In my last post, I looked at pay as you go broadband options and decided that for my needs, the Virgin Mobile Broadband to go solution was the best value. I wanted to give you an update on my experiences and why I ultimately decided to return the device.
I ordered the device on New Years day and within a week the package was dropped at my door. The software was easy to install and the installation process was fairly painless. The software comes on the device and took only a few minutes and a quick restart before I was up and running. When the USB dongle is inserted and the Mobile Broadband Connect software running you will see a pop up with the signal strength, network type and a button to connect or disconnect.
Step one was to activate the product and setup a PIN for purchasing minutes. Pretty standard process and web form asking for contact and billing information. You can either use pre-paid “top up” cards or a credit card to purchase minutes. It looks like you don’t have to have a credit card to use the service assuming you have the prepaid cards. If you don’t have any available time, you are directed to a website where you can purchase a data package. This is important because you don’t have to plan ahead and purchase your minutes, you can do so directly from the device. Overall the setup of the device and usage was just as advertised and a smooth process.
I had some trouble with coverage though to be honest, this was not at all unexpected. Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network and I was a Sprint customer several years ago and switched away from their service because of coverage problems in my city. To make matters worse, my house is situated smack dab in the middle of a notoriously bad dead zone so I have trouble with all the cell providers. Given the fact that I generally wouldn’t need a mobile broadband device at my home, this wasn’t a deal breaker. Though for the occasional cable outage it would be nice to have a backup connection.
Unfortunately the problems continued beyond my home and I also had some trouble using the device at other areas around town. On a couple of occasions I was in open areas that should have great coverage but had trouble connecting at the faster EVDO speeds. I was able to get online and function, but at speeds that were frustratingly slow and made tasks as simple as checking email painful.
It should be noted that with the exception of my iPhone I haven’t had much experience with mobile broadband, so perhaps my expectations were unrealistic. However, I can tell you that checking email and surfing the web on my iPhone at the same location was significantly faster than using the Virgin Mobile (Sprint) network. Nevertheless it generally worked and my purpose was to use the device on the rare occasions I had no other means to connect. So for internet access of last resort, it served my purposes.
The real kicker came on January 27th when Apple released the iPad. I started to question how I would use the iPad and whether that wasn’t a better deal for my needs. At $30 a month for unlimited data or $15 for 250MB, it was a far better value than the Virgin Mobile card and it also benefits from a lack of a contract. I looked at the $130 premium being charged for 3G on the iPad and the $99 I just paid for the Virgin Mobile and couldn’t help but wonder whether that money would be better applied towards an upgraded iPad.
I wasn’t unhappy with the Virgin Mobile device, but I wasn’t thrilled either. Granted, using the device for only a couple of weeks in a limited geographic area wasn’t a great test but I only had a few more days left within my 30 day return window so I didn’t have the luxury of waiting and seeing how things turned out. I had hoped to take the Virgin Mobile device on my upcoming trip to Macworld, but if I was going to return the device for a full refund within my trial window that wasn’t an option. I figured worst case, I could always go out and buy the device again and all I would be out was the $10 I paid for data (which I used so arguably no loss) and the return shipping fees (less than $5) if the iPad didn’t work out for my needs. After all, I had gotten along this long on my iPhone and Wi-Fi alone, I figured a few more months to try out the iPad wouldn’t kill me.
Then the trouble with Virgin Mobile began. Returning the device has been a fiasco. I won’t bore you with all the details but needless to say, I’ve had over a half dozen phone calls to various departments, none of which have been helpful and all of whom have all given me conflicting information. I’ve spent a couple of hours dealing with this and I still don’t have my refund, although Virgin Mobile at least now acknowledges they have my device and the refund is due to be processed. Despite the fact that the product worked reasonably well, the amount of trouble I’ve had with the customer service makes me seriously question whether this is a company I want to do business with.
Still, despite some of the coverage problems and customer service woes, I still really like the idea behind this device. Pay as you go mobile broadband is a great fit for me. I don’t travel much and when I do I tend to stay in places that offer Wi-Fi. I probably only have a handful of occasions every year when I would need to use this type of service so although the price per MB is ridiculous, I will still save a ton of money by using a pay as you go solution compared to a traditional contract. Though I hope that in the future the iPad with a no-contract plan and my iPhone will be enough to get me by. I’m still holding out hope that one day I’ll be able to tether my iPhone and perhaps that will come with a pay as you need it plan as well.
Long story short – the Virgin Mobile Broadband To Go device functioned as advertised and the network, although spotty, was what I expected. If you live or travel within an area that has better Sprint coverage and the plans fit your needs and lifestyle I think this is a product you would be very happy with. However if you do have problems, expect to go 12 rounds with customer service.
Update: March 12, 2010 Good news and bad in this update.
Good News: Virgin has upgraded their plans and now on the $20 an up plans you receive more data over a 30 day period. Currently $20 for 300 MB or $40 for 1GB. They’ve also added a $60 5GB option.
Bad News: After waiting for over a month for Virgin Mobile to refund my money and multiple calls to customer service with no resolution and repeated broken promises, I reluctantly had to file a claim with my credit card company.
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I am trying like crazy to find out what is going on with Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go. I loaded it up two days ago and today I cannot connect. I get a phone number to call, but when I call, no one ever answers. Online they want me to sign in to my account, but I never set one up. I cannot figure out what to do.
I have been using it with no problems for one week. Until last night. June 9th. Won’t hardly connect, and when it finally does, will only bring up Virgin Mobile’s website. Won’t connect to any other website. What’s up? Getting a lot of error messages that there’s something wrong with my modem,or account. Obviously this isn’t the case or I wouldn’t get on once in 3 hrs. Calls to customer service are disconnected before I get to a real person.
I’ve been using VMB for a few months without any problem. I reloaded about 2 weeks ago but did not try using it again until a week later when I observed a similar issue as Kathy was describing. It will open up my account page, but will not let me go to any other website. It keeps going back to a VMB login page.
I’ve called their tech support 7 times already since last Wednesday (today is Monday) and have spent about 1 hour for each call, and they cannot seem to fix the problem. Tonight I demanded to speak to a supervisor, but the only thing he can tell me is that he is elevating the problem to their technical team in the US (obviously their call center is somewhere in India).
Yes, it takes about 15-30 minutes to get a live person but I seem to get one every time I call. I just wonder if they know what they are doing considering that they still have not fixed my problem as I still cannot access the internet.
I know it’s my own fault for not reading the fine print or seriously paying attention. I was sold on the product because it was presented to me as “Pay as You Go”. To me, pay as you go means you only for what you use as you use it. I chose this because I have wifi in most places, this is for rare occasions so I thought I could buy up some minutes and let them ride until I need them. I would be fine with it if there was a 6month expiration or longer, but they cancel them every month. This is no different than being locked into a contract because you end up paying every month anyway and when you’re in a contract you get unlimited minutes. Very frustrating that they talk about it as pay as you go. It’s not really pay as you go, it’s pay a minimum monthly if you want to use it even once.
I’ve had the device for about 2 weeks; it worked fine at first, but yesterday developed the same problems others are reporting here: first came a message that there is a problem with my account or modem, and to call customer service. Got a guy on the line who said their system was down and to call back in 4 hours. Since then, I’m able to connect with my Account page, which says I’m good to go, but I can’t connect to the internet. Now I can’t get anyone on the phone, it’s been 24 hours, and I’m pretty frustrated.
Same issue as others… I’ve been fortunate though, I’ve had the device for about 7 months. I’ve never had a problem with connectivity until recently. It is now telling me, I have a problem with my modem, which isn’t true. Forget the phone calls…it takes way too long. I believe it’s their system…can’t get past my Virgin Mobile Activity Page! Grrrrr…frustrating!
I,m a truck driver (owner operator) who relies in broadband to get my loads, well, for the last 2 days i have been having the same problems, i can connect to the account page but not to the internet, i wonder what the problem is…
I have had nothing but problems with this product. I travel for work and go to many different states, it says nationwide… its not nationwide. I have called the company and nothing has been done about the false advertizing.. I would never never recommend this product to anyone.. In fact I will be getting a real service
I made the mistake of ordering the smart phone from virgin mobile usa web site. They Keep telling me that they do not give refunds.
I’m having the same problems others are having. I contacted their tech support and I was told from that they are updating their system. This has been going on for 3 days now. What’s going on with their service?
I have had the VM MiFi2200 since October 9. And since I was previously a slave to dial-up due to no cable access where I live, it’s been reasonably great. I am able to browse on my laptop while at the same time my son does XBOX Live and is able to chat and play at the same time. I usually have an excellent signal 90% of the time, slight fluctuations. There are times, especially lately where I have had the problem where I can’t get online and it will only bring me to the MIFI Hotspot page. What works for me to fix this problem is to actually reset the device (this is for the MIFI 2200),and begin all over. It’s pretty quick and has been the solution to fix this problem 90% of the time. I did have about a 10-12 hour period where I suppose the VM server was down, not sure because calling tech support is a nightmare and usually a waste of time because you are on hold FOREVER and then when you do get someone they are usually very limited in what they know and I did get, “they are updating the system, call back in 4 hours”. The VM website doesn’t seem to have information on problems or outages in the BroadBand2Go. I recommend downloading the manual for your device, they have troubleshooting in it. Overall, pretty happy but I agree it’s probably more flawed than other options but for me now, this is the best I can get.
I spent over two hours on the phone with technical support. The first person I tried to work with hung up on me. The second person tried another whole way to set up. Never could get the device to work.
Below is the disaster experience I provided to the VM executives:
Dear Sir:
As a new Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go customer, I’m regret to letting you know that I have to terminate the service due to lack of internet service for the past 6 days and without any hope and confidence that problem could be resolved in short term.
I purchased VM Broadband 2Go USB device on Oct 25th, it served me okay except abrupt interruption due to the network service down, however on Dec 8th, the internet service completed stopped, I was given error message as “The remote server does not respond”. I called upon customer service and a ticket was opened for it (Ticket #: 37356567256). I was told that there was a network issue but issue will be fixed within 72 hours. I was advised to wait patiently untill customer representative call back with the number provided.
3 days passed, no one ever called me and problem still persist. I called back to customer support numerous times to check upon the status, however, I was told that the technician could not fix the problem and it was escalated to the head quarter for review. I patiently waited for another 2 days, still nothing happens and no one ever called for status update as they promised.
On Dec 13th, the fifth day without internet service, I called customer service 8 times that day, spent approximately 5 hours on the phone with them and finally I was told that, there is a problem on the network associated with my account, however, no one knows how to fix it, therefore, they decided to create a new account for me via issuing a refurbished device for me. And I asked how do I know that the new account issued through the refurbished device will not cause the same problem again since the root cause was never fixed. I was told that there is no such guarantee.
As a paying customer with no internet service at all for 6 days and with neither hope nor confidence of having existing issue fixed and stop it from happening again, It leaves me no choice but to stop the service. As an engineer myself, I knew the issue resides on the network system side and it will affect many users (I later confirmed this assumption through many other user reviews: http://katiefloyd.me/broadbandtogo/). It strikes me that no one on the technical side would try to fix the root cause, instead using a costly solution via issue a new account with new equipment. On my last conversation with the technical support team, I asked following questions and no answer was provided:
1) If issue resides on the network system, why not trying to fix the problem there?
2) If indeed network system issue cannot be fixed, why not trying to create a new account with the existing device, since device works just fine.
3) If the new account cannot be created on the existing device, why replace my new USB device with the refurbished one without any guarantee of not letting the same problem from happening again.
Below are brief records of my collaboration with the customer service for the past 2 days:
Dec 13th, 2010
1) 9:00 am PST, talked with Omar (om568980) to get an status and ask to talk to the supervisor;
2) 9:30 am PST, talked with supervisor Albert (Jo1925), I was told that local subject matter expert is looking at the issue and it will be fixed in 2 hrs. And he will personally call after 2 hrs.
3) 2:00 pm PST, no one called and issue persist, I talked with Jesse (13110), was advised it needs another 72 hrs, I ask to transfer the call to Albert;
4) 3:00 p.m PST, Albert advised that technican is still working on the issue and will give me a status update by the end of the day today at 4:00 p.m PST;
5) 4:00 p.m PST, no one called and issue persist, I talked with Daniel (10810), I was advised that there is problem on the network associated with my account, which no one can fix. So he will issue me a refurbished device to create an account with. I asked if I will be guaranteed to have problem fixed with this refurbished device since problem is on the network system side, I was told no. then that’s not an accepted solution for me;
6) 5:00 p.m PST, talked with Herman (call center supervisor) and call was disconnected on Herman’s side, he did not call me back;
7) 5:30 p.m PST, talked with Jem (52478) asking for the status again, and was told someone still working on it;
6:57 p.m PST, talked with Tieky (11065), was told Head Quarter was currently fixing the issue, and it will be solved in 4 hours and someone will call me after 4 hours, of course, no one called and issue persists. Tieky asked me to call back in 4 hrs in such situation, and that’s the time call center already closed.
Dec14th, 2010
1) 10:24 am PST, talked with Jonathan regarding this outstanding issue, he informed me that my account is fine and he transferred me to supervisor as he does not have answer for me;
2) 10:45 am PST, talked with Joseph (Jo568899), he gave me following status:
a. There was an issue on the network associated with my account, which prevent me from accessing the internet, But they failed at updating my account because of the issue;
b. Different department tried, but no one can solve the issue;
c. They asked header quarter, but no response yet;
d. Joseph will follow up with the head quarter and call me back in 4 hrs with the status;
3) 4:00 pm PST, of course no one called and problem persists, so I called back and talked with supervisor, Robert (ro321485) and asked those questions, no answer was provided:
a. If issue resides on the network system, why not trying to fix the problem there?
b. If indeed network system issue cannot be fixed, why not trying to create a new account with the existing device, we all know it’s a device set up issue.
c. If the new account cannot be created on the existing device, why replace my new USB device with the refurbished one without any guarantee of not letting the same problem from happening again.
Through above entire page of broken promises and false information, I completely lost my trust and confidence in the company’s services. Till today, the issue is still unresolved. Therefore, I’m asking for the terminating of the service as well as the reimbursement of December’s monthly fee $40 and the reimbursement of the device $87.79, since no service can be rendered through this working device.
And I would like to provide this entire picture to you so that you will have an idea about the company’s customer retention management; hence I title this article as “how Virgin Mobile lose a customer in 6 days”
Regards,
Jennie Chen
I use Virgin Mobile in Australia.
And its pretty good.
I have just paid $108 and $40 for the ful box and dice
on virginus 2go.
It is way slower than anything we have in australia.
Its very sad in the US.
But I also must add most of the banking, travel and telecomms services I have tried in the US have been of much less quality and consistency than what we get in Australia.
So I was thinking it was just the way things are done in the US that doesn’t work and just accepted it as normal. From these posts I guess its not.
I am experiencing the same problems. Device has been deactivated ByThem! They took my 40 bucks and broke their contractual agreement by not giving tech support. I called the number they gave me and can’t get past the robot on the other end.
I got two words for all of you–fight back!
Get your credit card company to open a dispute for the loss of service. I did it, and you can too. What really gets my blood boiling is that I got a email from them the other day explaining that we will no longer have unlimited monthly service for 40.00. It will be capped by how many MB we use. Check your spam folder. Your notice is probably in there. Oh wait, i forgot, yoi can’t because We haven’t got any service! However our calls are monitored for quality control. Ha, that’s a laugh.
I used moblile to go for one month. It was way too slow. I returned it to sprint, where I bought it from and my money was refunded. However virgin moble continued to bill me without my approval on my credit card. When I called to inform them of the problem, they were unable to find my account. Shady…
Virgin’s “unlimited” broadband service is now LIMITED to 5 gig a month for 40.00 so do not do anything related to downloading as all OS and most quality programs will exceed that amount in one session. This service was sold under false pretext and should be concidered a bait and switch fraud. Buyer beware!
I have been thinking of trying this service as i live in the boondocks and can not get anything but dial up and high priced Hughes Net and their service stinks from what I have been told.After posting a question on VM FB page and never getting an answer I decided to call their tech support.Got some guy named mujibar who had no idea how much the service cost and said there was NO cap on the on the gigs as being reported by most people.I tend to not believe him after reading all the boards.All say the same thing- really bad customer service and the “unlimited” plan is not unlimited so yes this is false advertising and they should stop now.
I have decided to stay month to month with Verizon under my old Alltel plan that really is unlimited.Sorry Virgin Mobile I was going to change but you are really gaining a bad rep.
My wife and I purchased the Broadband to go unit from Radio Shack. What a huge mistake. The worst customer service I’ve ever encountered. The person on the phone was very condescending and rude. I will never purchase a product connected to the Virgin brand ever again. Pay a little extra for a reputable service provider. This unit and service is a waste of money and gave us nothing but headaches.
I have had same trouble with the service except for a couple of guys from the mexico site. hint: ask where are they located and get transfered to them.
Same problem here…if it says your connected but cant access the internet. the only fix I found was to reinstall it. HOWEVER do not do that till you find the drivers and software zip file on the internet. AJ
It is good to hear that I am not the only one with these problems. My Virgin Mobile MiFi card will randomly connect and disconnect, say it is connected but offer no internet connectivity and run very slow. I wasn’t too upset about the slowdown once you use up 5GB but the device works so poorly now I can’t stay online long enough to even use up 1GB of data. I have never been able to reach tech support as “Alex my virtual advisor” either gives a busy signal, hangs up or loops.
I would not recommend purchasing anything from Virgin Mobile.
Especially their wireless 3g network device.
About a week ago I purchased a VM 2go.
Figured it would work well as I have used verizon Mifi device in the past which got speeds of over 3-4mbps.
The service is slower then 56k and at 50$ a month for internet, its not worth it in my opinion. I could purchase 56k and get faster speeds here over a landline for less then 9.99us dollars a month here.
I tried to return the device, but due to I did not save the plastic container the device was sold in which has the serial number required by the register to return it. They would not refund my money. So now happily stuck with a 79.00us dollar thing that does not work most of the time and 130us dollars worth of service fees which i have not used. Definitely a thumbs down from me.
i havent use the virgen mobile broadband for two mothns, can i used it again if i just buy a new pin?
My experience: bought an LG Touch online due to my boyfriend’s mom urging me to go for their $25 a month plan since I was paying about $80 a month for Verizon. I read some negative reviews about it and had my doubts, but… me & her aren’t very close & I thought it would please her that I took her advice. So.. I stupidly tried it despite my gut feeling about it. Well the “new” phone arrives & I try to activate it & it says the serial number associated with that phone is suspended. I don’t know WHY that would be, but anyway, called customer DISservice and they say they can’t help & we have to go to a store. So we go to the Sprint store at the mall because they also sell VM products. The guy there tells us they can’t help with online purchases and we have to go to a company store. (something like that, I can’t remember his exact phrasing) Anyway he gave my boyfriend directions to the closest one and he went there, well BIG SURPRISE they can’t help us with anything online. It can’t be the FIRST time anyone has had this problem so I’m sure the customer service KNEW this wouldn’t solve anything. They purposely sent us on a wild goose chase because they either didn’t feel like helping, or are completely incompetent & have no idea how to fix ANYTHING. So we call back, they try to give us the same advice, we tell them WE DID THAT, then they start ACTING serious, like taking some information & saying they’ll call back… which was a month ago. Eventually we get the information out of them on how & where to return the phone to. I should be entitled to a full refund because I had it for less than 30 days. It has been returned and we got the shipping tracking, which said it arrived. Of course, no money has been reimbursed into my account. Their service is a complete JOKE. It’s almost like they’re TRYING to lose every single customer they have. So, from what I have read the only way I have a chance of seeing any money is to get my credit card company to deal with it. They are scam artists. I can’t believe this company is still in business. I would never recommend this company or any of its products to anyone.
Virgin Mobile Broadband
Pro: inexpensive for part-time use (e.g. while traveling).
Con: Extremely SLOW!!!! Useless in some locations (e.g. Las Vegas NV) Inrertmittent internet connection, and frequent loss of connection. Erratic log-on: sometimes immediate, sometimes via their web-site, sometimes asks for passcode. Don’t sign up for autoamtic credit card renewal because no way to stop it.
Overall: Take your laptop to Starbucks instead.
Cannot be your primary internet connection. Unreliable. Also, unlimited is not true, they will restrict your access to the point the browser will hang just to display a page. Once you used up 3gb-5gb.
Think twice before buying or your stuck with a 140 dollar device. I used mine 2-3 months. Problem with connection/speed.
If you have extra money to spare, and be mobile and occasional use. Then it may be for you.
But with all those hot spots our there…..
Now they jack it up from 40$ to 50$ for unlimited
Purchased the VM2go more than a year ago. My XP machine never got to the activate screen. My 7 machine loaded and worked first try! I live on the edge of VM coverage and get 1 to 2 bars of signal but system works OK with some buffering on video. Now the rest of the story. Bought a Toshiba netbook with 7 for financial use only as suggested by Clark Howard. Tried to load VM2go but no luck, same problems that occurred with my XP machine. Tried all the tricks numerous times but it refused to load. Spent hours on it and finally gave up. Took the computer to the local library to get all the updates on the new system (no access to internet at home) and the new computer was up and running. Decided to try the VM2go again while at the library and this time while loading the program it searched for two drivers on line. Now the system is working fine! Went home got the XP machine and it did the same….. now it’s working with VM. I’m glad I did not have to use their customer “no” service. I spent over 20 hours to get this far!!!!! Hopefully this will help someone!