topic Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please? in SIM cards & Porting

Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Songstress — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 22:37:16 GMT

Hi,

I am hoping someone here may be able to help as after 7 days of trying I have not had any joy 😞

The situation:
- T Mobile customer of 7+ years, though these days bills and correspondance all appear as 'EE'
- current 3G sim is no longer supported by EE so I needed to upgrade
- called 150, they sent out a sim card for a 5G EE the next day
- Sim card has not got my original phone number on it - it hasn't ported
- If the new sim is in my phone, and you call my original number, it will not connect and says it is unavailable
- I only have one handset - iphone 12
- EE have previously written and said my 3G sim will stop working in the next few days so i am working against the clock to get this fixed

Over the last week I have spoken to at least 8 different people in the business and tech team, none of whom could tell me the process for porting or what should have happened. Conflicting advice included:
- you do/do not need a pac code
- you need to transfer to a competitor sim first then get a pac code and transfer back/ no, that is not necessary as you have upgraded with us
- it will take 2 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours to work
- keep your old sim in until it is fixed/put your new sim in as it needs to 'find the signal and our system shows it can't'
- we will send off a form to a tech team to sort it - they are not working til 4 Jan
- Your number has successfully ported on 4 Jan, put your new sim in, update the number in settings and it will work - it did not
- this will take up to 14 days and you cannot escale it! (no mention of this at all when I upgraded, just today, 7 days later)

I am at a loss as to what to do and very concerned I will lose my phone number which is my buiness and personal line and has been for 20 years. Does anyone have any suggestions please?

I am sad to say the service has been hopeless, with the exception of the tech team, who have advised this is a porting and upgrade issue and not their team. So little empathy - surely there must be a way to get this sorted?

thanks in advance for any help. I have spent hours on this so far to no avail.

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

bristolian — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 23:05:54 GMT

Is your SIM EE-branded or T-Mobile branded?

The concept of a "3G SIM" or a "5G SIM" is an often misunderstood one, when the reality is of an EE SIM that supports all radio technologies from 2G > 5G

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Songstress — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 10:23:04 GMT

Thank you for your reply.

my old sim is the original T mobile pink 3G Sim that I had when I took out the contract. The new sim is a blue EE orange 5G sim.

I called yesterday and was told it could take 14 days.

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Chris_B — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 10:52:45 GMT

@Songstress It should take no longer than 24 hours to move your number from the old sim to the new sim. EE should have done this by now. Your only moving a number within the network so this can happen over the weekend, it’s not a number of migration as you are not moving between networks so you don’t need a pac code and you do not need to move it to another network to move it back to EE. Call customer services tell them what’s happening. Ie you e moving from a T-Mobile 3G sim to a EE sim becomes of the 3G shut down and your number still hasn’t been move over to the EE sim.

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Songstress — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 10:57:57 GMT

Thanks for your reply Chris. I have spent hours on the phone explaining this to multiple different people. The response is that ‘yes it should just work automatically, that has failed so there is now a process to follow which takes up to 14 days to find a repair. A form has been filled in and sent to the technical team.’

Eventually I did speak to someone helpful who for the first time showed an interest ti ask questions about things like the phone number on the new sim and gave me my new account number (which apparently is issued when you upgrade as I have). She was the only person who actually called someone to enquire on the status of this. Alas the problem is not sorted and she has promised to look into it on Monday again. They have offered £100 compensation but I’m not interested I just want the phone number to work.

I’m at a loss but a little more hopeful that if this person continues to help me, I may get a resolution. I am happy to go to another provider now just to get the number ported and working but worried it will not work and be even more difficult to resolve with EE.

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Leanne_T — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 12:15:06 GMT

Hi @Songstress

Thanks for coming back to us.

It sounds like this is being investigated for you by the correct team, please let us know what happens Monday when you hear back from the agent with an update.

Thanks.

Leanne.

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Elvisfred21 — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 03:40:03 GMT

i am having the exactl same issue and feel I have been missold the upgrade I asked for. I never had a Tmobile account but an orange one. However apparently it’s so old it’s showing as a t mobile sim (no idea how or why). Have had the same number for 20 years and don’t want to lose it. Did they manage to sort this and do you know how?

I have also made multiple calls and despite the customer service team trying to help no one seems to know what to do to make it actually work. I currently have two bills on one account which I am not happy about and am worried this is costing me extra money which no one has right now.

thanks

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

James_B — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 06:41:19 GMT

Hi @Elvisfred21,

Welcome to the EE Community. 🙂

Did you upgrade online, in store or over the phone?

What were you advised by Customer Care when you called regarding your number transfer?

James

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Monika44 — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 06:13:28 GMT

@Songstress I am dealing with this exact nightmare right now! Did you ever manage to get your old number back? I am losing hope after nearly 2 weeks

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Christopher_G — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 06:58:13 GMT

Hi @Monika44

Welcome to the community.

What is the latest from our technical support team? Have they said what the problem is?

Chris

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Monika44 — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 07:15:41 GMT

Hi it's just hopeless, since 16th June various agents have told me different things about moving my old T-Mobile number to a new EE sim (for example was told to keep the old sim in VS you need to keep the new sim in)

New sim has been in since 23/6, on 26/6 I still managed to call EE and was told old number would be ported that day or next day. Now it's 28/6 and the new sim is showing no network, SIM not provisioned for voice

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Christopher_G — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 07:20:21 GMT

OK, thank you @Monika44

When was the last time you spoke with them about this? It may be worth calling again for an update.

Chris

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Jameshill23 — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 23:18:25 GMT

Hi! Did you get this sorted? I am now going through the same thing. I sat in the store today while on the phone to customer services. The store told me one thing, the customer service agent told me something else. I now have neither my old t-mobile sim or my new EE sim working and I’m heading abroad tomorrow so won’t have time to wait for a new sim to be posted to me. They told me to wait until midnight and then the system would update and my new sim would work…..but of course, it hasn’t worked. Really disappointed as I’ve been with them for nearly 20 years but am likely to leave if they can’t fix this quickly.

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Songstress — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 08:16:24 GMT

Hi,

Sorry to read you are having a similar situation. Mine did eventually get sorted and I think it took two weeks. During that period the service received was dreadful. I was repeatedly told conflicting information and each call took ages. I am a business customer and got passed between the business and tech and business and general teams and each time has to repeat the story. I was told there was nothing anyone could do I I had to wait. In the end I refused to get off the phone and said I want to stay on the line until this is escalated and I want to complain. I kept repeating the same lines over and over again saying ‘but you aren’t helping me, nobody is helping me’ until in the end I spoke to someone in the complaints team. At that point. Everything changed, they acted like a classic customer service agent, took ownership, rang me back when they said they would, treated the problem like an unsolved mystery and helped get the bottom of it. It continued to be unresolved for another 3 days and they were due to call me back the next working day (and I trusted that they would) and suddenly the phone started working properly with the new SIM card etc. I wish you luck as the service is dire but hang on in there and keep telling them ‘I don’t know what to do, nobody is helping me, This isn’t resolved etc, I want to stay on the line and escalate this to a complaint’. So sorry another person is going through the same terrible service and worry!

Best Wishes,

Lisa

[moderator edit: removed personal details (signature) from the forum]

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Songstress — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 05:56:38 GMT

Hi sorry for the late reply. Yes eventually it got sorted. I kept my number and if transferred. The service was absolutely diabolical and unacceptable in This day and age. I eventually spoke to someone who was brilliant and helpful?m, she was part of the complaints team. I had countless calls before then. She took it seriously and was ringing various teams on my behalf. It still took about a further 3 days of not working and suddenly started working (just as I was sent a new sim again in the post - but I didn’t need it by then as it was working). I wish you luck - keep saying ‘nobody has managed to resolve this, I don’t know what to do, I want to make a complaint, please escalate this’ good luck!

Best Wishes,

Lisa

***************

[mod edit: removed personal details from the forum]

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Leanne_T — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 07:24:26 GMT

Morning @Jameshill23

I am very sorry to hear this has happened, please contact us and our mobile care team will get this looked into for you if the number has not transferred as advised.

Thanks.

Leanne.

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Monika44 — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 16:38:42 GMT

Hi it was a nightmare but on 1st July I completely lost all network data
(with my Tmobile simcard left it) so took it out, put in the new EE sim and
magically everything worked! Hope you get it sorted too

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Monika44 — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 16:48:42 GMT

Thanks Lisa - my new SIM also magically started working and my old number
thankfully transferred. But I never want to go through that again!! :))

Re: Problem porting phone number from Tmobile 3G to EE 5G - can anyone help please?

Leanne_T — Sun, 16 Jul 2023 07:59:53 GMT

Thanks for coming back and letting us know @Monika44

Leanne 🙂