Trying to port my phone number to new contract

El_Torro

Right, I've recently changed from Orange to T-Mobile. I assumed this would be relatively straight forward seeing as they're both EE but keeping my old number has proved pretty difficult so far.

I phoned up Orange last week and told them I was leaving and that I wanted a PAC code. They offered me a better deal to stay but it wasn't as good as the T-Mobile deal so I said no. I then immediately phoned T-Mobile and gave them my PAC code.

I should point out that I am moving from a SIM only contract to a SIM only contract, so no new mobile phones involved.

The next day Orange phone me and offer me an even better deal to stay. It beat the T-Mobile deal so I said yes. I mentioned that I had already set up my new contract with T-Mobile and given them my PAC code. She said that this wasn't a problem and all I had to do was cancel my contract with T-Mobile as I was still within my cooling off period. I did this.

Next day I realise that both my T-Mobile Sim and Orange Sim have been deactivated! I phoned Orange to find out what was happening. They told me that because I had given my PAC code to T-Mobile I had now left Orange and they wouldn't give me a good deal to come back. I was a bit miffed at this; I immediately rang T-Mobile up to reinstate my new contract.

My T-Mobile Sim was reactivated pretty quickly but I discovered they hadn't ported my old mobile number across. I rang them and they said that because I had cancelled the contract I needed to get a new PAC code from Orange. I rang Orange and they said that they couldn't reissue a PAC code as the old code was still valid and had already been ported over to T-Mobile. All Orange could do was reinstate my old contract but they would need the serial number on my Sim to do so. I told them I didn't have my Sim on me and I would call them in the evening.

I rang them up this evening and again they told me that my PAC code is still valid.The guy I spoke to said that to get my old mobile number I'd have to get a new PAC code from T-Mobile(!). I told the guy to speak to T-Mobile and explain this to them as they were giving me a different story. He did this and then put me through to someone at T-Mobile. The T-Mobile guy took my details and said I will have my old number on my new T-Mobile contract within 24 hours. I'm not sure if he understood the issues though, he may have just been going through the motions...

So what do you think? Are both companies spinning me a story here? Personally I'm inclined to believe Orange; the PAC code was ported over so the issue should be up to T-Mobile to fix. I'm conscious that the PAC code will expire sooner or later and then I may never get my mobile number back!

All I can do now is wait until tomorrow evening to see if the issue really has been resolved. Any advice in the meantime would be grand though!

wapow

Whoever in Orange told you to cancel your contract on cooling off and NOT get your pac code from TMob was wrong. You would need your PAC from TMob.


Also, you should've asked for a recording of the call from Orange rather than then switch back to TMob.


You will most likely have your old number unless it is lost in the general pool, which is a possibility.