Porting from Contact Mobile to Spark, haven't heard anything despite all of Friday?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Porting from Contact Mobile to Spark, haven't heard anything despite all of Friday?

Nil Einne

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#312405 14-Apr-2024 01:10

I'm trying to port a number I like from Contact Mobile (LSP) to Spark prepay (GSP). Spark messaging support told me on Thursday night they had put through a request but I haven't heard anything since then nor received a TCF SMS on my Contact Mobile which has been connected virtually throughout. Is this normal? There was the entire of Friday for something to happen.

Probably the most annoying aspect is I have to make sure I check my SMS in less than 2 hours during the day or I might have to start again. (I don't use SMS much for anything and don't check my notifications much so could easily miss it.) I mean I understand why the TCF and limited time for response, is needed but the uncertainty over the timing of the SMS is fairly annoying especially with the weekend to add to that.

2degrees seen to suggest porting only happens on working days, One NZ can't seem to decide if It's Monday-Friday or Monday-Sunday so I don't know whether the lack of anything on Saturday is relevant. Also I don't know if it's different since this is manual rather than going through the form as perhaps it means more human involvement.

Another thing which I'm fairly unclear on. Both Spark and 2degrees say "If you have ordered a SIM card, the mobile confirmation text may take up to 48 hours" but I don't know what this means. I originally ignored it since thought meant if you just ordered a new SIM from your LSP, the SMS may take up to 48 hours to arrive which I could understand from a technical standpoint but seemed weird from a practical standpoint. (Seems unusual to order a new SIM from your LSP unless I guess the old one was broken or didn't fit in your phone, and you didn't care since you wanted to port but with the TCF SMS you need to.) My Contact SIM is several months old so not an issue.

But it just occurred to me especially given this is on both 2degrees and Spark and so I guess might come from the TCF process, that maybe if the GSP SIM is completely new, they're required to wait 48 hours before starting the process sending the confirmation to the LSP for security reasons or something. If so, this would affect me since I did only activate it on Wednesday afternoon although technically this still gave them 3 hours or so on Friday.

Nil Einne

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3217966 14-Apr-2024 01:10

For some more background:

The number is an original 029 Contact number that was assigned to me that I happened to like, it's never been on any other provider. Contact is an postpaid/pay monthly One NZ MVNO, but it's not listed on the Spark form. (This applies to pretty much every prepay provider in NZ, except possibly Skinny.)

BTW, with the proliferation of One NZ MVNO recently perhaps all GSP should consider adding a 'other' or something to their form? Warehouse Mobile have that. (Porting with them still failed, but that's an aside.) Mighty is also missing on most forms.

Anyway, I assume putting One NZ as the provider would fail so I went through the app messaging. This took quite a while in part due waiting for responses which were often verification questions with one attempted upsell. I'm surprised this was necessary as I was logged in on the app but maybe because I was asking about porting it's particularly sensitive. (Well I think a new SIM also didn't help since my answers to some of the questions were limited.)

I did make a minor mistake in the beginning since I forgot to give the current Spark prepaid phone number so the person had to ask. (I thought of it then missed it when composing my message.) I started at around 1611, and after it turned evening and I stopped receiving responses I thought I'd need to wait to tomorrow. But then I received a message 2122 saying they'd put through the port so while slightly annoying, my support experience wasn't too bad until nothing seemed to happen after.

Also Contact (or I guess the One NZ system managing it) has these weird GUID type account numbers which I think confuse some providers. I'm also not sure if you need the entire long account number, their invoice only has the first part before the hyphen. But someone claimed they used the long one for porting to One NZ so I provided that. It's still alphanumeric so maybe can still be confusing

Nil Einne

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3217982 14-Apr-2024 06:24

I just realised I somehow confused myself. The Spark prepaid SIM was only activated on Thursday afternoon so 48 hours would be Saturday afternoon not Friday. And assuming there's no porting on Saturday then it won't be until Monday that it's able to be processed. So perhaps that's the explanation it needs to be 48 hours from SIM activation for the GSP. Either way IMO the 48 hours bit should be clarified since it's fairly confusing at the moment.

Also while I said security I can also imagine other reasons why you need the 48 hours e.g. the SIM (or whatever is behind the SIM) needs to be active on the system for 48 hours before it can have a request associated with it. If it is 48 hours for the GSP SIM, I'm interested in why if anyone is able to say, but I'm not suggesting this is something that needs to be clarified on provider websites. Just which SIM since I'm guessing quite a few may think as I did initially it must be the LSP SIM since that's the one receiving the SMS, so the one that seems relevant to the SMS even if it seems a fairly unusual scenario where it would apply.

Nil Einne

469 posts

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#3218569 15-Apr-2024 14:01

Still nothing so guess I'll try contacting support to see what's up

huckster

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#3218619 15-Apr-2024 14:27

Just to confirm, you have activated the new Spark SIM or at least had/have it in a phone and are getting some form of service?

Is the old Contact SIM still working too?

Contacting support is probably the way to go though.

MaxineN

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#3218621 15-Apr-2024 14:31

If you haven't received the TCF SMS then the port likely has not been submitted or it failed during basic validation (I.E Postpay vs Prepay, account detail mismatch etc etc).

You need to contact the gaining provider.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

Nil Einne

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3218674 15-Apr-2024 14:53

huckster:

Just to confirm, you have activated the new Spark SIM or at least had/have it in a phone and are getting some form of service?

Is the old Contact SIM still working too?

Contacting support is probably the way to go though.

Yes I went through the process to activate the Spark prepaid SIM before I started and then attached to MySpark (with the verification SMS) with a verified email. I then tried to to the normal form based porting but found there was no Contact listed so went with support instead. I checked just now and I can call the Spark number from my Contact so both still seem to be working fine. (I've also been using the Contact for mobile data through the weekend, also received an advertising SMS on a short code from KFC on Friday evening on the Contact SIM.)

I haven't topped up the Spark SIM as I wanted to make sure it worked before I bothered with that but I can call a toll free number. So fairly sure both are working fine.

For further clarity both are in different devices and have been active nearly the entire time since i made my requests. And I haven't heard anything either on the email attached to MySpark or the Spark number itself via SMS about the port either. (The messaging session was ended but I checked that occasionally too just in case.)

Anyway I contacted support about 30 minutes ago, just waiting for a response.

Nil Einne

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3218813 16-Apr-2024 00:30

Okay I heard back from support in the evening and the problem was it was rejected as the account number is too long. I guess this is some sanity checking by Spark, problem is this is the correct account number. As I mentioned Contact uses these UUID/GUID like account numbers which seem to be the only account numbers and other people have had success with One NZ with this number https://www.cheapies.nz/comment/197951/redir (I mean these numbers originate from them so they really should know they're valid.)

Anyway the invoice only has the first part before the hyphen. Although the person who was successful said they needed the long account number it's not clear that they tried the shorter one so rather than trying to convince support I just told them to try the shorter one. However I heard back just now that it's invalid because it's alphanumeric. I've tried to convince them it's correct and sent both an invoice and a screenshot from when I was logged in. If it continues to be rejected I'll just give up and try One NZ instead although weirdly someone has reported success with Skinny.

I can understand the alphanumeric account numbers causing problems if they're unusual in NZ. I'm fairly sure this is what happened with Warehouse Mobile/2degrees too but I ended up just giving up with them given the long time for responses. However I don't understand why I never heard anything from my first port request. The person who dealt with it said I'd be contacted, I never provided and email and they never asked but the number was attached to MySpark. But even an SMS to my Spark number saying port rejected or whatever would have been fine.

Edit: For clarity the account number is in the form of xxxxxxxx-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyyyyy. x/y are hexadecimal (8-4-4-4-6) so this account number is almost definitely alphanumeric in common display. The invoice only shows the xxxxxxxx part so it's possible this is sufficient for a port request although I don't know for sure. Also it's still likely to be alphanumeric unless you got lucky and are one of the 2.3% or so people without.

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Nil Einne

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3219507 17-Apr-2024 12:19

So received the SMS not long after 0800 this morning and it went through about an hour ago. Tested and all seems to be working fine and my Contact SIM also stopped working.

Nil Einne

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3219508 17-Apr-2024 12:20

Weirdly about an hour after the port was successful I received an email from the person who'd been helping me saying Spark were contacting my provider to help with the account ID problem. However this might have just been because it's when they started working and were relaying updates they'd received from whoever was dealing with the port, not sure. (I did reply saying the port was successful.)

Despite the email I'm not convinced it was really a Contact problem, I think most likely it was just Spark's systems rejecting the account number and so needed someone who knew how to push it through regardless. Especially since as i understand it, anything which happens before the TCF SMS are just any sanity etc checks on Spark's side, it's only after the TCF that the LSP confirms if the details provided match. Not really my concern although if I am right and Spark just pushed it through but doesn't change anything, others will have the same problem.

Also from some of the stuff the Spark agents said, it's possible when it failed on Friday the reason I received no contact it is had already been pushed to someone higher up to look at. Not sure as the first reply made me think it had failed and nothing further was happening then the later one sounded like maybe it was still being dealt with. (When I gave the account number the first time, I did tell them it was the correct one even if it was unusual.)

Nil Einne

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3219645 17-Apr-2024 19:13

FWIW if anyone is having problems in the future, I had missed some stuff in my research. It seems that you do only need the first 8 as shown in the invoice for the port since this works with Skinny https://www.cheapies.nz/comment/203412/redir

Don't know if only submitting this initially would have made it faster. I sort of think not since it would probably still have been rejected for being alphanumeric. I also find it weird it's so simple with Skinny and has been for months but so difficult with Spark since I thought the systems were fairly consolidated now. But maybe it's less so for mobile and/or when Contact was added to Skinny system the ensured it did not reject alphanumeric but the general checking used by Spark still does or something.