Porting my cellphone number

<p>I had a Virgin Mobile contract for the past 9 or so years. My last 2 year contract expired at the end of last year. I cancelled the contract and went onto a pay as you go agreement, because I wanted to switch service providers. I’ve been struggling since the end of November 2016 to get my number ported from Virgin Mobile to Vodacom.</p> <p>The main reason for leaving Virgin Mobile is that they only have a limited number of shops and also cause the signal is not always great.</p> <p>I went to Vodacom and asked them how I should go about keeping my current cellphone number. <br />We logged a porting request from the Vodashop in Paarl Mall. They told me that I would receive an sms within 30min to tell me that the request has been approved and that Virgin released my number, then I could come back to the shop and continue the process of taking out a contract – I did not receive the sms.</p> <p>I called the Vodashop, they said that the system showed an error in the request.</p> <p>I tried again at the Vodashop in Zevenwacht mall – basically the same story.<br />We then sent an email to Vodacom’s porting department, who said they can see the request on their system, but they are waiting for Virgin’s release.</p> <p>No progress.</p> <p>I tried again from the Vodashop in Krugersdorp (Gauteng) – they lady there was very helpful and spend a lot of time on the phone with Vodacom’s porting department, and then Virgin’s porting department. Virgin mobile said it will go through soon.</p> <p>After all of this, we called every day or every second day for the last 2 months.</p> <p>I even got a phone call one day to say that I can now go to the Vodashop cause the request have been granted. When I got there, it was still not released by Virgin Mobile.</p> <p>Every time I call Virgin Mobile I get a different answer – the system is down, the request will go through the next day, there is a problem from Vodacom, I need a porting ID (which I got twice and gave to them), that I must wait 7 working days, that I must get a Vodacom simcard and send a sms to a certain number with PORTME_simcard nr. I did all of this and kept on calling. Nothing worked, no progress, no release of number and still no answer.</p> <p>I would really, really like to keep my number. I’ve had this number since I was at school and have a lot of contacts.</p> <p>I can’t believe that it can be that difficult to get the number released. It is done every day, but somehow the system on Virgin mobile’s side is not working.</p> <p>I have more than a dozen of reference numbers, names of consultants and porting pins.</p> <p>They also never let the client speak directly to the porting department – I can only speak to a consultant – they have a different story every day.</p>