Changing Vodafone Number

[nrana]

Requested to change my number to an old one through 'Live Chat'. I was told that there wont be any problem except for a 'service outage for 3 to 4 hours. At the end of 4 hours, current number was disconnected and was showing 'No Service'. On contacting VF through Live Chat earlier the following morning, I was told that the process was unsuccessful as the old number had been disconnected for more than the allowed time period to reactivate. I then requested to reactivate the current number and was told it would take 24 hours.

My question here is why do you have to disconnect the current number before confirming the state of the old number.

Waiting for 24 hours to reconnect was a bit of inconvenient for me so hoping for a quicker result I went to a local store to reconnect the number. But they gave me a number to call and was told it would take about an hour to reconnect the service.

Again, the customer service staff was not able to reconnect my number as there was an existing service order to reconnect.

All this running around for nothing. Looks like I have to wait for full 24 hours to get my phone working. I know it all started from my side - my question is they should know the situation with the old number. If it was not possible to reactivate it why disconnect the working number first? Why was not the local store able to reconnect it ? The customer service saw that there's a service order to reconnect it but why were they not able to reconnect it?

[BandOfBrothers]

In my experience @nrana once a mobile number has been deactivated and quarantined then a person only has a very short period of time to get it back activated. 

After that its put in a pool of numbers and re issued out again after a period of time. 

My advice would have been to see if they could have activated back onto a Vodafone payg Account. And then once live and up and running have it moved onto your own contract. 

The Vodafone High street Stores are in place to sell devices, contracts and accessories etc. Account queries all go to customer services on 191 or Live Chat. 

[nrana]

Yes, I leant it hard way. Thanks for your reply.

[nrana]

This is not presenting a good impression of VF.

After waiting for 24 hours for my order (SBL-1000000288128123) of reconnecting the number I called 191 just now. The staff on the line informed me that the order was not acted upon. I was given another order number (SBL-1000000288321777) and I have to wait for another 24 hours ! Not sure how many 24 hours it means but I have lost whatever confidence I had left till now with VF.

[AnnS]

Hi @nrana

Unless things have changed, the number needs to be put onto a plain blank SIM, not a SIM where there is already a number attached to, plus this needs to be a correct SIM for the service, meaning if you are pay monthly, you will need a pay monthly blank SIM.

If the number was previously on a contract, the contract would also need to be cancelled with the number put on PAYG in readiness to transfer to a contract.

The best way forward is to wait for the Team here on the forum to get to the thread, they will be able to see what has happened and advise accordingly.

[nrana]

Hi AnnS,

It all started with some error in the VF part. I was not aware that the old number could not be reconnected. Thats why I asked the staff on the 'Live Chat'. I was told it was perfectly fine to go ahead with the process of replacing the current number with a previously disconnected on. They also said it would take about 3 to 4 hours to complete the process.

When I got in touch after some 8-10 hours then I found out it was not possible to reactivate my old number. My current number had already been disconnected.

Thank you for your information. I think I have learnt a lot in this couple of days.

Thank you also to the customer service staff this morning. Having raised a second order, it was reconnected pretty much immediately.

[JohnJ]

@nrana I'm sorry to hear that you're having difficulty transfering an old number to your contract.

So we can take a closer look into what has happened, I've sent you a private message with details on how to get in touch 

[nrana]

Hi JohnJ,

Thanks for your message. This issue is now resolved.

Thank you.