Won't send SMS on Virgin Mobile

I ordered my wife's phone right from the Virgin website. I am in Southern NV, and AZ and it isn't working in either spot. I am ready to take the phone tomorrow to Apple to see what they say. Virgin is seeming to be next to useless with the support and keep apologizing.

I am not interested in an apology, just a fix. I have programmed the ##UPDATE# (##873283#) and nothing.

I am glad my wife is more patient than I am... I wonder if I call and threaten a return/cancellation if that would help any?! It would be nice if they could admit that there *is* a problem and give more information.

I did a restore via itunes but it still doesn't work. VMUcare on twitter keeps saying theres still an outage going on and they are aware of the issue. Latest tweet to me says it should be resolved soon...

Whenever I call though they seem clueless

Good news....

I've felt your pain for the last week and have spent the last 2 hours on the phone, one of them in conference call with Apple and Virgin after Virgin tried to fob me off onto Apple. Virgin eventually fixed my problem. This is what they told me:

When you buy a new iPhone 4S through Virgin, the setup is an automated process. Basically hands free from their end and they consider the job done.

Well this automated process is missing a step of letting us send SMS's. What the tech from Virgin had to do is go through my system manually bit by bit which took him a while until he got to the part of SMS's and then he had to activate me being able to send SMS's. Job done, all working.

There's two systems at Virgin. One is the account information which is where you get the first level troubleshooting techs and who will eventually try to pass you onto Apple (don't let them do this!). Then the other system is where they manage your voicemail, call activiation, SMS settings etc etc. This is managed by the next level of troubleshooters. So you need to tell them what they need to do because not all of them will be willing to spend the time going through your system manually. They only persisted on finding the problem for me because a supervisor from Apple was relentless about letting them get out of fixing the problem (thank you thank you thank you Orlando if you see this message!).

I hope you all have success. It's been a very bad start with Virgin, but you can't beat their price so I suppose you get what you pay for on the support side.

On my end I had asked when the outage started, and they said the 28th of this year...I guess they are working on fixing the automated proccess mrshub described?

I guess I will set aside time tommorrow to try to get through to someone who can manually activate me. Thanks for the insight.

I followed the instructions above and still a no go. I restored the phone via Apple Care and still no go. The CSR for Apple suggested I go to an Apple store and have them troubleshoot and possibly replace the phone.

Speaking to Virgin they activated SMS etc... and I am now at a loss totally. How silly.

How can we as users escalate this up the food chain? Perhaps on www.Consumerist.com ?

Same problem on ONE of the TWO phones I bought for me and wife. My wife's port from ATT went fine - mine took 8 hours and I had to call. After I called, everything (including sending SMS) worked great right away. My wife's port happened almost immediately, but SMS has not worked since I bought 6/29/12, at RadioShack.

I've spent HOURS on phone with first and second level support at VM with no luck. I took to Apple Genius who said the VM setup is to blame. Anybody besides 'mrshub' have any luck? Is this worth another call to customer service at VM, or just a waste of time?

Apparently your text wont work because it is trying to use the wrong Service Centre Number

Go to your phone keypad and type

*#5005*7672# and press the call button

You should be given a number, make a note then

Go to your phone keypad and type

**5005*7672*and the phone number you have been given# and press the call button

For Virgin Media UK the sequence is

**5005*7672*00447958879890#

Your texting should now work.

From what I've been able to gather, the CDMA network that VM runs on does not use Service Center Numbers - at least not in the USA. Anyone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong - and send me the # for VM-USA.

Anyone else have luck getting SMS to work besides mrshrub?

Had all the same issues for the last two weeks. I think mrshub is correct. The tech today had me twice do a erase all content and settings and redo activation and programming, finally after the last reset I was able to send texts. I initially was told it was an outage then went through both levels of troubleshooting and then was sent to Apple. I went to Apple store and they just asked me about the problems and told me it was a network/programming issue. They were really good there and were able to show me that imessage and MMS messages worked fine as well as incoming texts. I then went back to Virgin Mobile and they opened an investigation. After several follow up calls and no resolution they opened another investigation. I was finally fed up and after a supervisor promised to get back to me last Friday and never called, I called today determined to get this resolved. After again talking to a supervisor who told me I just had to wait for the investigation to be resolved (6-9 working days) I demanded to be transfered to a tech. After being disconnected twice I finally got back to a tech who got my texts to work. Virgin Mobile is extremely difficult to deal with for tech support but I guess you get what you pay for in monthly service. I am just ****** that it took two weeks for something that they could have done day one. I feel everyone's pain and hope you can all get resolution. Be firm with them, ask for supervisors, and get a tech to re-do your activation and programming until they get it right, even if they have to do things manually. Good Luck!

I called and kept requesting that they escalate me to a technician. He reset something on their end, my connection to the sprint towers i think is what he said when I asked, and now it works. Best of luck to those with the problem still

I think I had a similar issue. I bought my Iphone from Best Buy about 2 weeks ago, and though calls worked, text messages didn't nor did cellular data. I called one week ago and they told me that "I had features I shouldn't have and that they were now disabled" and just like that, messages work and cellular data works......kinda.

The problem I'm having now is that the phone displays a circle next to Virgin at the top, telling me I have gprs/2g service as opposed to 3g. I've called twice already, but apparently, there's nothing they can do.

At this point, I'm trying to see whether the phone is acting up and showing that 2g icon, when, in fact, I have 3g service. I have speed of between .07 and .11 Mbps, can anyone else post their data rates and whether they have 3G or the circle/2g?

EDIT: As I wrote this post, I had 3G for like 2 minutes, but then it died out :'( lets see if some more tinkering fixes this **** problem

@spiderjedi -I had opened a case on sunday but got tired of waiting. today when I called, i briefly described the issue and immediately informed them that i had already run through all the steps they were going to run me through, even describing them (power off and on, ##update#, reset via phone settings, reset via itunes). when they insisted i as their job requires, i just asked for their supervisor and explained to the supervisor that it is not a hardware issue and cannot be remedied on my end via power cycling / resets, and i had already done all of those solutions, that it was an issue with the activation on their end. if they try to point out that you have an open case, don't get deterred. explain that you have been waiting for weeks and that you have a solution that has worked for others with the same problem. Be firm but polite in requesting an escalation beyond the initial person / their supervisor to someone who can manually tweak with the activation on their end (they are just doing their job!)

the guy i got transferred to was able to fix the problem in about a minute after i described the issue. he told me to power off the phone and power it on again after he had made a reset on their end to my connection to the sprint towers or something.

@jbravo -your issue sounds different, everyone else has cellular data working fine (i think). text messaging also semi worked, it would receive normal texts / send group texts but not send out normal texts. Your issues sound bigger to me 😟

I was one of the people on the first page to have this issue. Here's some information to help everyone out.

iPhone 4s ported from Sprint

DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM-------------------

Cannot send out SMS (that's it), cannot send or reply to text to a single person.

I can send and reply to every message you can imagine (iMessage, MMS group messages, MMS picture messages, emails) except SMS. Recieving messages was not a problem either.

NOTE: There are no outages confirmed in my area. For a quick response to check if there's an outage in your area, message VirginMobile USA on facebook. A reply is usually received with in a few hours on the same day.

TEMPORARY FIX--------------

Before the fix, what I was doing was sending group messages to a single person. How?... I would send a text to myself and one other person. This way it would be a MMS/group message. The other person would receive the message, and I would too. Another thing I did was use iMessage with other iphone users, and I used BeeJive GT app for android phone users that use gtalk (google talk, their version of iMessage).

------------------------------------------------ I called Virgin Mobile and this is how it went

CSR--- blah blah blah blah ##update#... on and off reset transfered to tech support...

TECH SUPPORT--- on and off reset, she reset my "messaging service". she is literally reading instructions, and doesn't know what the real issue is. These tech. supports just run through a list. After I explained the situation, they still insist on the options they have. Be patient. I decided not to talk them out of it, I merely waited until her options were exhausted. She said my account was not ported over correctly. I didn't really need to explain anything, and was transfered to someone who has more "tools" to fix this for me. transfered to tech support level 2...

TECH SUPPORT LVL 2--- this tech pretty much did the same thing. doesn't really seem to know, just reads instructions and repeats it. I questioned if it was even the next up tech support level. She told me she's a tech support in the "porting department". It's all the same department just another tech support. After she exhausted her options with the on and off "messaging service reset" she tried to give me a troubleshooting ticket and disconnect the call. She said there's nothing she can do, and they have no other options or work arounds. At this point, I explained that I was apart of this community apple support thread, and a those like ct1g3r were able to get someone to fix it. She insisted that there's nothing they could do. Told her to not give me a troubleshooting ticket, just transfer me to another tech support. BTW; I highly doubt this was a lvl 2 tech support as she did the same as the one before. She seemed like a Lead or senior tech support

TECH SUPPORT LVL 2 (THE REAL ONE, a tech guy)--- I can tell this was the real level to tech support because he didn't give me any BS. Just what's your number? what's your pin? what's the name on the account? What's the problem? I explained in detail. He said he would review the my network settings, place me on hold for a minute. He seemed to know what the issue was. He didn't have any BS for me to do. He pretty much confirmed it was a network/programming issue. Placed me on hold to brief the next person, a specialist, about the issue. Transfered me and explain the next person was informed of the issue and will take care of it.

SPECIALIST--- This guy first went over what he was briefed on. I confirmed my issue with him. He was very helpful no BS. He explained he reactivated my service in the network. Did the on and off to reconnect/reset phone. Did an SMS test. Sent to my wife and myself. WORKS!!!!!! I asked him what it is he did. He said, he deactivated then reactivated my service manually. I told him that there are others with this issue. He believes this process must be done manually to correct. I asked him if he has came accross this issue before or is it common. He said he doesn't take phone calls, and calls usually don't get that far.

SO...EVERYONE WITH THIS SAME ISSUE. GET A SPECIALIST TO FIX IT, DON'T TAKE A TROUBLESHOOT TICKET OR WHATEVER YOU CALL IT. Get transfered until it's done right.

THANK YOU ct1g3r !!!

You're right, it's persistence. I wanted to be polite, but I did have to make a little bit of a *ahem* of myself to get transferred. Took an hour (literally, the phone has a clock) and a bit of high blood pressure, but I can finally text.

I was so happy I forgot to insist on a refund for the past week.

Good luck everyone else.

-D...