Nightmare with porting my number to new contract

[bcmac]

I lost my 'phone, and the SIM card in it, 6 days ago. I've been with Vodafone for 16 years, always with the same number. I was promised that my number would be ported to my new 'phone and SIM card (both bought from Vodafone) by 4pm today. But I still have a "temporary" number, which is of course useless to me. I'm paying for a service where none of my friends or customers can contact me. Does anyone have any suggestions, apart from continuing to harangue Customer Services and pursuing a money claim in the County Court?

[AnnS]

Hi @bcmac

If you have taken out a new contract, it is not possible to port Vodafone to Vodafone, the number is already in contract. Before the number can be moved to the new contract, the contract needs to terminated and this is done by contacting Vodafone and asking them to put the number on PAYG as a temporary measure, this will leave you liable for any early termination charges. Unfortunately, due to 30 days notice, this will take 30 days to complete, when the number is on PAYG., you will then be in a position to transfer to the new contract by completing the online keep my number form or by contacting Customer Services.

If you lost your phone, all that would be needed would have been a purchased replacement phone and a request to Vodafone for a replacement SIM.  As soon as any bars were removed, the number would have immediately been put on the replacement SIM and you would have been able to carry on using the service as normal.

The way forward now would be to ask Vodafone for the replacement SIM to transfer the number you want, if you did not have insurance, try and purchase a replacement phone at your own cost but could be cheaper than paying early termination charges and consider cancelling the new agreement in the 30 day return period.  If the contract is not cancelled, you will have two numbers on your bill and will need to pay for 2 contracts.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @bcmac

It's unfortunate that you lost your phone and sim card which has resulted in you having to have your number put onto a new sim card. 

Did the Vodafone High street Store do this for you. And did they do this specifically onto a Blank SIM Card ?

To add when a person reports that their phone/ sim card are lost or stolen then Vodafone will apply an account block to stop unauthorised usage. 

It maybe worth checking that Vodafone has lifted this. 

I've not come across before where a temporary number has been supplied ?

I would have thought they'd just blacklist the imei of the phone and disable the lost sim and then SIM Swap your number to a new blank sim card. 

My advice is Yes do check in with Customer service via phone and or Live Chat as they have the needed access to your account. 

If you receive no resolution then come back to the forum, update your thread, and the Vodafone Social Media Team here who read all posts should be able to intercede. 

[bcmac]

To both responders, the issue has been resolved but not in the way you suggested it might.

When I contacted Vodafone and told them about my lost S6, they explained that I would have to continue with my contract until the end, in Feb 2018, because I had no insurance.

They sent me a new S8 and, for reasons that I still don't fully understand, two blank SIM cards.

I ran the S8 with one of the SIM cards for 5 days, using the temporary number allocated to me.

By chasing up and chasing up, my old number (a Vodafone number with me for 16 years) was finally ported to the SIM card in the 'phone this morning.

The other SIM card hasn't been used at all and is now sitting in a drawer.

Both contracts are still in place. There was no problem with porting from Vodafone to Vodafone.

The key to the puzzle seemed to be that, when I reported the S6 as lost, a block was placed on the number.

This was removed by the Customer Service guy this morning and had apparently been missed by others when he traced back through my account.

So, all's well that ends well, and thank you for your help.

[Gemma]

@bcmac - I’m glad to hear your number is working again and I’m sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Please let us know if you need any help in the future. 😊

[hrym]

A lot depends on whether you took out a new contract, or simply went through the activation process for a new SIM.  Assumnig the latter, this can sometimes stall - it's happened to me.   On those occasions, the frontline customer servcie people don't always unblock it correctly.   The forum team, however, should be able to help.  Just drop a note back here confirming which process you went through and the team will pick the thread up in due course.