr74
    I'd find another carrier!

    Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2
  • 07-01-2013, 10:37 AM
    VMVictim
    I agree that it does not make sense, but I figured that it would do no good to complain about that. Since it makes no sense, I will restate the problem in an effort to make it clear.

    Note that there is NO balance due on my part. I have a POSITIVE balance slightly over $400 and once it reached that amount, they suspended my service. It would make sense to suspend my service if I had a negative balance of $400, i.e., if I owed VM $400, but I owe them nothing.

    I asked VM to just deduct some money from my account to take it below $400 so that I could resume using my phone, but VM said that would not be fair to me.

    Yes, my $15 / 90 day plan is obsolete so I cannot renew it.

    As I stated, the VM representatives have made conflicting statements over the phone. Maybe the real trigger for the suspension of my service was the discontinuation of the $15 / 90 day plan, but VM told me the trigger was the $400 positive balance. It seems that my $400 balance is indeed an issue, however, else they would just tell me that my next payment would be $20, AND that I could continue to use my service, AND I could increase my balance to $420.
  • 07-01-2013, 07:19 AM
    tavenger5
    Hrm, why would you have to get a new phone to pay off an existing plan? That doesn't make sense. Why not just pay the balance and then continue on your way? Is the plan obsolete and cannot be renewed?
  • 06-30-2013, 07:11 PM
    VMVictim
    Virgin Mobile (VM) has suspended my account (without advance notice) because my balance exceeds $400. I can no longer place phone calls even though I have enough money for 1600 minutes at my plan rate of 25 cents per minute.

    I am on an old plan (that I've had for many years) for which I automatically (via credit card) "top up" (i.e., add to my balance) by $15 every 3 months. Because I seldom use the phone, my balance has grown over $400.

    I have spoken to 3 different VM customer service agents and 2 different supervisors who made confusing, misleading and conflicting statements. As best I understand, I have 3 options:

    (1) Buy a new phone to get the balance below $400
    (2) Change to a new plan (which will cost more than my existing plan)
    (3) Transfer some money to a family member with a VM account (but no one else in my family has a VM account.)

    I'm thinking about buying the Kyocera Kona or S2100, each of which is $15.99. Both have blue tooth (a step up from my current Audiovox phone) and my car is blue-tooth enabled.

    Even if I buy a new phone, they told me that I would have to change to a new plan. One option is a payment plan of $20 every 90 days (instead of the $15 I was paying), but that plan does not appear on the VM Web site and they cannot e-mail me plan information. Does that sound fishy?

    VM sent me an e-mail stating "You need to add money by 07/25/2013 so you don't lose your phone number and your cash balance." From that I assume that I have that long to make a choice.

    Any advice would be appreciated regarding phones or plans.

    -- VM Victim

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