Be Careful where you purchase your phone!
Warnings
When purchasing a used phone you need to be very careful. Virgin Mobile Phones, Boost Mobile Phones, and Sprint Phones all use a permanent ESN number as opposed to a SIM card like T-Mobile uses.
The phone can become permanently locked and un-usable when the phone is reported lost or stolen, suspected of fraud, or the phone wasn't returned as part of a warrant exchange, and for many other reasons.
If you purchase a phone that is locked because of any of the reasons mentioned above, the phone will be 100% useless to you and you will never be able to activate it onto an account.
The phone you purchase could also already be linked to an account and unless you got the MDN (cell phone number) and the vKey, then you will not be able to create a new account for the phone or do ANYTHING on the account your phone is linked with. The only thing you really can do is wait 90-180 days for the account to expire, and then you will be able to activate the phone. But honestly, who would want to wait that long?
So, if you must purchase a phone online, try using eBay and purchase only from highly rated members, or using craigslist and then meeting the seller face to face.
Before you purchase the phone, you need to request the ESN and call Virgin Mobile At Your Service (AYS) at 1-888-322-1122 and ensure that it has a clean ESN.
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VirginXL will take your lunch money and then some!
WarningsWith T-Mobile, Boost Mobile, Sprint, and about every other cell phone provider in the world, you are able to browse their ringtones and downloads without being charged. On the other hand, Virgin Mobile will charge you 10 cents per day that you access their ringtones and downloads (VirginXL).
The worst part about the 10 cent charge is you are occasionally (or always) opted in to a VirginXL subscription. This will result in you being charged 10 cents a day until you realize the charge is there. So pretend you looked for a ringtone 3 months ago, you've been charged 10 cents every day since that day. That's roughly $9.00 that you didn't notice leave your account and will continue to leave your account until you do something about it.
If you notice that you are opted in to VirginXL, you can do 2 things.
---You could go to the virgin mobile website and opt out of VirginXL
or
---You can call a live advisor (1-888-322-1122 or *VM from your phone) and ask them to opt you out.
or
---If you don't mind the scam, and don't mind getting scammed, keep letting that 10 cents come out of your account every morning.
So how about a refund? Sorry. Virgin Mobile does not offer refunds for any prepaid plan or service.
Virgin Mobiles account validation scam
WarningsOne thing many people complain about is Virgin Mobile's use of a simple 6-10 digit number to validate ownership of the account. Unfortunately for people with common last names, and little creativity, Virgin Mobile's policy puts them at risk to various scams.
One such scam that I would like to see be prevented is peoples ability to find accounts with common last names and vkey's.
For example, a customer may call in and say that their last name is Smith, and their vkey is 111222. If the customer service rep finds an account matching the last name and vkey, they will give the cell phone number.
So, people will call in and give common last names and vkeys, and after a rep locates an account for them, they will hang up and call back in and act like they are the owner of the account. They will then cancel the account and transfer the balance from that account to an account that they own.
A friend of mine yesterday said that someone called in and did just that. He informed his supervisor that they were having him search common last names and vkeys and was told that they are doing nothing wrong (it's a well known scam).. The person was even blatent enough to give him the account that he was transfering these funds to and the account had a balance of $100+ and showed many, many balance transfers from canceled accounts.
So, unless you want to be scammed or give someone free money, choose a secure vKey with Virgin Mobile.
This information is only provided for warning customers of the danger of a weak vkey. If you use this information to commit fraud, you could face legal consequences.
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