Hello
I really need some people who know what they are saying and doing to look into things for me... I have seen what I think are a number of threads on here where @O2Lisa was addressed. Hoping that someone such as @O2Lisa can help.
Spent over two hours yesterday evening (Dec 27) talking with someone from O2 CS (overseas in S.Africa...not sure of the correct spelling of his name...maybe simply Andre...didn't ask him for its spelling). He was supposed to be calling me back today, but he hasn't.
Anyway, so here are the sequences of events. Obviously, I don't know where or who the problem lies with. As it is probably well-known, Lyca's CS can be quite literally dreadful.
A business number that I have had for 15 or 16 years was, briefly, with O2. I submitted a port-in request to Lyca on Friday, October 20 before 5PM and selected Monday, 23.
The porting didn't seem to complete fully, because a) sending "Number" to 2020 from the O2 SIM and dialling *132# from the Lyca SIM both returned the same number and, b) service didn't drop from the O2 SIM — O2-UK remained (when porting, I always leave the old SIM in a device to wait for the service to drop). I realized that there was a problem when calls/msgs from non-Lyca numbers were being routed to the O2 SIM, whereas calls/msgs from Lyca numbers were routing to the Lyca SIM. Split service, it appeared.
Contacted the Gaining Provider, Lyca... despite clearly explaining the problem in an email, on November 3, a call from an 020 number arrived, routed to the O2 SIM. Suspected that it may have been Lyca, but decided not to answer it, just in case... 13 minutes later, a SM was received from Lyca (routed to the Lyca SIM, seeing as the Sender ID was LYCAMOBILE). It stated: "Lycamobile would like to confirm that your enquiry relating to Unable to receive calls after porting, request number ******** was resolved as follows resolved., you can call 322 for further information". Clearly, it seemed as though someone from Lyca simply picked up a phone, dialled the number, heard a connection, thought there wasn't a problem, and closed the complaint. Kind of stupid really. I guess that if they'd have allowed their call to continue to ring, they'd have heard: "Welcome to the O2 voicemail.....," and hopefully then realized that there in fact was a problem...
A week or so earlier (October 26), I wondered what might happen should I attempt to request a PAC from both O2 and Lyca SIMs. O2 returned a code, whereas Lyca didn't ("Sorry. your PAC request has failed....."). I provided the O2-issued PAC to Lyca in an email with the thinking that they could have possibly used it to get the number fully ported in or something, because obviously my completing the form was problematic in that the provided/temporary number/MSISDN of the Lyca SIM had been replaced since the partial port/split service. I tried completing the Lyca port form anyway but, of course, error "P_MSISDN and MSISDN should not be same" was returned from their "Mobile num you want to keep" and "New Number" form fields.
I continued to try and get Lyca to seemingly actually do something in terms of an actual resolution i.e. liaise with O2's porting team. On November 21, an email from someone at Lyca stated: "We tried to refreshed the network of your Lycamobile number. Kindly restart the phone once your read this e-mail." Restarted both devices containing O2 and Lyca SIMs, however there was still split service.
On December 3, decided again to request a PAC from both SIMs. This time, it was the other way round, in that O2 returned: "There's been an issue processing your request....", and Lyca returned a PAC. At this stage, I wondered if their refreshing something on Nov. 21 was as a result of my then being able to get a PAC.
Now that I had a LYC****** PAC, it had me wondering if that a potential fix to the split service might be to port back to O2 from Lyca. I had a spare O2 SIM, and decided to submit a porting request to O2 in the morning of Thursday, December 21...... I must say that I don't like how O2 don't even acknowledge a request with a SM, email, or reference on form submission page, yet Lyca at least do do that, as they actually send their SIMs using Tracked 24 with thick glossy envelopes, and high GSM paper...kind of bizarrely, if you know what I mean...
Half expected something to happen on the following working day (Dec. 22), but nothing appeared to change.
Having had quite a bit of experience with porting, I find that they *usually* complete around midday. Growing even more frustrated with things, and having previously read elsewhere that writing a [negative] Trustpilot review can perhaps sometimes sort of spur an organisation into action, I decided to do this in the evening of Dec. 22. I would provide a direct link to it if that was possible, judging by how Trustpilot's functions... https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lycamobile.co.uk ... entitled "Porting Issue Since October 23!" ... Maybe page four or five...
Based on responses to these TP reviews from someone at Lyca, I anticipated their standard reply, and pre-wrote an email to go to trustpilotreview@lycamobile.com.
On Dec. 23, two calls from that 020 number [I mentioned minutes ago in this post] arrived, routed to the O2 SIM; mid-afternoon and, strangely, 21:38. The one in the evening only rang for a second or so, whereas the one in the afternoon rang for long enough so that whoever was on the other end would have probably heard: "Welcome to the O2 voicemail...." where they would have expected a Lyca voicemail system to answer.
On December 26, another call from the 020 number arrived at midday. An hour or two later, I tested calling my number from a non-Lyca number, to see how many seconds/rings before the O2 voicemail answers, to then learn whether or not it was likely that the caller heard a voicemail answer. Unexpectedly, my test call was routed to the Lyca SIM. Tested with messages from non-Lyca numbers and they, too, were being routed to the Lyca SIM. Began to believe that the problem had been resolved, particularly when I noticed service drop from the O2 SIM some time later, as what should have happened all the way back on October 23.
However, maybe around 12 hours later, after midnight on December 27, I noticed that the Lyca SIM had a complete loss of service. "Emergency calls only". SIM not provisioned. Disabling "Automatically select network" in 'Mobile network' settings immediately, without any scanning, returns "No networks found". "You've dialled an incorrect number. Please check the number and try again," is heard. The O2 SIM, the one prior to October 23 (the porting-in date), has no service either, as it had finally dropped from O2's network anyway.
My number is a business number that I also use for banking 2FA etc...but it is presently out of service/unreachable. This is an absolute nightmare. The length of time that this post has taken to type is painstaking. I am really at a loose end.
Emailed Lyca on Dec. 27....their response was: "I’m sorry to know that your number (44**********) was ported out of Lycamobile. Also, I got confirmation that the issue was resolved yesterday; you might consider staying with us. Once again, I apologize for any inconvenience caused, and we hope to regain your trust in the future."
Okay, so I wondered if my port back to O2 request (Dec 21) had maybe caused a problem. As I stated at the beginning of this thread, I contacted O2 CS (0344 809 0202) in the evening of Dec 27. Long two-hour+ conversation with someone named Andre from Durban, S. Africa..... Ran through the various timeline of events, mentioned the port request submitted on Dec 21, that I had expected to have completed on Dec 22 (the request was submitted at 0530 in the morning). I think Andre and perhaps whoever he put me on hold to speak with (technical people, apparently) may have not known exactly what the best course of action was. He mentioned cancelling the port request (that he said did not complete because of the holiday period), even though I had expected something to have happened on that following working day/non-Bank Holiday (Dec22). After he spoke with the people about that port request that I made, it seemed that the best course of action would be to not cancel it, so as to potentially not cause further problems. He mentioned 24 hours and that he would call me today (Dec 28) but he didn't.
As of some time yesterday (Dec 28), I now find that that spare O2 SIM [that I used to see about attempting to port my number back to], when dialling its number, also gives, "You've dialled an incorrect number. Please check the number and try again."
Whilst I am not fully aware of precisely what happens during number porting, I think there are some 'files' that are transferred between operators. I wonder if some files are missing or something.
As stated, I do not know where or who the problem lies with. I am hoping that the likes of @O2Lisa might be able to look into this for me.
I am desperate to get my number of 15 or 16 years back.
For a resolution, the way I see it are for the porting teams of O2 and Lyca to liaise with one another.
Thanking you in advance.
