Retrieving old numbers

[madbilly]

Hi all,

I have/had a Vodafone PAYG SIM for several years whilst I've been living mainly in Europe. I came back to the UK regularly until the COVID pandemic and although I tried to make sure I used the phone enough this year to keep it active it appears to have been disconnected. I already asked customer services on the phone and chat and they say the account can't be resurrected I have to get a new SIM. It's pretty annoying that it's been disconnected as they say it must be used every 180 days, and I used it in September last year so it shouldn't have been disconnected, but as football managers say "we are where we are, it is what it is"!

However, even if I get a new SIM that I use that UK phone number for important things where the service won't accept my foreign phone number, so I really want to get that number back as it will save me a huge amount of hassle. I'd really like to get it back somehow so I hope that you can help me.

I've sent a PM to your twitter account with a link to this post.

Cheers

[Andy]

Hey @madbilly 👋 We can certainly look at the possibility of retrieving the number but it`s not something we can guarantee, I can see you have mentioned that you have contacted us on Twitter so one of the team there will be able to look at your options with you 😊

[madbilly]

Hi @andy,

I asked lots of questions and ultimately the answer is that since it is beyond 90 days since the number was disconnected there is no way to get it back. This is in contradiction to some of the comments earlier in this thread which suggest that numbers can be retrieved many years after they were last used. I found it on Google search and read the first page and thought I would succeed to get my number back, but this was not the case. On that basis maybe it's worth locking this thread? Or at least editing the first post to state what is possible?

Cheer 🙂

[Evie]

Hey there @madbilly - Retrieving an old number is situation dependent in terms of when the number was disconnected, if it's been recycled to a new owner, if it's been transferred to another network by a new owner. All of these, and more, factor into whether we can retrieve the number.

Have you heard back from us on Twitter yet? If not, could you confirm the Twitter handle you used to contact us so we can make sure it gets picked up? 😊

[madbilly]

Hi @Evie,

Yes I heard back on Twitter - that is what I meant when I wrote that I asked lots of questions, please excuse me for being vague.

Cheers

[Nathen15]

I come across this post and have a similar issue. Did you manage to find your old number and retrieve it? 

Thanks, any advice would be appreciated.

Nathan

[madbilly]

Hi @Nathen15,

Yes they found the number but in my case it could not be retrieved, it is back in the number pool for random allocation apparently.

Good luck! 🙂

[Dc2009]

 Hi

Ive got a similar problem with an old Vodafone number. I wonder if I can get some help transferring it. 
thanks

[Jack]

Hi @Dc2009  We can certainly look at the possibility of retrieving the number but it`s not something we can guarantee. I'd recommend contacting our Social Media Team here, they'll be able to explore your options with you.