Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Hi everyone.

This is not the first time that i have recieved a text from VM at silly o'clock but at 2am this morning was the straw that broke the camels back!



Cutting a long story short i got a VM text at 2am telling me that my services were being suspended. I was asleep at the time and didnt understand why i had recieved the text as there were no issuse that i knew off. It took me hours to get back to sleep and i was unable to get up for work as i was too tired. I was unable to call my boss on his mobile as my landline is set up so mobiles cant be called and i was unable to use my mobile.

When i called VM i was told that i recieved the text because my bill was late due to the Bank Holiday!!! WTF??? I was so angry. I asked to terminate my service as this was not the first time i had recieved early morning texts. I have also had VM texts on an early Sunday morning as well.

They told me that they have had a number of complaints about the timing of texts and would look into it. So, they know it is an issue already and it is still happening. Obviousley it will carry on happening.
I was also told that my credit limit would be raised so it will lower the likelyhood of it happening again. I dont think this is good enough.

I was told that i would have to pay the remainder of the contract of over a year, if i left.

Has anyone else had this problem and what did you do to resolve it?
I would rather just leave them and go back to my old provider. Can anyone advise me on this please. Thanks in advance.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

I used to have a problem with texts waking me up in the middle of the night, then I started putting my phone on 'silent' when I go to bed and now I don't get that problem any more.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

I dont want to do that in case someone needs to contact me. I crapped myself when it went off as its not often it does. I was all over the place and knocked everything off the table next to my bed trying to find the bladdy phone lol

Anyway, why should i have to put it on silent in the first place?

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

LOL Good advice there Rob :D

To the OP, it happens, automated services run at around, 00:00 and onwards.

Personally, it's just a text, if you couldnt get up, well thats another issue. Personally and this is my personal opinion, I hardly think anyone will be ringing at 2am for a "just in case"

Guess the option is, to put your phone on silent. End of

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

They told me that a text can take 2 days to arrive so they have no control over it. I am pretty sure a few tweaks could be made so that you can receive these texts during sociable hours.

Just a text could be a serious text. My next door neighbour got a text from her daughter just before christmas saying that she was lost and drunk :D

I think most women would have the phone on and men would choose not to :o:

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Either way, it's hardly the end of the world. I don't think your statement about men and woman is right and I would disagree, I think men and woman both have their phones on overnight. Either way, if your phone is on silent under your pillow, or something. I hear / feel it just fine.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

I know its not the end of the world but its something that i dont want happening if i leave my phone on.

All the same, to be told that payment was late from the bank because of a bank holiday and that was why my service was suspended is a bit petty and not very good customer relations is it?
Over about 15 years and 4 different providers VM is the only service where this has been a problem.

If it wasn't an issue then VM wouldn't tell me that they were looking into it as others had complained too. Whether or not they do anything to resolve it is another matter.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Either way, your making a mountain out of mole hill

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

So suspending my service because the bank holiday meant a payment was late from the bank is not going a bit over the top? (remember it was VM that told me the bank holiday made the payment late)

I was hoping to get more constructive replies on here but i was obviously wrong.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

I can understand why it peed you off, can't understand why they were going to suspend your services just because one payment was late though?

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

I knew there was someone here that would understand. :)

What made it worse was that when i asked why they had suspended the service i was told that the payment was late due to the bank holiday. They knew why it was late and still did it. That just made the mole hill bigger.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Bank holiday "late" payment isn't VM's fault. This is the fault of your bank.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Its no ones fault really, just one of those things that happen in this country but a little bit of understanding from VM, especially as they knew why the payment was late, wouldn't go amiss.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

hmm.. my answer to that is. Why, why should they? It's technically not their "problem" so why should they?

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

So them sending me a text at 2am to tell me my payment is late due to a bank holiday is not a breach of my privacy? I may have termed that wrong but you get the jist. Cold callers, i.e. are not allowed to call at your home or by phone during certain hours so i think the same would apply to VM.

If you are trying to wind me up it wont work btw :p:

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Not really to be honest. I'd rather a text than no text at all to be honest with you. Not trying to " wind you up" just, the way your are portraying this, it's like Virgin are the spawn of the devil himself. Atleast they had the decency to notify you, the could of easily done nothing and suspended your services.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

I would rather they had suspended my services and not sent the text.

If the payment was only late because it was a bank holiday (which they were aware of) and i have never had a late payment before etc then why bother sending the text in the first place?

Most company's would at least send you some sort of reminder that your payment was late and take it from there. To send a sh1tty text and say i have lost my services is a bit over the top, surely you would agree with that.

I cant think of any service that would be terminated if a payment was 2 days late. Mobiles are all about communicating and they didnt manage it very well.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

The terms seem quite clear to me:

6.7 Payment in full: You must pay your Charges in full in the amount requested within 14 days of the date of your bill. Unless you contact us to pay your Charges in advance, as set out in clause 6.10, you must pay your bill by direct debit from a suitable bank account that allows payment by direct debit. If the Charges are not paid in full and on time we can stop you using some or all of our Services and may cancel this Agreement. If you think there is mistake in your bill, please tell us as soon as possible so that we can check this

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

And does it say that they can text you at 2am if you are late paying a bill?

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

I don't get why the 2am thing is such an issue for you.

But the T&Cs also say:

8.2 Suspension for other reasons: We may also suspend your use of the Services and disconnect your SIM from the Network without giving you notice if you, or anyone who uses your SIM:
(i) any direct debit for your account has been suspended, cancelled or is otherwise inactive

To pay late in the first place than this clause has to have been in effect

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

If it's a VM mobile then did you allow for them to contact you by SMS when you took out the contract? Is/was there an option to opt out of that? If it's a pre-requisite that they CAN contact you if you have a VM mobile I'd be sorely tempted to go elsewhere. If you chose not to be contacted and still are then that's an issue you should raise.
FWIW I sympathise.
Automated service texts in the middle of the night can be annoying. O2 and Nokia have both done it - O2 much less these days admittedly, I think that must have been sorted for the UK timeline. I don't expect Nokia would be that attentive to UK times though.
VM on the other hand ought to be aware of their system's send out time IMO. If something can send after 00:00 then surley it can be programmed to send after 07:00 also.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

My original issue was the fact that i got the text at 2am. I think a lot of people would be pretty ****ed off it happened to them.

The payment thing was very petty on their behalf considering they restored my services immediately and still without having received the payment.

Its like the postman knocking your door at 2am to get you to sign for a letter. There are just some things that you wouldn't do.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

To be honest, it's only a text, it's a case of reading it with one eye open, muttering something like 'flids' or a word of choice, job done.

We all get txt's at odd times, delayed ones, wrong number ones, mates can't sleep ones, mates working shifts ones, Important ones..

It's only a txt.. and imo needs to be treated with that in mind..

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Its an invasion of privacy.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

First and foremost, please do not use that language around here. I don't wanna hear it nor see it. |

I get a text every Monday morning, from Lloyds at around 3:30AM, doesn't bother me because I have the brain to put my phone on silent.

Either way, if it is "petty" your payment was late. End of

In my eyes, it's just a ruddy text. Nothing less nothing more. I can't see why this is a massive issue.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

OP - Will you answer these or not?

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

You don't get a choice:

5.6 Communicating with you: Our preferred method of communicating any changes or other notices to you is by sending you an email or a text message

6.6 Getting it to you: We will send your bill to you by text message (but we may need to use another means) unless you have advised us that you want to receive it by one of the other means we offer

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

This is not a mountain out of a mole hill - I get why the 2am thing is an issue - it shouldn't be bloody happening. I don't blame the OP for being very aggrieved by it. I would be as well.

Sure the phone can be turned off or on to silent but if you need it to be contacted for emergency then it makes having a means to be contacted pointless.


Why does she need to answer that? - whether she did or didn't doesn't justify by any means, to be contacted at such an inappropriate time.

Would those who have made the point about the phone being on silent - say the same thing if they were woken up in the night at 2am by a salesman or any other company rep knocking at your door? How would you feel about it? Would you think I must remove the knocker/doorbell or 'silence' it in some way or would you feel very aggrieved (just like the OP is in their case) that you were disturbed so inappropriately at that time?

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

All my texts from VM normally come after 8am. Was the text actually sent at 2am, or did it just arrive at that time ?

The thing you must remember about the SMS system is its like e-mail, just because you send a text at a particular time, doesnt mean it will arrive straight away, if the system cannot deliver it for any reason first time, it gets queued for periodic retires until its TTL expires, and then its just dropped.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Thank you for understanding my original post.

And as i already pointed out, i was told by VM yesterday that this was an issue that they were looking into as they agreed that it was not good practice. The fact that they are already aware that it happens and have not yet done anything to rectify it is wrong. It does make you wonder if they will ever resolve it. I will not be renewing my contract when it ends and i am sure there are many others that have and will not renew theirs. This morning i received another text before 8am from VM.

I am taking advice from various organisations and will let you know the outcome on this.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Because She asked for advice on what to do to resolve it and I replied to her post sympathetically and was trying to help by trying to determine if she had agreed to be contacted by text or not because, if she hadn't she'd have a very good case to raise a serious complaint with VM rather than being fobbed off? If you're suggesting I was going down the 'you agreed to them so tough luck' route you're very much mistaken. I never implied such a thing.
However, despite being asked twice she didn't let us know - Ben did it for her anyway and it appears to be VMs forced policy. I'd be onto O2 for a free sim and drop the VM one in the nearest bin. They're not going to implement that change and we all know it.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

I went to ofcom and the OFT when a company kept phoning me, said company had an internal investigation and said they'd never phoned me once but guess what, they never phoned again, which was what I wanted to happen anyway, I was miffed about being woken up most mornings by them, I'd have be livid if it were 2am, once is to often imo.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

to be honest i would have been cursing if they sent me a text at 2am, whether i said they could contact me by text or not, its taking the micky. and why should anyone have to put they phone on silent??

and if i got a text at that time from a friend who was working, or someone who couldnt sleep, they would be told where to go as well!!

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

I have been trying to contact Otelo but there is a recorded message when you call saying they are not taking calls because of the adverse weather conditions. I assume i will be told to put my complaint in writing.

I cant see that there is much i can do apart from not renewing my contract when it runs out. I had persuaded my family and friends to use VM when their currant contracts end as you get free calls to each other but they wont now after the trouble i have had.
I would have felt really bad if they had changed over and this happened to them.
Every time you make adjustments to your package or anything you are likely to get these unsociable texts.

I have only been with then for 3 months and have 9 texts before or around 8am including a Sunday. I find it very odd that none of these has arrived during normal working hours. Maybe its a cost thing. If they need to send out a lot of texts it could be cheaper during unsociable hours for them to send them at these times.

Either way, i imagine they will lose a lot of customers through this practice. I will go back to Tmobile when i am able to as i had not had any problems ever with them. I changed because i would get the free unlimited calls to other VM users, now i have really lost out.

I wish i had researched VM a bit more before i changed over, oh well, you live and learn.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Wow this a right ole conversation..

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Why dont you go and troll somewhere else as your input is not welcome on this thread?

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Why I am genuinely interested in this as a general point of interest

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

I was with VM mobile for 18 months. My phone is\was always on 24\7 & never on silent. Not once did I receive a txt from VM after 9pm and never before 8am. If woken I too have trouble getting back to sleep and if you knew this would be an issue for yourself then the only viable option is to change your phone profile to silent or switch it off.
I am sure VM do not set out on some sadistic vendetta to wake up everyone at 2am if payment has not been made and I have never heard of a company cutting off services on the date of a due bill especially over a bank holiday unless that person was a persistent non\late-payer.

My 2 txt's worth of input ;)

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

Perhaps its a case of systems issues that the network was not aware of. The fact of the matter here is that sometimes mistakes are made, sometimes they are from individuals and sometimes they are from companies. I did hear once that everyone can make a mistake, its a good test to their character as to how they respond to such issues. The fact that your feedback has been logged and will be looked into should be a positive.

The "put your phone on silent rule" still applies in my opinion however I can understand your frustration.

If you have been through 4 networks in 15 years it would seem as if no one has been perfect so far.

Give VM a chance to rectify the issue and maybe your feedback would have been worthwhile. Who in this world is perfect after all.

Re: Virgin Mobile sending texts at 2am!
 

It may be a case in your life that you would not get a "Just in Case" call from midnight onwards....maybe you dont have friends or family.....
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