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Transfer grandfathered plan to another person/number?

swerver32

Android Enthusiast
Nov 29, 2011
345
66
Seattle
Does anyone know if this is possible? I'm on $25/mo with a wildfire s but since I'm getting the evo I'd like to give my wildfire to my father in law, who is looking to see what the smartphone thing is all about. Any way I can get him on $25/mo? I suppose I could keep the phone and have him pay me, but I want to transfer my number to my new phone. I'm guessing this is a no go, but just thought I'd put it out there in case someone knew a way. Thanks all.
 
Does anyone know if this is possible? I'm on $25/mo with a wildfire s but since I'm getting the evo I'd like to give my wildfire to my father in law, who is looking to see what the smartphone thing is all about. Any way I can get him on $25/mo? I suppose I could keep the phone and have him pay me, but I want to transfer my number to my new phone. I'm guessing this is a no go, but just thought I'd put it out there in case someone knew a way. Thanks all.

Not possible,unfortunately :(
 
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If you give/sell someone the phone, the virginmobileusa.com online account PIN and voice mail access code, they can completely take over the account and put the account in their name.

I know that. As soon as the name gets changed, VM's going to know about it and you lose the grandfathered plan. The grandfathered account is specifically for the current account holder. Not a new one.
 
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As soon as the name gets changed, VM's going to know about it and you lose the grandfathered plan. The grandfathered account is specifically for the current account holder. Not a new one.

Help me understand how you know that is true. For instance, can you point to anything in the Terms and Conditions that says you can not transfer control of an account from one person to another?

This FAQ covers the grandfathered rate plans we're discussing - it also says nothing about transfers of control. There are specific, defined events which cause someone to lose a grandfathered account (here are some more trigger events) and I haven't found anything saying that transfer of control is one of them.

If you prove me wrong, that's fine - it will be good to know the correct answer and have documentation to back it up.
 
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I found this out when I handed one of my accounts over to my daughter. As long as the account stays in my name she can keep the grandfathered plan.

So far, you are just telling a story that is not supported by any relevant documentation - you haven't proved your case.

If what you are claiming is true, it will be documented. I've looked a bit and I can't find anything that helps you out. Can you find anything that supports your claim?
 
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Try calling and asking if the name of the account holder changes will it lose the grandfathering. If they say yes, then if they find out that it isn't you anymore they will switch it.

TL/DR - VM doesn't care who we are, they just care that top-up money shows up in the account every month. VM never verified your identity up front, so they have no way to prove anything about anything related to a subscriber's identity.

Calling them is a reasonable suggestion, but my concern is that we could call VM customer service ten times and we will probably get ten different answers (about anything, not just this). I definitely would not consider the statement of a VM customer service representative to be authoritative on this matter unless they can give you the name of the document that specifies that rule or policy, what the relevant language is and where it is published. Even if it's not published publicly, you should ask them to read the relevant language from the internally published document (because they'd never just start spouting off some random answer from "memory", right? :rolleyes:).

If they can't answer the pretty simple and straightforward questions above, you should file a complaint with your state's Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection. When companies try to enforce secret rules, that usually doesn't go over too well with the AG's staff.

This goes to the fundamental relationship between company and customer, so you'd think that if it was important to VM, change of control would be covered in the Terms and Conditions. However, the T&C's say nothing about change/transfer of control. The FAQ are also silent on the subject.

Some things to think about -

If a woman gets married, changes her name, then updates her account with her new name, does she lose her grandfathered rate? Since that negative consequence would disproportionately affect women, would VM USA be guilty of enforcing a discriminatory practice? Do you think the Sprint Nextel legal team would approve something so obviously unfair to a protected class?

Remember when you signed up for service and VM made you send in photocopies of your official, state-issued ID proving that you are who you claim to be? You know, so VM could verify your identity? Because the identity of their subscribers is important to them? (Kidding! They don't do any of that!) They don't know who we are because they never asked. Because they never verified our identity up front, there's no way for them to prove that a name change also represents a change in the person who "owns" the account. Even if the policy did say "You can't do that!" there's still no way for them to enforce it since they never verified our identity in the first place.

As long as top-up money shows up in the account every month, they really don't care who you are. Even if they wanted to care, the way their system is set up now, they have no way to prove who you are anyway, before or after a name change on your account.
 
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So far, you are just telling a story that is not supported by any relevant documentation - you haven't proved your case.

If what you are claiming is true, it will be documented. I've looked a bit and I can't find anything that helps you out. Can you find anything that supports your claim?


I also do not need to provide any type of documentation that something really happened during a phone call that I had with VM USA. Give people the benefit of the doubt. No need to be condescending and rude.
 
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(I am not a lawyer)...

Let me say that if you want definite proof one way or another you will need to get it from Virgin Mobile somehow. If calling doesn't cut it for you, then you should figure out how to get it, because I don't know.

AFAIK, they don't have to grandfather anything and could make everyone pay $35/month (or whatever) if they thought it would be better for them. Remember that we didn't sign any contract and so they can change rates whenever they please if they feel so inclined. Why haven't they done this? Why do they even have grandfathered plans? Because they think it will keep them customers (and make them more money) by doing so. However if they think an account has changed hands they don't have to keep the cheaper pricing.


Also, let's try and tone it down here a bit. :) There wasn't anything too personal here, but we don't need to be going there. So let's make sure that whatever we type cannot be construed as a personal attack (or questioning someone's character).
 
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