Number porting. Another disgruntled customer.

[#1]

It seems that I am not alone in experiencing problems with getting my old number ported. Having read through the forums I see instances of users waiting over two weeks for the to be completed.

Currently I have been waiting since Tuesday morning  with my old number disconnected. It is now mid afternoon on Friday and I suspect nothing will happen until next week now.

To give them there dues, the customer service team have been professional, polite and understanding, but there is clearly a systematic problem in the Operations Team.

I do suggest to everyone that is experiencing similar delays that you report this to OFCOM via there monitoring form https://ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCCTMonitoring

While this is unlikely to expedite your case, if enough people complain it should hopefully get PNs management to take notice.

I have been promised compensation once my number has ported, but I expect this to be fairly meagre and certainly not enough to compensate me, repair my goodwill or motivate PN to do better in the future.

[#2]

Hi. Believe me you are not alone. I submitted my number for transfer on December 31. today it is already 12 January. I still hear from customer service that there have been some problems during the transfer and that they will be fixed as soon as possible. From them you can not hear any specific dates or nothing that could calm me down. I have my old number registered everywhere and today I'm disconnected from the world. I had my number 10 years. everyone who is trying to call me they hear now: this number is not recognized.

[#3]

Hi @hagster, @Elizawietan

I'm really sorry to hear about the delay with your port-ins. This certainly isn't our usual high standard of service that we provide and I can assure you that the Team will be looking into why this has occurred in the first place; implementing plans to get this sorted for you as quickly as possible.

I completely understand the frustration caused during this time and the inconvenience of not having your existing number accessible for people to contact; we know how important this is. 

I'm unable to provide any timescales as to when the ports will complete but rest assured, this will have been raised with our Operations Team, who will be aware of the situation and working to resolve this as soon as possible. 

- Rebeka 

[#4]

Hi Rebeka,

Number portability has been a reality for CSPs for well over a decade now. If a new MVNO such as Plusnet can not effectively manage this process they should not be in the business. It is certainly not ok to be activly advertising to increase your customer base until you have the service basics sorted out.

From what I gather, the process requires you to arrange forwarding with the original CSP who hold the block allocation that includes my number(in my case this is EE(originally Orange, but ported via O2 then Voda then You), but this is not hard to establish as your network already uses the block allocation to route outgoing calls. It should be even easier in this case as Plusnet is using the EE network.

I appreciate this may need some manual intervention and communication with the original CSP, but unless someone either on your end or EEs are not responding to phone calls or emails, it should really not take very long at all.

What really irks me is that I am being provided with no detailed information as to what the problem is or where the hold up exists. If the network operations team are sitting on their hands waiting for EE to action something then they could spend that time in providing me with a proper update containing actual information rather than platitudes.

Kind regards, hagster

[#5]

Hi hagster,

I can assure you that we can effectively manage the porting process and it is rare when a port becomes delayed during the transfer.

There are many factors involved when transferring a number from one network to another, which is why we're unable to provide a detailed explanation as to what the root cause of the port delay is.

I can certainly request that our Operations Team look into your query, however due to the ongoing investigation, I can't guarantee that we'll receive a definitive explanation as to why the number port delay has occurred.

If you would like me to send this off, could you please send me a Private Message with your details. 

- Rebeka 

[#6]

Hoorar, I now have my mobile number back after 6 days. Still don't know what the issue was. Good luck to everyone else who experiences the same problem. 

[#7]

Hi hagster,

It's great to hear your port-in has now completed.

If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to get back in touch with us.

- Rebeka 

[#8]

I'm about to go past my 6th day - needless to say not happy and am tempted to cancel whilst I'm within the cooling off period. It would be awesome if people could do what they actually promise to do. As it stands I'm going to be liable to pay Virgin another month as they're waiting for my number to be ported to cancel the contract.

[#9]

Hi plazmaduck,

I'm sorry to hear your port-in is still yet to complete.

As advised above, the port-in process takes up to 1 working day when processed before 6pm on a weekday or up to 2 working days when processed after 6pm to complete; we don't process ports of a weekend. On rare occasions, a port can become 'stuck' during the transfer stage and if this happens, it's automatically raised with our Operations Team who'll work to resolve this for you as soon as possible. 

I can see that another member of staff, have picked up your query on another thread. Rest assured, they'll help with any queries you have. 

- Rebeka 

[#10]

Hi Rebeka. 

I lose all confidence in your team. I wonder when I will hear the truth or honest explanation why my case is not yet clear.

Can you tell me what's going on with my old phone number?

Today is the 17th day when I am waiting for the transfer of my old number to your network.

tell me please, what should I do???

[#11]

Hi Elizawietan,

I completely understand the frustration caused and the importance of your number however, I'm afraid I'd be unable to provide an exact update as to the cause of this delay, nor can I provide you with a timescale. 

I know the frustration when hearing the same responses, but I can assure you that it will have been raised with our Operations Team for further investigation and you will receive a text and email confirmation when the port is close to completion. 

- Rebeka