Virgin Mobile Registration





  • How many WTFs can you find? I see at least three. Also, a fourth that isn't obvious from the screenshot: the page is fixed at this width and height.



  • The page to change your information has another WTF. You need to enter your password to change anything. If you don't have it though, that's fine - your secret question and answer are displayed right there.



  • 1. Missing header

    2. Your Name + First Name + Last Name

    3. camelCase eMail

    4. "Headsup"

    5. "gotta"




  • Not sure how to parse "Use your credit card, auto payments and more." - Use your credit card to pay, right, but that implies "use your auto payments to pay".



  • 6.  I agree with NullAndVoid on the language issue.  He missed the one at the top.  Are they trying to sound cool?  This isn't a blog.  They might as well have made the top header say "Your Deets."  I can understand in the box to the left ("Get the low down" and "Check it") as it's pretty much an ad and it makes it kinda catchy

    7.  Also, there's a single quote hanging out after the question mark

    Can you give it another shot?'

    8.  Requiring only letters and numbers for a password

    9.  Apparently they made your account number into your username.  1/2 WTF, depending on whether it's your phone number.

    10.  Another possible 1/2 WTF.  Shouldn't they update their copyright to 2008 seeing as it's, you know, September?



  • yeah, the "gotta" and "headsup" are a classic virgin move(it's part of their marketing) and to be honest i kinda like it. I deal with virgin a bit for my credit cards and i always find them easy to deal with. Especially over the phone, they don't seem to have rigid scripts and actually talk to you rather than just dutifully following a script until the cost/benefit of having an automated system makes the job redundant.
    It does look slightly unprofessional but this is for the Australian site i'm guessing and we tend to respond well to the folksy, colloquial style(as their market research has clearly indicated)



  • @belgariontheking said:

    6.  I agree with NullAndVoid on the language issue.  He missed the one at the top.  Are they trying to sound cool?  This isn't a blog.  They might as well have made the top header say "Your Deets."  I can understand in the box to the left ("Get the low down" and "Check it") as it's pretty much an ad and it makes it kinda catchy

     

    Yeah, Virgin seems to have some terrible compulsion to try to be cool, and give the impression that they're your friends. All their contract fine print is prefaced with crap along the lines of "Oh, here's some silly legal details our lawyers say we have to put here". If I'm legally able to enter into a contract, I'm pretty sure I can deal with fine print without apologies and a friendly pat on the back.

    I hate it (I have a Virgin mobile), but the other options in Australia aren't much better. There's Telstra (condescending, overpriced due to half-arsed deregulation), Optus (stupid animal mascots a couple steps from Hello Kitty). Vodafone's less annoying, but their contract terms aren't as nice.



  • They do actually use "deets" on another page. "Your Name" is the account number, but fortunately it's not the phone number.



    I went with Virgin because they were better than the other options, but I agree they're not much better. The plans are basically identical to Telus', but without the system access fee or 911 fee (so about $6 cheaper). The plan includes caller ID. They do charge extra for voice mail, but they at least tell you this in the flyer, instead of waiting until the last step of the signup process, so you actually pay the advertised price. Of course they still have the massive license agreement, and the base price is still bloody expensive.



    Activation is a bit of a WTF too. Any outgoing call on an unactivated phone gives a busy signal (could be fun for someone who doesn't know their phone's been deactivated), unless you call 611, which gives you a message saying to call back during business hours (even during business hours). None of the documentation really explained how to activate the phone; I just ended up calling the customer service number they gave for cancelling a contract, and they did it for me. They actually had me pull up the phone's service menu (unfortunately I can't remember the code, something like ##8?????#) and enter the phone number I was assigned...



  •  @drinkingbird said:

    @belgariontheking said:

    6.  I agree with NullAndVoid on the language issue.  He missed the one at the top.  Are they trying to sound cool?  This isn't a blog.  They might as well have made the top header say "Your Deets."  I can understand in the box to the left ("Get the low down" and "Check it") as it's pretty much an ad and it makes it kinda catchy

     

    Yeah, Virgin seems to have some terrible compulsion to try to be cool, and give the impression that they're your friends. All their contract fine print is prefaced with crap along the lines of "Oh, here's some silly legal details our lawyers say we have to put here". If I'm legally able to enter into a contract, I'm pretty sure I can deal with fine print without apologies and a friendly pat on the back.

    It is lame, but they made me laugh when they sent me a "Disconnection notice" titled "We have to talk..."



  • @belgariontheking said:

    10.  Another possible 1/2 WTF.  Shouldn't they update their copyright to 2008 seeing as it's, you know, September?

    No not really.

    Lots of people don't understand the copyright thing, your copyright does not automatically update just because we are in a new year.  You actually can only update it if you make a change and only that change is copyrighted for that year.  If they haven't made an update this year, then leaving it at 2007 is the appropriate action.

    These copyright lines actually mean "Portions of this are copyrighted in 2005, 2006, 2007"  If they didn't make changes in 2006 then this would be an incorrect statement and they should have used a comma rather then a dash.



  • 11. Les boites noires ... comment peut-on entrer ses informations comme il faut avec elles ? 

    11. All those black boxes ... how can you get your infos right with that ? 



  • @KattMan said:

    @belgariontheking said:

    10.  Another possible 1/2 WTF.  Shouldn't they update their copyright to 2008 seeing as it's, you know, September?

    No not really.

    Lots of people don't understand the copyright thing, your copyright does not automatically update just because we are in a new year.  You actually can only update it if you make a change and only that change is copyrighted for that year.  If they haven't made an update this year, then leaving it at 2007 is the appropriate action.

    Which would subsequently mean they've had this in production for a year (at least since December 2007).  I would say THAT is a WTF, but not so much, since WTF applications have been known to be kept in production for decades.


  • @Monkios said:

    11. Les boites noires ... comment peut-on entrer ses informations comme il faut avec elles ? 

    11. All those black boxes ... how can you get your infos right with that ? 

    You must be joking, right?

    Those fields are obviously used with a white font.



  •  yeah, the "no special characters in your Pa$$w0rD%" is pretty wtfy.

    Most of the grammer does bug me. However I don't mind the "quirky" wording.  I have a Virgin (Canada) cell phone. I was previously with Fido (who was bought by Rogers). Their customer diservice line was a liberal mix of scripts and assholes. So being able to actually talk to a live person who wasn't a zombie is kinda nice.

     I've been happy with the service overall. I just want a cell phone for emergency calls, 911/roadside access, the occasional "I'll be a few minutes late / where are you" rings, and of course radio contests.

    A Rogers dickspew salesdroid once tried to tell me that he could absolutely save me money by switching to an assrape plan that was normally $100 a month, but just for me only $90.  (It helps that the plan is $90 anyways, and they artifically raised the price to $100 in order to "discount" it).  When I told him I paid $50 for the phone, and $100 for the entire year of airtime, he kinda shut up.  $100, no monthly fees at all, $0.30 a minute (I maybe use 15 minutes a month). Includes voice mail (pay just for the airtime if you call from your cell), $.30 text messages (no charge for incoming), and the money banks as long as you top it off before it expires. (And you can use the money to pay for any service, even a plan if you chose to switch).

     There isn't a phone in Canada that can beat that, short of a planless phone and car charager just for 911 emergencies.



  • @lrucker said:

    Not sure how to parse "Use your credit card, auto payments and more." - Use your credit card to pay, right, but that implies "use your auto payments to pay".
     

    I read it two ways.

    you can pay using (credit cards) | (auto payment) | (other source)

     We offer (pay by credit card), (auto payments), (other helpful options).

     

    I do believe you can use your auto payments to pay.

    Your automatic payments do pay your bill. Some are by credit cards others can be funded from a bank account. 



  • @DeLos said:

    I do believe you can use your auto payments to pay.

    Your automatic payments do pay your bill. Some are by credit cards others can be funded from a bank account. 

     

    The term "auto payments" can be parsed in at least two ways, it seems:

    1. "Automatic Payments", which seems to be what was intended, and
    2. "Automobile Payments", as in the payments one makes towards the loan one took out when buying an automobile.

     

    It seems that, for many of us, the second possible meaning was the first (and often, the only) one that came to mind came to mind.

     - Rick


Log in to reply