one of their own shops near you?

A firmware refresh might do wonders.

Ought to be free

Ought to

My knowledge of cell stuff is out of date. It probably isn't what I'm thinking anyway

as explained here:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1837196-Virgin-Mobile-Enabled-Verizon-Roaming!

Virgin will give you a weird code number to type in to enable roaming on your phone.
You might also have to enable roaming in a menu item in your phone settings.
(Because many carriers charge extra for roaming, users can turn it on and off with this setting, turning it off normally but turning it on if they are traveling; the weird code number tells the network to let you roam, so you have to do both for it to work).

Since your phone works elsewhere, it is probably not your phone, it could be interference from a neighbor, it could be the cell tower CDMA signal has been changed because of the new LTE signals they use, etc.

Enabling roaming will allow your phone to connect to a Verizon tower which might have a better signal at your location.

The message you got might mean that roaming is not enabled.

Phones adjust their radio power to the signal level,
if a tower is close the signal is good and they use less power,
when there is no signal or poor signal they max out the power trying to contact a tower,
running the battery down faster.
People who go hiking and camping often turn their phone off to keep the battery from running down.

I read that sprint is having issues currently.

Here's a link to find the towers near you: http://www.antennasearch.com/
Here's a link to downdetector for sprint: http://downdetector.com/status/sprint

Hope this helps. The antennasearch site takes a bit to compile and map your area so be patient. (Maybe 1 minute)

and Cellular County sell used and refurbished (and new sometimes). Lots of other places too. They let you sort by your carrier


Signed,
Dumb flip phone hold out.

it is getting where you can hardly go to the grocery store without some kind of internet device.