Early upgrade, in contract
 

Blackberry contract ends in December this year, would there be much of a penalty if I went to Virgin and asked to change my phone & contract before December? Am going to pop into the shop down town on Tuesday to talk to them, but just looking for some info before then.

Basically, despite everything I have tried from Virgin and on here, I cannot get a signal in my house. I have to go right to the bottom of the garden before getting a weak signal. I've tried it with WiFi enabled, disabled, changing channels for WiFi, etc but nothing has helped. I fail to see why I should fork out £9.99 a month for a phone I cannot use in the house. Everyone else can use their mobiles indoors, even my sister who has the exact same Blackberry as me.

I was thinking of going for a Nokia or Samsung as I have never had problems with them in the past.

Re: Early upgrade, in contract
 

You may have to pay off the remaining contract term. I'd say its better to call customer service rather than go to a store. I've just upgraded 3 months early but I've been a customer for 4 years now.

Are you set up to switch between the tmob and orange networks? I live in an old Glasgow tennement flat and until the network switching could never get a signal as the walls are so thick.

Re: Early upgrade, in contract
 

I did change to Orange, but never got a signal on that. Might try it on T Mobile. What sort of price would it be to cancel early, is it a set amount per month left, or what? Thanks for suggestion on networks.

Re: Early upgrade, in contract
 

What Stephen meant was not to actually change networks, but is your phone set to automatic in terms of network choice as Virgin Mobile uses the T-Mobile and Orange networks and will automatically switch to Orange signal when there is no T-Mobile (Virgin) signal. Also make sure your settings allow roaming as sometimes phones don't allow the switch to the Orange network as it thinks you will incur extra charges. Have you tried your SIM in a different phone such as your sisters to see if you get signal indoors on that? Try manually scanning for networks indoors too and see if the options for Virgin or Orange (sometimes virgin with small v) are available to select.

Re: Early upgrade, in contract
 

Tried all apart from putting SIM into sisters phone. Will try and remember to ask her to bring her phone when she next visits.

Re: Early upgrade, in contract
 

If you are using Tmob phone will show Virgin and if its Orange then the phone will show virgin.

Worth trying another phone with your SIM first, to see if that helps.

Re: Early upgrade, in contract
 

Tried in 2 other Virgin phones, and my SIM doesn't work in either. Can only call 999 which is a waste of time. I'm assuming it will be the SIM at fault not the phone, or does it follow that if the SIM is knackered the phone is as well.

What sort of penalty is there for cancelling early?

Re: Early upgrade, in contract
 

Do you definitely have good Virgin/T-Mobile/Orange coverage in your area? If so and the SIM is in fact faulty then ring them and get a free replacement. In terms of cancelling early then it's your monthly fee multiplied by how much you have left so in your case £9.99 x 8 = £79.92. If you were to do an 'early upgrade' they might charge you less but I don't know what Virgin's policy is on this.

Re: Early upgrade, in contract
 

After calling them to threaten a cancellation, they changed something their end and I switched to Orange and now have a good signal indoors. Ranges from 3 to 5 bars, but a lot better than only being able to make 999 calls a week ago. Been left that I will try it on the Orange network for a few days. If signal still drops then they will try a new SIM card. If that doesn't work then I can cancel free of charge and upgrade early.

Re: Early upgrade, in contract
 

Good stuff, glad to hear things seem to be getting sorted :tu: