Helio's flame going out: stores to shutter, customers heading to Virgin?
By Ryan Block 
posted Jun 20th 2008 12:31PM
posted Jun 20th 2008 12:31PM
Alongside Helio -- more or less the last man standing -- the great MVNO goldrush also dies. Unfortunate that besides Virgin and a few local and M2M providers (like Amazon's Whispernet), pretty much no one was able to make it work. Then again, no one ever never said making cellphones and running any kind of carrier was easy.
Virgin? I thought it was Verizon?
Virgin Mobile is Sprint.
you guys seen this:
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/ApplicationSearch/applMain.jsp?applID=4491570
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/ApplicationSearch/applMain.jsp?applID=4490357
credit goes to CoolBradG who posted this on another article.
@michas_pi
Virgin Mobile is not Sprint, it simply uses Sprint's network
DON'T CALL IT A PHONE COMPANY
because it doesn't exist anymore
DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK
Sprint owns a substantial portion of Virgin Mobile.
Nnnya! Where's your Messiah now!
THAT ROCKED.
Huh? Where is you messiah nowz d0od?
Hmm?
LOL... nice one.
Its about time. They deserve it after I had to hear them go on and on about how much better the Ocean is than the iPhone when we were waiting for it to come out back in June. Guess that didn't work out huh Helio?
When half of your ADs are claiming that this phone is going to be your connection to MYSPACE, and that's all the phone seems to be doing, you can't set your hopes too high.
I knew this thing would fail.
The market quickly moved to Sidekick 3, iPhone, Blackberries and Verizon phones in general such as the Chocolate.
I'm waiting for Nextel to announce similar news cause since Sprint toook them over, they haven't been doing shite.
Yeah, they DO deserve it! How dare *anyone* claim their phone could compete with the iPhone! That's just ridiculous they would say this!
Yeah, they DO deserve it! How dare *anyone* claim their phone could
compete with the iPhone! That's just ridiculous!
Those phones are simply Fugly
Go get a s60 and it's all done
Helio and Palm. Two of a kind. Users always bragging about how great their FAILphones are. One will follow the other in a short while. What the heck are these people thinking. Get a handset from the bitten fruit company, why doncha.
GOOD RIDDANCE. Helio had the worst service, bar none, that I have ever experienced. And their products weren't even worth the hassle.
Eh? Helio = Sprint = every other MVNO... So all of their service are about the same.
As far as their products go, I love the Ocean. It worked great for me so far even with some heavy hits. Everything else? Yea, pretty much sucked. They promised devices that are far superior to those in the US but failed miserably.
I'll probably jump the ship to AT&T (ugh...) and get the iphone 3g. I know most people whine and moan about people who wants an iphone but I'm a mac guy and I like how macs work. (I have xp, ubuntu and osx on both of my macs) Seamless integration FTW
@Jay:
I didn't actually mean the phone reception service. I never had a chance to try it. It took them over three weeks to transfer my phone number, despite the fact that it had already been released and authorized by Sprint for use. During this time, I had to pay for a phone that was not activated. It was little more than a MID with a sucktastic browser (Opera hadn't been ported to it yet). I canceled my subscription with them at the end of my "Happiness Guarantee period" without ever having been able to make a phone call.
Months later, I was charged double for the phone, because their internal records showed that I canceled AFTER the guarantee period was over, despite my phone records and email records to the contrary. Three months later, I was told I'd be sued if I didn't pay their fraudulent charges.
bcohen1983:
I had the same type of thing happen to me. After a few nasty warning legal letters to them, with documented evidence of them trying to scam out of the "guaranty", they gave up.
Well, this just made my iPhone-decision a lot easier. Will existing Helio users have to pay an early termination fee now? I'm assuming they'll try to screw us through the end. This is a shame, as I really liked their service. Not their customer service, but the phone and the plans. They didn't cripple the phones like VZ or put some terrible UI on it. And the unlimited plans were reasonably priced.
Well, crap.
I'll second just about all of that. I haven't had to deal with their customer service, but I like my Helio and now wonder if I'll be able to give it up without some crazy fee.
iPhone here I come though...
Yeah, they worked out all my objections with the iPhone just in time for Helio to go under. I really can't imagine they'll be able to sell our Helio contracts to another provider without giving us some kind of opt-out.
Actually, I'll think I'll jump over for the Samsung Instinct... The reason I joined Helio a couple of years ago was for the GPS Drift and the no-contract option. Now, it looks like the only reason I have to stick around is for my e-mail (well looky here, domains are cheap! - guess I'll make my own mailbox).
Sorry Helio; it was great while it lasted, but it's time to move on...
They're the ones terminating the contract--they should have to pay YOU the early termination fee!!
My neighbors used to have phones from Helio, never could get a call through even if they had a few bars. It's never good news to hear a competitor in any market go down, but from what I experienced the service was never that great to begin with.
Man i enjoyed Helio... they had a good game plan well for the most part! ha. But yesterday i picked up the Instinct and decided to just leave 'em be.
This news only serves as a pat on the back. R.I.P. old buddy.
Another victory for Anonymous it seems. (Helio was founded by a scientologist, who is currently chairman)
Where do people like you come up with your insane logic? That's like saying it was a victory for the Church of Satan because all the Christian executives at SK Telecom agreed to bail out of the company for the Virgin takeover.
Christians, Satans, and Virgins.... OH MY!
Ryan, there are no christians at SK Telecom, they are all Athiests.
mmk?
LOL.
Looks like Virgin isnt a Virgun anynonemore!
Baw haw haw...
@Ryan:
"Where do people like you come up with your insane logic?"
4chan. And they should keep it there.
Oh no.......I have helio service, and i've been very happy with it and my ocean...I really dont want to have to go back to verizons crappy service and plans...
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(") _ (")
Helio Ocean = WABBIT PELLETS
Those who know how to run a MVNO right (hint: not by spending millions on ads) are doing just fine.
Carlos Slim is making money hand over...um...tortilla? with his Tracfone MVNO.
Page Plus is a dirt-cheap Verizon-based MVNO ($4 activations on ebay)
Sorry to say, but less then 10% of people saw Helios advertisements... I dont think they spent all that much at all.
and if they did... they sure got ripped off.
Helio and Amp'd both focused on offering postpaid products -- I don't think Helio even had a pay-as-you-go option. Helio went after the young, affluent, data-heavy user... who probably all have iPhones or BlackBerrys at this point.
I'd call it the death of the "premium", postpaid MVNO. Virgin, TracFone and their ilk go after PAYG light users, those with bad credit, and teens who pay for their own phones.
They'll keep on doing fine -- their only real carrier competition is Boost and T-MobileToGo... with AT&T GoPhone and VZM inpulse being god-awful deals...
Holy Sh*t! What does this mean for me and my Helio contract?!?!? I was planning on getting an iPhone at launch in 3 weeks but have no idea how this will work. Help!!!
what the.... I got a year left before the contract expires. shoooooot. Anyway I do texting a lot with friends in korea and that was the main reason I switched from sprint. now I'm screwed and dictched??
what the.... I got a year left before the contract expires. shoooooot. Anyway I do texting a lot with friends in korea and that was the main reason I switched from sprint. now I'm screwed and dictched??
GOOD RIDDANCE!!! I am still their customer and trust me not by choice!! I am stuck with them. But it took them to send me 5 Replacements before they sent me a Helio Ocean replacement that worked. This spanned over 5 months!!
But by far the WORST!! WORST!! Customer service I've ever had.
Die HELIO!! DIE!!!
When the 3G iphone comes outs im jumping ships and just paying them their disconnect fee!
PUNKS!
LOL... DO it... you may not even have to pay a disconnect fee... check into that!
You may want to check the Sprint Instinct, too... nevaKnow!
You sure showed them.
I had a TERRIBLE experience with Helio. Tried their service for a few days, returned it, and spent the next year convincing them I didn't owe $130. Not surprised they are in this situation. Regardless of the many circumstances surrounding their decline, unbelievably bad customer service has to top the list of issues.
I'm doing this too.
I love my full keyboard, but there are just too many bugs with the ocean.
I wanted to love it.
For people who are more familiar with this situation (a company being bought out or merged), can you please tell me how this would affect my contract with helio? since the terms of the contract are most likely changing, do I have the option to terminate without paying their fees? Thanks.
Looks like I'm switching back to AT&T and getting an iphone2 come july 11th then. Thank god I signed up without a contract, I'm free as a bird!
Ya.... so what's the deal? I still have about 9 months left on my contract with Helio. Am I free? Do I have to wait it out?
Also what happens to my phone number? I certainly hope I get to keep it despite the fallout.
Wow, what is it with premium-service MVNO's shutting down? Seems all AT&T-based ones (Net10; TracFone; AT&T's GoPhone) are great, and Verizon's doing well too, I think.
Net 10 & Tracfone are not just at&t based
they use at&t, Verizon and Sprint they have GSM & CDMA phones
Don't forget about Kajeet, there's another MVNO I wouldn't mind seeing disappear. If I never see another LG 225 it will be too soon.
Kajeet does need to go im still trying to figure out how they stayed in business pass a month. I live near there officies and have never seen anyone in the area with a Kajeet phone, the only place i've seen one was on display at a bestbuy
Two-year contracts... they were never different. Buh-bye!
Thats the stupidest thing Ive ever heard. Everyone knows Korean phones are the best. They're just having some problems integrating to the American culture. Give them some more time and money and SK Telecom will ruin apple's telecommunications industry. DMB will take over the world.
I said this would happen. I can even tell you what was at least the partial reason for this happening: the worst customer service out there... let alone in the cell phone market.
6 months to get SOME of my money back on the half-baked ocean.
Good-riddance.
On the bright side, perhaps this will allow Virgin to get some phones that don't look like toys.
lol, when u got caught using ur real phone in school, u use virgin moble phones to give to the teacher, haha
---------------------------------THIS IS A RUMOR-------------------------
HelioSKT(someone who works with helio and knows whats up with them) postest on over at HELIOCITY and said to everyone it was a rumor so there you go helio is not over yet
Okay so lets do a count how many MVNO's left
Tracfone
Net10
Virgin
7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless
Airlink Mobile
BeyondMobile
Beyond Wireless
EMBARQ ( Use to be owned by Sprint)
I Wireless
Jetterbug
Liberty
Locus
Lucky
STL
The only ones i count will be in business for a while will be
Tracfone/Net10 since there owned by America Movil
Virgin partly owned by Sprint & Virgin
Embarq sells sprint service as sprint. no real problems unless something happens to sprint.
Movida is still available, too. Gotta keep the Spanish-speakers happy.
Anyone ever stop to realize all they are doing is closing stores? We all have our panties in a bunch because we are speculating what is going to happen. For all we know Helio will continue under Vigin Mobile and become successful? Too many people have called the death of Helio over the past 2 years and been WRONG!! Let's wait and see? Am I the only one that hopes they will stay open and make the market competitive???
I don't understand all this Helio hate, unless of course it's coming from the Apple fanboys...
I've been a Helio customer since August '07. My phone works everywhere I love to go. Sprint has great coverage in my state (California). And I get to roam for free on Verizon's towers.
I've loved my Ocean more than any other cell phone I've ever used. Texting/Data-entry is a dream. I love the Opera browser. I've never, ever had any problems with my phone.
I'm on the cheapest plan, and I get unlimited text and data. My bill is about $65 a month. What's not to like about that?
I hope I get to keep my phone and my rate plan if Helio merges...
Apple would've been able to make the MVNO thing work, they are after all Apple, it's not like they're going to go out of business or be bought out any time soon.
My experience with Helio was kind of a mixed bag. Their customer service is absolutely terrible, but the Ocean is a great phone and the (sprint) network has worked flawlessly for me.
About a year ago, after getting royally screwed by Verizon, I switched to Helio and got an Ocean. It took them weeks to switch my number over. Every time I called customer support I waited on hold forever and each CS agent I talked to had no idea what they were doing. I kept getting transferred around from person to person, and eventually the call would "accidentally" get disconnected. Finally my number got switched over, but for the first week I wasn't getting most of the text messages sent to me (tested it with a few friends and 3/4 messages never went through). Customer service had no idea what the problem was, but it fixed itself eventually.
Once all that was worked out, all was well for a long time. The Ocean really is a nice phone and as I said, my signal strength has been great and I haven't had many drop outs to speak of, even in areas that were touchy on Verizon.
Then a few months back I made the mistake of switching my plan to get rid of unlimited internet, as I wasn't using it enough to justify the cost... and they accidentally charged me an early termination fee, overdrawing my checking account and causing me to bounce my car payment. Getting a CS rep on the phone took forever, but at least they were able to fix my problem on the first call this time, rather than the 8th. They refunded the charge, but I was SOL for the overdraught and bounced check fees, of course.
If they are truly going under, I'd have to say I'm not surprised given my experiences with their support/billing... but then again, Verizon was about as bad and my signal was worse. I hope they will let us out of our contracts rather than force us to go to a random company I have little faith in. If they do allow us to leave, I wonder how hard it will be to get my number ported, considering how long/difficult it was to get my number ported to Helio in the first place.
Ugh, basically.
Their Manhattan store on Broadway is always empty. Can't help but wonder how much money that location is siphoning from Helio
I loved my Ocean and the service was great too unless you had to contact customer service. there customer service skills were horrible. So I am back with Sprint using a Palm Centro and I love it.
fucking helio this is what you get for not paying me for working for your stupid ass compay im glad your going down in flames !!!
Not paying you to work at one of their stores? I would think that a lack of basic grammar skills would disqualify you from working for many a different "compay," even a "stupid ass" one. Well, maybe those of that type would actually employ you, but that's all up to speculation.
Helio the worst ever experience. Took 6 months also but only got money when they refused to answer the credit card company. Almost criminal.
For once I have to agree with the Apple fanboys, when Helio started making claims about how much better their device was than the iPhone, they forgot one critical element: the iPhone doesn't look like a tampon applicator.
I think some of the posters of comments here have plenty of reason to be upset with Helio. I have experienced some issues early on with their customer service at times not being so helpful, but the issues were resolved when I talked with the manager or rep at the Helio store. Being a Helio customer from summer/fall '07 to present day, I've really enjoyed the service immensely. I really hope nothing changes on my end.
I used to only be a talk/text user, and now I enjoy watching YouTube videos, web browsing, GPS, amongst a host of different things on a very intuitive and well rounded (literally!) device, the Ocean. Very few people are mentioning positive things about helio like... as opposed to many big carriers, a Helio member does not have to resign their entire 2 year agreement for doing something as simple as adjusting their call plan (Sprint is especially nightmarish with this one). Also, you know those hot $99 nationwide/no roaming unlimited calling plans that pretty much every major carrier has (and that you may now have)? Thank Helio for setting that as an industry standard in the current market.
What many, if not most of the users posting comments here is missing the boat on is the very first line of the article. You know... the one where there's mention of dropping the axe? Layoffs. This means that perhaps the very sales rep that helped me get my Helio, who has shown extreme dedication to taking care of me, who has gone to bat for me in dealing with issues as they've come up, who has been professional and made solid recommendations to me, who has called me to let me know there's a lower rate for my unlimited everything plan (the list goes on).... that same *person* no longer has a job to pay rent, electric bills, etc.
Reading some of these comments, I have to wonder if anyone has stopped to consider them at all. I'm sorry that you were out a couple hundred dollars, maybe even six hundred, let's even go to a thousand... but these folks are out a heck of a lot more than you. Besides, if you were in the right, then you won't have to pay them anything, can get it removed from your credit, etc.
It really irks me how many people are so quick to go on a bitchfest these days and lack any sort of compassion or consideration for the whole picture. If you haven't ever been laid off before, I hope you get that experience. It's a humbling one for sure, and has the opportunity to build a great deal of character.
I'll brace myself for the flaming most likely to commence shortly. I might actually respond if someone replies with intelligence beyond "Fuck Helio, burn!" or "Ha ha eat shit and die!" For those inclined to leave responses like that, I really don't give a damn.
Hey I just wanted to say thank you for your comments.
I was laid off last fall due to some company restructuring and have had a hell of time finding work. Being laid off is a horrible experience to go through and I would never wish it on anyone. Imagine you’re having a great month in terms of sales, life is good. You sit down to eat your lunch and get a call from your manager and a HR rep. They say, “Hey, just wanted to let you know that the company has decided to wipe out your position and that you no longer work for the company starting now. The company will provide you with some money to help you out for a few months, thanks for your efforts, and good luck.” Click.
It’s always easy for people to bash a company when it doesn’t affect their life. I agree the customer service sucks. But put it in their perspective: these people probably get paid shit, overwhelmed with a lot of information, and are yelled at all day by angry customers. At least Helio used Americans that I can understand for its customer service.
Rumors suck and it's unfortunate that the web spreads this information way too easily. Helio has a lot of potential and I hope it finds a way to keep going. I have had every model of Helio’s devices from the Kick Flip up until the Ocean and I am looking forward to checking in out the Ocean 2. I like my Helio Ocean and the service it provides. Helio has been inovative by forcing the other companies to make changes with their plans which are still higher priced and not consumer driven. Oh well. Shit happens.
And for the people that want out early, too bad. You more than likely can’t break your contract based on a rumor. You should be able to do it once there is an official statement. That is, if there ever is one made.
"I agree the customer service sucks. But put it in their perspective: these people probably get paid shit, overwhelmed with a lot of information, and are yelled at all day by angry customers. At least Helio used Americans that I can understand for its customer service."
Regardless of what a person gets paid, they should take pride in their job. There's no excuse for poor customer service.
Cool, think I can get out of my contract? :)
even more reason for me to try and get the LG secret. whenever it comes out. which hopefully is soon and for under $300
so long ocean, it was fun while it lasted. even though lately my service reception on the phone has been crap.
HAHA what a Lie!!! None of this is true. it has already been debunked as inaccurate.
actually its true. helio stores closed today. http://www.fiercewireless.com
Helio went down as it should have. The customer service was HORRIBLE. After overpaying two months in a row because their overseas call center kept telling me I went over my minutes (on an unlimited plan), they literally would turn my unit off every five days for non-payment. After spending an hour or so each call with them, it would be back on, off again five days later. The last time, I told them to keep it off and they breached the contract, not me, by not providing what I paid (and overpaid) for.
They had the nerve to send me to collections. My response to that was served on their Los Angeles office back in April.