PAYG to Monthly Contract Number Transfer

[mtatte]

I recently purchased a Three contract SIM with a view to transferring my existing Three PAYG number to it.  However, I was told that there's an on-going issue with Three's systems which prevents this from happening at present.  I checked with Three customer service team a coupe of weeks ago and they confirmed the issue persists with no confirmed outlook on a resolution (December 2023).

Does anyone know when this issue will be addressed?  What should be quite a routine process is proving impossible and is frankly, embarrassingly bad for a company who boast about their superior network and its capabilities.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed light on this.

[HB79]

Having just found this chain - it is now October 2024 and the issue is still ongoing. I'm now going to have to pay out £10 to ship my new contract phone back to the supplier because I can't swap my number from Three PAYG to the new pay monthly contract. Madness.

[Nick_London]

So when moving my partners elderly father from Three pay as you go to pay monthly they said I needed a PAC code and I thought what??? So I checked with someone else and indeed it was true and then used a PAC code.

However, when moving another New Pay as you go plan account to Pay Monthly months later I got the PAC code and tried to do it the same way and the advisor on Live chat said I could no longer move from New Pay as you go to Pay Monthly that way and indeed there was a problem with their systems.

They told me to port the number to another Pay as you go network and then do a port from that network to Three Pay monthly.

This is absolutely ridiculous and I cannot believe they have still not fixed this!!!!

[sc1999]

Think it has to do with 3 having one system for pay monthly and another for PAYG. They are in the process of merging the 2. How long this will take is unknown but, hopefully, when the moderators return in the new year they will be able to give an update.

You have to remember that 3 has always been the cheap option and this may now be coming home to roost.

[Anonymous]

It’s crazy isn’t it but you'd think they’d get their act together. As far as I know the only way to currently work around this situation is to port your payg number (the one you want to keep) out to another payg provider and then port it back into Three thereby replacing the contract number Three allocated to you. Laborious and unnecessary but the only way as far as I know.

[Nick_London]

Yeah they told me to port my number to another network as well.

I'm sure this might be abusing Ofcom policies no? 

[mtatte]

Thanks Nick and to all those that responsed!  I'm glad it's not just me who thinks it's abysmal that a company with a supposedly 'state of the art' network, cannot port PAYG numbers to a monthly contract.  It would appear that someone in their IT department didn't stress test the new system properly.  

My issue is now "resolved" in the sense I managed to get the contract cancelled after I went to a THREE shop and raised a formal complaint.  I've always rated THREE but this experience has left me dismayed at their woeful customer service.