Virgin Mobile

Again I researched mobile phone companies and availability.

What I found was what sounded like a dream plan. $25.00 a month for unlimited texting, unlimited web/data and 300 minutes of talk time. Since my daughter uses her phone for mostly text messages - this seemed ideal for her. For me - it also seemed great - even though I might have to jump to the next level of cost to cover voice calling.

So, I went to the local Best Buy and purchased a $14.99 Keocera Jax and a $25.00 plan with Virgin Mobile. I tried it for a month. Everything was great. Text messages went out and came back quickly and clearly; call quality was excellent. I could make and receive calls anywhere in my home (which is something we had been unable to do with Metro PCS) and had the same luck with text messages. I was sold.

I saved up money and as soon as our month was up for renewal with Metro PCS, I went back to Best Buy and purchased two LG Rumor Touch phones and top up cards to pay for $25.00 Beyond Talk Plans for my daughter and myself.

Loved the phones. Things were good. Customer service was awesome. I thought it was a match made in heaven.

Then came the first weekend in September. All text messaging went "bye-bye". I sent an email through the website - and didn't get a reply to almost two weeks. I found out that there was a Virgin Mobile page on Facebook - went to it and found out there (NOT on the website) that there was a system outage. Joined the fan page on Facebook to get updates.

Yeah.

Right.

Updates were few and far between.

They said the problem was fixed by Monday - but my daughter and I had no text messages. I contacted VM Social support and THAT took almost two weeks to hear back.

I must say that now that I am working with someone - I'm at least getting daily emails.

HOWEVER....

The problems continue to grow...

*Text messaging is still sporadic
*Alerts that my daughter and I had been subscribed to prior to the outage (and are still subscribed to) are not arriving via text messages.
*Web access is spotty for my daughter and non-existent for me
*While I am on an all-inclusive plan ($40 per month for unlimited text, data and web and 1200 minutes of talk time...) I am suddenly being charged PER TEXT at the rate of .15 per plain text and .25 per multimedia text. (This started after I spoke with a "Tier 3" consultant Wednesday evening.)
*Coverage within the home is now spotty. I cannot make calls anywhere in the house (prior to this I was able to make calls almost anywhere in our home)and I need to be in certain locations of our home to send or receive text messages.

Annoying - absolutely.

Getting fixed - I certainly hope so.

Do I want to find a different carrier? At this point I'm not completely sure.