At the end of my previous mobile phone contract I decided to change provider and move to Vodafone. It was one of the worst customer experiences of my life. Coincidentally, at that time, I became unemployed and having registered my old number with many recruitment agencies and former colleagues/employers I desperately needed my original number to be available for them to contact me on if/when any suitable roles came up. I was told by Vodafone that the transfer of my number would be straight forward and there would be no problems. It would all be sorted within 24 hours. Unfortunately I trusted them to make this happen. It eventually took around 3 weeks for my number to function correctly. I made many attempts to get this sorted with a variety of Vodafone call centre personnel who 'sincerely promise' that my number would work within 24 hours. I made each one give me a timescale for it being resolved before ending the conversation. Each one lied just like the one before (I have copies of the calls/chat conversations). I called into 2 separate (local) Vodafone shops on more than one occasion to try to resolve the problem. I was in absolute desperation due to the employment situation. My original number could be used to make calls but I couldn't receive ANY. My mobile number was in limbo. I couldn't return to my original provider and I couldn't receive any calls through Vodafone. The manager in one of the branches really tried to help. He understood the situation and to appease me (he had limited power to resolve the issue) gave me a free 30 day sim card on a new Vodafone number. The manager of another branch also tried really hard to resolve this but he told me it was a known issue with Vodafone. He had 3 more customers coming in THAT day with the same problem. Apparently the problem was due to the network and systems being inadequate to deal with the transfers. He also mentioned that I wasn't likely to improve quickly. I've now been contacted by a debt recovery agency who are asking me to contact them about this, no doubt wanting me to pay for a Vodafone bill. The day my number was completely ported into Vodafone and working correctly I IMMEDIATELY requested a PAC number to leave Vodafone and return to my original provider. I did this and was fully operational with 24 hours. I also cancelled my DD with Vodafone so I've not made any payments to them for the 'service' I received. Also worth noting is that during my sorry dealings with this company I noticed that they don't seem to like to put things in writing. During the on-line 'chats' to resolve the problem they requested to contact me by my landline phone to discuss the problem. I refused this offer so that I could maintain a written account of what did happen. I have since received more calls from Vodafone and each time I refuse to talk with them. Even though they have my email and home address details they have never communicated the so-called debt issue with me. They are now using a debt recovery agent (who do have my email address!!). As yet, I have not responded to their request. Any advise on what to do next would greatly be appreciated.