Virgin Media

I wanted to buy a new smart mobile phone for a friend for Christmas as a surprise, what one would think would be a simple task was a nightmare.
I went to Carphone warehouse on Market St to buy a Samsung phone, only to be told I needed to know what network my friend was on, or I could not buy the phone as an existing customer. So I had to try nad find out what network my friend was on, even though I had his phone number they said that was no help.
Over the next few days, I managed to get my friends phone and see that it was on the Virgin network, so returned to Manchester and the same car-​phone warehouse shop, where I was told that was fine and told to go and pay at the desk. At the desk I was then told Virgin is the only network that I could not use that phone on, as Virgin don’t do the discount!
Leaving the shop somewhat annoyed, I tracked down a Virgin store hidden in the ground floor of the Arndale centre. What a depressing shop it is, looks like they are having a closing down sale!
Anyway I explained to the assistant my problem, and she said I could buy the same phone from them at a cost of some £50 more!!! I protested, and she clearly took pity on me, and said she would see what price I could get it for. She took my friends details, and entered it all in the computer, and after lots of questions etc she said my friend has an unused discount on his account and I could use that and get the phone for £20 cheaper than carphone warehouse, I said great can I have one, please, but she explained she would have to have the number off the back of his sim card to do it. I said I would try but would take a few days.
During the next few days I tried without success to get hold of my friends phone, eventually while he was having a shower I got the phone, big problems getting it open, then got the sim card out and took the number, then found I had to reset the time and date, on a strange phone was not easy, anyway I had got the sim card number as requested.
I returned to the Virgin shop and waited and waited to be served, by the most surly girl, I explained everything to her, but hse said NO WAY could she do anything without my friends password, I said I could not get that without asking him, then the surprise present would not be a surprise. The girl was so rude, that I eventually walked out in disgust, saying they had completely wasted my time. I tried telephoning the shop several times in the hope to speak to the manager but they never answer the phone so gave up, was sick of pressing option 5.
In desperation I went to the car phone warehouse shop on the corner of Market St and Cross st, and explained the problems, they said they could not do the voucher but sold me the phone I wanted for a Virgin Network as an existing customer! what a joke, no wonder mobile phone shops get a bad reputation. So why could the other Carphone warehouse shop on Market Street not do it???
The moral of this story is stay well clear of Virgin! and the Carphone warehouse shop on Market St, if you have to use one use the one on the corner of Market St and Cross St (under boots)
I used to use this shop before and had a great member of staff called Stephen, but he has left and the staff are always changing and none have been very friendly or helpful on past visits.

It’s Virgin everything these days… radio, vacations, loans, broadband, mobile, telly, phone… okay, only the last four feature majorly in this store, and I don’t know what happened to the cola but I rather liked it. They even used to have cinemas too.
Virgin are nothing if not slick. They’ve had Samuel L and Uma on the adverts, talking about fibre speed (not a slimming supplement) and copper wires, and everything smiley Richard Branson’s company seems to produce is glossy and cool. I’m afraid I can’t speak for the services they provide, but as far as I know Virgin TV is an excellent alternative to Sky and cheaper too, plus it has all the add-​ons like HD and recording services.
I’ve always thought that if you look online for some kind of TV, broadband, mobile, landline package deal (which you seem to get a lot of these days), it can get ridiculously confusing. But stores like this make it easier — although they will try and sell you something, the assistants are there to tell you exactly what your options are and how much money you can save. So if you’re even considering switching to Virgin for your home entertainment or communication facilities, I’d definitely pop in here if I were you.