Deactivation

[easytreasure]

Got an emergency phone for my daughter. keep it charged and she takes it along with her main phone. Belt and braces. Discovered last night when she needed it. That it has been deactivated. when to the Vodafone shop today thurrock lakeside. they were no help at all. Pay as you go sim cant be reactivated. lost all the credit. Vodafone don't do a free sim anymore the guy said. Lie. Thinking of switching to Three now as their sims do not expire.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi

If a Vodafone payg sim card is not used at least every 180 days to make a call or send a text or use data or top up then Vodafone can and will deactivate the sim card in afraid and any credit lost. 

This is in the T&C. 

Sometimes if caught very quickly then Live Chat or Customer service on 191 can try to reactivate it. 

 What do you mean in regards to a free sim card ?

A person can pick up a payg sim card from a Vodafone High street store but may need to agree to top it up before leaving the store which activates it or pick one up from a £1 discount store. 

Unfortunately even a sim swap which a Vodafone High street store can do to move a number from one sim to another couldn't be processed against a deactivated number. 

[BandOfBrothers]

Just to add that 3 SIM cards can be deactivated for non usage too. 

This is in their T&C's. 

"We may suspend or disconnect our Services if we reasonably believe that you haven’t complied with certain terms of your agreement. We may also suspend our Services or disconnect you if you have not activated a Pay As You Go Voucher on your account or undertaken any chargeable events or activities (for example, made telephone calls, sent text or photo messages, accessed content or the internet or any other Three Services for which a charge is made) using any credit on your account during the preceding 6 month period."

[fors39]

• Awful policy. The equivalent of buying a tank of petrol, not using it, and the garage coming by and siphoning it off. Bought phone and VODAPHONE sim for my mother who was dying in a hospice last year (during COVID, so no visitors), I only put £30 on, but she only made a couple of calls. I’ve turned the phone on again to see if I could use it for another emergency, and it’s now unrecognised. Shameful profiteering. Don’t need the money, but VODAPHONE are yet another company who will not see another penny from me.

[BandOfBrothers]

@fors39 

I'm so sorry to hear about your Mum.

Things have changed a little since the last post in this thread in 2018.

We as customers effectively agree to the Terms-and-Conditions of usage when we activate the sim card.

Vodafone T&C's. 

An activity such as making a call ( not to 191 ), sending a text, using data or topping up needs to be made on the account at least every 180 days to keep the account active.

The timeframe breaks down like this …

If a person does not make an activity as described above in 90 consecutive days then Vodafone make contact via sms to advise. Then if after 45 days no usage is made they send a final notification and then give another 45 days to make some activity.

I appreciate the phone was turned Off so receiving a text would not have been available in your situation, but this isn't generally the case as most time's a phone is turned On.

Then the Payg account could be suspended and the number and account credit lost.

The mobile number is typically quarantined for a length of time and then put back into the number pool to be redistributed to another person.

If a Payg account is suspended then a person has 90 days to ask Vodafone to re activate the Payg account via 0333 304191,  191 from a Vodafone phone,  Live Chat or the Vodafone Social Media Team's via Twitter or Facebook as there is no account access via this forum.  Contact-us-for-account-specific-queries. 

Vodafone is sympathetic to situations and I'm sure will look to see what they can do for you.

The network does this as there isn't an infinite number of mobile numbers available.

I wish you all the best with this. 

[WelshPaul]

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@fors39 wrote:

• Awful policy. The equivalent of buying a tank of petrol, not using it, and the garage coming by and siphoning it off. Bought phone and VODAPHONE sim for my mother who was dying in a hospice last year (during COVID, so no visitors), I only put £30 on, but she only made a couple of calls. I’ve turned the phone on again to see if I could use it for another emergency, and it’s now unrecognised. Shameful profiteering. Don’t need the money, but VODAPHONE are yet another company who will not see another penny from me.

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All UK networks have the same policy and all UK networks will disconnect your SIM card after 180 days if you don't make a chargeable call, text or top up the phone. I'm not 100% sure but I think it's an OFCOM requirement to prevent running out of mobile numbers,

So while you may feel upset with Vodafone, the same will occur again no matter what Pay Go network you decide to use if 180 days passes without you using or topping up the phone.

[Annie_N]

Yes, all the networks have broadly similar rules, but there is some variation in the detail, in particular what counts as qualifying usage to keep the SIM/number active. I believe that some networks count an incoming call as a qualifying event - but the call does have to be answered!

Sadly, PAYG simply isn't very suitable for some of the uses that catch people out. Prime amongst these is giving a PAYG phone to an elderly relative "for emergencies" without ensuring that they have a sufficient understanding of what they need to do to keep the number active, and indeed that they have the physical capability of doing it. If all else fails, you can get around the problem by making a small top-up every 180 days - but PUT IT IN YOUR DIARY SO YOU DON'T FORGET.

A broadly similar one is keeping a phone in the glove-box for emergencies - as a few people have discovered to their considerable cost, the number can have been deactivated, or the battery can have gone flat, by the time that the emergency comes along. Top up the balance and the battery at suitable intervals, to make sure that it's usable when you need it.

Another problem usage is putting a PAYG SIM in the remote dialler of intruder alarms; I have a vague memory of someone reporting that he had to "intrude" on his barn once a quarter in order to activate the dialler and incur a charge to keep the number active.

PAYG is good for light use in many situations, but it is very important to understand exactly what you are and aren't buying as part of the deal, and that you comply with the customer side of it.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have a very similar issue. I have not used my SIM and account since 2015 and I am not able to log back to my online account. I contacted chat support and I was advised that my phone number has disconnected and my account may have been deactivated due to a long term of inactivity. They were not able to reactivate or delete my account. Can you take a look at this issue for me? How is that possible to permanently delete a pay as you go account? Because on Vodafone.co.uk website, I was unable to find information regarding deletion if I am not a pay monthly customer.

Thank you.

[donnyguy]

From the terms and conditions posted above, it seems that 180 days of non-activity triggers the disconnection process. You then have 90 more days from that point where you can reactivate the account by topping up and making phone calls. If after 270 days you still haven't used it then the account is permanently deleted.

So from your post, there's no issue here. You've not used a sim card since 2015, it's now 2018. The terms and conditions are on the site relating to what you need to do to keep a pay as you go account active. I think the most helpful thing woud have been the live chat people specifically telling you that your account has been deleted rather than saying 'may'. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for informing me regarding Vodafone Terms and Conditions.

I spoke to live chat support to discuss my concerns with them, however I was advised to get a blank or otherwise replacement SIM card because I may have threwn away the old one and they said that the reason why they will not disclose any details or delete my account just in case it is not deleted, but rather deactivated, because I failed verification. I admit that I cannot remember all data that relates to the old SIM card. I went to the nearest store in my area but they did not give a blank SIM because they were unable to find my phone number in the system and it appeared that this SIM has never been activated or chargable phone calls have not been made for a while.

I was encouraged to buy a new SIM that would give a new phone number but I ignored as customer service insisted that they will not be able to verify account ownership with a new card.

Some agents said that my account has been deactivated that means the same as deletion at Vodafone.

But other people told me that my account is rather deactivated, not deleted with all personal details from the database and they could only be able to chat with me further and make changes, like reactivating or permanently deleting if I could recall everything about the old SIM.  If not, there is nothing else they can do to help me. But even if I could remember, I am not sure that they would be able to restore my account because it has been such a long period of time since 2015. As for deletion, if non-used accounts are permanently deleted, I think, they should not be any accounts to delete from the database.