Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Virgin Mobile....NOT!

Whatever you do, don't get a Virgin Mobile phone. You can buy it, but good luck trying to activate it! Virgin Mobile is a prepaid cell service that uses the Sprint network (I have a Sprint cell phone, and it works fine, except for the wireless web isn't working right now, BTW).

The reason I'm complaining about Virgin Mobile is that they must not have any concept of how busy the Christmas season is. I get hired by a company here that has a call center to activate Virgin Mobile phones for folks over the holidays. No problem. The school offices are closed until the New Year, so I figured I would pick up some extra money.

WRONG! I get there the first day after training and I sit there for about 5 hours or so not taking any calls because of a computer/phone technical issue. That part was actually pretty sweet.

We finally get some calls after much hand wringing and we set some folks up on the service. The next day, I come in and we're swamped with folks calling in. OK. Except, the system we use to activate folks (give them their phone # and program the phone so it actually works) is on the blink.

When that happens, we're supposed to tell these people to call option 2 (customer service/tech support) to get the phones up and going.

WRONG! Apparently, when these people called "option 2", the idiotic voice mail hung up on them, then they call us back raising all kinds of hell (deservedly so) because they have no phone #, and their service doesn't work.

I go back in today and we still aren't able to get these folks ringing away at the world, and they're still calling up giving us hell. I don't mind that too much; I just felt completely helpless not being able to actually DO anyhting to help these poor people who got stuck with this piece of junk. More than one person told me they were going to take the phones back where they bought them, and I openly encouraged them to do so.

Today was the last day of the assignment (Thank GOD!). I finally got so frustrated with not having the ability to properly do my job that I just walked right out the front door during my shift. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Just as a side note, these phones cost anywhere from $50 to $150, and come with $10 of service on them right out of the box. I'm supposed to get a phone for free when I pick up my check on Thursday. If I do get one (I'm not holding my breath), that puppy is going right to EBAY.

Good luck to that poor fool when he tries to activate it!!

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