Opinions of Lycamobile

TemmyTemjin

I've just signed up and activated my Lyca sim (with a supposed number port from Lebara in progress). No idea how that will go.

The Lyca website and account management is utter garbage. I can't see any way of seeing, or changing card details for monthly payments: At this point, I think I'll wait for the PAC transfer to complete and settle down, and then bounce back to Lebara and try and take them up on an offer.

savergrant

If you download the app saved cards is in the settings menu, and I see what looks like an option to add a card, and presumably to remove the current card..

sheffieldeagle

Hi

Can you activate the MSE plan online or do you have use the text option?

Cheers

savergrant

My welcome letter says;

"You can activate your plan through your phone, online (via my account) at www.lycamobile.co.uk, in store

Or call customer services on ... or dial 322 from your lyca number"

Using the pin seemed the simplest option to me and worked in seconds.

I would guess that however you do it you will need to confirm the phone number, the sim serial number, and the email address used to order it for security purposes. Putting the sim in your phone means they can confirm the phone number and the sim serial number automatically.

sheffieldeagle

savergrant said:

My welcome letter says;

"You can activate your plan through your phone, online (via my account) at www.lycamobile.co.uk, in store

Or call customer services on ... or dial 322 from your lyca number"

Using the pin seemed the simplest option to me and worked in seconds.

I would guess that however you do it you will need to confirm the phone number, the sim serial number, and the email address used to order it for security purposes. Putting the sim in your phone means they can confirm the phone number and the sim serial number automatically.

Was that by text?

Cheers

NeilJung

Absolutely excellent at an unbeatable price point. I made a post on here somewhere about the issues I had with them and how they were resolved, but essentially I took the MSE deal, and then got a message telling me I would be charged "X amount" if I didn't cancel it. I contacted them to find out what was going on, it was resolved, and I am still on the deal.

savergrant

You just dial the number into your phone app. It is the activation code in your email

Eg *116*12345678#

It then presumably ties up the sim to the deal you signed up to and you are up and running.

sheffieldeagle

Cheers Savergrant

Vorpex

For anyone planning on using Lycamobile I recount the following unhappy series of events.

I took the Lycamobile MSE 1 BF bundle (5p/month for the first six months) paying the monthly 5p payments from my Credit card. Then at 23:48 on a Sunday night in March I received a text saying that Lycamobile was unable to renew MSE 1 BF due to a payment failure. Monday morning I contacted Customer Services via my landline (mobile didn't work, because they'd cancelled my bundle!) Eventually CS told me that my bank had refused the payment request. I realised that my Bank had issued me another card number due to an online fraud attempt and this had caused the  5p transaction to fail. I updated my Credit card details, there and then - but was told I could not renew the 5p deal as it had already been cancelled; as it was a promotional offer it was no longer available. I could, however take a much more expensive bundle as a replacement. I smelled a rat, declined their offer, signed up with Lebara with a 99p/month for the first six months and attempted to request a PAC code from Lycamobile. It's important for me to retain the same number as I use it for 2 Factor Authentication for a variety of online accounts. Getting the code was like getting blood from a stone. My mobile could not make calls or send texts (no bundle); the website is useless; Customer services, once they answered the phone, could not be heard over the sound of children crying; subsequent calls elicited the word for word recitation of the apologies script and empty promises and when I finally got through to someone who appeared to know what he was doing he, at long last, gave me a PAC code. Hurrah. It proved not to work. Lebara customer services were very helpful and pointed out that the code I'd been given was in the wrong format. Back to CS at Lycamobile. They decide they will not talk to me (because of security!) but want me to email them with the details. I do this and we go back and forth over the same ground - repeated emails showing that they fail to understand what I want (a PAC code that works so I can transfer my number to another provider, please!) They tell me to use my phone to text for a PAC code. I try, knowing it won't work. It doesn't. I point out to them that they have made it impossible to use my phone to send or receive calls or texts and ask them to send me a working PAC code by email. They say they can't do that and have sent it via text to my phone. It does not arrive, because - well, by now you know why. They don't. We go back and forth about this for a while, until I threaten them with Offcom, bad reviews on Trustpilot and the BBC. Mysteriously, a PAC code appears on my phone. I use it and the following day my old number is happily working on Lebara. It has taken 9 days to get this done. I have now learned that if it looks too good to be true, it's too good to be true.

flaneurs_lobster

So you got mobile service for 5p a month, bounced a payment when you failed to inform them that your credit card had been cancelled and you wonder why the customer service is a bit off?