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Virgin Mobile - Looks Good on the Outside
Cell Phone
Review by Ramsey543 on 2012-12-31
Rating: 
PORTLAND, PENNSYLVANIA -- Virgin Mobile as like Straight Talk offers low cost cell phone plans. The phones they offer are reasonable and fine. The difference however is the network that supports each of these companies.
I had traveled to a small town in CA last Aug. for mother's memorial service. Absolutely NO service for 5 days there.
Then In Sept, to New Orleans, LA. Sketchy service and absolutely NO service at any of the several different airports, including my local just minutes from my home in Portland, OR.
Final straw last week -stranded on the highway where my vehicle lost power just minutes after leaving my house. Sat in freezing cold car for 2 hours. Called roadside service but ultimately had to call for towing. This catastrophic short took out my engines computer but also my new battery. I could not even operate emergency flashers. Fortunately it was daytime, I was not on my 74 mile round trip to or from work at night.
This phone; while fully charged dropped calls, gave me strange messages like '"does not support 3 way calls", not enough funds to make the call (I have auto deduct with them and was fully paid) etc, as I tried to make local calls and calls to the out of state call centers for the roadside assistance. I struggled with this phone the entire time. I don't make a lot of calls. I had to make several that day however for help and family and arrangements regarding the towing. My feeling is I unknowingly put myself in danger by trusting and depending on a product that is unreliable and problematic.
Virgin Mobile is supported by the Sprint Network. For the years I had straight Talk. Unfortunately Best Buy does not carry them. I traveled for my job out of state, locally and to remote small towns in Northern Washington regularly. Even daily I was in different local office buildings, high rises and rural areas and environments as well as airports. I went over the Çoast Range of mountains to the Oregon Coast, and had great reliable service, always. Even out of state on vacation. They were supported by VERIZON. It is all about the CARRIER! Really. And it pays to investigate and see who supports a cell phone before signing up. I cannot wait to go back to Straight Talk or whomever has a RELIABLE and DEPENDABLE carrier. Someday -literally, your life may depend on it. My situation while not quite that dire, was the true and final test of this phone and the service. People need to know that they expect reasonable reliability in a cell phone company. This is my opinion.
I had traveled to a small town in CA last Aug. for mother's memorial service. Absolutely NO service for 5 days there.
Then In Sept, to New Orleans, LA. Sketchy service and absolutely NO service at any of the several different airports, including my local just minutes from my home in Portland, OR.
Final straw last week -stranded on the highway where my vehicle lost power just minutes after leaving my house. Sat in freezing cold car for 2 hours. Called roadside service but ultimately had to call for towing. This catastrophic short took out my engines computer but also my new battery. I could not even operate emergency flashers. Fortunately it was daytime, I was not on my 74 mile round trip to or from work at night.
This phone; while fully charged dropped calls, gave me strange messages like '"does not support 3 way calls", not enough funds to make the call (I have auto deduct with them and was fully paid) etc, as I tried to make local calls and calls to the out of state call centers for the roadside assistance. I struggled with this phone the entire time. I don't make a lot of calls. I had to make several that day however for help and family and arrangements regarding the towing. My feeling is I unknowingly put myself in danger by trusting and depending on a product that is unreliable and problematic.
Virgin Mobile is supported by the Sprint Network. For the years I had straight Talk. Unfortunately Best Buy does not carry them. I traveled for my job out of state, locally and to remote small towns in Northern Washington regularly. Even daily I was in different local office buildings, high rises and rural areas and environments as well as airports. I went over the Çoast Range of mountains to the Oregon Coast, and had great reliable service, always. Even out of state on vacation. They were supported by VERIZON. It is all about the CARRIER! Really. And it pays to investigate and see who supports a cell phone before signing up. I cannot wait to go back to Straight Talk or whomever has a RELIABLE and DEPENDABLE carrier. Someday -literally, your life may depend on it. My situation while not quite that dire, was the true and final test of this phone and the service. People need to know that they expect reasonable reliability in a cell phone company. This is my opinion.
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