Carphone Warehouse to o2 iphone number migration port
Ok, they’ve changed the tariffs now to something resembling useful. So we’ve decided to make the plunge and purchase an iPhone. Herein lies the rub; we’re told that number migrations from Carphone Warehouse (o2 contract) take 24 hours. Ok that’s fine. We’re given a PAC code, we go home, plug it all in and activate.
We ring up later the next day to find out how the migration is going as we’ve had no emails, no nothing. Carphone Warehouse inform us to ring o2 directly as they’ve taken on the contract now. We ring o2 who kindly inform us that it will take 9 days to transfer the number. 9 days!, “Yes Sir, 9 working days it’s in our schedule”. According to OFCOM regulations it takes a minimum of 5 working days to port a number as it’s not o2 to o2, it’s Carphone Warehouse o2 to o2. Oh sorry, we’re just lowly plebs who think o2 actually means, o2.
o2 then go on to say the PAC code beginning MARxxxx is a generic PAC code from Carphone Warehouse, and if we want a quicker migration of 7 days (5 working days) we should ring Carphone Warehouse and get a PAC code beginning VT. Dutifully we do this and are politely informed that whomever spoke to us at o2 may be misinformed (i.e. don’t know what the hell they are talking about). The ‘PAC’ code given to us is not actually a PAC code at all, but rather a ‘transfer code’ that generates a PAC code that we never see. It’s totally internal on o2’s systems. This chap at the Carphone Warehouse was actually quite helpful and knew what he was talking about.
Ok, so I may be overreacting but Apple/o2 are trying desperately to get business users onto this iPhone platform. This amount of frankly, messing around is not going to win them many friends in the business world. They give you a temporary number for the iPhone but how pointless is that? *Joe Smith* that I ring every other day for business matters is not going to know who my number is. Oh, I’ll tell him I have a new number but in 9 days it’ll be back to my number he knows. Multiply that by 100 people o2, yes? I didn’t think so either.
To O2: sort your system out it’s a mess. Also, inform your call operators as to what they are talking about as we spoke to 3 different people and got 3 different replies.
To Carphone Warehouse: your staff seem to think you’re part of o2, as do we, the punters actually giving you cash. To then be told we may aswell be on Vodafone when transferring to o2 direct in terms of how long it takes, simply grates.
Time to put the iPhone back in the box and continue using my crash happy n95 for the 9 days it’s going to take to transfer me!