Last week, I had my ID mobile number, the number which I have had for years with various mobile phone companies, ported without my knowledge or consent to Vodafone by an obtained PAC code. This closed my ID account which had the potential to leave me vunerable to early termination fees. Additionally, the obtained number and port was used to verify a one time passcode sent to it for the illegal wire transfer of monies from my credit card.
As you can imagine this has been a stressful time taking days to sort out…...not with the bank but with ID mobile. The bank had everything done and sorted fortunately within 2 days and even more fortunately the card was refunded in full and everthing changed as expected.
ID mobile has been a different story. I lost my phone signal and data and the sim came up not provisioned on Wednesday last week and I contacted ID by online chat and they informed me that the SIM was faulty and to get a replacement from Currys and they would activate it. This was done and the signal restored that evening. The following day Thursday, around 12-1pm, the signal and phone went again with the same message not provisioned. It then said not registered on network. Contacting ID chat again this time they noticed that the SIM had been appropriated and sim swapped leading to the other problems with credit card although at this stage I was lead to believe it was to another mobile sim but not another carrier..
From here I was told that the technical team was onto it and be in touch in due course. Between then and Tuesday this week unless I contacted ID mobile chat I recieved no updates…..nothing…..nil. When I spoke with chat most of the time, and despite I presume having access to my account, they seemed to have no clue or idea what had transpired or what was happening until I recounted the story. However, I was advised, after I asked the question if my number had been blocked or stopped to prevent anymore fraud, that it had and my account frozen which I was relieved at. However, during a chat a day later when I needed to give some new details to ID, it was then revealed my number had been ported to Vodafone and when I queried the number blocking again was then informed that it hadn’t been and they couldn’t do it. With this in mind, with no communication directly to me and due to the breach of security on my sim, I made a complaint and received a complaint number and was told someone would be in touch within 3 days.
I, at this stage, was concerned that a contract with Vodafone had been set up with my details, and, losing faith that ID had actually told Vodafone about the fraud, I contacted them directly and raised this with their fraud department. They knew nothing of this when I phoned even tough ID told me it was Vodafone it had been ported to.
This has cumulated in that yesterday, Tuesday, 5 days after the start of this, I contacted ID again by chat to find out 1/ what was going on 2/ how they could get the sim changed over to firstly another phone not mine and then port to Vodafone 3/ why no communication and why no-one had called about my complaint. This was even more surprising chat. The number had been recovered and a new account set up and I would be back online at 6pm. When I asked when I was going to be told this very important information no answer was given save another apology (one in a long line). I was then told that I needed to set up a new access on the ID mobile app and online. When I asked about the number it then came into convesation that I needed another new sim. All this information was never communicated or emailed. I asked about my complaint and just got the “they are dealing with it” kind of answer. At this stage I demanded to speak verbally with someone which lead to me being given the complaints number which I duly phoned immediately. Having then spoke with them about all my issues and asking about my complaint I was then informed that it had been three days and someone would phone me that afternoon……...guess what nothing.
Then today I received an email congratulating me for joining ID mobile and setting up the direct debit but the phone number on it was not mine which of course I was very concerned at. Another chat with an advisor on the live chat. This time they believed I was a new customer and had ported over from Vodafone which again I had to explain whats happened again. They checked and then confirmed that the correct number was on the account and the number on the email had been a temporary one. I didn’t even know they had given a temporary number in the first place. Could I have used this while all this was going on instead of having no phone for 5 days? If so again why no communciation at all to relay all of this. I was at this stage angry. Angry that at no stage, other my own volition, no one bothered to keep me in the loop, tell me that I had a new account and temporary number or what even was going on. Then to top it all when I asked about the complaint, and the fact someone told me someone would call yesterday as it had been 3 days since my original complaint, the advisor said that there was no complaint registered. When I gave them the reference number by magic they found it but then told me it they would be in touch within 3 days. 3 DAYS. IT WAS 3 DAYS 4 DAYS AGO. At this stage another apology, sorry for the inconvenience blah balh blah and end of chat.
What the hell is going on here. I appreciate the fact that I have my number back of course but I have questions and complaints that seem to be conveniently 3 days away.
As an aside the security is not that good when it comes to SIM swapping or porting. I won’t go into details here for obvious reasons but suffice to say I was able to have potentially changed certain things without as much as a bat of an eyelid or by correctly knowing the first check thats is done when contacting ID. The first you know about it is your phone goes dead.
If, god forbid, this happens to anyone reading this then don’t expect anything to much in the way of updates or communication and you may find that your number and account have been set up way before you might actually be told.
