Won't send SMS on Virgin Mobile

I also forgot to request compensation for the 1+ week of no texting because I was so happy it got fixed...although the guy that fixed it would probably have to transfer us again back down the chain

Good to hear other people are having success

I've been waiting for weeks for my texting to be turned back on and nothing has happened to solve my problem after calling VM close to 10 times.

Does anyone know if simply switching my number to another virgin mobile device and then back to my iphone would solve the problem? It seems like that should reset my network, but I could be wrong, which is why I'm asking. And to be honest, I'd rather wait a day with a crappy phone then spend any more time on the phone with VM "customer care".

Thanks!

Spent 90 minutes on VM customer service yesterday - the 30th day of my contract/ownership of phone. SMS sending hasn't worked since day 1, yet still they haven't 'escalated' it to the highest level of tech support. I returned the phone yesterday to Radio Shack, because I had to do so within 30 days for refund.

Today, went to Best Buy to buy the phone, hoping that activation on new phone would fix it. DID NOT WORK!

Next plan is to return iPhone 4s tomorrow and swap to a cheap VM phone for a day. Then, 2 days from now, go back and purchase iPhone 4s. Hoping that will re-set whatever activation provisions are connected to the account/phone number. I would have swapped today, but VM only allows 1 swap per day, for whatever reason.

I will keep you posted if this method is successful. I bitc&ed like crazy to talk with a higher level support person yesterday before returning phone, but to no avail. The Tier 3 supervisor I was speaking with insisted that he cannot contact 'specialists' or 'technicians' except by email - and certainly cannot connect me to them, as they do not take calls. Anyone who had success getting to a technician or specialist - any help would be appreciated!

Talked to VM Tier 3 tech support today. After they 'suspended' and 'restored' the account, texting FINALLY works! Now, I don't know if it was the suspend and restore that did it, or if their technicians had done something behind the scenes since my 'trouble ticket' was sent to them. Either way, it's working at long last.

If this info helps someone, I'm glad to help.

Good luck.

I just got a call from VM yesterday about the case I had opened weeks ago and have since solved by calling them and being persistant...DO NOT WAIT FOR THEM TO HANDLE YOUR CASE

Call them and be active in escalating it to the highest tier of technical support. That is where everyone in this thread has had success. Be curteous but firm. Don't be afraid to ask to speak to a supervisor or refer to this thread. Tell them you have taken it to Apple and there are no hardware issues, it is a software issue. Tell them all other messaging works (including group outbound sms, just not single outbound sms).

Again, the only known solution in this thread is to get them to reset something on their end manually, something that their tier 3(? 4?) support must do.

Good luck

This has not been solved by Virgin, as of today - Sept 6 2012. My original complaint to Virgin was August 17, 2012. I've spent 14 hours on phone over 10 phone calls. Written and responded to 7 emails - some from their senior staff. I have been asked the same set of questions 6 times.

I cannot sent SMS text messsages. MMS works fine. I can receive SMS and MMS.

They have a serious bug in the system. iMessage works between iphones, and MMS messaging works, but what the process they use to send single messages, it's not working. Somebody at Virgin is going to get fired.

Virgin support keeps sending me text messages from phone 0000000868. Message is $VMU$. My repeated requests to not send a text message (that I can't read) are ignored. They are probably asking me to text them!!

Calling techs at 1.866.553.9807 (the technical support line) and receiving no support at all. Have spoken with senior tech support and they cannot debug. Calling the number on their website is a farce, don't bother.

I called again today and got to start all over again with first tier customer support asking same questions - did it ever work, how many bars, etc. They must have closed the support ticket and won't acknowledge makng a mistake.

I am stuck with this ludicrous service, but I'd suggest you return your phone immediately if you can. I've been a Virgin customer for 10 years with no problems, strong signal, and low prices, but this will be the last phone. When it dies, it's done.

I posted earlier that I managed to have success and it reminained solved. But I just got so frustrated with Virgin in general, mainly because almost every call I made or received got cut off mid conversation. Sometimes within a few minutes, sometimes after 20 minutes. And sometimes I would have to phone the person back 5 times before I could complete my conversation. And then of course their support is awful - I just got palmed around. So I left, and I'm a much calmer person for it. AT&T have the Go Phone package for $60 per month and they are more reliable all around. If you can get out, do it.

I only wish that I hadn't stopped reading before I got to your message. My wife called VM support today (2nd time and after going to the Apple Store to have the iPhone 6 verified). The level 1 tech got her to a supervisor fairly quickly once she told him that she'd already gone through all of the level 1 tests before. I ended up talking with the supervisor, Andre, and he agreed to call back after I had an opportunity to back up the phone in case they had to perform a factory reset. He called back shortly after the appointed time and immediately transferred my wife to a level 2 tech. I talked to him and read the posting about having network settings reset. He then had us enter the ##873283# code and send an SMS to my Android phone. That, of course, fixed the problem. I am located in San Diego, so this definitely works here. Thanks to all who have posted here!

Update

The problem didn't stay fixed for even one day. My wife, in her frustration, Tweeted her annoyance that 2 days talking to tech support hadn't resolved the issue to @richardbranson. To her surprise, she received a reply from ^Mirella R @VMUcare. After a bit of conversation back and forth, ^Mirella R recommended deleting the message history for each user that she was having trouble reaching. So far, that seems to have made the difference. All of her Android contacts seem to be receiving SMS messages again and her one iPhone contact that seemed to be locked to SMS messages can be reached through iMessage again. This may not be the overall fix for the problem, but it's worth trying if the ##873283# code either doesn't fix the problem, or as in our case, the problem doesn't stay fixed. I'll update more if the problem comes back, but for the moment, she's Happy_Again.

SMS is a carrier function. Contact Virgin and make sure you have your account setup correctly.

try this if you havent...

http://virginmobile.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/496

Btw..Group SMS works

Does anybody have a fix for this? I am so frustrated? I just want to send SMS and activate iMessage and FaceTime. Is that too much to ask for?