Warning For Those Who Pre-Pay For Cell Phone Service

PITTSBURGH (CBS) -- Mary Kay Sager says Virgin Mobile isn't treating her right.

She prepaid her account, but recently decided to switch cell companies.

After paying her final bill, Sager still has an $18.75 credit on her account, but she says Virgin won't refund it to her, saying "account balances are not refundable."

"It's just frustrating. It's just not right, it's not their money," Sager says.

In an email, the company told her it assessed "a termination fee equal to the value of any balance on the account, which they say means they don't owe her the $18.75.

"I have no recourse, but to just say 'oh well.' And I thought, you know what, I'm not gonna say 'oh well,'" she said.

"They can argue the account balance reflects the reasonable termination fee," says Robert Buccola, a consumer attorney.

Buccola says just because a company says it can take your balance as a termination fee doesn't mean they really can. He says it has to be a reasonable amount. He thinks $18 is.

"If it was a large sum of money, then the reasonableness of it would be called into question," he said.

Virgin mobile says: "The terms and conditions a customer agrees to when activating an account detail that any remaining balance is not transferable or refundable."

They would not credit Sager her $18.

"How many people out there have lost money this way?" she says.

Tossing her old phone into a junk drawer, Sager says she'll never go back to Virgin Mobile.

"They are getting away with it," Sager adds.

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