I got my EVO V yesterday at Radio Shack and thought I would post some info on the ordeal it took to get it activated. I was on the old $25 plan so it took way more effort than one would think to be able to spend more money on their network.
On Friday I stopped by the local RS and asked if they had any in stock expecting the answer to be no. He went back and checked and said not now but they were expecting a shipment to arrive that night with them in. The salesman agreed to hold the phone for me if any came in. The next day I went in after recieving a call that they in fact did get a shipment in. I thought it was going to be a quick in and out, but the salesman tried to setup the phone for me and I stupidly let him. After 2 hours waiting around with my not so happy wife and screaming child I had to leave with the "Virgin should give you a call when things are working line". Apparently there were some problems because I had to upgrade my account first to the $35 plan, before they could activate my phone.
***Lesson 1: Switch plans first ahead of time (it may take a couple of days, but when I got home and did it myself online it was almost instantaneous)
I spent a few hours today getting Virgin to fix my account balance before I upgraded to the new plan, but once that happened the first major hurtle was done.
***Lesson 2: Don't let some sales guy set it up for you unless you don't have enough web sense and patience to deal with VM. Topup cards suck, just stick with a Credit Card
Finally my account was setup and ready to switch my phone. I entered the info powered on the phone and waited, but no luck. After a couple of phone calls and repeated efforts to activate, I found a couple of pieces of info that may be useful. Supposedly it could take between 20min and 2 hours for the EVO V to be recogniseable on the network. After 3+ hours I was trying one more time. This time I pulled the battery to make sure the MEID was correct, and when I booted up it worked.
***Lesson 3: give it 20 min to 2hr first
***Lesson 4: you may need to pull the battery if it still doesn't work for you.
Very pleased with the phone so far. Much better than the OV that I've been using for the last year. Still getting to know sense and the phone in general, but nice that I can actually use it to make calls now Sorry for the long story, but thought it might be helpful to some.
On Friday I stopped by the local RS and asked if they had any in stock expecting the answer to be no. He went back and checked and said not now but they were expecting a shipment to arrive that night with them in. The salesman agreed to hold the phone for me if any came in. The next day I went in after recieving a call that they in fact did get a shipment in. I thought it was going to be a quick in and out, but the salesman tried to setup the phone for me and I stupidly let him. After 2 hours waiting around with my not so happy wife and screaming child I had to leave with the "Virgin should give you a call when things are working line". Apparently there were some problems because I had to upgrade my account first to the $35 plan, before they could activate my phone.
***Lesson 1: Switch plans first ahead of time (it may take a couple of days, but when I got home and did it myself online it was almost instantaneous)
I spent a few hours today getting Virgin to fix my account balance before I upgraded to the new plan, but once that happened the first major hurtle was done.
***Lesson 2: Don't let some sales guy set it up for you unless you don't have enough web sense and patience to deal with VM. Topup cards suck, just stick with a Credit Card
Finally my account was setup and ready to switch my phone. I entered the info powered on the phone and waited, but no luck. After a couple of phone calls and repeated efforts to activate, I found a couple of pieces of info that may be useful. Supposedly it could take between 20min and 2 hours for the EVO V to be recogniseable on the network. After 3+ hours I was trying one more time. This time I pulled the battery to make sure the MEID was correct, and when I booted up it worked.
***Lesson 3: give it 20 min to 2hr first
***Lesson 4: you may need to pull the battery if it still doesn't work for you.
Very pleased with the phone so far. Much better than the OV that I've been using for the last year. Still getting to know sense and the phone in general, but nice that I can actually use it to make calls now Sorry for the long story, but thought it might be helpful to some.