Recover Deactivated Numbers

[klellmanvf]

My wife and I have had the same mobile numbers for 15+ years. For the last five years both mobiles have been on pay as you go (with O2 and Tesco Mobile) as we now spend the majority of our time out of the UK. We have topped up every six to twelve months without issues and successfully retained our mobile numbers.

In January last year we ported both our numbers over to Vodafone as they had the best coverage available at my in-laws house. This process was extermely messy/painful and took many calls to/from Vodafone to finally get these simple tasks completed.

Anyway, move forward to January this year when we go to use the two mobile phones only to find that they have been disconnected. I didn't reaslie that Vodafone had such an aggressive disconnection policy compared to the other mobile providers.

The numbers do not appear to have been reallocated as they provide a disconnected/number not valid when I attempt to call them.

I spoke to a Vodafone representative via the online chat facility and explained my predicament. They instructed me to go into a Vodafone store and they would be able to reactive our mobile numbers. They didn't go into any specific details, but when questioned reiterated that we would be able to recover our mobile numbers.

My next step was to go straight into the Milton Keynes Central Vodafone store as soon as we arrived back into the UK. The Vodafone representative in the store was very helpful, but explained that we had been mislead by the online chat representative and that he could not assist me in recovering the numbers. He recomended that I call and ask for a disconnections team who may be able to assist me. I also at the time purchased two new Pay as you Go SIMs in the hope that once this was resolved we could port the old numbers on to these.

I then called up customer services and asked to be put through to the disconnections team. The first Vodafone representative I spoke to would not answer any question and refused to transfer me thorugh to a manager/supervisor to try and assist me. They claimed they were unable to find/verify me in the system. I expained that this may well be because the numbers had been disconnected, but as I did not want to speak about a specific account that this should not be a problem, but sadly the Vodafone representative was not capable of understanding.

I re-called up customer services and the new Vodafone representative could easily find me in the system. I then explained my predicament and gave her the name of the team that I was recommended to speak to. The Vodafone representative spoke to various people and then explained that they would call me back 30 minutes later.

I have not heard from anyone from Vodafone since, with no missed calls or voicemail messages.

So, I have now turned to the forums, as from what I can see in previous discussions the Vodafone representatives working on the forums have shown success for people with similar problems.

[AnnS]

Hi @klellmanvf

Even if the SIM's have not been used for chargeable calling activity, providing you added a regular top up to keep the SIM's active, the numbers should not have been disconnected for non use.

With it being an Ofcom ruling that all PAYG SIM's have to be in use, all networks have the same cut off period for non use.  There are thousands of unused SIM PAYG SIM cards and there is not an infinite number of mobile telephone numbers available and once the disconnection cut off period has been reached, the numbers are 'quarantined' before being put back into the system for reissue.

Give the Team time to get to the thread, they will do what they can to get your numbers back online but there can never be any certainty or promise.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @klellmanvf

Payg Accounts do have T&C's attached to them.which I can place a link if you have not seen them. 

Basically either an activity such as a call , text or top up at least every 180 days will keep the number live. Vodafone then after 180 days of non usage then give a further period of 90 days before ceasing the number. 

In my experience if the De activation isnt picked up upon very quickly then the number is quarantined and put into a number pool to be recycled. 

I wont give you any false hope as such situations are typically not reversable and the number is lost. 

I'm sure the team here will pick up your post and possibly private message you to pass you onto the customer service team. 

The stores cannot deal with such account based issues and as such it was poor advice to direct you to a retail store to which im sure the team here will also feed back to support. 

I wish you all the best with this situation. 

[klellmanvf]

To add to my details, I have found my notes from when I visited the Vodafone store.  The team that they recommended I ask for when calling was not the 'Disconnections Team' but in fact it was the 'Technical Team \ Aquisition Support' that they recommend I speak to (and who I actually asked to speak to)... Sorry for my poor recollection in my original post.

[donnyguy]

Hopefully your numbers can be re-activated by Vodafone, I'd recommend waiting for the team to respond to othis post.

However you did mention that the numbers weren't originally Vodafone numbers (they were ported in 14 months ago) which means depending on how long they've been disconnected then they may have been returned to the owning network. 

Although I'm not 100% convinced that actually happens.

[Gemma]

@klellmanvf - I’m sorry that you weren’t aware that your numbers would be disconnected, if not used within the time period. We can take a look to see if there’s any way to get them back. Please contact us, by following the steps in this private message.

[klellmanvf]

Gemma, thanks for the details.  As per my private message, I have submitted the information but haven't had any form of confirmation so I'm not sure if it made it through OK.

[Colleen]

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[Sumsingh]

Hello Moderator,

i have a similar provlem and my number was deactivated. Please can someone help me with the steps for me to get my number back. 

Thank you 

[BandOfBrothers]

@Sumsingh 

The forum has changed a little.since this thread was created.

Account access is no longer available via the forum so you would need to contact customer service via Live Chat or phone _ Customer service.

Or speak with the Vodafone Social Media Teams via Vodafone and Twitter.

To add it all depends on how long the number has been deactivated for in relation to if Vodafone can reinstate it.

My apologies at having to send you elsewhere to engage with Vodafone UK as I appreciate you came here , signed up and created a post to reach out for help but the Team here can no longer help with Account based issues.

But it's the same Social Media Teams here that help and assist via Facebook and Twitter.

Things have changed as they have decided that help and assistance with account based issues would be best supported that way.

I appreciate not everyone wants to use Social Media however it takes but a few moments to create a Twitter or Facebook account and then can be forgotten if necessary. Just a thought.

Please remember to include the link to your forum post, along with your username.