Can you use a PAC on its expiry date?

faddy

Got a PAC from Orange on April 13th by text which stated "valid until 12/05/2016" Tried to use it today (May 12th) to port to Life Mobile only to be told that it had expired and I should have used it a day or two ago. Rang Orange who said I could have used it yesterday but not today.

According to OFCOM "Once you have your PAC, it’s valid for 30 days and you must give it to your new mobile provider within this time", and according to Wikipedia "A PAC is valid for a period of 30 calendar days from the day of PAC issue and the customer's request must be submitted to their new Service Provider within that time.
A number can then be transferred anytime between 1 and 32 calendar days from the date the PAC is issued."

Are Orange/Life playing by the rules?

unforeseen

The PAC is valid for 30 days but the catch is that the gaining provider must use it before the end of the 30 days. So if you give your new provider on day 30 then 99% of the time, because it normally takes a day for the provider to initiate the transfer, it will fail

faddy

unforeseen wrote: »

The PAC is valid for 30 days but the catch is that the gaining provider must use it before the end of the 30 days. So if you give your new provider on day 30 then 99% of the time, because it normally takes a day for the provider to initiate the transfer, it will fail

Life immediately flagged it up as "expired". Would that be their internal systems adjusting for them not using it until tomorrow?

Presumably I don't have a hope in hell of getting Orange not to charge me another 30 days line rental if I get another PAC tomorrow and use it immediately?

boatman

faddy wrote: »

Life immediately flagged it up as "expired". Would that be their internal systems adjusting for them not using it until tomorrow?

Probably, as has been said need to allow a couple of days for it to be transferred.

faddy

boatman wrote: »

Probably, as has been said need to allow a couple of days for it to be transferred.

Just a shame Orange don't tell you that when they give you the PAC....

boatman

faddy wrote: »

Just a shame Orange don't tell you that when they give you the PAC....

Its not in their interest for you to use it, I guess thats why they don't say anything. When you ask for another and use it, they should really only charge up to the day the number was ported, not the whole new month.

LazyTyper

Looking at the operational manual for mobile number portability, it states

Rule_8 wrote:

The PAC validity period extends up to 18.00 on the 30th calendar day from issue,
including bank holidays. A port-out request submitted to the MNP web system by this
time must be actioned by the DSP.

DSP being the donor, your existing provider you are trying to move away from.

MNP web system being the system that all mobile providers use to generate the PAC and manage the porting request.

Also

Rule_10 wrote:

The default port date will be taken to be the following Working Day after the submission
of the port-out request by the RSP (i.e. if the request is submitted to the MNP web system
prior to the Closing Cutoff). The customer may request an alternative port date that is
later than the default date but no later than the Working Day following the PAC expiry
date. However, see also business rule 12 below.

RSP being the Recipient Service Provider, your new provider.

Rule_11 wrote:

Porting shall only take place on a mutual Working Day. If the derived port date is a Bank
Holiday, the port will take place on the next Working Day

Rule_12 wrote:

Working Days are defined as Monday – Friday, 09.00 to 17.00, excluding local Bank
Holidays

So as I understand, when you were given your PAC on the 13th April that counts as day 1 so today is day 30.

So in my opinion, Life should have accepted the order to allow your number to port tomorrow (13th May) as based on the time you posted your original message it was about 16:00.

The only explanation why Life may have thought the PAC was expired was maybe they couldn't confirm if they had time for staff to push through the porting order in time.

faddy

LazyTyper wrote: »

Looking at the operational manual for mobile number portability

Do you have a link for that please?

LazyTyper

faddy wrote: »

Do you have a link for that please?

http://www.mnposg.org.uk/

faddy

Just this minute got a new PAC from Orange. The script they read out says "if the port is not completed within 30 days your PAC will expire"

boatman

Sounds like the companies are using the 30 days to complete the transfer, when in actual fact it should be the request within 30 days, can't say i'm surprised that mobile company has it wrong..
As long as they don't charge you another months line rental for the new PAC.