Mobile Number Working Intermittently - Today Found Someone Else with Same Number!

immrnonamehello on 14/08/2019 - 16:10
Last edited 14/08/2019 - 16:11

So I just found out the weirdest thing.

My mobile has been working only intermittently over the last 2 months (I've owned the number for about 1 year), many people either only reach my VM, doesn't ring at all, or they reach a person that I have no idea about. Data has been working just fine though. Logged it with telco but they said everything looked just fine on their end.

Today I called my own number, and it went through to another person, then found out that they have the same number as me!

We're also on different carriers. What do I do? Has this ever happened to you?

Mobile

Comments

  • barozgain on 14/08/2019 - 16:17
    +9

    maybe cause you have noname ?

  • myusername on 14/08/2019 - 16:30
    +1

    whats the phone number?

  • [Deactivated] on 14/08/2019 - 16:36
    +1

    when you called your number, which number showed up?

    Also, if you call the number from a different number, who does it go to?

    • immrnonamehello on 14/08/2019 - 17:29

      The number was exactly my number. I didn't call from my mobile though, I called from my work phone.

  • bengal tiger on 14/08/2019 - 16:36
    +4

    I had a similar problem years ago, phone couldn't dial out and had problems receiving calls on an old Optus $0 monthly corporate plan I rarely used and was getting billed for outgoing calls and texts which I never made. Optus did the investigation and found out that someone at Crazy John's (remember them?) ported my number over to another customer at Vodafone without my authorisation. Optus compensated me with refunds, extra account credit and gave me a choice of a new 'premium' phone number (e.g. ends in 888) but they weren't able to give me back my original phone number.

    The circumstances of your situation are a little different, but it sounds like somebody else has also been assigned your phone number - either an incorrect port or your number unfortunately got recycled as an available mobile number. You can ring the other guy again to try to get more details on how they obtained the number but ultimately it'll be up to your telco to resolve this for you. If the other guy obtained his number legitimately and isn't going to budge then it'll likely end with you'll getting assigned a new mobile number if you want this resolved quickly.

    • HighAndDry on 14/08/2019 - 16:48

      Yeah the porting situation is… a little chaotic. And - as with a lot of things - happened because of "good intentions".

      Telcos have to port over a number if they receive a request in the right form (from another telco, not even the customer) - they can't do checks, they can't call the customer to confirm, they have to just port it over. This was, at the time, to make it easier for people to change telcos, that makes sense. But nobody apparently thought, hey, maybe checking with the customer themselves once to make sure someone didn't fat-finger a number would be a good idea at least.

  • Taro Milk Tea on 14/08/2019 - 16:53

    I'm sure that other person is your wife

  • cookietime on 14/08/2019 - 16:56
    +1

    A few years ago I bought an Optus SIM intending to use it in my second phone. It worked fine for a few days then stopped. On days that it worked, I got calls from strangers, texts from debt collectors, casinos, etc. Then one day a lady called me asking how I got her number.

    Optus was absolutely useless. The store told me to call their customer service centre. Their service centre said that I should bring my phone to the store for them to check. In the end, I asked a staff member at a store to call their service centre as I was waiting. They managed to get my number back, only for it to be gone again in 2-3 days. The same story repeated for a couple more times until I decided that it was a waste of time and threw the SIM card away.

    What appeared to happen was that my 'new' number was the other lady's number, which somehow was disconnected when she was still using it. Perhaps she didn't have credits to call or use Internet but still kept it to receive calls, texts, etc., then after 6 months without credit, Optus reused her number.

    Your problem sounds more mysterious than mine. Definitely check with the other guy to see how long he has had that number for, then talk to your service provider again.

  • Iggemo on 14/08/2019 - 17:02
    +11

    Maybe the other guy is actually you but in a parallel dimension; i think it's safe to say that's the most logical explanation here.

    • garetz on 14/08/2019 - 19:05
      +4

      The simplest explanation is usually the true one.

      • GregMonarch on 26/08/2019 - 01:45

        Maybe not… because the simplest explanation in this case is, that you're both crazy people. ;-p

  • sw00p on 14/08/2019 - 17:10

    This happened to my wife a couple of years ago. It is really difficult to resolve, because it is so far in the back end that you need to talk to the 1% of tech support who are never client-facing.

    You haven't mentioned which Telco you are with. This will make a big difference.

    I would recommend you raise a fault with your provider. They will probably fail to deal with it adequately. Then you raise it with the TIO. This should hopefully prompt someone higher up at your Telco to get in touch with you, who is suitably empowered to resolve the situation.

    When this happened to my wife, she was with Telstra and the other party was with Vodafone. Eventually Telstra was able to assert ownership of the number and force Vodafone to relinquish it and move their customer to a new number.

  • kuikui on 14/08/2019 - 17:22
    -4

    I am working for top telco. It is impossible to assign same number to two different provider (2 sims). Is pre-paid or postpaid ? There will be a possible number error when you use e-sim as well as physical sim.

    The best way to resolve this issue is to port the number to another provider.

    • immrnonamehello on 14/08/2019 - 17:28
      +2

      I'm with Vodafone and the other person's with Amaysim (Optus network)…and both SIMs are working for us.
      What kind of magic is this?!

      • Randxyz123 on 14/08/2019 - 19:42

        Have either of you been trying some sort of ozbargaining trickery by changing networks every 3 months??

  • trustnoone on 14/08/2019 - 17:43
    +1

    Read somewhere else of someone with a similar issue, apparently it was an Optus stuff up because the person had the same name or something. Whatever the issue is, please double check all your 2 factor authentication stuff you have set up to your mobile phone if you have any, just for safety!

    • Quantumcat on 15/08/2019 - 13:19

      Username checks out

  • 87percent on 14/08/2019 - 18:20
    -2

    Sounds BS

  • [Deactivated] on 14/08/2019 - 18:23

    Isn't it obvious!? We're running out of numbers!

    We've all been giving and taking numbers without a care where those numbers come from.

    I remember when I was five. There were only ten numbers. Those were simpler days. It was comfortable. I knew everyone of those numbers. I could feel them, each one of them like a finger. In fact, they were my fingers.

    By the time I reached primary school, they made more numbers. There was a hundred, then a thousand. I lost count. I didn't care anymore.

    At the rate we're going, there will come a day when there is more need for numbers than we can make. It's not infinite and we need to wake up!

    • RockyRaccoon on 14/08/2019 - 19:15

      Just what my Grandpa said, he used to have a phone number with 2 letters and 4 numbers (XM3476)

      He swore when they changed the letters and added a number to make it 7 numbers.

      • endotherm on 15/08/2019 - 18:43
        -1

        I can remember 6 digit numbers from my childhood. I remember them adding another number (at the end of the prefix?) to make it 7 then again to make it 8. Most adults should be able to remember having another number like 9 added to the front of their number to make it 8 digits long. I believe it was to help with interstate calling so that the same number wasn't simultaneously available in multiple states. Area codes weren't as important after this.

        As an aside, I remember Myer's Melbourne store was able to keep their existing five digit number until relatively recently — 61111 I believe.

  • tdrive on 14/08/2019 - 19:01
    +3

    My 2 Cents:

    When I was in the process of porting my number from one carrier to another, my number worked on 2 different phones for about a 30 minute period.

    Maybe something happened during a number port? Either from you or the other person?

    • jackinyourbox on 14/08/2019 - 20:12

      This is what exactly happened to me!

  • ego22 on 15/08/2019 - 18:09

    rock, paper, scissors. for the number.

  • chav on 23/08/2019 - 22:28

    Seems like you should port your number to another non Optus carrier for a month, e.g. Woolworths. If you are successful maybe you will win the number from the other carrier (s) I don't think Woolworths ask you to identify your current provider.

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