Dear Peter

I handed my phone for a repair on the 4th Jan 2011. Got a Sms phone has been sent for repair REF PRE127201 . I was told it would take 3 weeks to have it repaired. On the 16 Feb Ii went to Virgin Alberton City and was told the phone was not ready and that I should contact the service repair department direct (what customer service is that !) I called them and they told me that they still waiting for a part. It know the 8 March I called the repair department yesterday once again and was told the phone has been despatched. Went through to Alberton city this morning and there is no phone they have no idea where it is.

I'm absolutely disgusted with the service I have received and will be terminating my contract with Virgin.

I got a call from Roxanne Adams from Mobile Direct. She sold a phone and contract to me over the phone.
Contract was the Call R150 which gives you 1000 free sms's, R150 airtime and costs you R170 a month and free insurance for a month and then R44 per month and a free Samsung J7.
I asked her specific questions like what is the call limit on the contract. She said R650.00. I asked if I can have a call limit of the R150 which was included in the contract she sold me. She said yes once the phone is delivered I can call 123 and they will set it up.
Long story short she lied. I asked her supervisor if I can log a complaint and she gave me another number and said I have to log it there and could not phone 123. I called 123 and logged the complaint. They told me it will take a month to come back to me.
In the meantime I had to take the new phone in for repairs as it was broken. The insurance contacted me and said that their insurance is R57 a month. Then I got an sms saying that my brand new phone is out of warranty and I have to pay over R400 to get it back.
This was after me constantly being on the phone to virgin to get it sorted out. Eventually I had to demand to speak to a manager and by this time I wanted to cancel the whole deal as I have not had one day’s happiness from this contract.
The people I spoke to said that the reason for the out of warrantee message is that did not give them the proof of purchase / delivery note for the phone when I handed it in. Which was not the truth as I took everything with the the Virgin store in Menlyn. The girl made a photocopy and gave me a note as proof that the phone was handed in.
Eventually Layton Smith (Billings Department) spoke to me and apologized and asked if he can sort it out for me. He asked for one day and said he will give me real customer service.
He phoned back and apologized. He agreed that I have had really bad service from day one. He said that I will have my phone back by the end of the week. I told him that I did not want a second hand phone because a new phone is not supposed to be broken from word go.
He said that as a token of good faith he is going to pay for the first months bill and will get back to me.
He phoned the next day and said that he has arranged for the contract to be cancelled and that some one will phone me to arrange a new contract.
I asked him what to do with the accessories of the phone that I do not have and he said I can take it to the virgin store in menlyn where I gave the phone in for repairs.
I then went to the Virgin store in Menlyn and gave them the box with accessories to Emmanuel. He said that they can’t take it. He took Layton Smith’s details and said he is going to contact them to get somebody to call me to arrange for pickup…. (up to today that still has not happened – even though I called on various occasions for this to be arranged)
In the mean time somebody by the name Earl phoned me to arrange for a new contract and phone. He said the phone will be delivered within 7 working day. He said the old contract will be cancelled end of June and the new one will start beginning July.
And a miracle it happened. I have been happy with my new phone and contract. Topup 99, Samsung Corby Txt with 1000 sms’s, R100 and the option to Topup once money is finished.
Needless to say I eventually checked my balance to see how much money I have left and it said R650… which means the package was not yet correctly loaded on my account. I checked my bank account and saw R170 taken from it.
I tried calling 123 and it kept saying my number was not recognized and then transferred to rating virgin. Eventually I stopped putting my number in and got to speak to customer service.
After speaking to various useless people who kept cutting me off I got to speak to a guy Madoda who managed to calm me down. He promised he will look into this and give me feedback.
After a few days of convincing him to speak to Layton Smith (who was on holiday at the time) He spoke to Layton and called me back with feedback. Saying that he spoke to Layton who confirmed that he said he will pay the first months bill because of bad service and Madoda sent a request to the billing department to credit my money. (which by the has still not been refunded)
But that was a bit of good customer service or so I thought…
What a surprise I had when I received my bill which is due to be taken from my account on the 2nd of August 2010.
Another R170 is due to be taken (baring in mind that I am on the Topup 99 not the previous contract) PLUS R1917 Handset Buyout. A Total of R2087.00 for a phone that was broken from the start that I do not have. The accessories is still lying in my cupboard at work waiting for Virgin to send the person to pick it up….
So what do I do… Phone 123. Spoke to Mxolisi and immediately demanded to speak to a supervisor because if I have to keep on repeating this long story I am going to go out of my mind. Mxolisi got the supervisor Tshego to speak to me and Tshego said she logged a call reference: 2533467 and said that it will be resolved on 24 hours. This call was on the 20th July 2010 at 19h20. She also said she will email Layton Smith to contact me.
Needless to say no feedback. No call from Layton Smith
Today the 22nd July 2010. I phoned at 10h43 and after a long wait spoke to a guy called Lee who cut me off. I phoned again waited again and then spoke to Sibusiso who after listening to me put me through to the Billing Department where I spoke to a Jerome. Who listened to me and sent a mail to Layton Smith at 11h00 while I was still on the phone and said Layton will call me today still.
At 16h03 I called and spoke to a lady and asked for Jerome. At 16h05 I spoke to Jerome who said he spoke to Layton, gave him my details who said he will call me today still. He sent Layton another email.
It is now 19h50 I do not think Layton will phone as he goes home at 17h00 as I was told by some of the people I spoke to.
I do not see why I must pay R2087.00 because Virgin a) does not speak to one another and b) keeps on screwing up with really bad service.
Is there any one at Virgin who will read this and sort this out so that I can go through my life without having to be on the phone to Virgin the whole time trying to sort there mess out….

Phone is under warranty, needed repair but I have to pay for repair. On 24 November 2009 my husband and I went to Menlyn shopping centre. We've done some shopping and the phone was in my husband's cellphone pouch (attached to his belt on his pants). We went to eat at a restuarant and my husband wanted to phone my daughter. When he took out the cellphone, the screen had a big black spot on. The cellphone still worked but you could not see who was phoning or who you want to phone. I've immediately studied the contract and saw that the contract only expire on 3/10/2010 and that it is indicated that the phone is under a 24 month warranty. On 25 Novmeber 2009 my husband took the phone to Virgin mobile kiosk inside musica centurion and they gave him a sick (repair) form. The lady said that it will take 21 days to repair. On 9 December 2009 my husband phoned to enquiry what is happening and the lady said she will phone him back, which she never did (a lady called Jane). On 10 December 2009 my husband phoned again and a person called Flow informed my husband that he has to pay R 465.00 because he physically damaged the phone. I was absolutely shocked because now I have to pay for damaged that was not caused by me but by poor quality products. The phone is still under warranty and is only 13 months old. I phoned Virgin mobile head office and spoke to the repair department after holding for 30 minutes. I've explained my problem and the lady was very unfriendly and unhelpful. She said that the repair report indicated physical damaged (very easy option by blaming the client. I've asked her if this can be proofed and she said that she can log a complaint on the system and that proof will be given that the phone was physically damaged by us but I have to pay for the report. I've said to her that I will go to the newspaper and take them to court as their service is pathetic and blame us for something that was not done by us. I've asked her to put me through to her manager and she said that I will have to wait for 30 minutes to speak to him and I've said that is fine, I will wait. After a long time I've put down the phone and phone the switchboard and requested to speak to a manager and I was put through to Claudia Pienaar (executive resolution department) which were also unable to help me. I ended up again at the repair department. I've explained my situation again and the lady said that I have no choice than to pay the damaged as my warranty has now been voided due to the physical damaged. I've told her that she can take the phone and stick it up her backside because I am FED UP with bad client service. You pay thousands of rands for cellphones and the quality is poor, leaving you with hundreds rands of damaged that wasn't even your fault. The lady said that if I do not pay the damage the phone will be sold and I've said she is welcome to do so. I have 2 contracts with Virgin mobile and if I thought that the service will this pathetic I would've think twice before I took out the contracts. I will gladly take this matter further because I know that my cellphone was not damaged by me and that it is the easiest option to make money by blaming the client and let him pay. I am sorry but I will not pay for something that was not caused by me. After my 2 contracts expire, I will NOT make use of Virgin mobile's service. The service is pathetic and the staff is incompetent and unable to help me. I will tell everyone that crosses my path about Virgin mobile's pathetic service and I will try to convince as many people as possible to think twice before taking out a contract with Virgin mobile because they may end up like me paying for a cellphone but not having the pleasure to use it. I am sorry and repeat sorry I will not pay for the repair as it was not damaged caused by me. The phone can stay there for ever but be sure of losing a client next year 2010 and the year thereafter in 2011