Two weeks ago I ported my mobile phone from Voxi to Spusu. Both are virtual mobile operators using Vodafone and EE network respectively. I switched to Spusu because they had a deal that was 20% cheaper and offered free European roaming. That would be great for my travels. Plus Spusu offered eSim making the whole porting process very easy.
A week later I had to verify myself via SMS to access an app. The verification text never came through. Later on, I had to access another app the same way. The verification text never arrived either. It was odd, two in a row? Then I remembered I received an email from a tradesman last week. I thought it was odd as he always texts me, rarely email. I checked my incoming text messages. The last one I received was a day before Spusu confirmed my number had ported over to them. There was nothing after that.
Monday
I WhatsApp Spusu immediately. I figured it would be much quicker than calling them as usually I end up waiting for hours to speak to a human being. Turns out whatsapp wasn't much better, but I least I could multi task and didn't have to hold onto my phone all the time. The person online asked me to get someone to call and text me to test the problem.
I texted my sister to send me a text and I also called her. She said my call was from an unknown number, not mine, and she had received a text from the same unknown number. I asked her to call me back and send me a text. No text came through. She WhatsApp me to say my number cannot be reached. Wtf!!! I told the Spusu person but their response was very slow, like once every half an hour. Getting a response from them was like squeezing orange juice from a red brick.
By now I was online for nearly two hours and feeling very frustrated. I decided to call them, and got through to a real person immediately. She spoke perfect English, was professional and wasn't reading off a script. Why didn't I do that two hours ago!!! They could see my WhatsApp conversation and suggested I install a new eSim to see if it would work. Funny enough, the person on whatsapp responded at the same time with the same solution. It was 20 minutes since they last responded to me.
I installed the new eSim but that didn't solve the problem. I called Spusu again. They said some error must have happened when my number was ported over, and perhaps Vodafone hadn't sent all the files to EE. They said their technical team would raise this with Vodafone and in the meanwhile there was nothing more they could do. I asked them to escalate it and they said they would.
Wednesday
On Wednesday I called Spusu for an update. They said they were waiting for Vodafone to respond. I pushed for more details, what has happened in these two days, when did they send the message to Vodafone? Turns out it was sent literally 10 minutes before I called. That means nothing was done on my case for 2 whole days. I was fuming.
Friday morning
On Friday morning there was still no progress, I decided to take things into my own hands by contacting Voxi. Voxi had no direct number for callers, they only had an online chat bot that went around in circles, it was useless. I called Vodafone, it was a sales line only, they couldn't and wouldn't help me. Then I called the Vodafone complaints hotline. The automated system asked for my phone number. I entered it and it said I wasn't on their system and they couldn't help me. They disconnected me. Next, I contacted Vodafone on X. The person needed my details to access my account. There was one detail that I couldn't provide so they couldn't help me and suggested I go back to Voxi.
Two hours later I managed to get pass the stupid Voxi bot to another chat screen. I don't know if this was a real person, or just a more intelligent bot. When I asked if they were a bot, Yug said they're a live agent. What does that mean? At one stage I said "I'd like to speak to your technical team please" Yug responded "It's good you like that" 😣😕
Voxi's online chat is absolutely rubbish. They clearly didn't know what to do and it took them ages to reply. If there is no activity, the chat times out and disconnects you. I had to keep on typing rubbish to keep the chat going. But that still didn't stop them from cutting me off. I had been struggling online with them for an hour by now, and then they threw me out to the back of the queue, number 56!!!!! Fuck!!!
I finally got back online, and had to explain everything again to the new live agent. After pulling more of my hair out, he said he would check with their port in team. Progess at last!! I asked how will I know the outcome. You can stay online if you like, or you can contact us again later. And how do I do contact you? The same way as you have contacted us today. Fantastic. I have already wasted 4 hours of my precious time this morning. I logged off.
Friday afternoon
After lunch I had calmed down a little and was ready to try Voxi again. This time I was 8th in the queue and was speaking to Mosin. I made sure I got a transcript of the dialogue. We made a bit more progress this time. Voxi said they've sent everything to EE and was passing the buck back to them.
However, I needed them to respond to the ticket that EE raised as that's the official channel between the two companies. Mosin started to talk rubbish now and did not respond to my question.
It's been over six hours since I started this morning, if I continue I'm pretty sure I will have a stroke. Not a great way to start the weekend. I had one final question before I was ready to let go.
Now they're washing their hands off everything, but not before they confirmed they didn't receive any ticket from EE. This is clearly different from what Spusu told me. Someone is lying. I sent this to Spusu immediately who of course claim this is not the case and they will look into it.
This is stressing me out so much. Honestly, I don't fucking care anymore. I'm going to hide in my zen zone. Don't call or text me.
