Fantastic...

Bugger.

Yeah, I'm definitely not thrilled. I specifically went with the white model because they were "available", and now I'm going to have to wait an indefinite number of weeks.

I sent them an email about things like placing the order when the website still listed availability, the lack of notification of any kind of delay, and that orders placed later than mine were being fulfilled, and they ignored them all for that quite stock reply.

I hope they reply.

Push them for 'goodwill' refunds.

They screwed my order up - instead of an upgrade, they sent me a new phone plus a new sim card - so a new phone number, and apparently expected me to be on two plans with two phones.

Multiple calls yesterday (with multiple promises of return calls that didn't come) left it at 7-14 days to fix.... so 2 weeks of paying for two plans, and only able to use the iPhone on a number no one knows and I don't want?! Anyway, today, with an 8th call (they actually called me this time), they say it's now fixed and working properly.

After expressing my disappointment (over and over), got them do waive $60 of the $70 I was meant to pay for leaving the old contract early - when I first spoke to them (and they had stock to sell) they offered $35... so after all the messing around I thought I'd push for more.... end up paying $10 to get out of a contract that had about 20 months left on it (and a handset) is good, pity it took them screwing me around to get there.

Of course, the test is then seeing what comes on the first bill....

As you said, the telcos seem to be competing to see who can cock it up the most

Can anyone comment on the service they are getting form Virgin 3G as am curious compared to Optus and am talking about reception, net use etc.

Thanks..

I've ordered a 8GB version online, hoping they have stock. When will they start the contract? I don't want to get a bill / pay for the plan while I don't have the phone.

I abandoned Virgin some months ago, to go to Telstra, for EGSM. GSM on Virgin was woeful and I could never use it. fortunately I only bought a $5 pack for testing purposes. I expected that its 3G service would be better but apparently its not (read on Whirlpool, various threads). Its patchy at best and there does seem to be a correlation between where you live/work and how reliable it might be. There are some people who swear by it. I would, too, and I wouldnt hesitate to take on one of their plans, were it not for my previous experience. Colour me nervous.

Another thing worth noting is that Virgin throttle the top speed to 750.. if you are looking for superfast, thats not it.

Yeah, that's awful.

You'd have thought that when entering the new phone into the system, that it would flag some of the details as matching an existing account. And that is utterly rediculous to have a 7-14 day fix time, when surely it's just an administrative thing. If it can take as little as hours to port a number from another telco, how hard would it be to change their own records?

Hope you get your discount.

The new contract starts straight away unfortunately... with or without the iphone. You're paying for the plan not the phone apparently.

My wife and I are waiting on a black 16gb each. Both of us have gone straight onto the $74 pm plan. My present phone has next to no battery life left and a crappy screen and her 3G phone is broken and the stand-in one she's using probably isn't even 3G. So we've both got a month to go through paying for $520 worth of calls and 1Gb of data that we have next to no use for.

Such is life.

Hang on, how can the contract start straight away? With Virgin, according to the FAQ, you activate the account online once you've received the phone.

I might have to give them a call to confirm. They told me that because I was starting a new plan with my existing Virgin account that it switched over to the new plan straight away. Though... we ordered our phones last friday and they said the new plan would kick in early this week. According to my online bill, it hasn't yet

Let us know how you go.

Yeah - I would really like to find out if I'm getting billed for not having my phone
I've sent their sales team an email. hopefully I'll get a response today...

They told me on the phone it starts when you activate the new sim card (for a new account).

For an existing account, it's meant to be from when it's delivered (delivery is tracked)

Sweet! - Very good news for me, thanks mate
Oh wait - I don't have my damn phone yet