Virgin Mobile UK is fantastic value. I ordered my phone, selected price plan and phone arrived the next day. Perfect! I use to be on Pay as you go with O2, but was paying to much so I decided to go on contract. Virgin had the best deals. And as I was with virgin for my tv, hone phone and broadband I thought "why not?".
Its not all good though! the coverage from O2 was outstanding! I never got not signal, but with Virgin the coverage is average to poor.
Is it worth having a cheap package that you can't use? well no. So it maybe worth paying that little more on a newtork like O2 (or Tesco as they use the o2 network).

Overall its ok and would recommend, providing you dont mind the odd signal loss now and then.

I've been with Virgin for maybe five years and found plenty to like about them. With all the family on Virgin, I've found their website very good for keeping tabs on which of my children need emergency top-ups to keep them in touch with home - and which of them are inveterate gossips who need to reign in their talk-time! If I could improve the website, I'd ask that we could name-label the numbers in our accounts for instant identification (I've had up to eight numbers on the go at one time) and that we could use the website to move credit between accounts, which currently we can do only over the phone.

The coverage is poor in my area (rural East Yorkshire); so much that we have to walk down to the end of the lane even to get enough signal to send or receive a text. Not exactly convenient on a freezing night in January whilst wearing your pyjamas. Indoor reception? Forget it!

Compared to other networks at the time, Virgin was good value, thus we put up with the poor reception, but now they're so clearly losing the fight against the new fellow-virtuals such as ASDA and Tesco, we're one by one porting over to ASDA (less than half the price and better coverage courtesy of the Vodafone network) as our credit runs out.

Which brings me to the next problem; as of about a year ago, Virgin (perhaps in an attempt to stem the exodus of customers to Tesco and ASDA), started charging £15 for handset unlocking. Previously, subject to a minimum spend/time spent with Virgin, unlocking had been free. Now, I kicked up a fuss about this, especially as the handsets were old and probably worth less than the unlocking fee and in the end I got two of my old handsets unlocked for the price of one, so that's a trick worth trying.

I'm surprised to see negative comments about customer care, because every time I've spoken to the people at Virgin, they have been really helpful and friendly. Tip: if you have to speak to them on a landline, always email your initial enquiry, giving as much detail as you can and then Virgin phone you back when they already have the answer - saves you hanging about on the landline at 20p a minute while they sort out your problem from scratch. :)

I'm keeping my emergency glove-box phone on Virgin (as it's a good idea to have two networks available in case of technical hitches), but I'm taking my main number over to ASDA.

8p a minute/4p a text in the comfort of your own home
v
20p a minute/10p a text shivering on a street corner

Can't argue with that. Sorry, Virgin.

Not terrible just bad service luckily i haven't had any problems with virgin but i have read a lot of comments from people who have.

Signing in online has always been difficult. Seems to be a glitch on the password section. Never seems to recognize my password and every time I have tried changing the password that too, does not work and to be experiencing the same problems over a period of years is crazy.
Its been interesting choosing a new phone from the Virgin Mobile Website. Then comparing them with phones reviewed on this Review Centre. Virgin are still busy selling old models for top money!
I too have used my mobile to vote on several TV competitions, programmes and charities. Texting the word STOP to any annoying TV companies which continue offering competitions by text messaging certainly works! and I`ve never been charged as much as £1 by any programme even those they say that's what it costs for entry.

I have never had a problem with Virgin Mobile UK, although I have to admit I am not a big user of mobiles in general but this service more than meets my demands - if only I could take calls in my flat. Can't get a signal in my flat, every time it rings I have to run out the front door, but having said that, my previous provider was exactly the same, so not sure if this is a generic problem.

I bought a Sony Ericsson K500i mobile phone. It is a nice phone, and it does exactly what I would like in a phone and more!! The keys are close (not bad for 50 quid)! Then the trouble starts! I have had four more phones since then. Virgin ran out of K500i's so they gave me an upgrade K700i... nice. Then that broke. Several phones later my warranty ran out, so I brought a Siemens SF65, which seems good. I only wish I'd taken out insurance with it, as somehow I lost it while in London.

I don't recommend you buy Virgin reconditioned phones! They cost less money for a reason. Only 6 months warranty, which is not enough! I got through 10 phones at least. So I'm buying a NEW Nokia next, but because Virgin don't seem to be doing any deals anymore (Orange = 2 for 1 cinema tickets) and (T-mobile = mates rates, 5p per minute calls and 5p per text). I can't argue; they are both good deals, but Virgin = 15p for the first 5 minutes and 5p thereafter... this seems an expensive flat rate, though cheap considering some companies. I might be leaving Virgin.

The staff are very friendly if you have got any problems, and voicemail is free. Delivery is 24 hours next day (including Saturday), so if anything does happen, it doesn't seem such a wait for a new phone. And delivery is prompt! I have been told that even their new phones aren't that much better, sometimes though, if you're lucky, you might get the pick of the crop! Still, Virgin are selling the SE K700i for just under £100, and they where selling it at £60 before hand... a week later I check and its gone up... this is too much! I know this phone is good, and it would be great if it didn't break, but the Nokia's are so much more robust. My old one only failed slightly because the keys partly stopped working. I'm a mountain biker, so I have had lots of crashes (dare I admit it!) and lots of mud, not the combination a phone likes; and still it works!

If Virgin started knocking a bit off their phones, and if they introduced some Nokia mobile phones into their range, then I'll be tempted back. If you're not fussed about the deals, and want great service and have a decent Nokia, and you can put your sim in, then Virgin would be a good choice!

I get poor coverage in my home, despite living near the top of a hill in a suburb of Southampton. Where I work I hardly get any coverage. Calls are cheap though. £10 lasts me ages.

As far as I know the Virgin network is just using bandwidth from T-Mobile (Virgin Sims work in T-Mobile locked phones and vice versa) and therefore probably has the same reception as T-Mobile phones. I find that the lack of GPRS a little annoying as I cant make use of my camera phone properly. I contacted Virgin and they told me that they "Will be implementing GPRS in future". Draw your own conclusions...

Overall service is generally good. Text messages all seem to arrive. I can call people. Topping up is easy as the e-topup card is accepted nearly everywhere.

Generally a good, no frills service.

I definitely agree that Virgin are the best when it comes to value for money and customer care, they do try their best. I bought the 3510i from them after being thoroughly pleased with the service on my 3310. However, I'm now rather disappointed. I can't use MMS, Email... :(
Good network for beginners or people who want the very basics.
Anyone recommend a good network for GPRS/MMS?