Optus Confirms Virgin Mobile Closure

tanoshiiki on 23/05/2018 - 19:59
Last edited 23/05/2018 - 20:01

"Optus has confirmed that it will be phasing out its Virgin Mobile Australia subsidiary over the next two years."
https://www.zdnet.com/article/optus-confirms-virgin-mobile-cā€¦

Noooo!

Virgin had been offering some great SIM only postpaid deals recently. Will you miss this brand? Are you surprised? How will this affect you? What are you planning to do?

I had kind of seen the writing on the wall. I complete online surveys and every few months, I would receive one which hinted the demise of Virgin Mobile, with statements to rank, such as "I would feel disappointed if Virgin Mobile was no longer available". I always answered Strongly Agree.

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Comments

  • Godric on 23/05/2018 - 20:13

    No, No, in no way

  • TheOtherLeft on 23/05/2018 - 20:57

    I was a long time Virgin customer but due to crappy phone reception in sections of Sydney CBD and also the country, I and my wife moved over to Aldi. We're very happy with the move. Plus Aldi is cheaper for our usage.

  • suchislife on 23/05/2018 - 21:17
    +1

    Not surprised at all. The Mrs and I were with VM for many years, and came very close to switching several times, mainly due to their customer service, which was terrible and extremely frustrating to deal with. Only real reason we stayed was due to the unlimited free calls to each other, which we could get on really low plans. In the end, we had enough of their crap and went to Amaysim as their $10 plan has killed them imo. No regrets at all. I reckon Optus gave up on them years ago.

    • SomeGuyOnOzB on 24/05/2018 - 14:29

      Similar here. Switched to Kogan mobile prepaid for 365 days when it was on special. Turns out Vodafone has better reception in the areas of Box Hill where I go.

  • dcep on 23/05/2018 - 21:21

    virgin got data rollover , internationals within cap , international roaming

    i thought virgin is richard branson

    • iforgotmysocks on 23/05/2018 - 21:32
      +6

      i thought virgin is richard branson

      No he's had two children.

    • [Deactivated] on 24/05/2018 - 07:47

      Virgin Group licenses the Virgin name to companies in dozens of industries, and takes a minor stake (and percentage of revenue). Branson doesn't own any Virgin companies except Virgin Group itself. And maybe Virgin Galactic.

      Virgin Mobile is Optus, Virgin Active is Brait Private Equity, Virgin Money is Bank of Queensland, Virgin Australia is Hainan Airlines/Singapore Airlines/Etihad Airlines.

      • SomeGuyOnOzB on 24/05/2018 - 14:27

        Also, Branson gets paid royalties for a company using the Virgin brand.

      • [Deactivated] on 24/05/2018 - 14:34

        virgin mobile was a 50/50 partnership betweeen virgin and optus at launch. optus bought virgin out later on

  • jjjaar on 24/05/2018 - 08:16

    Bugger wanted to switch to one of their 20% off sim only plans next month. Hope they stay for a bit longer…

    • Monsta-AU on 27/05/2018 - 17:20

      Go ahead. They will honour the contracts, even if the brand is gone.

  • wallet72 on 24/05/2018 - 08:53
    +1

    So if you are contracted to Virgin and don't want to switch to Optus when they 'contact affected customers' I wonder what the options will be? I can't see them honouring the Virgin plans, so I'm guessing it will be switch over or cancel. Thoughts?

    • mbck on 24/05/2018 - 09:31
      +1

      They said they'll send more info out in the coming days. Wait and see I suppose

      • wallet72 on 24/05/2018 - 09:43

        yeah, my wife and I just switched from Optus to Virgin to get better service and deals (the customer support sagas we've had with Optus make Telstra look good) so we're not looking forward to being forced to switch back.

    • outlander on 27/05/2018 - 17:34
      +1

      2 years is a long time in the tech industry. A lot can change

  • HA on 24/05/2018 - 15:21
    +1

    Wonder what's going to happen if customers have a handset on existing virgin plans….

    • mbck on 24/05/2018 - 18:25

      I was with three before voda took them over. At the time nothing changed. I was still on the three plan. So I'd imagine it's the same for virgin and optus.

      There is one shifty way they make you move though. They throttle your internet speed (three/voda) did. It was pretty slow, so had to change.

    • seanbaussie on 25/05/2018 - 18:13

      Yeah, I've got 18 months left on a 2 year contract with$0 handset. Don't want to be locked to a higher priced Optus plan nor have to pay it out if I don't want Optus.

    • Monsta-AU on 27/05/2018 - 17:19

      Nothing. You will get an invoice from Optus on the exact same plan/terms until you need to renew.

      I's suggest that you would need to renew on an Optus plan at the conclusion of your contract, or port elsewhere if you don't wish to take up an Optus offer.

  • COVID-19 on 25/05/2018 - 16:25

    Disappointing that Virgin will be phased out. I switched 3 plans from Optus to Virgin due to the fact that i could call "ANY" international country, opposed to "selected countries".

    It does say the brand will be phased out over a 2 year period so hopefully other telco's will catch up in regards to calling "ANY" country. I know TPG offer 100 minutes….would be good to see this step up based on plan cost opposed to a flat 100 minutes across all plans.

    Has anyone been contacted by Optus with what options are available to us yet?

    • dynamike on 25/05/2018 - 16:27

      Would be even less incentive for anyone to offer "any" country now…

    • Tnetennba on 30/05/2018 - 10:23

      How much random international calling are you doing? Can't the people on the other end use some kind of VoIP service?

      If they don't have internet or ability to use VoIP, fair enough, but the days of traditional international calls are numbered in my opinion.

  • oddstodd on 30/05/2018 - 20:42

    Got an email from virgin, basically offered me to upgrade my plan and change provider to optus. They waived the plan cancellation fees and offered my 10GB/$25 unlimited talk/txt +250 int call. Was on 5GB/$24. and then saw that they offered free video streaming for netflix, it was the fastest decision of my life.

    • TheRealCher on 31/05/2018 - 10:14

      I've got 15g offered for 30… Has anyone had any issues with reception of optus being less than virgin? I know it's the same network but… Australian telephony services are weird so I'm checking before I switch šŸ˜‚

      • COVID-19 on 31/05/2018 - 11:36
        +1

        mate, i reckon you wait.

        You should start to see offers come thru from other telco's, like what happened with TPG when they moved from Optus to Vodafone.

        I have 3 services with Virgin and will be waiting until the very end.

        In regards to your question, i was with Optus prior to making the move to Virgin. They are the same in my opinion.

        FYI. Also got the same offer as you.

        The Telstra offer seems to be back at JB although, it is $19 more*

        https://www.jbhifi.com.au/features/phones/activatenow/

        • $49 per month (Discounted from $59)
        • 25 gig of Telstra data.
        • $200 JB gift card.
        • 12 month commitment.
        • If you take the $200 JB gift card into consideration, your per month cost is $32.33*. Pretty good deal
          in my opinion.

        Good luck.

      • oddstodd on 31/05/2018 - 21:42
        +1

        I think thats because you had a higher per month plan. Yeah reckon you should wait it out.

        • TheRealCher on 01/06/2018 - 08:59

          Thanks everyone. Much appreciated :)

  • number5 on 31/05/2018 - 12:11

    Yep, I just moved from TPG Mobile to Virgin few months ago and very happy about it, then this happened :(

  • Hibernian77 on 31/05/2018 - 21:34

    I had the same offer too. Would like to add that I currently get 45g for $48 monthly also included is $500 international call credit and unlimited sms and calls in Australia, the best thing is that unused portion of data + call credit rolls over every month.. hard to beat! Got rid of my nbn, and was very happy with this. Will wait it out or let the subscription run out..10 months to go

  • whodidthat on 08/06/2018 - 16:32
    +1

    I've only just received an "offer to change from Virgin to Optus. Never received any e-mail from them prior to this one about what was happening (even though I knew about it), pretty slack!

    The offer is to save $2 a month and get 15gb, instead of 18gb. Doesn't mention international calls, currently $200 a month. Both data and international call credit have rollover at the moment. Doesn't seem much of an offer to me.

  • number5 on 12/06/2018 - 12:08

    For people don't get the email offer, you can go directly to https://offer.optus.com.au/vmaspecial enter your Virgin Mobile number and postcode to find out what offers available for you.

    I just signed up my offer over there since Virgin Mobile Sales team supposed to do the porting already degrade to Optus level of service

  • Tiklpikl on 15/06/2018 - 10:49

    Advice needed pleeze. I currently have 3 plans under Virgin Mobile. I need a new handset should I get one from Virgin then when the switch happens will it be cheaper? Thoughts?

  • irev1 on 19/06/2018 - 19:45
    +1

    When I go here https://offer.optus.com.au/vmaspecial and see what offers are available why are the phone plans more expensive??

    For example

    Normal price for galaxy s9 (Own phone , not leasing ) is $69 p month 10GB

    wit the 'Virgin offer' the same phone with same data is $80 p month ….. $11 more…. lmao nice offer :S

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