Porting Fun (pretty long story)

joerules

So, Last week I decided to get a contract phone with 3, having being a 3Pay customer over the last few months. The only problem was that you can't bring your number over from 3Pay to contract. This meant that I would have to move to another network, then move back. What fun.

So on Wednesday I rang meteor in the morning. They said it would take 2 or 3 hours (Attempt 1). 4 hours passed and it still hadn't worked. I rang them and they said there were delays and it would be done by 6. That didn't happen so I rang them the next morning.

The next morning (thursday), when I rang them they said it was taking too long and so it failed. The would try again (Attempt 2). 4 hours later it still hadn't worked. I rang 3 to see what they said and they said they saw the port request on their system and were waiting on Meteor. I rang back Meteor and they said that it should be done by 6.

The following morning it still hadn't worked. I rang Meteor and they said that Attempt 1 and Attempt 2 cancelled each other out. So they would try again (Attempt 3). By 6 again nothing had happened but they said they it was "in progress".

On Saturday morning I rang them up. They looked their systems up and saw that it was in progress and it would take 2 or 3 hours. Needless to say that didn't happen and I rang them up that night. Still no change.

When I rang them on Sunday they said they'd try again (Attempt 4) and it should take only 2 or 3 hours. They would ring me back if it was taking longer. Well I got no call.

This morning (monday), I decided to cut my losses with Meteor and try O2. The girl said that it would take about 4 hours because it takes longer to port from 3 (Attempt 5). 5 hours later it still hadn't worked so I contacted O2. The girl looked my details up and came back with "the port has failed". The reason being that 3 said the number was invalid. So I rang 3 up. The guy looked at the details, noted that there were 5 attempts made and 2 were in in progress - Attempt 4 and Attempt 1(I thought that attempt was cancelled out by Attempt2 , or so I was told). Three said they were having problems with O2 today but would call me back later either today or tomorrow morning.

So some things I've noted:
1) All the networks customer care reps have been really nice and professional. This is the reason why I'm nowhere near as angry as I would have been if they weren't nice.
2) Getting to the porting section of Meteor takes many many keypress through their system (for those who want to know it's 1...3...3...1...your meteor number...2...#... then you get to a person).
3) Porting is a bitch.

dohouch

Ported from O2 prepay to Metoer prepay, and I was gobsmacked it took less than 2 hours and with only 1 call involved. And when I head someone from COMREG, on the radio, recently claim that Ireland had a very efficient and hassle free number porting arrangement, I thought to myself "Damm it, she's right." So I don't think your hassles, however unfortunate is the rule.

joerules

I think my case is one of the rare ones. My mother ported from O2 billpay to 3Pay 2 months ago and it took about 3 hours. No problems whatsoever. But then again any possible problem with electronics that could happen, tends to happen to me.

1huge1

changed from vodafone pay as you go to 3 contract last x mass and if i remember correctly it took a day, or am i totally wrong
what i do remember was that their estimate was dead on

buddy

Why on earth are you staying with 3 if they can't even move their own numbers to billpay?

joerules

Well, 3 provide the best service for me of all the networks. That's why I'm staying with them.

joerules

Just an update: On Tuesday I rang them up again. The guy talked with tech support. In the end, they said they could transfer me directly from 3Pay to bill-pay. When I arrived in Edinburgh that day, my 3Pay sim was inactive and my number had been transferred. I didn't lose any of my emails, nor any of my voice-mails (from my 3pay account). It worked perfectly. I hope they tell people that it's working now.

btw: I used 3 services on my phone while in Scotland. It worked amazingly. I downloaded 3 songs. Am well impressed (esp as it didn't cost any extra)

Umiq88

I think the common denominator here is 3 they've just crappy services

joerules

Besides that issue I've had no other problems with them. So for me they're far from crappy. But every situation is different.

1huge1

joerules wrote:

Just an update: On Tuesday I rang them up again. The guy talked with tech support. In the end, they said they could transfer me directly from 3Pay to bill-pay. When I arrived in Edinburgh that day, my 3Pay sim was inactive and my number had been transferred. I didn't lose any of my emails, nor any of my voice-mails (from my 3pay account). It worked perfectly. I hope they tell people that it's working now.

btw: I used 3 services on my phone while in Scotland. It worked amazingly. I downloaded 3 songs. Am well impressed (esp as it didn't cost any extra)

thats odd as i was in the north a few weeks ago
and the only network that worked properly for me was O2 UK
i was able to call 333 with it
but with 3 UK and T-mobile UK i wasnt
and with none of those networks was i able to go to planet 3 or make video calls
what network were you on?

joerules

When I was up the North (on 3Pay) I was on the 3 network. Everything worked-calls, texts and Planet3. In Scotland I was a contract customer. In Edinburgh I was always on 3. Did a tour around scotland and was either on T-Mobile or O2. The only network that I couldn't use wasOrange. Planet3 only worked while I was on 3