Here's a heads up for any VM paylo/pay as you go customers. Wasted many hours this weekend as I discovered VM is violating their own terms & conditions as stated in writing on the website.
Here's the policy term & conditon in question:
"Payment Date & Account Active Period Info: Additional funds should be added at least once every 90 days for pay-as-you-go plans to keep your service active or your service will be interrupted (excludes calls to care and 911) and you will lose any unused monthly voice, data or message allotments. You will have 150 days after your last payment to add money to your account to prevent cancellation, loss of all funds comprising your account balance and your telephone number."
- I needed to top up by 2/21/13 and had a balance of $280.
- 92 days since my last $20 top up. I normally top up $20 every 90+ days,
routinely went up to 150 days between top ups for years.
- 2/23 @ 9:30a, got a text stating our balance was low ($0).
- account balance was zeroed out by VM as of 2/23/13 @ 4:41am.
- called VM twice to get it fixed and was told to check the terms online, nowhere does it say they zero out your balance as stated and was promised it would be corrected later today.
- On 2/24, still no updates to my case so I called again. I was told they decided the policy to zero out my balance was now 90 days and "internal only" and isn't available to customers to see and has been the policy for "at least a year".
- Resolution offered to me: top up first, file another case or they would hold my balance hostage. This is a direct violation of their own terms & conditions. - I escalated to 2 different supervisors only to get the same story.
- I asked for this information in writing since there's a lack of trust and I was denied anything to confirm this resolution. The last supervisor stated I couldn't get to his supervisor as he was the head person in charge that day.
- I started googling escalation customer service contacts for VM and many phone #'s were no longer in service, but got thru to one number.
- This line only answered the phone with "How may I help you?" and no company greeting or name offered. I had to ask if this was VM escalation customer service as I got someone in Ca, not overseas! This person looked up my account notes and agreed that I never should've had my balance zeroed out, but acknowledged the system automatically does this! He immediately restored my account balance and extended my next top up thru 5/24/13. This rep also mentioned that VM overseas reps don't seem to follow the same guidelines as US based VM reps and apologized for them too. This in not reassuring at all. They seem to be chasing away customers playing hardball now instead of trying to keep them.
If you're a current pay as you go customer or considering them, RUN and find another service! That's my plan as soon as we can deplete our balance.
Here's the policy term & conditon in question:
"Payment Date & Account Active Period Info: Additional funds should be added at least once every 90 days for pay-as-you-go plans to keep your service active or your service will be interrupted (excludes calls to care and 911) and you will lose any unused monthly voice, data or message allotments. You will have 150 days after your last payment to add money to your account to prevent cancellation, loss of all funds comprising your account balance and your telephone number."
- I needed to top up by 2/21/13 and had a balance of $280.
- 92 days since my last $20 top up. I normally top up $20 every 90+ days,
routinely went up to 150 days between top ups for years.
- 2/23 @ 9:30a, got a text stating our balance was low ($0).
- account balance was zeroed out by VM as of 2/23/13 @ 4:41am.
- called VM twice to get it fixed and was told to check the terms online, nowhere does it say they zero out your balance as stated and was promised it would be corrected later today.
- On 2/24, still no updates to my case so I called again. I was told they decided the policy to zero out my balance was now 90 days and "internal only" and isn't available to customers to see and has been the policy for "at least a year".
- Resolution offered to me: top up first, file another case or they would hold my balance hostage. This is a direct violation of their own terms & conditions. - I escalated to 2 different supervisors only to get the same story.
- I asked for this information in writing since there's a lack of trust and I was denied anything to confirm this resolution. The last supervisor stated I couldn't get to his supervisor as he was the head person in charge that day.
- I started googling escalation customer service contacts for VM and many phone #'s were no longer in service, but got thru to one number.
- This line only answered the phone with "How may I help you?" and no company greeting or name offered. I had to ask if this was VM escalation customer service as I got someone in Ca, not overseas! This person looked up my account notes and agreed that I never should've had my balance zeroed out, but acknowledged the system automatically does this! He immediately restored my account balance and extended my next top up thru 5/24/13. This rep also mentioned that VM overseas reps don't seem to follow the same guidelines as US based VM reps and apologized for them too. This in not reassuring at all. They seem to be chasing away customers playing hardball now instead of trying to keep them.
If you're a current pay as you go customer or considering them, RUN and find another service! That's my plan as soon as we can deplete our balance.
