New account porting issue and now no working mobile

[KevinCh_1655290]

Recently set up a new account for my wife and included her details to port over her existing number. Initially new sim was fine using the Smarty issued number. Was then advised on the 18th that port would take place on the 20th. On the 19th notice on the app there is a technical issue with the port. Try again. Went to try this but nothing available. Contacted support and told there was no issue and would happen the next day. 20th arrives and late afternoon it appears that the number has been ported across on the mobile but looking at the dashboard still has original number displayed. Seems odd?  But mobile is making and receiving calls. Come the 21st Friday. Nothing. One dead mobile. Unable to make or receive calls. Contact support and since then still no resolution. Had new SIM sent, told to reactivate, no option to do so and so it continues on and on and on. 

Fast losing our patience. How much longer?

Anybody else had dramas like this?

[MSF]

@KevinCh_1655290  Could this be a 'split port'? Have you raised a complaint?

[KevinCh_1655290]

@MSF  To date we have been dealing with Rakesh via the web chat. Every time we seem to be making progress, something else then goes wrong.

Not sure I understand the term split port. At the moment the Dashboard does display the ported number correctly but on the mobile, nothing. The SIM settings show as Smarty, with temporarily unavailable and on the Smarty App it immediately advises not working. Sorry I cannot remember the exact phrase at the moment, as I do not have the mobile to hand, as it is my wife's.
Given the situation would you advise that we do raise a complaint at this point?

[MSF]

@KevinCh_1655290  Basically, I think it is when the number is ported across to your new network but not totally disassociated from your old network.

Your proper number on your account dashboard is encouraging. Have you done the turn off, turn on thing with the mobile to encourage it to register to the network correctly? (Sometimes works)

Using the complaint strategy can be helpful as it brings it to the team in UK as I understand.

[KevinCh_1655290]

@MSF thank you for the advice

[KevinCh_1655290]

Hi @MSF . Tried the off and on action again last evening, just in case, but no joy.

Have now followed your advice and raised it to Smarty via the complaint strategy. Watch this space. 👍

[KevinCh_1655290]

Now moving onto replacement sim number two. Lets hope third time it works, but I can't help feeling this will not resolve the situation. 

[KevinCh_1655290]

So here we are four weeks later and still no joy and the merry go round has started again. Take sim out, put sim back in again. Try in another phone, etc. etc. The compliant procedure seemed to start to work and be referred to the "tech team" but then it was moved back into the chat message area again with no feedback from the tech team. When will this ever be sorted?

[MSF]

@KevinCh_1655290  On the off chance, have you tried the sim in another phone to check it?

[JJP2]

Did you give Smarty your PAC code before you activated your Smarty SIM ?

If so, like another forum post on this issue, Smarty would have had no live active SIM to which to port your number. 

[MSF]

@JJP2  - That could have been a very good point indeed! I know the post you refer to. In this case, @KevinCh_1655290 says he activated the sim and was using it live with the allocated number, so it doesn't sound quite the same, does it?

[JJP2]

Ah, missed that. Maybe the porting process needs to be restarted from scratch ? 

[KevinCh_1655290]

@JJP2  and @MSF 

Thank you both for reading my thread. I thought I ought to just clarify what happened at the start as I personally think this is where it has gone wrong, so please bear with. Also there may be a hidden clue in what you said @JJP2 

1. On Sunday the 16th July, we opened an account with Smarty and placed the order for the SIM. At the time of opening the account, there was an option to enter a PAC code which we did. So this got me wondering with what you mentioned @JJP2 , but having said that why allow a new customer to key this in if it is not possible?
2. This arrived on Tuesday as expected. The SIM was inserted into a spare mobile and activated on the same day, Tuesday 18th. All was fine with this using the original assigned mobile number from Smarty being able to make and receive calls. Also on the same day we were advised that the number we did require from Vodafone would be ported across in two days time.
3. Next day, Wednesday 19th July, on the Smarty app and Dashboard we are advised that there is a technical issue porting the number over. Please try again. So we went onto the Dashboard and tried again, only to be advised to enter a valid mobile number. So we then contacted support via the chat and connected with Deepika. She looked into his for us and reported back that there was no issue and that it would still port over tomorrow as originally advised. “I can see on the account its placed be rest assured.”
4. Thursday 20th July. At approximately 3pm in the afternoon, the originally supplied number by Smarty stops, the number we wish to port across stops via Vodafone and within a short space of time starts working against the Smarty SIM, with the correct ported number, all expected. We then transfer the SIM from the spare mobile into my wifes actual mobile and all is good. We can make and receive calls with the Smarty SIM in the correct mobile and it has the correct number ported across.
5. Friday 21st July. Get up at 6am and check the mobile. Dead. No longer able to receive or make calls or text, etc. On the mobile in settings it shows that there is a Smarty SIM, but says Temporarily unavailable. Checking the Dashboard and App, these show the account as “Your plan is Paused”. It does display the ported number.
6. Over the next days and weeks we then start the merry go round of taking the sim out, leaving out, putting back in again. Trying in another mobile, etc, etc. Also it is worth noting that we have used my mobile which is a Pixel 5 the same model as my wifes and all with the same result, in that my SIM works which is also Smarty in either mobile and her SIM does not work in either mobile as well.

@JJP2 the option to start the porting process again is not available as the porting according to Smarty and the Dashboard has been completed.

We have pursued the compliant route via email, which seemed to be making progress and referring I thought off to the tech team. But then out of the blue we then had replies back via the chat message system and it seems as if we have gone back to the beginning again and same old responses about sim out, sim in, try another mobile, etc. They just do not read the replies and I guess just go through a tick list of responses. It is so frustrating and to make matters worse we received an email the other day, saying don’t worry we'll take payment to auto renew your plan.

Sorry this has been so long a reply, but as mentioned at the outset, I just wanted to clarify how this started and why I think the issue is at the outset, nothing to do with faulty SIMS for which we have had three now and how worrying all of this is.

[JJP2]

Ah, OK, I can’t speak for Smarty as a company, but yes, entering a PAC code before you have activated a SIM card has caused problems for others too. 

Looks like you may need to do what @PeterSc_2226258 did, and get the tech team to re-start the porting process (Peter had the same issue as you)

Good point re why Smarty allow people to enter a PAC code when their SIM card hasn’t been dispatched, but on the other hand, most people wait until their SIM card is activated before using a PAC code to transfer their number. 

(If you use a PAC code before you have activated a SIM card, then the mobile network does not have a live activated SIM card to which it can attach your ported mobile number)

 

[Matthew_SMARTY]

Hey @KevinCh_1655290 

I am sorry to hear you have ran into problems with your porting request.

From reading the thread, I would agree with @JJP2 above and advise the porting request has to be entered again. 

If you have an open complaint, they should be sorting this out for you, but if not, please ask the agent in your chat to tag Matthew from the complaints team and I will look into this personally. 

Many thanks,

Matthew

[KevinCh_1655290]

@Matthew_SMARTY thank you. We will do that now.

[KevinCh_1655290]

@Matthew_SMARTY Replied in chat so hopefully this will come through to you. As you may have realised she is not on the community.

[KevinCh_1655290]

Very concerned now, as we are five weeks in and although I thought we were getting somewhere, still no sign of a resolution in anyway shape or form. Not what you might call a service. This is really is in breach of contract.

[Natalie_2037612]

Hi @KevinCh_1655290,

I would like to look into this further. Could you please tag me in your most recent webchat? My name is Natalie from the complaints team.

Thanks,

Natalie 

[KevinCh_1655290]

 @Natalie_2037612 My wife has carried out your instruction as requested. I hope that we have done this correctly by mentioning your name and also adding into the webchat reply #Natalie_2037612. Please advise if weshould have done anything any differently.

[KevinCh_1655290]

@Natalie_2037612 Can you confirm please that you have now seen the webchat. It is just that we notice that although Shyam is active the message has not been seen for 18 hours.

[Natalie_2037612]

Hi @KevinCh_1655290,

I have located the webchat.

Thanks,

Natalie 

[KevinCh_1655290]

Thank you @Natalie_2037612 

From reading through this chat and other chats in this community with the same experience it seems to stem from entering in the PAC code right at the outset when first setting up the account, as this is an option open to new users. But then it seems to fail. I see from another person mentioned by JJP2, PeterSc_2226258, he had it resolved my the tech team manually putting things right by joining the number to the SIM number. I realise that this maybe an over simplification, but hopefully the tech team can address and get this sorted at long last. Sorry to reply again, but I am so desperate to get this sorted as you can imagine. I am not in my wife's good books suggesting that she swapped over to Smarty.

Once again, thank you Natalie.

[KevinCh_1655290 · Accepted solution]

I am so pleased to report that we have now at long last have a working mobile for my wife. I would like to thank @Matthew_SMARTY and @JJP2 for the helping identify where the problem originated from i.e. entering the PAC code when first ordering the sim and setting up the account and then @Natalie_2037612 for persevering with the tech team to get to the final solution. There were a few stages but we got there.

To summarise the final stages the tech team at one point asked us to enter a code to clear call barring, but this was not possible at the time, because the sim was not connecting. They then must have done something else and we noticed that the exclamation mark next to the signal strength had gone. On trying still no joy. So we just in desperation tried the code again to clear call barring. That gave us partial success. This was great news. We could make calls, send and receive SMS text and the data side appeared to be working. But when we tried to dial the number, it would not connect and were advised that the number was not available. So near at this stage. Then having removed the sim, left it out for 30 minutes with the mobile off then reinserted and switched back on, everything was in order.

I thought I would detail the final few steps in case this helps others, but once again, thank you to all of you you gave advice and assisted us in getting this resolved.

@Natalie_2037612 I know that my wife has been in touch with you and I am sure you can tell from her communications how grateful she is to you - thank you from me.

[JJP2]

Glad it’s finally sorted for your wife 👍

[Natalie_2037612]

Hey @KevinCh_1655290,

There is no need to thank me! I'm just glad we were able to get the issue resolved 😊

I hope you and your wife have a great weekend🌞!

Natalie 

[SamiraK_2431901]

I have the same issue now, please can someone help me?

[MSF]

@SamiraK_2431901  Best to make your problem clear to the Support Team via web chat.

[SamiraK_2431901]

I’ve been trying to solve this via web chat for the past 6 hours. I’ve now messaged Natalie directly for help. 

[KevinCh_1655290]

Hi @SamiraK_2431901 ,

We found the web chat absolutely useless as even if you get somebody to respond they will have you taking the sim in and out rebooting, sending you a new sim which is a waste of time as there was nothing wrong with the sim, etc. The only way we got this sorted and after the advice from @JJP2 was to email in a complaint and then eventually things started to happen It was then when @Natalie_2037612 picked up on the situation and was added into this thread and assisted in sorting this out. I would have hoped by now that the facility to starting the porting process at the order stage had been removed to prevent this issue, but even so by now the support team ought to know about this scenario and have it on record how to address. I hope that you get this sorted out soon.

[SamiraK_2431901]

Thanks so much for the advice. Still so service. Yesterday I emailed and asked for Natalie, as she replied to my message to ask that I do this, so fingers crossed..