[Gllug] OT: number porting between the same network

[Richard Cohen]

On 01/05/06, Daniel P. Berrange <dan at berrange.com> wrote:
> On Mon, May 01, 2006 at 01:31:56PM +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
> > I have a pay monthly contracted Vodafone price plan at the moment.
> >
> > CarphoneWarehouse have a deal that I want, also on the vodafone network.
> >
> > Now my question is, can I take a PAC code from Vodafone and give it to
> > CarphoneWarehouse/Vodafone to retain my number as I move to the new deal
> > ? Carphone warehouse seems to say yes, Vodafone seems to say No.
> >
> > Vodafone's reasoning seems to be : need to switch networks in order to
> > use a PAC and retain number.
>
> It sounds fishy to me, considering my own recent experiance.
>
> I recently moved over to the US, and I wanted to keep my UK mobile phone
> for when I return / visit. So I called T-Mobile customer service to ask
> about switching from a monthly to pre-pay scheme. They assured me 100%
> that this was *impossible*, and that crazy as it sounds, the only way I
> could keep my number was to switch to pre-pay on a *different* network ?!?!
> Or I could switch to a t-mobile 'dormanant' number scheme where I pay
> 7 GBP a month to just keep the number, but not have any ability to make
> calls, or any number of other wierd schemes which involved me paying a
> monthly fee in return for f*** all.
>
> This sounded like completely crap to me, so I spoke at length to several
> customer service reps, and eventually said, 'OK just close my account' at
> which point they put me through to the 'account closing department'. The
> first thing the account closing department said was 'Wouldn't you just
> like to stay with T-Mobile and switch to pre-pay?'. Well duh - of course,
> but all previous reps had assured me it was impossible. In the end they
> switched me over within 24 hours.
>
> I'm still wondering whether the customer service was being clueless,
> or delibrately putting barriers in my way to try & convince me to stick
> with a T-Mobile monthly contract. I rather suspect the latter.

When I moved out to Hong Kong last year, I had a similar idea.  I
called O2, who I'd switched to a year before (and I was therefore out
of my lock-in period) and asked if I could move my number - which I've
had for many years and was already on its third network - to PAYG. 
What they offered instead was to move me down to their lowest monthly
scheme, give me a chunk of credit because I was taking a new contract
without taking a new phone - which isn't something I've ever seen
offered generally - and then give me a discount such that the credit
would effectively cover the rental for the year.

It meant that when I was in the UK for Christmas, my old number still
worked, and people who may have had my number years ago can still get
in touch with me if they want to.  Any calls to HK are roaming calls,
of course, and I have now used up all the credit between the few calls
and the discounted rental, so I will be paying a monthly bill from now
on.  I assume the point from their end is that I am still a contract
customer, so I still fall on the positive side of their customer
numbers, rather than being a PAYG, or worse, a churn figure.  From my
end, any calls, in or out, are almost certainly cheaper than they
would have been on PAYG, and I haven't had to worry about it.

> Dan.

Cheers
Richard
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