Virgin Mobile postpaid goes to the big MVNO in the sky in May
By Chris Ziegler 
posted March 2nd 2010 1:49PM
posted March 2nd 2010 1:49PM
In the US, Virgin's never been known as a serious postpaid player outside of its Helio acquisition, so it makes some sense that new corporate parent Sprint is killing off its postpaid services -- what's rather wild, though, is that they're doing it in dramatic, scorched-earth fashion. The service is simply ending on May 25, a little under three months from now, with no automatic transition to any other service in Sprint's portfolio -- Virgin prepaid, Boost, Sprint, or Sprint Direct Connect -- but the good news is that anyone interested in moving over to Sprint postpaid specifically will get a $50 discount off any device with a new two-year contract plus waived activation fees. It's far from a slam dunk for either Sprint or legacy customers -- we're certain that not all of them will stay within the company's ecosystem -- but with Virgin clearly part of Sprint's prepaid strategy, there was apparently no good business reason to continue supporting a handful of postpaid customers off to the side. For what it's worth, a Virgin Mobile spokesperson reached out to us today to emphasize that the company's prepaid brand is here to stay: "Virgin Mobile with Boost Mobile will be the cornerstone of Sprint's prepaid strategy in 2010." 2011, though... well, that remains to be seen.
I just bailed on my Virgin Mobile contract about 3 weeks ago. I decided paying the ETF was worth it to get out of that expensive contract (though I loved my Ocean 2). I'm still waiting for my final bill to come in the mail though very frustrating.
When I called to cancel I was offered the waived activation and $50 off a phone if I did a two year contract with sprint. What a crappy offer since the monthly bill would be like $20 more than what I paid Virgin Mobile to get comparable service. And Sprint's regular phone lineup SUCKS.
Now I am a very happy Straight Talk customer!
@awesometaylor um Sprints plans are the best of the contract players right now way better then helio.
Terrible phones, crappy reception & customer service & they ripped me off. They charged me twice & wouldn't give me my money back no matter how many people I talked to. Won't be missed.
@Wil2Win they have some some good phones and the best plans of the contract players to go with them lovin the Samsung Moment and how is the reception worse it should be better if anything!