I am learning about a new game big companies are playing... it's called updating their system/websites. Virgin Mobile Canada an affiliate of Bell is one of these companies. I had a 3 year plan and for the first couple years things ran smoothly. I went with Virgin because they had fun marketing and perks for being a loyal customer, such as concert tickets, and phone upgrades, etc. I am at the end of my 3 years and the biggest perk I have had it a couple free ring tones. I never received any offers toward upgrading my phone or any concert ticket information. My big complaint with them was when I moved to a new city. Moving is hectic and stressful enough, but my cell phone provider added to my stress. Since I have moved they changed their website twice, which caused frustrating and time consuming issues with my password that would no longer register to the website. They don't have records of my previous customer information prior to my move, for example bills I had paid within the same year (I needed some info for my business I could not get), and all my "top 10" friends that I used to call on an unlimited agreement, I started getting charged for. I was so proud of signing up with Virgin in the beginning, I referred two other people. One of them was my best friend and she had the same "top 10 friends" package. She informed me before all my big issues, that she could no longer call me, because even though I was in her "top 10 friends" list, she was now being charged. She disputed it with no luck and had to pay for something that always had been included. She is a single mom and paying extra from her regular planned budget is not what she had in mind. At first I didn't think tried hard enough, and thought that I was not being charged extra for my calls to her. This was true, I was not charged for my calls to her on the same plan? and then suddenly I noticed I was. My last bill was over $700 - a far cry from the $70 I was used to. This has never happened to me before. They resolved some of costs, but I still paid over double what I was used. I have decided cell phones are too much headache and am going back to a land line, who knows what long term effects cell phones will have anyway. I may even be preserving my health by doing away with it. The stress uplifted from my shoulders by canceling my cell phone is great. On top of not having to pay for surprises anymore, I don't have to worry about losing my cell phone, it braking, someone stealing it, strangers listening in on my conversations, remembering to turn the cell phone off at conferences, movies, and funerals. As a consumer, I think most of us have gotten used to being puppets of large companies and while the standards of customer service and the proper training of customer service people is decreasing, the prices keep going up and we, like idiots, keep paying.
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