Calgary wireless customer calls on Virgin for quick refund following error

A Calgary woman has called on Virgin Plus (formerly Virgin Mobile) to refund her immediately following a mix-up she said was the company’s fault.

Crystal Levine told Global News she went to pay her cellphone bill on Jan. 6, and she encountered problem after problem with Virgin’s website.

“I clicked ‘Submit’ (on the payment button) and then a page came up, and it said they’re having problems on their end, to try again,” she said. “So a, ‘Try again’ button came up and I clicked. Again, it came up, ‘Problems on our end, try again’ so I tried again.”

“The payment came out four times. They took $241 extra.”

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With her bank account now overdrawn, Levine said she contacted Virgin several times.

“They were having problems with their accounting department and they would send me a cheque,” she said a representative told her. “A refund of three payments and it would be 25 to 26 days.”

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“Not even a sorry. Just, ‘We’re having problems with our accounting department’.

“Well, do something.”

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The call to do something is one many Canadians make each year to all wireless providers, not just Virgin Plus.

According to the Commission For Complaints For Telecom-Television Services (CCTS), the largest number of complaint issues it received from Aug. 1, 2021 to July 31, 2022, were related to wireless services.

The CCTS reported almost 15,000 wireless complaints and issues during that time. Of those, more than 6,200 were related to billing issues.

However, the CCTS said that is still a small percentage when you considering that only represents 0.0183 per cent of the total mobile phone service subscribers in Canada.

The number of complaints may be small, but for Levine her issue is huge. She has just started going back to work full time and is still on disability payments.

“Trying to make ends meet with rent increase and food is so expensive,” she told Global News.

“You know that’s my money, (the $241) for food for the rest of the month.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "You know that's my money, (the $241) for food for the rest of the month."

Global News reached out to Virgin with Levine’s plight to find out what happened. A spokesperson told us they are looking into her specific situation.

Shortly afterwards, Levine also reached out to us with the news that a Virgin representative has now called her and is looking into speeding up the refund.