Migration to EE - My Plusnet service switched off before EE SIM arrives. Where does that leave m

[#1]

Sorry to hear this @Norchison The best thing to do would be to contact EE and see what's happening with it. 

[#2]

That happened to me too, although my husband's migration was fine. My plusnet was turned off after less than 2 days, after a couple of days off line I went to the local EE shop with some photo ID and they sorted it out. Eventually my EE sim arrived after more than 2 weeks, which was useless by then. I think it is more a case of the postal system being so unreliable now. We both rang up for transfer on the same day, my husband's new sim arrived 2 days later and his plusnet service was not turned off until a couple of days after that.

It is a little worrying that these EE sims are sent out, preloaded with your number to be put in to any phone to then have your number with no security check.

[#3]

@barbhw 

"It is a little worrying that these EE sims are sent out, preloaded with your number to be put in to any phone to then have your number with no security check."

Are they "sent out, preloaded with your number" though?

Whenever I have changed mobile suppliers, the new SIM has always arrived with the number it was given when manufactured - never with my own number preloaded.

Sometimes the process would be automatic: inserting the new SIM triggered the process that I had already set up when ordering the new service, and I would have the wrong number for a day or so until my number ported. Other times I have had to manually start the number porting process once I had received the new SIM.

I detailed the process that I was told to follow, and worked for me, in post #2 of this thread.

[#4]

@Mr_Paul . Yes, mine was sent out with my number pre-loaded so it could have gone astray or be intercepted and some random would have effectively owned my number. I didn't dream it...

This is potentially a big security issue given that phone numbers are widely used for 2 factor authentication for all manner of Government and financial services. Plusnet acknowledged this with me and said they would look into what was happening. 

I appreciate you were told to follow a procedure that worked for you, however a perfectly valid procedure (offered online by PN) which I and others will have followed have resulted in connection loss for some (and subsequent loss of 2 factor authentication possibly resulting in accessing vital services for those who rely on SMS messages to validate access) while SIMs are in the post.  

[#5]

The problem is that EE seem to be insisting that you give them a PAC at the time of order. This means that the port of the number to the new EE SIM can potentially start immediately. So, despite the new SIM being issued with a temporary number as @Mr_Paul says, the number port can happen whilst the SIM is in transit (Especially with the state of the post!).

The safest way to port a number is to order a new SIM, wait until it arrives and is working, then initiate a number port!. Seems that EE are not allowing this mechanism , presumably to avoid people having to pay for both SIMs for a short period.

[#6]

From this and other similar threads it seems the safest and hassle free way to migrate to EE is to go via Plusnet mobile CS.
The whole process is handled in one call.

[#7]

Agree with going through CS being a good route, though I will admit I didn't try another.

I had 4x sims in 4x different plusnet accounts, all with my name and address on the accounts.  Called CS and they advised on good options, including loading one of the new phones with a very high data allowance and then using the EE option to "gift" data to other family members, meaning for about £3 more we've now got 140gb to share vs 34gb all locked into individual allowances.  

Anyway, the CS rep was very helpful - set up one account and then allowed me to move onto "hold" while he sorted the rest and I could get on with doing other things.

This was about 10:30am on day 1.  

He then advised me that I didn't need to do anything else - that I would be emailed with the PAC codes but didn't need to do anything with them, and that sims would arrive shortly.  He advised that when the sims arrived I should plug them into a phone, fire it up, make a call / send a text and reboot phone if necessary.  At that point the new EE "temporary" number would be in place.

Then at some point later the plusnet service would cease on the old number, and in between I could either simply carry on using the EE temporary number (and new allowances) or carry on using the plusnet until it stopped, and then swap back in the new EE sim.

As I had a spare phone lying around the house, I've put the new sims into that phone to activate them, and planned to wait until the old phones / sims had their plusnet service ceased and then move in the new sims.

So if day 1 was the CS call, the sims all arrived day 2.  I chose to experiment with just one sim so at about 7pm on Day 2 I put that sim into the temporary phone, made a call, rebooted etc and everything appeared to be working on the temp number.

Day 3 nothing happened - old phone still retained old number and old plusnet account.

About 8am day 4 the plusnet service ceased and the new phone had had the old number transferred across to it without me having to do anything at all.

All pretty seamless to me which was great.

Very happy with the way it has worked so far.  I've since activated the other 3x sims and hope / expect they'll work to the same pattern; will report back if so!

[#8]

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@MisterW wrote:

The problem is that EE seem to be insisting that you give them a PAC at the time of order. This means that the port of the number to the new EE SIM can potentially start immediately. So, despite the new SIM being issued with a temporary number as @Mr_Paul says, the number port can happen whilst the SIM is in transit (Especially with the state of the post!).

The safest way to port a number is to order a new SIM, wait until it arrives and is working, then initiate a number port!. Seems that EE are not allowing this mechanism , presumably to avoid people having to pay for both SIMs for a short period.

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As far as I remember, this is not the case. You can order EE sims with their own number and initiate the port after they arrive in the post by going on EE website and filling in a form where you give them your PAC.

https://ee.co.uk/help/mobile/getting-started/keep-my-number/transfer-my-number-to-ee

[#9]

All I can offer is that for me the sims arrived 24 hours later, and to my knowledge the number port (which did happen automatically) only took place once I'd made a call from the new EE number; that's what the CS operative said to me would happen anyway.

[#10]

Just to complete my saga, presumably weekends don't allow for PAC changes, but as of 7:55am today all other Sims have swapped from Plusnet to ee without user intervention. Very happy with how that has gone, zero disruption.

[#11]

Hi All, I'm not having a good time with my "new" second hand plastered all over the Indeed web-site from it's past owner phone number. They keep asking for Andrew all the time and he gets more calls than me. It's becoming to the point that I could get rid of my phone now it is that bad. China used to annoy me all the time and this beats China. I've not had the number a week yet. 😓

[#12]

Hi @Mazzy Really sorry to see this! That would drive me mad if it happened to me. Mind sending me a PM with your full name and mobile number please? - Adam

[#13]

Thank you for your reply and help Adam. 😊I am hoping to send a P.M in a min.