To: OFCOM
Mobile Phone Unlocking : Stop network providers from thwarting your network transfer
Would like OFCOM to consider legislation to prevent mobile network providers from taking a prohibitively long time (often months) to allow/action unlocking of a mobile phone from their network for transfer of service to another network.
Why is this important?
Customers are buying mobile phones which are usually locked to a network only to find they are not enabled to transfer to another network in a timely manner. It is bad enough that a fee should be charged for the transfer, but to not allow the transfer in a timely manner of say 3 days and exacerbating the situation for a month or more is ridicuous and a problematic vexation to the consumer and is certainly not necessary.
Case in point:
I purchased an £80 mobile from ASDA as Vodafone pay as you go for my son. My son used the mobile for 6 months. I was offered by Virgin a good deal on extra mobile numbers on my account and so agreed and pay for the service for my son. I called Vodafone and explained the situation and they gave me a PUK code to transfer the number, which I have used and received the new SIM card from Virgin. On putting the new SIM card in the mobile I discovered that the mobile was locked to vodafone and so I called them.Vodafone had not informed me that I would need to pay £19.99 to unlock the network and told me that since I had ported the number I would now need to purchase a new Vodafone SIM and put £20 credit on it to pay for the unlocking. I purchased the new SIM and put £20 credit on it and called Vodafone again only to discover that I would need to use the credit and the Vodafone SIM for a month before they would even allow me to transfer the mobile to another network.
We the customer are being treated abysmally by these network providers and OFCOM the government body put in place to protect the consumer and who are funded by the tax payer, have done little to prevent this malpractice. Let's make the world a better place and remove this vexation by getting fair legislation in place and regulated by OFCOM
Case in point:
I purchased an £80 mobile from ASDA as Vodafone pay as you go for my son. My son used the mobile for 6 months. I was offered by Virgin a good deal on extra mobile numbers on my account and so agreed and pay for the service for my son. I called Vodafone and explained the situation and they gave me a PUK code to transfer the number, which I have used and received the new SIM card from Virgin. On putting the new SIM card in the mobile I discovered that the mobile was locked to vodafone and so I called them.Vodafone had not informed me that I would need to pay £19.99 to unlock the network and told me that since I had ported the number I would now need to purchase a new Vodafone SIM and put £20 credit on it to pay for the unlocking. I purchased the new SIM and put £20 credit on it and called Vodafone again only to discover that I would need to use the credit and the Vodafone SIM for a month before they would even allow me to transfer the mobile to another network.
We the customer are being treated abysmally by these network providers and OFCOM the government body put in place to protect the consumer and who are funded by the tax payer, have done little to prevent this malpractice. Let's make the world a better place and remove this vexation by getting fair legislation in place and regulated by OFCOM
