PAC Request Experiences

[A1ia5]

I've recently requested some Porting Authority Codes (PAC) and started to wonder what other people experience of doing this with the many UK networks and different deals you may be on, were.

The PACs I requested were with Orange and for PAYG SIMs.  They have a "retentions" dept and will try to find out what you are looking for and if they can offer it, they will.  Now for some people this may be a good way to get something their mobile co would not have normally offered them.  For me I just wanted the PAC, but did do some exploratory to see what they would offer.  All I can remember from the call was they would give me free voice mail for 6 months and this could be renewed.  When I compared them to three, they just couldn't do the same.  Three, in my opinion, do give the best deal for the value concious person at the mo, who is not on a cash back contract deal.

So, don't hold back, what happened when you asked for your PAC ?

[mobaholic]

I have made a series of ports from O2, Virgin, and Vodafone, all to '3' Pre-Pay SIMs for their £10 of free credit.       

All asked me my reason for leaving, which was simple to give in most cases.
The O2 and Virgin ones were contracts ending which had been free by cashback deals, and I didn't want to start having to pay for my calls !       

The Vodafone ones were more tricky.  As I had a lot of active SIMs, I often get into trouble with them being "semi-quarantined".  When this happens, you have to top up by at least £5 to reactivate the SIM.  ( *#1345# says you still have credit, but you hear: "You have used all of your credit" when you try to place a call  ).  However, I have found that if you request a port, they will tell you that they can't do that while it is semi-quatanined, BUT if you then call customer services, explaining the problem and saying that their PAC department suggests a call to C/S. with a request that they place a small credit on the account, I have managed to get that done 3 times now.       
I subsequently ported 2 of them successfully, and decided to keep the third going on Voda.

The only one to really give me trouble was Orange.  I had a cashback contract ending with them, and had already given them a month's notice.  When I requested a PAC, they refused saying that I would have to start my notice period afresh if I wanted one !  I protested to no avail.  Eventually I just told them where to stick their fresh month's notice, and gave up on my porting idea ( thus losing my free £10 credit on 3 Pre-Pay ).       

[A1ia5]

I've recently requested some Porting Authority Codes (PAC) and started to wonder what other people experience of doing this with the many UK networks and different deals you may be on, were.

The PACs I requested were with Orange and for PAYG SIMs.  They have a "retentions" dept and will try to find out what you are looking for and if they can offer it, they will.  Now for some people this may be a good way to get something their mobile co would not have normally offered them.  For me I just wanted the PAC, but did do some exploratory to see what they would offer.  All I can remember from the call was they would give me free voice mail for 6 months and this could be renewed.  When I compared them to three, they just couldn't do the same.  Three, in my opinion, do give the best deal for the value concious person at the mo, who is not on a cash back contract deal.

So, don't hold back, what happened when you asked for your PAC ?

To follow up

Unlike my first PAC request experience with Orange, the letters with the PAC were sent to me about 5 days after the phone request.  I ported these to Three and that seemed to happen as promised 2 days after (I didnt have the Orange or Three SIMs in a phone, so I am not too sure exactly when it happened, but it did and around about the time promised).  And, importantly, the £10 credit was put onto the account I think at the time of porting rather than 7 days after, as I was originally told by three CS at the time of providing the PAC codes.

One extra thing I discovered, is that it is necessary to have Three PAYG SIM cards registered before porting a no to them.  It is not possible without registration, although if you are calling to port and have not registered, it can all be done in the same call.

HTH

FYI  Three only give £10 credit for ports to PAYG SIMs - it does not apply for contracts with them !

[mobaholic]

I can confirm most of what A1ia5 has reported.       

The £10 of free credit is for ports to '3' Pre-Pay SIMs; they will take your registration details from you at the time of your port in request to them; and all of the ones I have done have received their £10 of credit on the port day ( contrary to the C/S. statement that it will be 7 days later ).       

The only other thing I would add is that they are now trying to bend their rules to say it is only one £10 credit per customer.  This contradicts their own written T & C's, which say it is per account ( NOT per customer !    ).  I was asked if I had received a credit before on my last attempt.  All that I can suggest, if this happens to you, is that you don't think about it too much but just say "NO".  You are not breaking their written T & C's, but just getting around some C/S. representatives over jealous attempts to save '3' some money !

( Maybe they are dishonestly trying to get some bonus for themself, rather than allowing you to take advantage of their scheme.      )

[A1ia5]

I can confirm most of what A1ia5 has reported.       

The £10 of free credit is for ports to '3' Pre-Pay SIMs; they will take your registration details from you at the time of your port in request to them; and all of the ones I have done have received their £10 of credit on the port day ( contrary to the C/S. statement that it will be 7 days later ).       

The only other thing I would add is that they are now trying to bend their rules to say it is only one £10 credit per customer.  This contradicts their own written T & C's, which say it is per account.  I was asked if I had received a credit before on my last attempt.  All that I can suggest, if this happens to you, is that you don't think about it too much but just say "NO".  You are not breaking their written T & C's, but just getting around some C/S. representatives over jealous attempts to save '3' some money !

( Maybe they are dishonestly trying to get some bonus, rather than allowing you to take advantage of their scheme.      )

Interesting points...

I believe it is possible to register with Three online - although there is no incentive for doing this - and as I have a Three contract or use one of their Geo or 0800 access numbers to get through to CS.  Just did a quick Google and nothings coming up.   I'm not so keen on the Three.co.uk website as it is very heavy and I'm only on Dial-up...

I agree with you on the T&C's and the chap I dealt with was quite happy to say that both the Nos I was porting would receive the £10 incentive - and indeed they did !  The CS rep was quite open that it was per account - and I did ask about this.  It also seems unusual as Three's free SIM offers usually state that the limit is 2 free SIMs per customer - so it would be reasonable to assume you may well already have ported a number and a porting a second no to the second SIM you have.  It may well just have been the CS person you spoke to - but I agree with you that Three may well be looking at ways of limiting the credit to people, as it is a good offer.

What Three wont do is give a further £10 credit for porting a second time to a SIM that has already had a no ported to it and had £10 credit applied.  I haven't tried doing this, to actually put it to the test, but it seems to be one constant message from Three CS.

[mobaholic]

Agreed, and a further £10 credit for porting in WOULD be a breach in their T & C's about one per account !