Hi all,
This is a post to outline my very long journey to getting my texts back, after they suddenly stopped coming through to my phone.
TLDR; I wasn’t receiving any text messages because my number hasn't ported correctly from Vodafone (issue emerged months after the porting). The issue was resolved by the porting team which cannot be reached via the standard customer service team.
November 2024 - I accidentally discover that no texts are coming through to my phone. I can make calls, I can receive them, and I can send texts which are received. But no texts were coming through to my phone.
I went to an o2 store and confirmed it was not an issue with my phone. I got a new sim card and it didn’t change anything. I got an e-sim and it didn’t fix anything. I switched back to a physical sim, no change.
November 2024 - February 2025 - multiple contacts with the o2 customer service team. I kept explaining the same thing over and over again, I was promised a thousand call backs which never arrived, I had multiple tickets “escalated” to the senior team and then closed without an explanation. A really frustrating experience of getting absolutely nowhere.
I logged an official complaint and no one cared at all. I escalated to the ombudsman and was promised a fix then, and yet nothing was done.
Finally in February 2025 I reached out to Dave from the o2 community (@Dave-O2). He contacted someone from the porting team, bypassing the terrible customer service team I was getting nowhere with. I got a call from a very competent, lovely woman who collected key details from me, and said the issue is related to incorrect porting. I ported by number from Vodafone to O2 in December 2024. Everything was fine and worked well. That was until the text issues I started having in November. She informed me that for an unknown reason, part of my number was not ported correctly from Vodafone, and my texts were stuck in limbo. She said she would need to call the Vodafone back-end offices and claim the number back from them.
Some time had passed since her call, and nothing happened. Dave was kind enough to nudge the porting team again, and after waiting patiently for a little longer, I suddenly discovered my texts were back to normal last night. Oh the excitement and joy of being able to receive texts after 4 months! I wasn’t able to get any OTPs, so I was locked out of all my accounts - finally I am logged back in! It’s been a frustrating journey, but I can say that the issue has been resolved.
For now the best advice I have is reach out to @Dave-O2 and ask him to raise an issue with the porting team, as customer services are inept and will waste your time. Dave has been fantastic and is the only reason I have my texts back - I was ready to leave o2, so thank you @Dave-O2 for saving the day!
