Comments on: Virgin Mobile disappoints yet again

By: doug howie

doug howie — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:28:53 +0000

Virgin support sucks – absolute idiots when looking for technical support – they couldn’t tell a computer apart from a banana if both were sitting in front of them. Virgin Mobile Broadband is bloody awful as well. They promise speeds up to 21mbps but most of the time the speed is slower than dialup – YES REALLY! The wireless channels are shared so whenever there are other phone or data users they overload Bell’s pathetic network and the broadband speed drops to usually 25kps. (That almost 1/100th the speed they quote and half of dialup speed.) Its horrible to try to use, except at maybe 3AM. Also voice calls get network priority so good luck trying to get usable, let alone fast, internet access anytime from around 10AM to after midnight. Bell/Virgin, like all Canada’s telecommunication companies, are absolutely descpicabe companies just reaming the Canadian consumer. They are money printing machines taking advantage of consumers that in this day of age must have voice/data/internet access in order to even live their lives yet the offer the crappiest networks in the world, brag about their “great” services in an endless barage of brain-dead advertizing (remember the BELL beavers – what idiots!) all the while our politians and CRTC watch the “average Canadian” get continually screwed over by these despicable horrible companies and DO NOTHING. Your tax dollars hard at work protecting bell’s and roger’s big profits. Man this country sucks.

By: Ten Count

Ten Count — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:30:28 +0000

Virgin sucks. I feel like I got Bait’ N’ Switched into it with those initially favourable terms in early 2005. Since then they have systematically and incrementally worsened the pre-paid deal to bring it in line with the others – apparent effort to coerse people to “graduate” to Monthly plans once they got into that segment!

Customer service has become worse. Last year it took them 6 weeks to make the account adjustments they promised – their tech department is a joke.

Only good thing has been the virtually indestructable Nokia basic phone it came with – It’s taken everything short of a direct gun shot without a hitch – I’ve been very reluctant to switch because of all the breakdowns my friends have with other phones – but having gotten 4,5 years of life out of it, I’ve finally been pushed too far and will switch to SpeakOut this week.

By: T S

T S — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:23:46 +0000

Virgin Mobile Canada SUCKS!!! They fail to honour their commitment and offer false and misleading advertising.

I recently returned two phones and cancelled my two plans due to their failure to honour their commitment.

Bell Canada owns Virgin in Canada and they offer the same poor customer service.

Customers are not important to Virgin only the customers money is important.

Stay away from these clowns.

By: May C

May C — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:01:58 +0000

I was going to mention Speakoutwireless.ca offered through 7-eleven but it looks like someone has already mentioned it. The only reason why I personally have not gone to Speekoutwireless (as much a I want to leave Rogers) is that I do rely on the free 2500 received text messages through Rogers. It will cost me $0.05 each under Speakoutwireless.

I am hopeful that competition will come in Canada and there’s new GSM entrants that will force Rogers to remain competitive.

By: ioana

ioana — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:06:41 +0000

CC, GSP and Jon202 – thank you very much to each for your response!!

Jon202- I actually read the comission faq, but I misunderstood thinking that my total assets has to be over 100k, rather than only the ones at waterhouse…

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:43:42 +0000

I just switched from bell to Virgin! They’re the same network, so that’s good. I debated between services discussed here, and decided with Virgin despite higher cost because it has more flexibility. I can switch for the weekend to the $1/day plan and get unlimited minutes — for only 2 bucks! Then switch back to the by the minute plan so that works best for me. With Speakout or Petro, there is no auto top up, so more chance of losing your money and they’ve only got the one plan.

By: Forone

Forone — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:14:53 +0000

I’ve stayed with bad old Bell because my wonderful little Nokia won’t die. No real complaints about $25/60 day top-up with $ accumulation if you use the “express top-up” service. I’ve now got about $200 in accumulated minutes. When you’re talking a few bucks a month, it’s worth taking into account a) the quality of the phone, especially battery life and reception, and b) the quality of the network. I know for a fact that Bell serves the areas in Quebec we travel to much better than Rogers, and I’ve lent my $50 Nokia to make a call a Rogers Blackberry couldn’t find a signal for. If the main idea is limited use for travel and personal security you want to be sure you’ve got a live phone and a good signal at zero hour.

By: Speak Out Wireless: Another Virgin Mobile Alternative

Speak Out Wireless: Another Virgin Mobile Alternative — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:56:35 +0000

[...] Contact ← Virgin Mobile disappoints yet again [...]

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:08:08 +0000

GSP: I’ll probably keep my newer phone and top up $100 with Virgin Mobile. The only reason I used to top up $25 is because it was the same as a $100 top up and roughly matched my usage. But the other phone, is very old and is probably on its last legs and I’m was thinking of an upgrade anyway. I’ve purchased a Speak Out phone as a replacement.

Jesse: Like you, I prefer to keep a cell phone until it dies. So, I’ll stick with Virgin Mobile for one of the phones and top up $100. $100 over 12 months works out to about $10 per month.

brad: Great tip about Yak. We never call long distance over the cell phone but I believe you can sign up for long distance through yakCell. I’ll be sure to mention your tip in tomorrow’s post.

jasonr: Thanks for your comment. I’ve decided to sign up with Speak Out for the replacement phone.

Michael_S: I checked out speakoutwireless.ca and someone suggested in the forum that a phone can be transferred from Rogers to Speak Out or Petro-Canada. You may want to check it out.

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:50:17 +0000

Iona: As Jon and GSP point out and you’ve discovered, you’ll be dinged a commission for each transaction and it doesn’t make sense to invest regular contributions in stocks or ETFs.

For smaller accounts, TD Waterhouse charges $30 in trading commissions. Only if you consolidate all your investment accounts with TD Waterhouse and the total between all accounts with the same address is $100K or more, you are eligible for a $10 commission.

Even if you qualify for a $10 commission, a TD Waterhouse RESP account is overkill, especially in the initial years when the account is likely to be small. You will be dinged the annual administration fee, which might be sizable for a small account. That’s why our RESP accounts are with TD Mutual Funds online (that allows you to invest in TD e-Series index funds). Check out the posts in the RESP category:

http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/category/investing/resp