Lost mobile number

[connorgoodwin91]

Hi all,

I left the country for school a few years back and forgot to keep my mobile number active. I have since tried multiple times to get it back to no avail. It has now been around 3 years, and the number should be out of quarantine. I have done a lookup on the number and it is still owned by Vodafone. I have called it, and it isn't currently active. I would really like to get this number back. I don't understand why, if it is not in use and Vodafone still owns the number why it can't be reissued. I have tried to talk to customer service in multiple departments, and they just tell me it's not possible and can't be bothered to explain why. If anyone has any idea why or how, that would be appreciated. I also understand Vodafone offers the purchasing of specific numbers, and am wondering if it is possible to use this service to get my old number back. 

Thanks for any help.

[AnnS]

A nice idea @connorgoodwin91 but that would be impossible.

The number could be anywhere and impossible to locate and retrieve, it's likely it would have been reissued to someone else and may have even been ported out to an alternative network.

Try the search facility of the forum there are many previous threads asking the same question.

[connorgoodwin91]

Hi @AnnS.I talked to customer service, and they said the number is not in service and that they still own the number. They also said it hasn't been issued to anyone since I last had it. That why I'm confused

[MarkWeinreb]

@connorgoodwin91 

Your old number is most likely on a sim card on a rack in a supermarket, Vodafone store or warehouse somewhere waiting for someone to pick it up.

In that case, as you’ve been told, the chance of getting it back is, unfortunately, zero. Sorry.

[Thomas_H]

The customer service agents are correct, we wouldn't be able to retrieve it unfortunately. There is a rough timeframe prior to the number being disconnected that it can be reconnected to the same account, which is around 6 months. After that it will go into the random number pool to be assigned to a random customer.