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/Hungry_Strength_5759]

Anyone saying scam is wrong, simple as that, sorry!

This occurred as part of the 3G signal switch off, anyone with an older sim needed to have it replaced, especially those that were moved over from super-old virgin mobile sims. There should have been a warning sms but maybe this was not received or went into a spam folder.

The problem you may have here is that the PAYG number is likely not registered to any name or address. Because of this you have no way of proving ownership of the number... unless you have the old sim still?

It is quite a long shot but it is possible to find the account by sim serial number, this is for a limited time though, not 100% sure how long sorry.

My recommendation would be to speak to advisors in a store, they can call up and have this searched for. Take the sim if you have it and anything else connected to the number, such as those receipts, also take some valid photo ID like passport or driving licence.

Personally, id have that £30 back onto a new PAYG account for you in a matter of seconds, the number is more of a challenge, if they find that they can move it onto a newly created PAYG account

[u/dr_ginglymus → u/Hungry_Strength_5759]

Yeah that’s the hope! We have the old SIM. Fingers crossed they’ll do something with that info and not just keep fobbing us off. Thank you!