Phone number locked - no proof offered for reason

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Phone number locked - no proof offered for reason

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quickymart

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#3393584 12-Jul-2025 23:13

MichaelNZ:

Most likely the CEO will side with their CSR or whatever their official corporate angle is. The key to understanding this is T1 CSR's of large companies deal with policies and scripts which are imposed on them from higher up.

Actually, quite a few times when Jason (Paris) used to post on here he would disagree with whatever the CSR had said, and admit something along the lines of "we mucked this up" and to e-mail him personally to make it right. In fact I don't think I ever saw him side with a CSR, come to think of it.

MichaelNZ

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#3393591 12-Jul-2025 23:42

quickymart:

Actually, quite a few times when Jason (Paris) used to post on here he would disagree with whatever the CSR had said, and admit something along the lines of "we mucked this up" and to e-mail him personally to make it right. In fact I don't think I ever saw him side with a CSR, come to think of it.

I have never had to contact the CEO of Spark. Actually I don't even know their name. Everything I have needed has been sorted by our Account Manager at the Business Hub.

One is the only company of that size I have ever had to ask the CEO to sort something out which was trivial and could/should have been done by customer services.

WFH Linux Systems and Networks Engineer in the Internet industry | Specialising in Mikrotik | APNIC member | Open to job offers

gehenna

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#3393614 13-Jul-2025 10:24

What if this phone number was the only lifeline a person has for medical, legal, safety, or any number of other reasons that put the individual at risk by having it blocked?

One.NZ is playing with fire on this one.

xpd

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#3393704 13-Jul-2025 19:15

Yup, so we had resolution at end of things.....

New phone was a 3rd party supplier, hence the dodgy apps I found. Removed those. Friend then went to the One shop and asked to have the block removed again. They didnt know what she was talking about.

She got to 777 again via her partners phone while at my house - CSR immediately assumed it was the phone she was calling from, was the problem. Altho she had pressed the option to say it was a diff phone. That set her off........ I eventually took over the call.

We ended up with a CSR who (not being racist), spoke English fluently and was easy to understand. So that was good. I started from scratch with him, and we went through it all, but for some reason on his end he could not see anything wrong with the account, and wondered if it was a device issue and asked me to try in another device. Advised we had already done that and also had been told by One the account was locked.

He did some further poking around, and put me on hold - 2mins later he was back with semi-good news. He found the account lock/restriction. Bad news - he could not remove it.

He advised best thing to do was to go to a One store with the new phone and the SIM, and talk to someone in person and advise them to call the contact center. So off my friend went again to the same store, and got the same person again. That person called the contact center, got read the notes and the light came on.

So the new phone is now up and running on the original SIM - hooray!!!

Friend looked at her online account and went "oh crap" - she saw why they blocked her to start with. The CSR I spoke to, said he could see the reason for the block but couldn't give me any more info.

So, some queries came from all this....

1) Why couldn't the original CSR just say "your phone is spewing crap SMS", and would've given me something to work with...

2) How is it theres a process to lock the account using one method that apparently no other CSR knows about ? Surely theres a standard method/process.

I have her old phone here (for some reason all her photos are showing on it, yet I cannot locate them on the phone, and on her new one they're not appearing), and will throw ESET or similar onto it and see if that finds anything. Fun.... :)

Thanks all for your feedback etc :) Hopefully noone else has to go through this the same way we did :D

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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freitasm

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#3393708 13-Jul-2025 19:40

@xpd:

Friend looked at her online account and went "oh crap" - she saw why they blocked her to start with. The CSR I spoke to, said he could see the reason for the block but couldn't give me any more info.

Why was it locked then?

lxsw20

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#3393709 13-Jul-2025 20:41

xpd:

1) Why couldn't the original CSR just say "your phone is spewing crap SMS", and would've given me something to work with...

Probably because they need a method that can work with the lowest common denominator.

You tell someone they are sending spam that isn't technical you get into a no I'm not/yes you are situation. Where as if you say there is a security issue and you need to reset your phone there is no argument to be hand.

I agree that One have handled this poorly and I would bet process hasn't been followed.

xpd

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#3393718 14-Jul-2025 06:58

freitasm:

@xpd:

Friend looked at her online account and went "oh crap" - she saw why they blocked her to start with. The CSR I spoke to, said he could see the reason for the block but couldn't give me any more info.

Why was it locked then?

Her number was sending out spam SMS messages. But because of the plan she is on, she gets unlimited SMS, so never noticed anything.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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#3393722 14-Jul-2025 07:47

So a SMS to the customer saying ' We have detected your handset is sending SPAM SMS so we have restricted service on your number please call 777 ' is not possible?

xpd

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#3393724 14-Jul-2025 08:11

Obviously not - a "Call us within 2 hrs or else" was more appropriate :) Wonder if that gets sent regardless what time their system detects the "abuse"....

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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ANglEAUT

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#3393879 14-Jul-2025 14:20

xpd: ...Wonder if that gets sent regardless what time their system detects the "abuse"....

If it's anything like the data usage warnings that only come in between 08:00 & 09:00, then no.

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

richms

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#3393892 14-Jul-2025 14:47

TBH I am glad that they are doing something about devices that are spamming out this crap, but the 2 hour thing IMO is a little bit too long.

Hopefully your friend doesnt install random apks this time.

Richard rich.ms

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#3393937 14-Jul-2025 17:06

richms:

TBH I am glad that they are doing something about devices that are spamming out this crap, but the 2 hour thing IMO is a little bit too long.

Hopefully your friend doesnt install random apks this time.

Shes admitted shes lucky to know how to turn the phone on, so I dont think installing dodgy APK's was the issue :)

I'll know shortly as I'll be flicking the phone on to see what I can find :)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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