Phone blacklisting nightmare - legally mine from new!

Jolsa

Update:
Orange CS tried to list blacklist after obtaining required info from friend, but it didn't let them. CS said that this is likely to be because another network has blacklisted the phone.

I asked Orange CS to speak to T-Mobile as situation is getting beyond a joke. Orange CS have now come back to me saying that they've sent all details to Orange blacklist UK team (think that was who he said) who will, on Monday, be able to cross ref all networks to find out who has applied the blacklist, and more importantly remove it.

I am to hear back from someone late Mon/Tues for an update, but was assured that it would be sorted.

Said I want to know who applied the blacklisting as I will be pursuing compensation. Also think that Watchdog, Ofcom(?) etc. should be made aware of situation as such a mistake is causing big problems.

Martha1_2

I was interested to see this post as i'm also having the same problem. I'm PAYG with Orange, ordered a San Fransisco II on Friday, arrived yesterday and couldn't get it to work. Customer Services registered my old SIM with it and said it would take 24 hours to work, phoned again this morning and was told that my handset has been blacklisted, although not by Orange! I should get a phone call tomorrow to tell me what's going on, although i'm not holding out much help for a speedy resolution.

Jolsa

It's a poor system when people are finding their phones blacklisted, and their own networks who you have a contract with are washing their hands of the situation. You'd think they'd be on the case to help you get back up and running rather than shifting things to another network.

T-Mobile who my contract is with are saying it's Orange's fault as it's their handset... Orange have decided that it wasn't them who blacklisted the phone... If it wasn't for Orange CS escalating things to a group who can do a network wide search for who blacklisted, and also why it was blacklisted, I'd have no idea how to go about getting my phone off the list other than ringing around every single network.

Martin Lewis, Ofcom, BBC Watchdog - please get on the case as there needs to be transparency for the consumer when things like this happen...

movilogo

It seems Orange doesn't like people buying their handset and then using other networks' SIMs after unlocking the phones

F0rester

I also bought an Orange San Francisco back in September last year. In the afternoon on 14th Dec 2011 I suddenly stopped being able to send / receive texts or calls but 3G does still work. I use Virgin Mobile but have also tried an Orange SIM in it. With Orange it doesn't even establish a connection. I have called Orange multiple times to be told it's blocked by another network and they'll send an e-mail via their supervisor to get the block removed in 48hrs. What a surprise... it doesn't get unblocked. I unlocked the handset using nckcodes last year and have been running Cyanogenmod without problems until now.

redux

Usually, if a phone is barred by a network, then it won't work at all with any SIM card

This sounds a bit more complicated than that.

Martha1_2

I spoke to CS again tonight, apparantly it is quite a big problem with people who have bought PAYG phones recently. They said they would phone me back in 48 - 72 hours to update me!!! If it wasn't rated as a good phone for the money I would have sent it back by now as speaking to CS is so fustrating and I feel like i'm not getting anywhere. Think I might contact watchdog!

Brian_The_Lion

I'm not sure if any industry procedures have changed, but I used to work for T-Mobile CS 3 years ago and whenever I came across situations like this we were allowed to unblackist the handset aslong as we received proof of purchase. It was irrelevant which network performed the blacklisting.

Im not sure why youre having the issues you are if the handset was purchased originally via the correct channels?

There are a couple of feasible possibilities to why youre phone has been blacklisted.

1. Human error - when we blacklisted handsets, we manually typed the number. Might not have been input correctly.

2. Stolen batch - IMEI's may have been reported in bulk, which may be taken from incorrect store records?

either way if you can provide proof that you're the owner of the handset then it should be straight forward to resolve.

For the record. Unblacklisting took literally seconds back then so Id be very surprised if any new systems were in place that made the process take any longer than that!

Jolsa

Brian_The_Lion wrote: »

For the record. Unblacklisting took literally seconds back then so Id be very surprised if any new systems were in place that made the process take any longer than that!

I'm sure it would take seconds if they could actually do it - Orange CS told me on the phone that they had all the information they needed but when he went to unblacklist the phone it wouldn't let him.

He's had to send all details to a senior Orange blacklist UK team, who he said would be able to find out who has blacklisted and the reason for doing so. This was on Sunday, and I'm awaiting a call (to another phone!) to let me know what's happened, although I'm starting to lose hope.

Jolsa

From Orange: "There is a current issue with blacklisting which is being investigated. That's all we know at this time"