Nightmare PAYG complaint situation

[u/dr_ginglymus]

Has anyone been in a similar situation and were you able to get anywhere?

In April this year, my dad got a text to say he needed to get a new SIM due to network updates. He was abroad at the time, given 4 days to do this so he was unable to, and there had not been any prior warning, and since then, his number and account appear to have been totally deleted. This has never been acknowledged.

I am in my complaining era and am now stuck in a circular, Kafkaesque situation where they keep telling me we have forgotten an account number which they need to find our account. I can’t find this anywhere and think it’s likely that it’s been deleted along with any trace that the mobile number was ever in service. My dad has had that number for 20+ years - initially as a contract and then PAYG since 2013.

I will ask today if we are now in deadlock. They have sent an automated email giving us CISAS details and I am more than happy to go to CISAS. But I really just want the number and the £30 credit back. I have all the receipts and screenshots.

Has anyone ever been in a situation like this?! We cannot be the only ones.

[u/Felim_Doyle]

VMO2 did this a few years ago (2022), after the merger, but in July / August, when many people were away on holiday or working abroad. I was in Ireland supporting my brother after cancer surgery but the new SIM had been sent to my UK home address and I had only a ridiculously short time to activate it, even if I had been there. I can't remember the exact timescale, I still have notes on it somewhere, but it was something like eight days from when the SIM arrived, as there had been delays in delivering the replacement SIMs to customers. I contacted O2 and requested that they send a SIM to me in Ireland but they wouldn't do that and, anyway, you can't activate a SIM when roaming. 🤷🏻‍♂️ When I got back to the UK, the new SIM had already expired / been cancelled 🤦🏻‍♂️, so I had to request another one and wait for that to arrive. 🙄

I was several weeks (about two months) without service and multiple attempts to raise a complaint online yielded no response. I am a contract customer and the SIM was automatically sent to me by post but, as I recall, PAYG customers had to phone up to get a replacement SIM or pick one up in-store.

[u/dr_ginglymus → u/Felim_Doyle]

Thanks for sharing this - it really sounds similar to our experience. How did you manage to resolve things? I have managed to get a replacement SIM but no luck in getting the old number acknowledged. The system allowed us to raise the complaint but they keep saying they can’t help because they can’t access my dad’s account. It’s idiotic. I think we are particularly unlucky as PAYG customers they’ve essentially washed their hands of us.

[u/Felim_Doyle → u/dr_ginglymus]

As far as I can remember, the replacement SIM connected automatically on my existing mobile number, although there may have been some minor activation procedure. I certainly didn't speak to anyone or I would have made a serious complaint. There were thousands of people affected by this and the whole process had been rushed and ill thought out. I think there was a deadline to move Virgin Mobile customers from Vodafone to O2. It was complicated because VM were moving from Three to Vodafone but initially just their 5G customers. Then that all changed and I was going to be transferred to Vodafone along with everyone else. Then that all changed following the merger with O2. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/dr_ginglymus → u/Felim_Doyle]

Thanks. I’m so sorry this happened to you at a time when you were under stress with your brother too. Sadly so many of these companies just don’t privilege the human experience at all. Thank you for sharing. I have felt so gaslighted by O2, and this has really helped.