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Disconnected Pay and Go Number?

Anonymous
Not applicable

Two Pay Monthly accounts with long held phone numbers,

Two new Pay & Go SIMs.

Not using the phones much as I'm abroad for 3 years, but wanted to keep the numbers and use on UK visits.

 

Live Chat, What could go wrong? Turns out I've lost my most important mobile number!

 

2/9/15

First attempt was going OK until I got unceremoniously cut-off without warning mid-conversation after 30 minutes. Lots of "Unable to connect to chat server" messages. I think this was 15 mins before the end of the day for Live Chat.

 

3/9/15

Started from scratch explaining what I wanted again. Told that the numbers would transfer to the new Pay & Go SIMs on 7/9/15. (Slight problem in that one of the Pay Monthly contracts didn't expire until 12 October, but I agreed to pay it off anyway. The other was a monthly SIM-only contract, so not a problem.) 

On the specified date only one of the numbers transferred, the other (the monthly SIM-only) remained a Pay Monthly contract in My O2.

 

23/9/15

Live chat. Explained I wanted to transfer my 2nd number onto the PAYG SIM and told it would be no problem. After I supplied my number and new SIM serial number, the Live Chat went down again without warning "server not responding". Possibly the end of their day again.

 

24/9/15

Live chat. Got transferred around 5 different teams before ending up back at the 1st one (Recontracts?) Explained I wanted to transfer the 2nd number (again) and was told it was no problem and the request had been set for 28/9. Transfer did not take place, number still appears under Pay Monthly.

 

29/9

Live chat first thing in the morning (noticeably much better service!). Explained what I wanted and was told that the transfer would take place the next day.

 

30/9 The transfer took place and I add the number into My O2 and it appears as a Pay & Go number with the Simplicity (NO ALLOWANCE) tariff, as requested.

 

You would have thought all was good now? Unfortunately not! Turns out that the 2nd number has been transferred onto the SIM where my first number was active. So now that first number is disconnected and lost for good!

 

I can't understand what has happened as the 1st number was working on the 1st Pay & Go SIM on 21/9. In the subsequent 4 chats about the 2nd number, I only mentioned the 1st number once and definitely didn't ask to transfer it onto the 2nd SIM.

 

Can anyone advise what they mean when O2 say the displaced number is disconnected?

 

The online chat advisor was unable to get this number back for me, but wouldn't answer my question about whether it was actually possible to get this number again.

 

I was only going to Pay & Go to supposedly make it easy to retain my 2 phone numbers. But, now with hours wasted on online chat, it looks like I've lost my main number anyway. There is nothing keeping me tied to O2 now and will probably jump to a new provider. 

 

Secondary point. I've seen many other people refer to chats being cut off or disconnected. If the service really does go down at 20.00 and cuts people off, why don't we get told when the cut off approaches? Or, is it down to individual advisors?

 

I was on a chat until 20.15 today, as the advisor patiently explained what had happened and when which actions had been made. It is good to know that Live Chat advisors can actually see a record of your account, even if they can't explain why things promised have not been done. 

 

Waiting for my husband to return with the now-inactive SIM. Can't explain how my 1st number got transferred from Pay & Go SIM 1 to Pay and Go SIM 2. I have saved all the online chat logs and can see that I gave the correct SIM serial numbers at the right time. Looks like there has been a mix-up of SIMs, somewhere along the line.

 

Anyone have experience regaining disconnected numbers?

 

Thanks

Monica

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PhoneChanger
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BT didn't (or wouldn't) recover the number. O2 can restore the number to him, but not until the number gets returned to O2 in 2 years, at which point there would be no point.

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jonsie
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Anonymous
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Thanks Guys.

 

This gives me hope I might get my number back. It should belong to O2 as it comes from the Cellnet days, well before they became O2. 

 

I just need the resolve to wait through the hold time...

 

Monica

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jonsie
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Anonymous
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Believe it or not, a succcessful conclusion!

 

As jonsie had suggested, the way forward was to ring the UK-based customer support, who were able to sort it out.

 

I now have both my numbers back slight_smile And, I am now on a Pay and Go (no allowance) tariff, which is what I wanted, as the numbers will only be used on the occasional visits to the UK.

 

It turned out to be much easier than expected. A brief flirtation with the O2 in the UK Twitter feed proved ineffective as well. An email to the complaint service <complaintreviewservice@o2.com> yielded an immediate (automated?) reply, which promised a review and response within "usually" 7 working days. 

 

So, I bit the bullet and made a likely expensive call to Customer Service from the States. The ease and speed with which the issue was resolved, far outweighs the cost and aggravation of dealing with indirect methods.

 

Thanks for the advice on disconnected numbers. Fingers crossed everything stays as it is slight_smile

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jonsie
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