I have been going through the transfer process for about 10 days now and it is just about finished. During that time there are a few things that have happened to me that could be useful to know for people about to go through it. Suffice it to say that it has NOT gone smoothly for me. Here is a list:
- My transfer date was notified as Monday 10th July - it actually only happens overnight between 10th and 11th so it is the evening / night of the notified date
- Tuesday 11th - checked emails first thing in the morning and several emails from O2 telling me that my new order is on its way????? This is apparently a new SIM card because the transfer had not worked
- 16.00 on Tuesday 11th, the Virgin SIM switched off - "Not provisioned on the network". The replacement O2 SIM had not arrived so my service just died - not a great situation. Tried VM and O2 customer services using another phone and only advice is to wait for new SIM - hopefully on Wednesday but no guarantees
- 13.00 Wed 12th - Post office delivers new O2 SIM which I put in my handset. Checked it out and can make / receive calls, send text/SMS and access the internet. It won't RECEIVE text / SMS messages. This is critical considering all the confirmation text messages that come in to access O2 accounts / banks / shopping / NHS etc.
- Called O2 customer services - tried a few things like resetting network but no success. The CS agent tells me he will escalate the issue to level 2 support but solution could take up to 5 days.
- Finally able to receive texts on Sunday 16th middle of the day 4 days after the O2 SIM arrived. O2 SIM now all working
- During the transfer the ex Virgin number is now linked to a brand new O2 account for bills etc. The details of this can only be found from the My O2 app because I cannot log in on a computer because I do not know the NEW account password.
- Contact O2 to ask if the number can be added to my existing (2 other Pay Monthly numbers) O2 account - not possible as the "migrated" numbers are not currently being added to existing O2 accounts. Net result is now 2 different O2 accounts for my 3 Pay Monthly numbers.
- Try (via SMS messages) adding the new number as a Multisave discounted (20% off airtime) number. Did not work so contacted customer services. The "migrated" number does NOT count as a "new" number to O2 (because it has been with VM/O2 since I got it) and the multisave benefit can only be added in the first 28 days of having a new O2 number - so tough / unlucky.
This is my tale of the transfer and I suspect that there will be variations on this. What I would recommend is having access to another phone / number because if "your" new O2 SIM does not fully work you could be in for a relatively long wait for a solution to be applied with all the problems that it may cause.
It feels like the people managing these transfers did not work through all the potential failure conditions and the customer community are simply left to manage the fall out from any failures. Not ideal.
Frank
