1. Definitions
These words have the following meanings:
"network" is the telephone system which provides our
services;
"Pay Monthly" refers to you paying charges in arrears
by direct debit after using our services;
"Pay As You Go" refers to you paying charges in advance
by credits before using our services;
"SIM card" means the card used with a mobile phone
to access our services;
"VirginXtras" means our tailored information and other
'VirginXtras' services (which we may re-name from time to time) which
may include you asking us to send you text messages.
2. Virgin Mobile Agreement
a) This agreement begins when we, Virgin Mobile Telecoms Ltd,
accept your, the customer's, request for our services. You are deemed
to accept these conditions when you credit your account with us or first
use our services, whichever happens first.
b) We will open an account for your SIM card. We will apply charges
(being the charges for our services that you use) to your account. You
will be responsible for paying all charges on your account, whether
or not they have been accrued by you personally.
c) We will connect you to our services as soon as we can.
i) If your SIM card is lost, stolen or damaged, call the Virgin
Mobile Customer Service Centre for a new one. We may charge you for
replacement.
ii) We own the SIM cards. You can only use a SIM card to use our services.
d) You can pay the charges either in advance with the Pay As
You Go option or, where we agree, and subject to passing a UK credit
check, in arrears with the Pay Monthly option. At any time we may no
longer allow you to Pay Monthly if we have a good reason.
e) Credit Limit - we may set monthly credit limits for charges
where you Pay Monthly. We may (but do not have to) stop you using some
or all of our services if you go over a credit limit. You should not
use a credit limit for budgeting because the amount you owe is not capped
or limited by any credit limit we set.
3. Providing Services
a) We will try to always make our services available
to you, but sometimes they may be affected by things we cannot control,
for example, the weather, interruptions to services from our suppliers
and faults in other telephone networks. We may suspend certain services
but will endeavour to give as much notice as practical.
b) The services are made available provided:
i) they are not used for anything illegal, immoral or improper;
ii) they are not used to make offensive or nuisance calls or to make
or receive reverse charge calls;
iii)they are only used with equipment and SIM cards approved for use
with the network (and which have not been lost or stolen) and all relevant
laws and rules are followed;
iv) you give us information we reasonably ask for and you do not give
us any false information;
v) all reasonable instructions we give you are followed;
vi) the person attempting to use the services is in range of base stations
forming part of the network.
c) Certain services are available in countries where there is
a roaming arrangement for the network, but these services may only be
available to you if you pay charges by a particular method. Please see
our service guide for details.
4. VirginXtras
a) Parts of our VirginXtras are currently only
available to correctly registered and approved users. You confirm that
the details you give us to register are accurate and complete. You must
tell us immediately if there are any changes.
b) We will use our reasonable endeavours to keep the VirginXtras
free from viruses (or anything else which may damage your phone or information)
but we do not guarantee this. Use is at your own risk.
c) We will give you notice of changes to charges as set out
in condition 5 below. We may need to change or withdraw any element
of the VirginXtras as a result of changes made by suppliers on which
we rely or if a service is:
(i) uneconomical, technically impractical or unfeasible;
(ii) otherwise not fulfilling its purpose to you or us; and we will
not be responsible for interruptions.
d) We do not permit you to be a nuisance or inconvenience to
others, including by sending unsolicited emails or text messages. If
you do, you may be liable to civil or criminal legal action.
e) You will only use VirginXtras acting as a consumer and must
not exploit commercially any site or content. You must not resell or
rent VirginXtras or access to it.
f) You must not:
i)use VirginXtras to transmit any material which breaches any intellectual
property right or which contains viruses;
ii) disrupt or damage VirginXtras, any other associated service or website;
iii) circumvent the time-out function (to help you stay connected only
when you are using VirginXtras); or
iv) circumvent any security or other safeguards.
g) You acknowledge that content in VirginXtras may be protected
by copyright or other rights and laws. You must comply with all applicable
laws and regulations.
h) We do not control all of the content of text messages which
you may receive as part of VirginXtras. Therefore we have no responsibility
or liability for this content.
i) You will reimburse us for any loss, cost, damage or claim
arising from your misuse of VirginXtras or breach of this condition
4.
j) We may not permit certain friendly names, and friendly names
that are already in use, at our discretion. If this happens, we will
give you a different name. If you don't like it, you can suggest another
name.
k) We may provide your personal information to other companies
to enable us to provide you with the registered VirginXtras service.
You should be aware that companies outside the European Union may have
a lower standard of protection for personal information than that provided
by the Data Protection Act 1998. We will however seek to have your data
processed outside the European Union in accordance with English law.
5. Payment and related terms
a) Our charges are in the Virgin Mobile Service
Guide which you have received with your SIM card. If you did not receive
a copy of the service guide, please contact the Virgin Mobile Customer
Services Centre on 789 or visit our web-site to obtain a copy.
b) We update the Virgin Mobile Service Guide periodically and
may change our charges. We will give notice by mail, text message, a
recorded message on the Virgin Mobile Customer Service Centre number
or by some other means, before any such change to the charges takes
effect. We will give at least 14 days notice of any increase to the
charges. If you do not accept the changes you can cancel this agreement
as set out in 8 below. Any continued use of our services will be deemed
acceptance by you of the relevant change.
c) Where you Pay Monthly, a regular itemised statement of your
account is prepared and sent to you, but there is a charge for this
as set out in the Virgin Mobile Service Guide. If you Pay As You Go,
if you ask us we will provide you with a monthly itemised statement
of your account for the charge set out in the Virgin Mobile Service
Guide.
d) If we have agreed that you can Pay Monthly, you can Pay Monthly
or Pay As You Go as you choose.
e) If you pay the charges with the Pay As You Go option only
and all credits on your account have been used up:
i) you will not be able to make outgoing calls, except calls to the
emergency services and to the Virgin Mobile Customer Services Centre
on 789;
ii) you will not be able to use any other service for which there is
a charge;
iii) you will be able to receive calls.
f) As charges are incurred they will be deducted from any amounts
credited against your account.
g) Where you Pay Monthly, we will send you a bill every month
for our services used in the month that has just passed and for any
services used at any earlier time if they have not previously been charged
for. We can change the billing period.
h) If you Pay Monthly, you must do so by direct debit within
14 days of the date of your bill. If charges are not paid by direct
debit for any reason within this time, we can stop you using some or
all of our services and charge you interest on what you owe at 2% above
the base rate of the Royal Bank of Scotland. We will use the base rate
that was in force on the date of the bill and we can charge you interest
until you pay. You agree that if you do not pay a bill on time, we can
say that you have broken this agreement and we can cancel this agreement
immediately. All these rights are in addition to any other legal rights
we may have against you, which we may also rely upon.
i) At no additional charge, we will provide the code to 'unlock'
your mobile phone, as long as you do not owe anything for that phone,
you have spent at least £30 on airtime with us on that phone and
you have complied with terms of this agreement. You will need to register
that phone with us for security reasons.
6. Liability
a) We are only liable to you as set out in this agreement.
We have no other duty or liability to you.
b) Nothing in this agreement removes or limits our liability for
death or personal injury caused by our negligence.
c) Except as set out in 6(b), our entire liability to you for
something we or anyone who works for us does or does not do will be limited
to £3,000 for one incident, or £6,000 for a number of incidents
within any 12 month period.
d) We are not liable to you in any way for any loss of income,
business or profits, or for any loss or damage that was not reasonably
foreseeable at the time you entered this agreement. We are not liable
to you in respect of any products or services you order from other companies
(including other Virgin companies) using your mobile phone.
e) If you have a mobile phone which gives you access to the Internet,
you may be able to access web sites and material which we do not control.
Therefore we have no responsibility for these sites or their content,
or for any services which you obtain through the Internet. Also you, and
not us, are responsible for all information that you upload, email or
transmit via the Internet.
f) You must tell us about any claim as soon as reasonably possible.
g) We will not be liable to you if we cannot carry out our duties
or provide our services because of something beyond our control.
h) This section 6 will apply even after this agreement has ended.
7. When we may suspend or disconnect our services
a) We may suspend our services or disconnect
any SIM card(s) from the network without warning if:
i) the network breaks down or needs maintenance. We will try to make sure
this does not happen often;
ii) you do not, or someone who uses your SIM card does not, keep to the
conditions of this agreement, or any other agreement with us;
iii) you or anyone who uses your SIM card damages the network or puts
it at risk, or abuses or threatens our staff;
iv) we are required to comply with an order, instruction or request of
any government body, any emergency service organisation, or any other
person or organisation with the appropriate authority; or
v) you choose not to make a call or send a text message for 180 days or
more.
b) We can charge you the reasonable costs incurred by us for reconnecting
you to our services, except where something in 7(a)(i) happens.
8. When the agreement ends
a) We can cancel this agreement immediately
if any of the following happens:
i)you break an important condition of this agreement or a number of
less important conditions;
ii) you break a less important condition of this agreement and do not
put it right within 7 days of us asking you to;
iii) you do not pay a bill on time as described in 5(h);
iv) the network owner no longer makes the network available to us;
v) your service has been suspended or disconnected under 7(a)(ii), (iii),
(iv) or (v); or
vi) any of the provisos for use of our services set out in 3(b)(i),
(ii), (iii), (iv) and (v) are not complied with.
b) You can cancel this agreement at any time for any reason.
c) If this agreement is cancelled your SIM card will be disconnected,
you will lose your mobile number and you will not be able to use our
services at all.
d) On cancellation of this agreement, if you Pay Monthly you
must pay everything you owe on your account.
e) If you decide to cancel this agreement because we have increased
any charge, withdrawn a service or made any other change to this agreement,
and your account with us is in credit, we will refund the amount of
the credit you have paid for (excluding any initial airtime credited
to your account). In order to claim your refund you must contact the
Virgin Mobile Customer Service Centre within 90 days of the date of
the change. You may 'unlock' your mobile, at the same time, as set out
in 5(i) (but without the need to have spent £30 on airtime).
9. General
a) We can change or add to these terms and conditions
if:
i) new laws or rules make it necessary;
ii) for security or regulatory reasons;
iii) if the changes or additions are minor and do not affect you significantly;
or
iv) if at some future time we wish to have all our customers on the same
terms and conditions for services.
If we do this, we will notify you by mail, text message to your mobile
phone, a recorded message on our Virgin Mobile Customer Service Centre
number or by some other means. We will give you at least 14 days notice,
unless new laws or rules do not allow us enough time to do this. Any continued
use of our services will be deemed acceptance by you of the relevant change.
b) In exceptional circumstances, Oftel may order the reallocation
or change of mobile phone numbers, in which case we may have to change
your Virgin Mobile number.
c) You may not transfer your account or any of your rights and
responsibilities under this agreement. We may transfer any of ours without
your permission provided that neither the level of service you currently
experience nor your rights under this agreement are reduced as a result.
d) In exceptional circumstances, Oftel may order the reallocation
or change of mobile phone numbers, in which case we may have to change
your Virgin Mobile number.
e) We can record or monitor any conversations about your account
or our services to assist us to improve the quality of our service.
f) If you have registered with us, you must call the Virgin Mobile
Customer Service Centre straight away about any change in the address
supplied to us. We will send mailed notices to the most recent address
supplied to us.
g) Any concession or extra time that we allow you only applies
to the specific circumstances in which we give it. It does not affect
our rights under this agreement in any other way.
h) English law will apply to this agreement and any disputes will
be settled in the courts of Great Britain.
i) If a clause or condition of this agreement is not legally effective,
the remainder of this agreement shall be effective. We can replace any
clause or condition that is not legally effective with a clause or condition
of similar meaning that is.
j) This agreement does not confer any benefit on any third party
under The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
k) We may use credit reference agencies to help us make credit
decisions or for fraud protection. You agree that we may register information
about you and the conduct of your account with any credit reference agency.
For the purpose of fraud prevention, debt collection, credit management
and emergency services purposes, information about you and the conduct
of your account may be disclosed to debt collection agencies, security
agencies, financial institutions, emergency services organisations or
other phone companies. We may also pass your details to third parties
in the event we sell our business, in order that you continue to receive
a mobile phone service.
l) We may hold a number of items of personal data about you which
you provide to us. This information, and information about how you use
your mobile phone, is used by us and our contractors to provide our services
to you and for research purposes. From time to time we may use your details
to send you information on special offers, including material about other
carefully selected companies, or for market research purposes, by sending
text messages to your mobile phone, or by other means. By accepting these
terms and conditions you agree to that use, but you can stop us, or those
other companies, sending you this information at any time by completing
and returning to us the appropriate part of the registration card included
in your joining pack, or by calling us on 0845 6000 789 (or 789 from a
Virgin Mobile phone), or writing to Virgin Mobile, The Team, PO Box 2692,
Trowbridge BA14 0WX.