Port from Circles.Life Keeps Failing

Hi folks
I went and signed up to the 4 months free trial with circles.life, and have tried to jump ship back to belong before the free period ended, but have been attempting to port every couple days for two weeks with no success. Multiple support tickets with belong and chats with circles.
I know it's postpaid and I read somewhere to leave off the two letters in the account number but it's still not working.
Any advice or similar experiences? Feels like they just want to keep my number or get to charge me..

Edit… Looks like it worked eventually with simple persistence.. good luck everyone, and screw those jerks at circles.

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Circles.Life
Circles.Life

Comments

  • +2

    maybe that was the catch for 4 months free service, i am about to make my switch in a day or two, lets see.

  • +1

    someone had the same experience on ozbargain a couple months ago - luckily i saw it so stopped myself from porting over for the 4 months free trial. Looks like circles.life still hasn't sorted this issue out. Tough luck mate, all the best.

  • +3

    A call to the TIO may help.

    Circles.life's reputation isn't the best and there's a thread full of issues over on Whirlpool and another one on ProductReview.

  • +7

    Under the Mobile Number Portability Code it is the gaining provider’s responsibility to sort this out. Escalate it with them. Too often they try to pass the effort to the customer because they are lazy. If it were me I would port to Telstra prepaid and then deal with their MNP team. They’ll get the job done. TIO is another option but they will be slow to act. Belong will only be adding another chain of complexity because they are probably relaying everything through their reseller and then through Telstra.

  • There is no point in requesting stuff more than once. After that you go to the TIO.

    The private sector fails again. When are the idiots going to stop voting to (profanity) themselves through privatisation? This is what Laberal voters voted for and it appears that they incapable of voting in their own best interests and they would rather lose tens of thousands of dollars to private corporations while getting (profanity) over like OP here.

    • When are the idiots going to stop voting to (profanity) themselves through privatisation?

      If you think voters are just idiots, might be helpful to list some political parties that support the nationalisation of the telecommunication industry.

      That way, the idiots can vote for parties that do have their best interest.

  • It sucks. Firstly, it’s postpaid instead of prepaid. Secondly, when I tried to port out, I chatted with online support to get my account number and they gave a wrong number!!
    You can find ur correct account number in your bill which is called customer ID if I remember correctly. It’s really inconvenient when porting out
    Cheers

    • Customer ID starts with LW100. Did you omit LW and port your numbers out successfully?

      • +1

        Keep LW. Omitting it would fail

        • Thanks for the answer. May I know which telco you port to successfully? I want to have no drama and may choose the same telco.

          • @Neoika: Telstra

            • @albuslee: hey mate, how long did you wait for the port, just ported from circles to telstra and its already been Nealy a day and a half ???

  • +1

    Requested to Port from circles.life to telstra christmas eve and is been nothing but a nightmare. After a week of circles blocking the port, Telstra saying they need a specific account number)(not the account number listed on the invoice). Circles kept claiming there was no other account number.. Gave up in the end because there was nothing more I could do and circles have no call centre. Told telstra to cancel port request and I'll deal with it once returned from holidays.

    What do you think happens today.. Freaking port goes through and now I have no service and the telstra sim card is still at the store.. Not happy.

    Hope circles dies a slow ugly death and they fail dismally here costing them millions

    • Terrible situation but at least now you're free of them without losing your number

    • Good to know!

      This also happened with Woolworths Mobile (postpaid, not prepaid) in mid 2018 - the account number on my bill was not the account number needed for the port out which was absolutely ridiculous. I had to call to get this - may be an issue with Optus resellers.

  • +2

    Here is another reason not to use Circles.Life You will need to settle any outstanding bills before you can cancel your Circles.Life plan seems a bit unfair

  • I had a slight issue porting away from Circles.

    I requested my account number from live chat, which they gave me.

    Submitted the port request to Boost Mobile, came back as failed, incorrect account number.

    Went back on chat to Circles, they gave me a completely different account number and then it worked.

    For whatever reason the first chat operator gave me the wrong number.

    • Yeh mine gave me an incorrect number at one point also. Some bizarre customer retention strategy maybe?

  • Circles.Life to Kogan Mobile transfer via phone call, successfully and fast today. It is a bit pain costing me 30 mins. You can not put letters at the account numbers (that's Customer ID at Circles Life on your invoice) blank with Kogan Mobile.

    • I had the exact issue - circles life to kogan… kept failing and so exhausting to call kogan and chat with circles who said kogan never requested ?!

      • I gave all the info above. Your CL Customer ID starts with LW.

        • -1

          who you called? Kogan or Circles ? cheers

  • +1

    Interesting… I recently ported out. Messaged the Circles Happiness expert lmao… and they gave me all the details to give to Boost. Account number and state that it is post paid. Went to Boost chat and they processed everything and in like 5 mins it was all done. I guess it depends on the chat person you get.

  • Anyone did Circles.Life to Catch Connect?

    • Just did Circles.Life to Catch Connect within 4 hours today(Saturday), no dramas, online only.

      • Did you use the Customer ID as shown on the bill and did you include or omit the letters LW?

        • +1

          Right, Postpaid, use your Customer ID starts with LW as account number. I think it is a hassle free to leave Circles.Life for anyone.

  • Merged from Porting Away from Circles.life to Belong

    Hi guys,

    I want to port away from Circles.Life as fast as possible. I have never seen such a horrible lying *** company in my life so far.
    They had deceptively changed their T&Cs from what I had signed up to without so much as informing the customers affected.
    Details in this thread here: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/512392#comment-8242611

    According to their Knowledge Base article, I need to receive two bills from them first.
    https://circlesasiasupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115…

    I signed up to them back in early December 2019. I have received one bill in January, and one in February. The amount currently owed is -$2, which means they owe me money.

    I have the following questions in relation to the port.

    Q1. Should I port my number away from them first before submitting the cancellation request via this link?
    https://shop.circles.life/manage/order?showTerminate=true

    Q2. To avoid delays with porting to Belong Mobile, should I include or omit the LW prefix that appears in front of my customer number (which is included in all my bills)?

    I am 100% certain that no other telco in Australia offering post paid plans has a stupid non-numeric prefix for their customer numbers. Are Circles.Life trying to be special or make it very hard for customers to port away from them?!?

    Thanks in advance for any help or guidance with my questions.

    • Q1. Should I port my number away from them first before submitting the cancellation request via this link?

      Yes, don't even bother cancelling your service, it'll be automatically cancelled when you port away.

      Q2. To avoid delays with porting to Belong Mobile, should I include or omit the LW prefix that appears in front of my customer number (which is included in all my bills)?

      When I ported away to Boost, I included a couple of letters, but I can't remember what they were.
      I had to go on online chat and ask for my customer account number.

      If the port fails, Belong will let you know, then you can resubmit with another account number.

      • If the port fails, Belong will let you know, then you can resubmit with another account number.

        This is what really bugs me. The account number is stated in every bill, and is the same. I should be able to use that to port out. I should not even have to open a chat session with Circles.Life.

        Also, no one seems to be able to confirm whether I should leave out the LW prefix or not from the account/customer number.

    • -1

      This AlphaNumeric thing is dodgy, it causes my port out to fail! I had go to chat and get it through.

      • Of course, it is dodgy! It is designed to cause these sorts of confusion so that these ****s can prolong their Circles.Hell.
        I will give it a go with the expectation it will fail. If so, a complaint to the TIO is in order.

  • I tried porting from Circle.Life to Kogan Mobile. It did not accept the LW account code. Message: "Text must be numeric". I'll phone Kogan tomorrow morning.

    • I phoned Kogan. Rude guy said to just remove the letters and use the numbers. He wouldn't say how long porting typically takes, just the formulaic "3 to 24 hours".

      • EDIT: The port didn't work. So I phoned Kogan again, and a polite and knowledgeable dude said they will fix the LW account prefix problem. I will update if/when the port works. BTW, Hotmail sent the port failure email to the junk folder so keep an eye on that if you are doing this process.

        EDIT: The port worked nearly instantly. Data and everything seems to be working. So the lesson is to keep an eye on your junk folder, and you might need to phone Kogan until they get their activation web page fixed.

        • +1

          To Catch Connect is hassle free.

        • I tried porting out from CL to kogan. The kogan activation page didnt allow me to enter my LW*** customer id.

          so I skipped the LW and entered just numbers. Failed the porting.

          How did you get pass this?

    • +1

      It seems Kogan/Vodafone fixed account numbers problem now.

      • on the activation page? dont think so

  • I am trying to port away from Circles to Belong, and don't really see Circles.Life listed in the list of Current Mobile Provider (hope I am not crazy for not seeing this option). Any tips? or is it ok to go with don't know as an option.

    • I have the same question?

      • Went with Don't know for now, lets see what's next!!

        • Cirles told me to select OPTUS on chat..
          but still get error "Oops, something went wrong. Please try again later."

          • @Ehty: My port has gone through, here is useful info for you and others

            1. I was on the 28$, 20GB plan, paid up till 31 March

            2. For Account No, used the customer id from my phone bill (thanks to albuslee's post above)

            3. Went with "Don't know" for operator information, got a confirmation sms while submitting my request.

            4. Porting completed in under 4 hours

  • I went on live chat with CL and was told that whether you need to put in the LW is dependent on which telco you are porting into.

    For Boost, you MUST put the full customer ID including LW. It failed for me twice when I only put in the numbers, then ported over within an hour once I included LW.

    • Can you think of any other telcos in this country that use letters within their customer numbers?
      I can think of only one: Circles.Life (aka a** clowns). This is their secret customer retention strategy. Make porting out as difficult and confusing as possible.

  • I'm also having trouble trying to port out of Circles.Life. I took up the 4 months free offer and started the transfer out before the final month ended. But, it's taken longer than expected and I am now going to have to pay $28 for another month with Circles.Life.

    • +1

      I faced the same porting delay from Circles.Life to Catch due to Optus limited porting staff during this period. I brought this issue up to Circles.Life and they agreed to give another month of fee waiver. In the end, it was not needed since my number was ported out on 2 April as Circles.Life usually charge the monthly fee aro 7th of the month. Hope this helps.

      • Thanks. I'll try to get a fee waiver from Circles.Life for this month.

        • +1

          Just to add that it took me a couple of to and fro live chat/email before they agreed to the waiver. When they refused to help in my initial chat, I gave a bad rating on the chat and a senior CS took over and he gave the waiver.

  • Just ported to Belong with below details and ported within few minutes. I think I am one of the lucky ones.

    Current Operator: Do not Know
    Type: Post Paid
    Account number: LW…….

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