Avoid Lebara

Barb5

I purchased a Lebara sim five weeks ago having seen it recommended on this site. I ported in my number from three immediately and have not been able to receive calls or texts other than from anyone on a Vodafone network which Lebara uses since then. I am able to make calls and access internet. I phone customer services almost every day which takes forever as I have to go through all my details and explain the problem and listen to their scripted comments of how sorry they are for the inconvenience but please wait another 48 hours, there was a problem with the port in. I have been promised many calls back from supervisors but have never received one!! I’m not completely sure they are doing anything at all. I have reported them to Ofcom who advised me to report them to the ombudsman after eight weeks but meanwhile the impact on my life is unbelievably bad. Who can cope without a phone for 5 weeks? I have no option but to go to another network but of course I’m desperate to retrieve my old number. If a deal seems too good to be true …..

RobfromCornwall

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience.  

I moved to Lebara on March 2023 (from Giff Gaff) and everything went smoothly.

I know it's no consolation, but wanted to point out that that yours might be an unusually poor experience.

Your best approach now is probably to get a PAC and hope you can move to another provider and keep your number. 

oldernonethewiser

When I ported to Lebara there was a delay and it took a few call to sort it. 

Only after I spoke to Apple did they give me the info that enabled me to use that to get Lebara people to deviate from their script and sort the problem.

I'm about to get another Lebara SIM but no porting involved

PHK

I have found Lebara OK unless anything goes wrong when their customer service is very poor. 

Barb5

Thanks. I will phone Apple to see if they can help. 

reddwarf2002

Lebara is a cheap provider so it's really good unless an issues arises. This can sometimes take many interactions over weeks or even months to get a satisfactory resolution. 

fiish

Lebara did really well in the last MSE poll: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/2024/mobile-network-2024/

67.3% rated them 'great' for customer service. I'm interpreting 'customer service' as 'how well they resolve issues when they occur' but maybe it's the wrong picture?

oldernonethewiser

fiish said:

Lebara did really well in the last MSE poll: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/2024/mobile-network-2024/

67.3% rated them 'great' for customer service. I'm interpreting 'customer service' as 'how well they resolve issues when they occur' but maybe it's the wrong picture?

That's a surprise but looks like other people have been a lot luckier than me.

Barb5

I contacted apple support and they were extremely helpful. They checked all my phone settings but unfortunately could not solve the problem ☹️

reddwarf2002

fiish said:

Lebara did really well in the last MSE poll: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/2024/mobile-network-2024/

67.3% rated them 'great' for customer service. I'm interpreting 'customer service' as 'how well they resolve issues when they occur' but maybe it's the wrong picture?

If it's a simple query then the resolution can be quick and good. But anything technical or something that requires the agent to veer off-script then it is a painful experience.

d123

Barb5 said:

Thanks. I will phone Apple to see if they can help. 

It’s nothing to do with Apple.

Your easiest way to rectify is to get a PAC from Lebara and port your number back to its original network. This deletes all porting commands on the line. You can then port back to Lebara (or anyone else) and hopefully you don’t have a glitch in your port. Lebara are pretty useless at tracking glitches in ports.

Having said that, I’ve ported in and out of Lebara at least 5 times and it’s always completed successfully so yours is not that common an occurrence.