PAC Codes and Notice Period

jeffo489

Does anyone know the actual rule on Pac Codes and Notice periods?

I have just received a PAC from Vodafone. I was told this on the call....

"the pac codes will be activate for 30 days once you have given them to your new provider this will activate your 30 days notice on your vodafone account "

According to that, the 30 day notice period will START when I supply my PAC to a new provider, and as the number will transfer within 24 hours, with no option to keep my old contract, according to that I will have to pay for 1 month beyond the contract. Is that correct?

I have never checked my payments in the past; It seems to me that they should not be able to charge you once you port your number out unless they are willing to supply you with a new number to keep your sim card active.

I know the telephone people often do not provide accurate information, so didn't bother asking them to clarify.

grumbler

The 10 worst acronyms if you're a pedant (grrr) - Martin Lewis' Blog...

Even Voda can't get this right, but this doesn't surprise me.
Did you copy the text manually as there are other grammatical errors in it?

And, I think, it's factually incorrect either.
Firstly, 30 days start when the PAC is issued, not when given to a new provider.
Secondly, the 30-days' notice period, that you normally* get charged for, starts at the same day. So, if you port the number out earlier, you get charged for 30 days regardless, although part of this period is usually paid in advance.

* However, AFAIK, Vodafone used to differ from other networks in this respect:

husk wrote: »

Regarding Vodafone, if you use your PAC any time after your minimum term contract ends you'll only be charged up until (and including) the day that you port out, not the whole 30 days that the PAC is valid for.

I refused to believe this when I saw this first time, but I was proven wrong. Click to see the following posts.

jeffo489

I actually chatted via the web chat on the Vodafone website. The text above was copied directly from the transcript of the conversation that I had emailed to me following the conversation.

I (thought) that 30 day notice didn't apply when porting as the company is not giving you the option of using the service that they are charging you for.

ie. If they want to charge a customer for the 30 days then should they not issue your sim with a new temporary number during that period of time? After all you are (allegedly) paying for the data/minutes/texts.

If you wait until the very last minute to port, in other words to get the most from the time you are paying for (allegedly), then you risk there being delays with either ordering a new sim, or the port process itself, which might result in the port code timing out and you have to do the whole thing again.

Personally, I think when you port out, you should stop paying the contract immediately. So if I get a code today and port tomorrow, i just pay for that time. Otherwise I still want to have access to my data/minutes, and that is not even an option.

grumbler

See the addition to my post above.

Normally, after getting a PAC you can use the service for the next 30 days and port the number out at the end of the notice period. That's why all operators except, possibly, Vodafone, do charge you for the next 30 days after issuing a PAC.
This doesn't make any real difference if in practice you have 29 days, not 30.