@vodafoneuk Vodafone lost my number and claim they don't know where it has gone**RESOLVED**

[Rozii]

Hi,

I hope someone can help me as this issue became rather frustrating for me for the last couple of days.

 

I have been with Vodafone for 4 years (2x24 month contract) and 11th Feb 2016 was my contract end date. I have called few days before the end date to state I want to leave Vodafone to use another provider. At that point I was stupidly fooled into accepting new bundle plan for 12 months and was thinking that I got a pretty good deal with them.

 

That was until I received the email about my new bundle. I realised that what I accepted on phone and what is on the email is very different and immediately called them to explain this and cancel the new plan as I had 14 days to cancel it. (We discussed 2 gb and email was stating I have 250 mb allowance)

Live chat couldn't help me and requested me to call Vodafone. When I called, customer service told me to call next day. I called them again on next day and I have waited 1.6 hour on phone with more than dozens of transfer and what is even more frustrating that each time I have been transferred to someone I had to explain the whole thing from the beginning.

 

After all that waste of time I have been told that offices are closed and I have to call back tomorrow. I got really frustrated as this was a common thing for them to say to shake things off. It was around 16:25pm so I told the officer that I don't believe that there is no one to talk to at that hour. She talked to some one and said that she will transfer me to her colleague and a guy picked up the phone and said that he can process things for me, then he put me on hold and after that he said he can confirm the process is done. this was his exact words. he said that new plan will be finished by midnight that day.

 

I said i want to keep my number and need pac code and he said that they need to transfer me to another department for that and transferred me, I was in the middle of talk when I lost my service on my mobile and line cut out.

 

After that I called vodafone from my landline to explain the situation but no one could help me as they did not recognise me or my number. This is quite hard to believe as I was their 4 year customer until 5 minutes ago! They said they have no idea where my number goes and they can't take it back that there is no way. Also at some point when I was not getting any progress with cancellation I've been told that I have to cancel my new plan first and then it would go back to my previous plan and if i want to leave vodafone then I have to cancel that too. But I've been literally chucked out with my everything on the system. I am guessing I frustrated them by insisting they should help me and when they realise I did not want to stay or buy new bundle they chuck me out completely. If I knew that I would ask for a couple of weeks beforehand like a notice period and handle everything which causes me problem now.

 

As a result of this nightmare; I have lost my number which I use for my business contacts, banks, email accounts and almost everything in UK. Since I need a code sent to my number for accessing many things such as banks, facebook, email accounts etc. I am stuck not knowing what to do. Not to mention that I have just printed bunch of business card with my number on it a month ago! This will cause me a big destruction on my business if I can't get my number back. I even offered to buy it back but they did not help me with it.

 

I also want to mention that this is not the first time Vodafone messed with my life. Last year they have charged me 649 gbp and cancel my contract accidentally (?!) and they did not pay me back, I had to request money from my bank saying that it has been taken illegally. During that 11 days I have lost business time, could not do any bank transaction as it requires code and been stressful every day of it. They were only able to activate it again 2 weeks later.

 

I just want this fixed please. I am applying for indefinite leave to remain here and I have supplied my business number to home office, I do not want to keep changing my details as it does not look professional at all. This may interfere with my application if they call and realise the number is not recognised..

 

If this wouldn't get resolved soon they would leave me no chance but to sue as I want to claim my business damage with interruptions to bank transfers and preventing communication.

 

does anyone know what should be my next step regarding this matter?

Edited February 13, 2016 by citizenB
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[Bazooka Boo]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

The first mistake you're making is talking to a telecomms company over the phone,

 

Voda, are inherently inept at dealing with anything, other than taking your money, over the phone, which for a telecomms company speaks volumes of this outfit.

 

Keep everything in writing OR email, so you have a paper trail of evidence to highlight their failings later on.

 

Just because you've been a customer of theirs for 4 years means nothing, you're simply a number and profit to them, they couldn't give a monkey's if you've been their only customer for 20 years.

 

IMO, you need to cut all ties with these clowns, and vote with your feet and go elsewhere, your number will be easy to migrate over, you obviously have bills with all of these details on, so they can't plead ignorance.

 

Stay OFF the phone,

[BankFodder]

I would vary the advice above slightly.

 

I would suggest that you read our customer services guide and implement the advice there and then get on the phone to their customer services department and start recording the conversations you have with them.

 

You will find it most useful if you have more than one conversation with them because you may well get different versions of the same story. If you are able to accumulate contradictory advice or contradictory explanations it will help you.

 

You certainly seem to be experiencing pretty normal service from Vodafone.

 

There is a customer services rep who visits this forum sometimes although we are becoming less satisfied with the kind of work that he does here.

 

If he comes across this thread then he may decide to get involved and help you – but I suggest that you keep us informed of what is happening at all times because you may find that Vodafone offer you solutions which are not at all in your favour and may be skewed to keeping you as a customer regardless of their shabby service.

 

In addition to recording some calls with Vodafone customer services, I suggest that you send them an SAR asking for everything they have a new including screen notes and call recordings. Once you have acquired this information and maybe evidence from call recordings, then we might be able to start untangling the story and decide what action to take.

 

Don't expect any straight dealing from Vodafone. They don't appear to be capable of it. They are pretty well the most complained about mobile phone company on this forum and apparently the most complained about mobile phone operator with the ombudsman as well

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Rozii,

 

I'm sorry to see that you've not had the best of experiences recently.

 

If you still need help with your account, email me via the Contact us form here.

 

To access the form you'll need to enter the code WRT135.

 

As well as stating your query in the question box, please also quote 'CAG Forum'.

 

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this so I can make sure I've got it.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Social Media Operations

 

Vodafone UK

[silverfox1961]

As an addition to BankFodders extremely helpful advice, contact VF immediately and demand they keep all the call recordings made so far. VF only keep the recordings for a very short time before deleting them which has the effect of hiding the evidence.

 

Recording calls has never been easier. There are some mobile apps that can do that but if you have a cordless phone with a loudspeaker, you can then use the voice recorder function of a mobile phone to record the call.

 

If you can quantify your losses due to VFs PPP (p**s poor practice) I would be making a claim.

Unfortunately this won't be resolved quickly so I advise nipping to your bank in person (with ID) to inform them and to register a new number. I know how hard it is to get an One Time Code to set up a new DD or direct payment online without the number registered with the bank

[Rozii]

Thank you for the responses.

 

I was extremely busy during day time this week and Vodafone somehow does not offer me any help after office hours, chat directs to customer service and those transfer to the others etc. messy cycle. I have also visited a Vodafone shop but they couldn't even access my account stating that it is closed and customer service must have done mistake and they must have known they done wrong. They gave me a direct number to call them and my account number so I can pass the automated part of the phone service. Also told me to be not so hopeful about getting my number back..

 

I will give them a call during day time and do the things as instructed here and try my chance that way next time I call them.

 

Thank you again, I appreciate the help.

[Rozii]

Hi Rozii,

 

I'm sorry to see that you've not had the best of experiences recently.

 

If you still need help with your account, email me via the Contact us form here.

 

To access the form you'll need to enter the code WRT135.

 

As well as stating your query in the question box, please also quote 'CAG Forum'.

 

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this so I can make sure I've got it.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Social Media Operations

 

Vodafone UK

 

Hi Lee,

 

I have done what you requested and the reference number I received is as below;

 

WRT135 [#12674933]

 

Please do let me know if you have received my email.

All the details to the incident is in this thread for your reference.

 

Thanks.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Rozii,

 

I've got your email and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Social Media Operations

 

Vodafone UK

[silverfox1961]

Any further updates on this Rozii?

[Rozii]

Hi,

 

Sorry for delayed update. I was meaning to update these days but I am moving out to a new house this week and therefore extremely busy.

 

This issue has been handled few days ago. It took a while as the number needed to be reconnected first, in 2 days I got my PAC code and I needed few days to transfer my number to my new provider too.

 

However in the end it all worked out fine. My number is working at the moment and I am no longer customer of Vodafone. I am not sure what amount I would be charged for the few days it has been reconnected and hoping that it does not charge me for full year contract cost for early cancellation as it was connected to that sort of bundle. But even in that case I have all the situation and steps taken in written format now, so I can easily prove that it was their mistake.

 

Lee (Vodafone Rep) has helped me greatly and made things a lot more smoothly. For that I am really grateful. Customer Service (Live chat and phone) was not helpful, shops were not helpful. I've been told that getting my number back is impossible few times, and the other times no one knew what I was talking about. So I believe if it wasn't for this forum I would have never get my number back.

 

I really appreciate all the help I got here, can't be more glad things has worked out. I am also glad that I have decided to wait 2 weeks before I change my number for everywhere, now I don't have to change back. Of course, this cost me a bit time, lots of frustration and availability and communication loss in business but I have decided to not take any further action as all I needed was my number. I was even ready to pay for it to be honest.

 

Thank you for everything.

I will donate an amount to this forum now as what people has set up here is really the only solution for terrible services and I would like to contribute for keeping this forum running.

[silverfox1961]

I'm glad it got sorted for you and thank you for the offer of the donation.

 

I will edit this thread to mark it as resolved however if you have any other issues with VF on this or any other matter, please come back and we will do what we can

[martin2006]

For information purposes i just wanted to add a few points.

 

Renewing a mobile contract over the phone is covered by the distance selling regs so you do have 14 days in which to cancel if you change your mind, bear in mind this tho, if you use the services within the 14 days and cancel, you will be charged for the services you have used.

 

PAC codes

 

Or Porting Authorisation Codes, are a 9 digit code generated when a customer wants to take a mobile number from one service provider to another. The format of the code is 3 letters which indicate the service provider and 6 numbers generated for each code, so a vidafone pac code may look like VDN 123456.

Once a code is generated, the customer then has 30 days in which to use the code and move his number, if he doesnt use the code, the cide expires and a new code must be generated. Until this code is used, nothing on the customers account regarding his number will change.

The new provider is given the code which is entered into an external system which organises the porting of a number from one network to another, the service providers dont do it themselves.

This exchange typically takes around 2-3 hrs to move the number across.

 

Most customer service agents simply do not understand hiw it works and misquote allsorts, for clarity this is what happens

The request is given thru the porting site, when the agent completes this process a date is given on which the port takes place, generally within 72 hrs of the request.

In the day of transfer, the original sim which is having the number ported away will become useless, this could be 8am or 2pm or anything inbetween, they tend to block transfer so many per hour.

Within a couole of hours, the new suppliers sim is loaded with the ported number and whatever contract the customer has purchased.

Throughout the process, the receiving mobile must be switched on with the receiving sim inserted or the port may fail.

Once the customer has a received a confirmation msg that the number has been transferred, the handset must be soft rebooted, or switched off and on as most people know it.

And thats it, most advisors simply quote that it will take 24 hrs or be done by the end of the day etc. Trust me, i worked in the industry and this is how it happens.

[Lee Vodafone Company Rep]

Hi Rozii,

 

Thanks for updating the thread to confirm that your case has been resolved.

 

Kind regards,

 

Lee

 

Social Media Operations

 

Vodafone UK

[Bazooka Boo]

Excellent well done!

[martin2006]

Great news :clap2: