Vodafone Porting Mistake

Hi guys,

A friend of mine was attempting to port her mum's service this morning from Catch Connect (prepaid) to Vodafone with a 1 year $250 prepaid sim.

While putting in the information to sign-up/activate/port on the Vodafone website she put in her information instead of her mother's (they share a surname, live at the same property, etc.), and Catch Connect has rejected the port because the account name and date of birth do not match as the account is in her mother's name.

She contacted Vodafone who have essentially said she needed to contact Catch Connect to change the details on the account to her details, so they could resubmit the port and it would then be successful — she contacted Catch Connect and they said they cannot change ownership of accounts at all, and basically could be of no assistance.

She contacted Vodafone again to relay what Catch Connect said. Vodafone said there were two options at this point, the first was to change the information on the Vodafone account to her mother's information and then they could port the Catch Connect number to Vodafone, however all of the credit on the $250 prepaid Vodafone voucher would be gone. The second option was to use the temporary phone number provided (this is the number that activates while waiting for the ported number to come over), but her mother can't do this as all of her accounts are associated with the phone number, along with friends, doctors, businesses, etc.

Even after explaining this to Vodafone they have refused to help any further. I don't understand why they can't do anything, they already have the money for the service.

Her mother is a pensioner and can't afford to buy another phone service, and she doesn't want to lose her phone number.

Does anyone have any advice on how to best proceed to get Vodafone to correct this seemingly minor error?

Thanks!

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closed Comments

  • statutory declaration?

    • "A friend of mine" stat dec will catch fire.

    • Nah, wouldn't work.

      Thanks for your response.

  • +1

    Port to a provider that allows you to change ownership, port into Vodafone?

    • Thank you, this wound up being the winner.

      She was able to port her mother's phone number from Catch Connect to another carrier temporarily, the other carrier allowed an ownership change, and then porting to Vodafone was no issue.

  • Can't they login to the Catch Connect dashboard and change the details themself rather than doing it over the phone?

    • Nah, you can't change much at all, not even if you call or write or anything.

      Thanks for your response.

  • +5

    seemingly minor error?

    That's the problem. It's a major error. It's strictly enforced to avoid number porting without permission.

    They have given you your friend several solutions. Tell them to pick one.

    • -2

      I found a better solution to the minor error.

      Thanks for your useless response.

      • +1

        All part of the service. Stay peachy.

        • -2

          At least you accept that you're useless, congratulations.

  • +6

    Definitely not a minor error. People needs to start taking some more accountability.

    • +1

      I'm guessing there was a check box or similar just before the submit button confirming that all the entered details are correct. That's typically a prompt to double check the details and pick up any mistakes.

    • -2

      It was a minor error, but wound up getting it sorted out rather easily.

      Thanks for your useless response.

  • +1

    change the information on the Vodafone account to her mother's information and then they could port the Catch Connect number to Vodafone, however all of the credit on the $250 prepaid Vodafone voucher would be gone.

    I'd argue with proof of purchase that it shouldn't be at all difficult for Vodafone to manually apply the $250 credit.

    • They were not wiggling one bit.

      • I'll remember that about the bastards, oh thats right I already steer well clear of Vodafone.

        That is ridiculous they wouldn't work with them for an easy solution.

        • Agreed, I'm with Boost, but this is a huge red flag to avoid Voda.

  • +1

    Which ISP is the phone number with now? Catch or Vodafone? Is the number still active?
    It is a failed port-out regardless whether by a daughter or a fraudster should've Vodafone simply reject it as if nothing happened? What has it to do with the voucher?

    … however all of the credit on the $250 prepaid Vodafone voucher would be gone.

    Doesn't make sense.

    • +1

      My neighbour, across the road cousin's boyfriend reckons a lot of the details get lost when the actual person does not post the situation.

    • The port never happened because it was never authorised, due to the mismatch between DOB and name.

      The service with all the credit was sitting on the Voda sim card, with a temporary number attached to it.

  • Can you ask Vodafone to cancel the port and then re-port?

    • That's what was done after the number was ported from Catch Connect to another carrier who would allow a change of ownership.

  • I had a similar issue about a week ago. Ages ago I accidentally ported my wife number to my name when moving both of our numbers. I had updated it to her name with telstra back then but they clearly didn't update the DOB. Port failed with Vodafone I rang the next day and they said it's because the DOB was wrong and i need to fix it with telstra. I said can you try resubmitting it with my DOB which she did. It was successfully ported and then she updated the DOB back to my wifes in their records. So maybe try ringing them again and say you put the wrong DOB and get them to try again.

    The sim card was dead however which was a whole different issue but a trip into the vodafone store and that was fixed within minutes.

  • Does anything except date of birth matter? That is all you needed to port prepaid in the past.
    Some providers will let you enter a date of birth separately for porting purposes.
    If Voda does not, you need to use an intermediate provider who does. Will Voda let you re-start the porting process?

    • They said the name mattered too, but definitely the DOB.

      Wound up doing exactly what you suggested, used an interim provider, changed ownership there, ported to Voda successfully.

  • -1

    Hey guys, thanks for your help.

    The solution wound up being porting the number from Catch Connect to another carrier that will allow an ownership change, and then porting to Vodafone.

  • Thread closed and marked as resolved.

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