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Trying to Get a Phone for the US
13 years ago
General
đ RANSOM.CAT My first year at AC, I had an American pay-as-you-go phone, given to me by 
daswuetend. It was sweet, because my Canadian phone wouldn't work internationally. The new one rocked, but for some reason, I couldn't reactivate it when I went back last year. Thus, I was phoneless, and it was a real pain in the ass to try and find people.
This time, I don't want to repeat that, so I placed an order with Virgin Mobile USA to buy a phone online. With their advertised 3 to 5 day shipping, I figured I'd have it shipped up here, and be good to go when I travel south. I know sometimes things take longer to ship over the border, so I sent an e-mail to confirm the expected delivery time. After a delay of a few days, I get a short reply: "Sorry, we don't ship internationally. Hope this helps."
Uh, no, that doesn't help anything at all. Nothing on the site stopped me from entering my Canadian shipping address, and the payment went through just fine. So somewhere, Virgin USA has a phone kickin' around with my name on it.
I spent, like, an hour-and-a-half online with an agent, trying to figure out where my phone is. It was really not helpful.
Agent: Unfortunately, we do not ship outside of US.
Agent: Do you have any other questions that I can answer for you today?
Me: Well, yeah. Since I can't collect this phone here, what do I do about the bill I've already paid Virgin? Your company has a phone somewhere with my name on it, but it can't be shipped to me.
Agent: I would like to inform you that If you submitted the Canada address, the order would have been placed.
Me: Meaning... it actually is on its way up here?
Me: I'm sorry; I'm a bit confused. I don't fully understand what you're implying by that.
Agent: As per the company policy, an order can be placed only if you mention all information correctly and address must belong to US except P.O. Box and Military address.
The hell?
I've only got a small window remaining to get a phone that works in the US. I opted for this one, because it came with a dealâ$40 in bonus credit, if it's activated by the 4th, which obviously isn't going to happen now. And at the end of all of it, what advice did I get?
Can't help youâphone an agent instead.
daswuetend. It was sweet, because my Canadian phone wouldn't work internationally. The new one rocked, but for some reason, I couldn't reactivate it when I went back last year. Thus, I was phoneless, and it was a real pain in the ass to try and find people.This time, I don't want to repeat that, so I placed an order with Virgin Mobile USA to buy a phone online. With their advertised 3 to 5 day shipping, I figured I'd have it shipped up here, and be good to go when I travel south. I know sometimes things take longer to ship over the border, so I sent an e-mail to confirm the expected delivery time. After a delay of a few days, I get a short reply: "Sorry, we don't ship internationally. Hope this helps."
Uh, no, that doesn't help anything at all. Nothing on the site stopped me from entering my Canadian shipping address, and the payment went through just fine. So somewhere, Virgin USA has a phone kickin' around with my name on it.
I spent, like, an hour-and-a-half online with an agent, trying to figure out where my phone is. It was really not helpful.
Agent: Unfortunately, we do not ship outside of US.
Agent: Do you have any other questions that I can answer for you today?
Me: Well, yeah. Since I can't collect this phone here, what do I do about the bill I've already paid Virgin? Your company has a phone somewhere with my name on it, but it can't be shipped to me.
Agent: I would like to inform you that If you submitted the Canada address, the order would have been placed.
Me: Meaning... it actually is on its way up here?
Me: I'm sorry; I'm a bit confused. I don't fully understand what you're implying by that.
Agent: As per the company policy, an order can be placed only if you mention all information correctly and address must belong to US except P.O. Box and Military address.
The hell?
I've only got a small window remaining to get a phone that works in the US. I opted for this one, because it came with a dealâ$40 in bonus credit, if it's activated by the 4th, which obviously isn't going to happen now. And at the end of all of it, what advice did I get?
Can't help youâphone an agent instead.
"Sorry, but we already applied the money we charged you without asking to your next bill. If it is any consolation, you won't have to pay the bill next month."
But I need that money this month o.o
"Well, we can issue a refund, but it won't be applied to your card until next month."
>_<
Hopefully you can get the current charge for the phone you ordered cancelled, since they probably will not get it to you. Once you make it to our side, you can probably pick up the same phone from a 7-11 in the states, if not some other grocery store. Prepaid phones grow on trees over here o.o
Any which way, I hope you have fun when AC rolls around! I should really try to make it next year.
Anyway, thanks for the tip, PG. It's too bad you're not coming this time, but hopefully I'll see you again next year!
I do that every times I go. I have a box with handfuls of them goddamn phones
And you could sling them across your chest like a telephonic bandolier.
LIKE CHEWBACCA.
Got my ÂŁ400 Samsung galaxy 2 handset absolutely free for giving them a wallmart phone worth about ÂŁ3