Real mess with O2 - how to keep my number?

mobilejunkie

annie1276 wrote: »

At the moment my account still shows that I am in receipt of an iPhone 8 which I signed for on Tuesday - except that the parcel didn!!!8217;t contain an iPhone at all - so I!!!8217;m still being charged for a device plan, just not for the Samsung. I!!!8217;m quite tempted to use the PAC now and deal with the fallout if O2 try to charge me for the phone, rather than lose my number.

I would be tempted to do just that. They have broken the contract so can hardly charge you for anything if you cancel (provided you haven't used it). If you're willing to pay for any calls and haven't used the phone I think you have a solid case should it come to enforcing it. Any other action risks losing the number (wouldn't be an issue for me, but is for you, it seems - so is worth prioritising in your decision).

Make sure you keep any written communications with O2 plus notes on phone conversations (who, when and what was said/accepted by them and offered).

Anthorn

eDicky wrote: »

No, if both your original contract and the new one have been cancelled before the use of a PAC, even if the PAC was obtained before those cancellations occurred, that PAC is invalid and your number is lost. A PAC needs to be used while the contract is still active. After a contract is cancelled, as Mr Anthorn says, its too late to get the PAC.
No, the contract will run until the PAC is actually used to port the number to another network, which terminates service by the original provider. If not used, the contract will continue.

But yes, you need to make sure that your new contract is ended under the cooling off period terms, or you will be charged the early termination fee for the whole contract term.

Don't forget that you can't rely on anything you are told by O2 customer services; you are in danger of losing your number, but their incompetence might even work in your favour. As I say, you need to cancel your new contract but retain your old one, so that you still have a number to port.

In general there are two separate ways to end a mobile contract. The first is to give notice of cancellation without requesting a PAC, abandoning your number. The second way is to request a PAC and use it. You should not do both if you want to terminate your contract and keep your number. But you need to use the third way, within the cooling off period for your new contract, but obtaining a PAC and using it while it's still valid.

Er ... if asking for a PAC does not tell the network that the number is to be ported and the contract/account ended why do they plead with us to keep the account open and stay with them when we request a PAC?

But ... O2 has already agreed to close the contract and they are in the process of doing that or so the OP says. Ergo requesting the PAC will tell O2 that the number is to be ported and to keep the number available until it is ported. Whether O2 then keep the account open until the number is ported or close it and keep the number available or indeed cancel the account and the number is a matter for O2. A last possibility is that the OP will be liable to pay for the duration of the whole contract because the number has been ported and the account closed outside of the cooling off period.

Ergo requesting the PAC will automatically close the contract but hopefully not until after the number is ported. Personally I would just get a new number. I do that every two years anyway to remove my number from spam lists.

Money_Grabber13579

Anthorn wrote: »

Er ... if asking for a PAC does not tell the network that the number is to be ported and the contract/account ended why do they plead with us to keep the account open and stay with them when we request a PAC?

But ... O2 has already agreed to close the contract and they are in the process of doing that or so the OP says. Ergo requesting the PAC will tell O2 that the number is to be ported and to keep the number available until it is ported. Whether O2 then keep the account open until the number is ported or close it and keep the number available or indeed cancel the account and the number is a matter for O2. A last possibility is that the OP will be liable to pay for the duration of the whole contract because the number has been ported and the account closed outside of the cooling off period.

Ergo requesting the PAC will automatically close the contract but hopefully not until after the number is ported. Personally I would just get a new number. I do that every two years anyway to remove my number from spam lists.

So what happens if you request the PAC but don’t use it? The contract isn’t cancelled on the request and then restarted if it isn’t used...in that case, everything with the old provider continues as normal.

eDicky

Once again, requesting a PAC does not in any way interrupt the normal continuance of the contract and service. Only by using it within thirty days does so.


I think it's better to stick to the facts, which I've already tried to present to the OP, rather than risk confusing her further by speculating mistakenly.


What we don't know is how this will be handled by O2. What we can hope is that they don't cancel all contracts completely before the PAC is used, which will render the PAC invalid. If Annie has at least a fairly clear idea of normal procedures it should help in her interaction with the CS staff to prevent them screwing it up...

eDicky

I've only just noticed Mobilejunkie's post, he's the expert and I agree that the only sure way to retain the phone number is to use the PAC ASAP. However, having to deal with O2 over the consequences will then continue...

System

eDicky wrote: »

I've only just noticed Mobilejunkie's post, he's the expert and I agree that the only sure way to retain the phone number is to use the PAC ASAP. However, having to deal with O2 over the consequences will then continue...

If retaining the number is paramount, I would ensure it's away from the O2 contract ASAP - they may be able to convert directly to a O2 PAYG or use the PAC to move elsewhere.

I'd suggest that O2 PAYG might be easiest as O2 would facilitate it.

Raxiel

annie1276 wrote: »

(Sorry, no idea what happened to the punctuation there and no way to edit post!)

Its a bug in the MSE forum software that causes it to get confused by Apple Smart Punctuation. It inserts those codes in place of inverted commas if you post from an iPhone or iPad with that feature turned on.

Anthorn

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

So what happens if you request the PAC but don’t use it? The contract isn’t cancelled on the request and then restarted if it isn’t used...in that case, everything with the old provider continues as normal.

Looks like you missed the point about O2 already agreeing to cancel the contract. The question is not whether the contract will be cancelled but whether the number will be ported before it is cancelled.