How to recover One NZ number which has lapsed?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › How to recover One NZ number which has lapsed?

whitecanary

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#314920 29-May-2024 09:22

Hi All,

I moved overseas from NZ last year and realised I made a mistake with not topping up my One NZ number for about 15 months now, unfortunately as I had the SIM in my spare phone which was not powered on I didn't receive the SMS reminders.

I've reached out to the customer support with no avail, they've told me to head into the store for help which I've asked family to do in NZ. However in store they've told them that there's nothing that can be done since it's been over a year.

Is there any other method to recover the number? As the number is linked to my WhatsApp and a couple of SMS authentications I'd ideally like to recover it if possible.

Thanks for any insight into this.

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#3242155 29-May-2024 09:31

Go to a store is their call centres default answer for something they cant deal with. That or promise they will do something and get back to you only for there to be no record at all of any call you made to them.

And this is why lazy companies that use a telco number as an identifier or security method need to be held to account.

Richard rich.ms

wellygary

8321 posts

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#3242159 29-May-2024 09:45

What happens when you call it?? is it use??

If its not in use it should be possible to be reconnected,

But whether you can do it on a Pre Pay connection is a business decision for One NZ....

Linux

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#3242164 29-May-2024 10:00

If the MSISDN is in a paired state then kiss it good bye

whitecanary

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3242458 29-May-2024 23:16

I've called the number and it's not in use so thank you for the feedback. I'll go try again at the store and see if they can help since it's not in a paired state yet.

Goosey

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#3242481 30-May-2024 06:46

The number could already have been allocated to a pre pay sim pack sitting in some dairy somewhere ready for someone else to buy.

for those sms authentications that you have not used in 1.5 years, I’d be logging into those websites and asking them to change / update / RESET your account login details and start again.

Linux

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#3242540 30-May-2024 07:41

Just cause you called the number proves nothing really

AdamGZ

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One NZ

#3243623 2-Jun-2024 09:43

Hi White Canary,

I understand and can empathise with your situation.

However, as stated in the One New Zealand Terms and Conditions for prepay, which can be found here: https://one.nz/legal/terms-conditions/mobile/ , the following applies to Prepay accounts:

Top Up Expiry

2.2 Prepay account credit (i.e. money loaded on your Prepay account via top up) expires 360 days from the date of your top up. If you do not put any credit on your Prepay account for a period of 360 days since your last top-up, your account will become inactive after 360 days. If your Prepay Service becomes inactive, you will lose:

your allocated phone number;
any credit in your Prepay account; and
any names, numbers or other details stored on your SIM card.

2.3 Inactive account: We cannot reactivate a number once you lose your allocated phone number due to account inactivity.

As Linux and Goosey accurately mentioned, if the number is in a paired state, then the number could already have been allocated to a prepay SIM pack sitting any retailer in New Zealand (dairy, service station, etc.), ready for someone else to buy.

Nevertheless, I can take a look into your specific case, but please note there is no guarantee, and we are under no obligation to retrieve a number from the quarantine and recycling process as it is not a simple task and there are many potential complications.

Please provide me with the Mobile Number and SIM Number privately.

Thanks,

Adam | One New Zealand

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Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

freitasm

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#3244245 4-Jun-2024 09:29

@whitecanary I've authenticated the user @AdamGZ as a One NZ employee. You can provide the information asked in the previous reply if you still need help.

whitecanary

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3244249 4-Jun-2024 09:40

Thank you for the reassurance @freitasm. I've reached out to Adam to see if it's possible to recover. Thank you!

whitecanary

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3245112 6-Jun-2024 11:10

Hi All,

For future reference for anyone who does need assistance with this, @AdamGZ did manage to assist me with resetting my number to my original SIM card and it's now been activated.

I have also set myself a calendar reminder to top this up before a year is up.

Thanks all!

Linux

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#3245172 6-Jun-2024 11:53

You were lucky the MSISDN was not in a allocated or paired state :)

TessaFarley

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3245839 7-Jun-2024 23:27

@whitecanary I am unfortunately in a very similar situation! Travelling solo and have an NZ sim/number for the sold purpose of receiving banking verification texts etc, but I forgot to top up the prepay sim around the 1 year mark recently and now I am stuck in Spain unable to book onward flights as I can’t receive any texts!! Eekk.

@AdamGZ I have sent you a private message and really really hoping something can be sorted. You seem to know your stuff as the general OneNZ chat people weren’t particularly helpful.

Hopefully hear from you soon! Thanks so much.

kiwiibloke

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3255430 2-Jul-2024 06:25

Same here :-( Topup I made in March seems to have failed.

Phone suddenly stopped working after more than 20 years and because I can't login now, I can't see what happened, but Customer services on the phone and via email tell me the number is now in quarantine and my brother in NZ could go to the store and ask for it to be set up on a new SIM.

The store won't look at it, saying that customer services have no say over what the store does.

I tried calling the store manager to see if he could suggest anything else that could be done - powers of attorney, video call with the sim card and passport in my hand etc, but apparently none of that reduces the risk of fraud and their only advice was to escalate via complaints. I did that and complaints re-iterate what I was told before. The number is in quarantine. It can be released from quarantine and put on a new SIM on a new account and given to anyone and my brother or a friend can do that in the store.

So I'm in some sort of stalemate with a sim that doesn't work and my 20 year old number might be automatically released from quarantine any day and be assigned to some random stranger :-(

Linux

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#3255434 2-Jul-2024 07:48

@kiwibloke You would of been sent warning SMS a number of times before the number was deactivated did you ignore these?

Store manager can't do anything you need to call OneNZ and speak to customer service and get a ticket logged

kiwiibloke

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3255437 2-Jul-2024 08:11

I didn't have phone switched on, unfortunately. I have raised a ticket. Not sure if all of my earlier message came thru? Complaints told me to send my brother to the the store, store told me to escalate to complaints, complaints told me store would sort me out if my brother goes there. I'm in some sort of stalemate :-(

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