N95 brick after Vodafone mistake

peterstannard

I'll try and keep it short.

I have two phone on my Vodafone account, both N95 for what its worth. One of them, my brothers, phone 2 we shall call it, was lost/stolen. I rang to report it lost/stolen and get it blocked etc. They (Vodafone) block the wrong one. I lost my signal pretty quickly after hanging up so quickly ring back to check what is going on.
Turns out they (VF) have blocked the wrong one, guy I speak to was v. helpful and went about unblocking my phone. Everything seemed fine...

Got back off holiday at the weekend and can't make calls, but texts work. People text me saying they're getting an engaged tone or disconnected tone. I ring up to see what is going on because texts are still working. I'm told that my phone has been IEMI blocked. The guy I spoke to stuck £10 goodwill credit on my account and said he'd speak to his manager about getting it unblocked and he'd ring me back. He rang back and said my phone would be unblocked in 72hrs max.

Fastforward to 10 minutes ago. Phone still not working (I've put my SIM card into an old phone so I can make calls/texts). I ring up and am told that because its an IEMI block that everything has to go through Government bullcrap to be unblock and the guy has no clue how long it will be. So for an unknown period of time my N95 is not work (at least I can still use my SIM in another phone I suppose). But I'm really pished that because of a mistake by Vodafone I'll be with my N95 for an undefined period of time.

What should I do? Wait it out? More account credit? Get them to send a new phone? How long do these IEMI blocks take, I was under the impression that once it was blocked that was that?

peterstannard

The volume key has now broken :mad:

peterstannard

Just have just got off the phone about why my phone hasn't been unblocked yet and it turns out a request for it to be unblocked was only submitted on Wednesday. The guy I spoke to mentioned 3-5 working days but would "give any guarantees".

As for the broken volume button I'll have to go into a service center to get it repaired. The guy said they don't send out a replacement via courier and let customers swap phones.

Any way I can use the SOGA '79 to send me a replacement without having to mess about with Repair Centers and waiting to get the phone unblocked.

Hopefullyuseful1

Hi peterstannard,

My apologies for the delay in responding.

It sounds like you've had a pretty poor experience since you reported your brothers phone as lost/stolen. We'd like to help you.

Normally if we request an IMEI bar, once we request it to be removed the timescale is indeed 72 hours from the point of our request. This is dependant on the request being put through and to the correct department. Without seeing your account I wouldn't be able to tell what stage we're at with this, it's even possible that by now you already have this resolved.

If you need our help we're here. To get in touch with us directly, follow this link to our online contact us form. In your e-mail if you could give a brief description of your issue and don't forget to include the IMEI number, make and model of the phone that's IMEI barred. Also give all of the details that the online form asks for about your account. This will speed things up so that we can respond and update you with the removal of your IMEI from the blacklist to resolve this for you.

I'm sure we can get this sorted out for you very soon just as soon as we have your e-mail.

Hopefullyuseful1
Vodafone UK

peterstannard

Well 8 working days later and its still not fixed!

I've sent an email using the form, lets see what happens.

peterstannard

Just to update everyone, my N95 has finally been unblocked and seems to be working fine now. Took an age to sort out but given that the £10 credit they gave me for their !!!! up meant I only paid a quid for my line rental last month I'm not going to complain too much.

Now I just need to sort out this bust volume key!