# Corrupted SIM card, wrong number attached to it



## William of Walworth (Oct 27, 2013)

Not sure if anyone's ever had this problem.

I have a very basic NOKIA, and I'm on a cheap Orange contract.

On Friday at 7:30 am Orange texted me out of the blue urging me to delete the text and then turn the phone off/on to install updates.

I did as instructed, and found afterwards that I was no longer on the number I've been on since 2006, but on somebody else's completely! Getting several spammy texts and news of  a hospital appointment in Lincoln, where I have never lived.

Not only that, before I realised properly that my phone number had changed, this new number had been blocked from making calls because of unpaid account .... stupidly, I followed the automatic Orange instructions and paid £18= to clear this.
Didn't quite realise at that point that it was someone else's account (I was just  at that stage)

Trying to get Orange to sort this out yesterday cost a great deal of my time, and they still haven't sorted it. It takes bloody ages to get through to their 'helpdesk' for one thing. Plus the two different people I talked to gave me different information.

The first one insisted I'd have to change the SIM card. This annoyed me -- it would take several days to post out a SIM. And I found it hard to believe that it wasn't possible to sever the connection between my SIM and the false number, the one that would never have become connected to my SIM had Orange themselves not texted me. Surely, I thought, it must be possible to reinstall the conenction between the SIM and my proper number, the one that had been attached to that SIM for months.

The Orange shop in town don't hand out new SIMs to contract holders, as I'd been wrongly advised to go and ask for, so yes I would have to take for ever to talk to Orange again. Except the second person I talked to insisted my SIM was already connected to my true and proper number. And she never phoned me back like she promised to, either. And my phone's still connected to the wrong number.

Going to have to go through the whole getting through to Orange rigmarole again shortly. Simply couldn't face the prospect of doing it a third time yesterday afternoon though.

In short, Orange are shit.

I signed up to them in the first place back in 2002 becuase mobile reception at Glastonbury is by far the best for Orange than for any other network, and that reason still holds, because I go there for over  a week every year, and Glasto's a time when I use my phone more intensively than at any other time.

Just venting really! 

But has anyone else ever had any similar nightmares?


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## Epona (Oct 27, 2013)

Oh gawd - I'd just suggest that you get on the phone to Orange at the earliest possible opportunity, you should be able to get it sorted out (and also make sure to ask them to refund that £18 while you're in contact with them).

Fingers crossed for you that you can get it sorted out without too much bother.


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## Ted Striker (Oct 27, 2013)

Go into an Orange shop and don't leave until it's sorted.


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## keybored (Oct 27, 2013)

They've gone to shit since the merger.


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## stuff_it (Oct 27, 2013)

William of Walworth said:


> Not sure if anyone's ever had this problem.
> 
> I have a very basic NOKIA, and I'm on a cheap Orange contract.
> 
> ...


You should be able to buy a SIM in a corner shop for £1 and ring Orange up to change it to your old number.

And of course the Orange shop can hand you a SIM, how else would they sell SIM-only contracts?



keybored said:


> They've gone to shit since the merger.


They were always shit, I won't go with Orange since the lost broken handset debacle a few years ago now back in the late 90s. I broke then lost a handset and they refused to not keep rolling my contract over after the end of the term unless I returned that exact handset. Two years later and a huge debt I found the broken handset when my mates moved house, and tried to return it. 

There was of course no way to return the phone. Not in person, not by post, etc.


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## keybored (Oct 27, 2013)

stuff_it said:


> They were always shit



That's a shit experience you had, but overall I rated them over any other UK network (none of which could ever be perfect). I had them piss me off a couple of times in the 17 years I've been with them, the worst was when they just drew over £400 from my account on direct debit because they hadn't applied a data bundle and charged me per megabyte. That took two months and threats to leave and sue before they backed down and credited my account. But apart from that their customer service was second-to-none, great retention schemes, you could always get someone in a UK call centre if you needed to, good coverage and no quibbles replacements handsets on their insurance (sometimes I was claiming up to 4 a year  ).

Since the merger with Tmobile and becoming Everything Everywhere:
It's getting harder to get hold of a human, sometimes you go through the menu just to get an automated "We're really busy, call back later *click*"
Coverage is going to shit in a lot of places. Two of my friends are engineers at EE, they tell me that they are rolling out 4G and switching off 2G/3G transmitters to free up bandwidth or something for 4G. They just do this and if it screws people up and they get enough complaints for a given area, they put it right, if not they leave it  

For really bad customer service though, see '3'.


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## William of Walworth (Oct 27, 2013)

stuff it said:
			
		

> And of course the Orange shop can hand you a SIM, how else would they sell SIM-only contracts?


 
Yes, that had to be a load of bollocks in terms of being spun a line by the shop. Pissed me off nearly to the max on Saturday.

Less pissed off now though. Managed to get through today to someone who was actually efficient and knew what to do.

I'm being couriered a new SIM card, due to arrive at our doors circa 6 pm tomorrow -- ie faster than by normal post.

I've also been refunded £19= in phone credit. The woman apologised as well for everything I'd endured so far.

So on the assumption they actually deliver the SIM!!! , I'll be sticking with Orange for now. As much on the 'can't be arsed to switch networks' thing as on the 'reception's excellent at Glastonbury' thing. Plus the laziness thing ...




			
				stuff it said:
			
		

> You should be able to buy a SIM in a corner shop for £1 and ring Orange up to change it to your old number.


 
Wish I'd known that though


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## golightly (Oct 28, 2013)

It all strikes me as a trifle odd.  They ask you to delete the text, so that there is no record of it.  You then get swapped with a number that is blocked because of an unpaid account. Dunno, sounds like a scam.


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## dervish (Oct 28, 2013)

They ask you to delete the text because people forget and then phone up asking what it was for months later. Used to happen all the time. 

It's very unusual for them to change a phone number like that, unless it was a mistake by customer services on the "new" number, as it sounds like it was active it might be the case. If you rang them with the SIM number and the phone numbers they should have been able to tell what number was supposed to go where. There will be names attached to all of the numbers, I'm a bit surprised that you passed DPA checks unless the phone numbers were all in your name, which would be odd.


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## William of Walworth (Oct 29, 2013)

dervish and @ anyone else who might be able to help - thanks for all support so far btw.

I'm finding both the whole continuing nightmare incomprehensible and bonkers too, and also infuriating/frustrating!  

Because the situation I now find myelf in is that I'm simply unable, try as I might, to get Orange to activate my new SIM card to my permanent number successfully. That's the new SIM  they couriered to me themselves, on their own advice! Double checking SIM is installed into the phone correctly, double checking SIM number and my permanent phone number details, using festivaldeb's mobile not mine, etc etc

I've tried phoning the dedicated SIM registation line (08000 790027)  3 different times now, since last night. EACH TIME I get the 'SIM Registration Failed' message, after going through the standard new SIM registering procedure and explaining the issues, answering their questions.

But it looks like my case is a square peg in Orange's standard round holes ....

Is it possible that a reason is that my phone number is linked in Orange's data to a SIM card (the current, old, fucked one) that is linked to two different mobile numbers? Why can't they sever the false connection?

Because of all the above ......

I'm really hoping there might be a direct, barrier-free email address I could use 

I can't find ANY easily acccessible, or even halfway findable,  email address on Orange's/EE's site. Nor any link that doesn't require you to enter your account details, unknown passords, codes they've supposedly texted you to my permanent number which I can't even access atm  etc etc etc

I do not want to have to give any details other than just my correct mobile number, my incorrect mobile number, my  old SIM number and my new SIM number -- can also in an email give them the verbal password Orange callcentre staff ask me for when I spend a million years getting through to them.

I badly need some sort of customer service email! Not to rant or anything, just to explain the very unusual problem properly to someone who might have some sort of chance of understanding what to do ...

<grinds teeth with frustation>


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## dervish (Oct 29, 2013)

I'll have a look tomorrow for an address you can try.


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## William of Walworth (Oct 29, 2013)

Thanks!


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## dervish (Oct 30, 2013)

I think they have removed most of the addresses that used to work, the only one I can find internally is customer.care@ee.co.uk 

Found these through a google

You could try writing to them, 
Orange Correspondence Department
PO Box 10 
Patch Way 
Bristol 
BS32 4BQ

Or you have executive.office@orange.co.uk

Executive office telephone number 01707 315000


Or if you want to go straight to the top... 


Olaf Swantee CEO EE email olaf.swantee@ee.co.uk


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## William of Walworth (Oct 30, 2013)

Very useful. Thanks a lot for this.

I won't go right to the top , but the other email will get me going -- have had time to think through how to present the case rationally as well.


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## stuff_it (Oct 31, 2013)

William of Walworth said:
			
		

> Very useful. Thanks a lot for this.
> 
> I won't go right to the top , but the other email will get me going -- have had time to think through how to present the case rationally as well.



Don't forget to threaten them with offcom!


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## Fingers (Oct 31, 2013)

Also tell them you will invoice them for the time spent fucking around with this at £35 per hour. That usually gets them off their lazy arses


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## William of Walworth (Nov 8, 2013)

It's got beyond time for threats of that kind now. No replies to my email, even though I sent it twice.

 Also, last time I attempted to get through again on the new SIM card registration number, I couldn't get an answer at all ("no assistants available"). Had a paranoid moment of wondering whether I'd been blocked.

I've been slack myself for various lengths of time, but I need to get this sorted out. The time for more pressure is this weekend!


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