Virgin Mobile committing fraud with Triumph

[HamDog]

I'm just getting tired of Motorola and VM's lack of response to the many issues with the Triumph. I went to the VM website and was surprised to see a 4.1 rating out of 5. So I submitted my rating and review (I gave it a "1"). Next day, I get an e-mail from VM that my rating and review was declined!!! So, that's how VM gives the Triumph a 4.1 rating! They don't publish the bad reviews, just the good ones.

Being fed up, I made a YouTube video. I had initially pumped the Triumph when it first came out. But my updated video is the opposite:

Virgin Mobile Android Motorola Triumph Review - Part 2 - YouTube

 

[craZDude]

That's pretty surprising, although probably not unheard of. Did thy give any specific reasons why they didn't accept your review?

 

[marc12868]

I actually tried to post a bad review too... But I know why mine wasn't published. It's not that they're committing fraud it's that they have such strict guidelines for making a review that basically if you say anything bad then your kinda breaking guidelines. Like for me I didn't explicitly say anything about rooting to fix problems, but I did very lightly hint at it and it got declined.

 

[speedforce131]

I'm going to try to write a review and see if they accept/decline it.

 

[HamDog]

They didn't give any specific reasons. They just said it's been rejected because of their "guidelines". Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of what I wrote. I just wrote it and hit "submit". I thought it would get posted right away. I had no idea it has to be reviewed first.

To others who are going to try and submit a review: Keep a copy of what you write.

 

[DenverNugs]

While I agree 100% about Motorola and Virgin Mobile not standing behind their product, I've loved this phone. I'm getting pretty damn close to moving over to the monthly 4g T-mobile plans however. I've also heard from a little birdie that Cricket (prepaid carrier) will be getting 4g LTE at the end of this year, along with one of Huawei's new quad core devices.

A lot of the issues you describe are faults of certain units and the signal you're getting. My first triumph locked onto GPS in about 2 minutes on the first lock of the day. My new triumph takes about a minute and a half. This is still an long time compared to a lot of other phones on the market that will lock instantly. I remember my old Mytouch 3g locked in less than a second.

Given the pro's and the con's, I'm happy with Virgin's replacement policy and the Motorola Triumph. While there's a lot of disadvantages I'm overall pleased with the device. Quality control is atrocious, though. It's definitely time for a new device for virgin mobile.

 

[MediocreBadGuy]

They have also declined my review for the Triumph when I gave a negative comment. My good review for the Optimus V was accepted

 

[shmackshmack]

they are a company and they are protecting themselves. in an age where any average person can post something about the product where millions will see it, they dont want to be slandered and have a bunch of bad posts. even if they are truthful.

they arent doing anything wrong, its just user submitted content to a website in the end, and if there rules for posting content say dont make a bad review, then that content wont get posted. it happened to me too.


its not fraud so calm down.

the phone IS good, a junk phone is the Samsung Intercept or Huawei Ascend. try using THAT for a week and youll be begging to go back to the triumph.

 

[pillbug]

I'm getting pretty damn close to moving over to the monthly 4g T-mobile plans however.

Be careful here. I may have my facts wrong, but I believe the T-mobile "4G" plan only gives you 500mb/month of 4G, the rest at a lower speed. Pretty much everything is an unqualified rip-off, but read the qualifications anyway.

 

[HamDog]

they are a company and they are protecting themselves. in an age where any average person can post something about the product where millions will see it, they dont want to be slandered and have a bunch of bad posts. even if they are truthful.

they arent doing anything wrong, its just user submitted content to a website in the end, and if there rules for posting content say dont make a bad review, then that content wont get posted. it happened to me too.


its not fraud so calm down.

the phone IS good, a junk phone is the Samsung Intercept or Huawei Ascend. try using THAT for a week and youll be begging to go back to the triumph.

Then why have a place for users to review? May be better to completely take out all reviews and ratings than to defraud people. Reviews and ratings are useless if they're filtered to take out bad reviews. And they never say "good posting only"! Seriously, you don't think it's highly misleading when you see ratings/reviews without knowing that the bad ones have been filtered out??? I call it fraud.

 

[shmackshmack]

Then why have a place for users to review? May be better to completely take out all reviews and ratings than to defraud people. Reviews and ratings are useless if they're filtered to take out bad reviews. And they never say "good posting only"! Seriously, you don't think it's highly misleading when you see ratings/reviews without knowing that the bad ones have been filtered out??? I call it fraud.

its their damn site, they can run it how they want.

you dont have to agree with it but that doesnt make it fraud.

when you search motorola triumph reviews. the virgin mobile site is FAR from the first or even top results.

i think MOST ppl will look for reviews via google, and that will take them to other places with honest reviews.

the top results are engadget, cNet, pcworld, laptopmag, slashgear, phonedog, and amazon. if you really think the filtered reviews on virgins website are the ONLY source where people get their information about the phone you are very misled.

and changing your entire review to call the phone junk becuase of THAT? such a minor issue.

get real.

 

[marc12868]

Be careful here. I may have my facts wrong, but I believe the T-mobile "4G" plan only gives you 500mb/month of 4G, the rest at a lower speed. Pretty much everything is an unqualified rip-off, but read the qualifications anyway.

It depends on the plan. I pay $70 and get unlimited everything with 5GB of 4g.

 

[agentc13]

Hey guys, let's remember to discuss/attack issues (not each other) and keep it friendly here.

 

[speedforce131]

when you search motorola triumph reviews. the virgin mobile site is FAR from the first or even top results.

With Google, you have people who are paid to arrange the results according to the quality and relevancy of the website.

 

[HamDog]

its their damn site, they can run it how they want.

And then they'll get called out on it. I'm just making others aware of that. Call it what you will, I believe it's fraud.

and changing your entire review to call the phone junk becuase of THAT? such a minor issue.

get real.

I guess you didn't watch the whole video. Are you aware of the log file that gets too big and eats up the entire internal memory? You can't receive texts, you can't make calls, you can't browse the web, etc. Basically, the phone is useless. You call that minor? I'd hate to see what you call a major issue! I held back my review with all the other issues, but when this one surfaced, I had enough.

With Google, you have people who are paid to arrange the results according to the quality and relevancy of the website.

Exactly. And some companies hire PR firms to boost their ratings in fictitious ways. But declining bad reviews is at the bottom of the barrel.

 

[agentc13]

Are you aware of the log file that gets too big and eats up the entire internal memory? You can't receive texts, you can't make calls, you can't browse the web, etc. Basically, the phone is useless. You call that minor? I'd hate to see what you call a major issue! I held back my review with all the other issues, but when this one surfaced, I had enough.

I will bring to your notice that there are various ways to fix this (all of which require rooting or putting a different ROM on) none of which are very hard to do. But I understand the complaint that you shouldn't need to root the phone to fix something like that.

 

[markboton]

ive never had a problem with this phone. gps works fine for me. seems like you have a lemon. all of the issues you talked about in the video ive never had on my phone. i actually had to get a new phone because the power button broke and guess what i got a free phone even though it was my fault. ive been a virgin mobile customer for almost 10 and i love them and love this phone.

 

[lunatic59]

I hear a lot of frustration and disappointment in the video. Yeah, having the bloom fall off the rose, as it were, can be very disheartening especially when you feel no one is listening. I'm sure you know your options and simply want some recognition at this point. Believe me, I've been there. You should read the rant I wrote to Toshiba about their warranty program sometime.

In any case I want to caution you not to get too upset with anyone who is happy with the phone and doesn't share your opinions, or else you may be as guilty as those companies that don't seem to be listening to what you're saying. And to those who don't think HamDog has any reason to gripe, you bet he does. He's been treated like an Orwellian non-person by big brother, which stinks. Sure, you can disagree, but do it politely and keep it to the topic at hand.

 

[DenverNugs]

Be careful here. I may have my facts wrong, but I believe the T-mobile "4G" plan only gives you 500mb/month of 4G, the rest at a lower speed. Pretty much everything is an unqualified rip-off, but read the qualifications anyway.

They offer two $30 plans, one of them being 100 minutes, unlimited text/mms, and 5gb of 4g.

100 minutes sucks, but combined with grooveip it can be a good option.

 

[HamDog]

I will bring to your notice that there are various ways to fix this (all of which require rooting or putting a different ROM on) none of which are very hard to do. But I understand the complaint that you shouldn't need to root the phone to fix something like that.

I know rooting can fix this issue. In the past, rooting was for people who wanted more features (e.g. tethering), or more customization (more home pages, removing default programs, etc.). It can also fix some bugs. But when something this big happens, where the phone can become useless, the manufacturer needs to address it rather than having to root it and void warranty.

And for the average person, it takes time to do the research and root. Lots of warnings about potential "bricking". However small, it's still scary for the first time "rooter". But I do understand this can be fixed by rooting - which I already did to mine (CM7). I didn't have a choice.

In any case I want to caution you not to get too upset with anyone who is happy with the phone and doesn't share your opinions, or else you may be as guilty as those companies that don't seem to be listening to what you're saying. And to those who don't think HamDog has any reason to gripe, you bet he does. He's been treated like an Orwellian non-person by big brother, which stinks. Sure, you can disagree, but do it politely and keep it to the topic at hand.

I'm not mad at anyone (other than Motorola and VM!). I'm sure there are good batches of this phone out there. We have two in our family and they both have the exact same issues. And in various forums (including Motorola's), there are plenty with these issues, so I know our family doesn't have the only 2 defective ones out there

As you understand, I'm just showing my level of frustration with Motorola's unresponsiveness and my surprise that VM reviews are filtered!

 

[pastafarian]

First off, I feel your pain! I've been there. I owned a Samsung Moment which with the exception of the log file issue suffered from similar symptoms. It sounds like a radio chipset or antenna problem. With the Moment, we called it CDMA lockup. It happened to a number of users and for them (us) it seemed like everyone had the same issue. I had the phone swapped out a couple of times with no improvement. I thought anyone not complaining must be stupid. Then I got the phone swapped again and it was fine. All the issues were gone. Was there a problem? Yes! Did I have bad luck to get so many bad units? Yep! This is not to say that there isn't some issue endemic to the breed, but you do have a lemon and should strive to get it replaced if you can. As for the review not getting posted on Virgins site? Their site, their rules. It's not fraud. Fool on anyone who trusts reviews of products on any sales site! Don't trust them, EVER!! Though you paid good money for the phone, it's being sold non subsidized for less than $300. A lot of corners are being cut to reach that price point. It might even use the same radio chipset as the old Moment. I hope you get your issues resolved. Just remember, it's only a phone. If it really bothers you, give it to Russell Brand. He knows how to deal with it!

 

[ebnight]

Lol I'm sure if everyone keeps telling the triumphs page on VM, someone will get through

 

[Nanocomunicate]

Same happened to me a month after purchasing the phone when it was released. I gave it a low rating because of the slow 3g speeds compared to the faster speeds that my previous phone, LG Optimus V had, and the GPS not locking on to my location. My rating and comments were never approved on to Virgin Mobiles website.

 

[gabe603]

You should post on Amazon, never pay attention to Virgin reviews, it is obvious they will not like negative reviews on their phones and I'm sure Verizon, AT & T and other will do the same
BTW it is hilarious on you negative review on You Tube, there is a commercial about Virgin Mobile

 

[joeblackis]

Nice review. Thats pretty messed up about VM declining your review.
I can understand the need to review all reviews.. to ensure some posting guidelines. But a "normal" review good or bad should always be posted .
If they are going to censor reviews then they just need to remove all reviews from their site.
I always go to amazon for reviews anyways And while you do have to weed through some of them to get to the real ones the majority are real honest reviews from people who actually know what their talking about regarding the product they are reviewing.

I don't think many people would be too concerned or upset about all these issues IF VM or Motorola would release 1 or 2 updates to FIX or attempt to fix the widespread issues.
I keep checking every month or so hoping for an update to show up online.. but keep seeing no support for the triumph which is just plain sad.
VM's most expensive phone.. and has no support. I don't know if any other VM phones suffer from longstanding issues and have never received updates or not.. But I can say I am pretty puzzled and annoyed about not getting at least 1 freaking offical opdate for the triumph by now.