Giffgaff UK Customers Face SIM Activation and Number Porting Delays
Some customers of mobile network provider giffgaff, which is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on O2’s UK platform, appear to be experiencing a mix of two problems, including delays to new SIM activations and delays to transfers (ports) of mobile numbers – both in to or out of their network.
In terms of the delays to new SIM activations, the operator’s technical team recently confirmed (here) that SIMs ordered on or after the 21st of October have been impacted by the activation issue, with some having delays or being unable to activate. But other customers report that the issue has been going on since around late September 2024 and have become frustrated with the limited support they’ve received (or not received, in other cases).
Customers have also been complaining, for the past few weeks, about delays to transfers (ports) of mobile numbers (here), which a spokesperson for giffgaff said occurred following “an essential system upgrade to improve the overall network services“. The operator is trying to resolve this and has said they’re “automatically compensating” members impacted by the delays via credit to their account.
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A spokesperson for giffgaff told ISPreview:
“Following an essential system upgrade, a small number of members have experienced issues. We’re working hard to resolve them as soon as possible and apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.”
Some of giffgaff’s responses to customers suggest that many of these issues relate to third-party systems, such as those run by O2, as well as the system that Ofcom makes all of the mobile operators use for things like Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) requests, number transfers, SIM swaps and so forth. As a result, giffgaff has had to wait for some of the other parties involved to resolve their issues first.
The mobile operator’s community forum is filled with many hundreds of related complaints about these issues.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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This is not the only issue affecting Giffgaff. Their official “Help Agents” are alo currently inundated by customers reporting an torrent of fraud and not receiving any assistance for days whilst their bank accounts get drained.
https://community.giffgaff.com/d/34108737-stem-the-flow-of-sim-swap-pac-port-fraud
I recently had the same issue with Vodafone/Voxi regarding my number port. I was without service for 21 days, and my number was stuck in their back office system. It was a frustrating experience, and every time I spoke with them, it felt like I was going in circles. However, I did manage to receive £135 in compensation when I copied the CEO into an email.
I had an issue with split porting when I went from EE to Smarty, outgoing calls were OK but incoming calls were going to the EE mailbox. The solution was to leave all phones switched off overnight and that seemed to allow port to complete successfully.
Same with Lebara.
Are they doing this to stop people porting between special deals?
Our family have ported 4 numbers to Lebara from SKY and 02 with no issues at all over past 12 months. All ported on actual day by 6pm.
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by … 🙁
It is not in any operator’s interest to trap customers in their services, then give _bad_ service.
It is affecting customers trying to join giffgaff as well as leave. Preventing customers joining, or worse, accepting them in and leaving their number dangling out in the wilderness unusable, is not a strategy.
No, that would violate ofcoms porting rules.
FYI this issue still exists. Massive problems at Giff Gaff at the moment with lots of users being left with no phone or phone number after 4 weeks! I am surprised that this isn’t national news yet!