A week later and no Prepay service, took a week to resolve!

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › A week later and no Prepay service, took a week to resolve!

paradoxsm

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#8628 16-Jul-2006 23:16

Last sunday (1 week ago from tonight) for no reason at all, My prepaid connection stopped working.
IE, the network just did not appear and there was no service.

I did the obvious, turned off the phone, removed the battery and cleaned the simcard and connectors and reassembled. Still... no network.

The Simcard still boots and functions but there is not service showing and the usual message "simcard registration failed" does not appear in this case, I swapped over a mates phone (on account) and still no service on his phone with my prepay, obvious it's not my phone.

A call to 777 (0800 800 021) on monday morning.

First operator said "your phone is faulty, I mentioned I had tried 3 handsets including a 3g which all had no problems with other simcards and only showed no coverage with mine inserted. No, according to him it was my phone.

Next operator checked my account and did a detailed search of the network side of things and suggested I get a new simcard pack.

I sent an SMS to 282 to tell me what SIM pack I needed and it said "this service has been discontinued, please see a vodafone retailer"

On thursday I go to Vodafone retail botany downs and was greeted by a very arrogant salesman whom made me pay for the sim pack and then makes me wait another 10 minutes while he sorts out his own error with the actual sale. He then tries to place it through the system, and it spat out an error.

He then told me to ring 777 to get it sorted. 3 operators later I spoke to one whom worked for Vodafone Au before and seems to know a bit more, he tried to get it through the system and investigated it deeper but still could not get it running. and said he'd call me back after escalating it further, He actually did call back the first time to let me know no resolutuion had been found yet. He forgot to call me back a second time.

I phoned in on saturday and spoke to someone, apparently the escalation was still held up and there was no end in sight. Useless!

Still not working at 10:30 on a Sunday night, 7 days since it went off the network..... I phoned Vodafone and was greeted by an extremely nasty guy whom was extremely rude and told me to call back after 8am tomorrow as he did not have access to tell me what SIM2 pack colour I needed to get.. I became very irate as this point and he said "he does not have access" and I need to call back after 8, I said I KNOW you can access this information, Just tell me and stop wasting my time, greeted with his snarky "you need to call back after 8" So I asked to speak to the team manager, was told they don't have one for the night shift.... bullsh1t!!!!

I called back immediatly by a lovely lady whom advised me of the correct colour packs that go with the HLR's for the numbering ranges and politely confimed with me....

THE STUPID D1CKWAD AT THE VODAFONE RETAIL STORE SOLD ME THE WRONG COLOURED SIM2 UPGRADE PACK... an HLR3 Green pack instead of an HLR4 blue pack

OH MY GOD!!! what monkeys do they have working there... I had lost confidence in Vodafone recently and this is the icing on the cake...

Asides the man whom tried his best on wednesday and the lovely lady tonight whom was very pleasant, They have a long long way to go before they restore my confidence. and..................... my stupid Pre Pay is still as dead as ever...

*************update.**************

Today I switched on the phone and the phone came up "sim registration failed" which it was not doing before (shows there is an obvious fault)

I phoned a useless guy at 777 (He had no idea what a ki string or an HLR was, so well trained!)
He advised me that the Simcard number was indeed the new number. ARGH!

It seems tech support had apparently "actioned " the request and hooked up a HL3 simcard to an HLR4 number

ARGH!!!!!!!

Today (Monday 8 days on) I took the green simcard pack back and they swapped it for a blue pack with no questions and did the swap over and I was back in business.

LONG LAST. I can now make those $2 for ten minute calls I have been making at $1 a minute on my 027.

Glad it' was finally sorted and thanks for all the help from those of you whom know who you are.

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#41791 17-Jul-2006 01:14

i got one Question you did top up before the 12 months was up didn't you?. look man i think it is about time you stand up and take vodafone to cort i mean you could just sit back and buy another sim card. if you take them to cort it will stop it happening to an other person Go for it please. or even take them to fair go they will help you

tonyhughes

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#41801 17-Jul-2006 09:19

Take them to court???

On what charge?????

alasta

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#41804 17-Jul-2006 09:29

tonyhughes: Take them to court???
On what charge?????

If he topped up his prepaid account prior to the fault occuring, then he would have good cause to take them to the disputes tribunal to recover the cost of the service which Vodafone appear to be unable to provide.

Unfortunately going through the disputes tribunal is a lot of hassle and also incurs a fee, so I would suggest that it would be better for Paradoxsm to simply vote with his feet, and tell them why.

paradoxsm

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#41808 17-Jul-2006 09:43

The worst part is I have 700 dollars credit loaded on to it and of course there is no way to claw that back.

I'm really pi55ed, I wouldn't care if it was just another $20 every 6 months but I used this phone A LOT (Motormouth) and would really like to recieve calls. The number is still active but I cannot connect to the network! ARGH!

jpwise

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#41812 17-Jul-2006 09:54

Even if he didn't top up, one would normally expect even the frontline plebs would be able to check if it was disconnected/barred as a result.

Jp.

Working for Service Plus - www.serviceplus.co.nz

Authorised Service Agent for Apple, BenQ, Sony, and Toshiba - warranty & non-warranty repairs.

jpwise

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#41813 17-Jul-2006 09:57

paradoxsm: The worst part is I have 700 dollars credit loaded on to it and of course there is no way to claw that back.

I'm really pi55ed, I wouldn't care if it was just another $20 every 6 months but I used this phone A LOT (Motormouth) and would really like to recieve calls. The number is still active but I cannot connect to the network! ARGH!

I'm not really that familiar with Vodafones systems, and it does seem a bit odd for it to be not getting network with just that sim, so it's down to either network barred (i'm assuming they can do that), or the sim's failed. As another option you could try getting the sim replaced and the number transferred. I have heard of this been done in some cases where the phone is lost/sim damaged, and if you can provide enough information to verify your ownership (knowing called numbers etc, and having the sim would probably help) you should in theory be able to get it transferred.

If it still doesn't work after that it's back to network (assuming they've done the transfer properly).

Well. That's my input of guesses & speculation for the morning.

Jp.

Working for Service Plus - www.serviceplus.co.nz

Authorised Service Agent for Apple, BenQ, Sony, and Toshiba - warranty & non-warranty repairs.

freitasm

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#41848 17-Jul-2006 15:39

Good to know this is now sorted!

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Sinn

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#41849 17-Jul-2006 16:03

Hi,

Good to hear you finally got it resolved. With the whole number portability thing coming up hopefully this will make it easier to swap SIM cards. I didn't realise up til now that there was even a coloring system!

You say you had $700 on the card? didn't you get that back with the new sim card? i know I had to replace a card because it suddenly died but the balance was still there. I did have to pay the $30 or whatever it was to replace it but I'd had it for a few years already so I'd gotten good use out of it.

nzbnw

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#41854 17-Jul-2006 18:04

Sinn: You say you had $700 on the card? didn't you get that back with the new sim card? i know I had to replace a card because it suddenly died but the balance was still there. I did have to pay the $30 or whatever it was to replace it but I'd had it for a few years already so I'd gotten good use out of it.

*paradoxsm* means something like a cash settlement, and if that option was open to him, he would have left voda (by the sounds of it).

I know when I was with Voda, and I lost my SIM (prepaid), they just send me out a new one via the post, and debited against my Prepaid Balance (and come to think of it, I think they forgot to do that

joe5600

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#41946 19-Jul-2006 02:44

this is what happen to me some about 2 years ago i had my sim card stolen and it had 100$ credit on it i called vodafone barred it.
then i went to harvey norman i got a sim card and simcard and sed to the customer service lady that i had got my old sim card stolen so she called vodafone sed we have a customer here he had is sim card stolen he would like his number transferd over. and just like that vodafone did it so i got my old number back and my credit.

not sure if u can do the same thing but it worked for me

freitasm

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#41949 19-Jul-2006 08:08

joe5600: i went to harvey norman i got a sim card and simcard and sed to the customer service lady that i had got my old sim card stolen so she called vodafone sed we have a customer here he had is sim card stolen he would like his number transferd over. and just like that vodafone did it so i got my old number back and my credit.

And how is this different from Telecom's? Not at all. But you didn't see Fair Go having a go on Vodafone for its practices.

BrentR

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#41951 19-Jul-2006 08:36

freitasm:
joe5600: i went to harvey norman i got a sim card and simcard and sed to the customer service lady that i had got my old sim card stolen so she called vodafone sed we have a customer here he had is sim card stolen he would like his number transferd over. and just like that vodafone did it so i got my old number back and my credit.

And how is this different from Telecom's? Not at all. But you didn't see Fair Go having a go on Vodafone for its practices.

What the?!?!?

lokinz

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#41961 19-Jul-2006 09:47

Sim cards are very easy to change; the problem paradoxsm had was due to the fact that the salesperson he dealt with gave him the wrong sim pack, had he received the correct sim the problem would have been sorted on the spot.

As for retaining credit, there is no logical reason why you wouldn't, the account doesn't get modified it just has a new sim number assigned to it.

It usually takes about 30sec to change a sim number and 1-15 minutes for the system to refresh and you can use it.

richms

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#41971 19-Jul-2006 12:12

joe5600: this is what happen to me some about 2 years ago i had my sim card stolen and it had 100$ credit on it i called vodafone barred it.
then i went to harvey norman i got a sim card and simcard and sed to the customer service lady that i had got my old sim card stolen so she called vodafone sed we have a customer here he had is sim card stolen he would like his number transferd over. and just like that vodafone did it so i got my old number back and my credit.

not sure if u can do the same thing but it worked for me

The problem is when the store is out of stock of the "colour" of sim that you need. Vodafone refuse to post or courier one out to you if you are on prepay, there stores are more interested in trying to get you to buy there latest overpriced handset with useless features then keeping decent stock of sims for number ranges that they are no longer issuing, and theres no way I am getting another 8 digit number since people seem to have so much trouble with them.

Ive asked about buying more of them to keep as spares, but apparantly even unconnected they will expire after some time. Ive asked if I can use my old sims that I have had in the past which are now disconnected, once again, told that I cant because they are expired.

Sims may be well and good for some people, and I can see they were useful when handsets were several hundred to a thousand dollars and you would share one between several people, but these days they are just a pain in the ass, i much prefer telecoms way where I can get any old 027, give them a call and within a couple of minuites its up and running on my number.

Richard rich.ms

johnr

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#41973 19-Jul-2006 12:39

Richms clearly by your post you have no idea what you are speaking about

First of all prepay numbers that are not topped over a lenght of time goto into a automatic number recyclying and 7 digit and 8 digit MSISDNs are on the same HLR so its got nothing to do with getting customer into a new MSISDN that is total rubbish.

and there are no issues with 8 digit MSISDNs the issue is with the systems PBX that are trying to ring them

and unconnected SIMs can't expire as they are not connected to a prepay account

SIMs never expire its the prepay MSISDN that does as the account is not topped up

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