Posted 17 October 2022

Lebara Nightmare - Porting screw up

Last Tuesday I ported my mobile number to Lebara from Vodafone. The port only partially worked. I can make calls, send and receive texts and use 3g data/ BUT I can't receive incoming calls. Initially callers were getting a message saying the number didn't exist. Now calls go straight to Vodafone voicemail. In addition, I only have 3g data showing.

It's been like this for SIX DAYS now. I've been trying every day to get this fixed, both with Lebara's support line and with their online chat but with no luck.

I've emailed their CEO, I've tweeted about this but still nothing. It's clearly a porting problem. Short of transferring away from Lebara with a new PAC can anyone suggest anything more I can do to sort this.

I cannot recommend anyone transfer their number to this company.

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17th Oct 2022
Trs is correct, you've got split service. Every port requires files from the ONO (originating network operator) as well as the donor network. Any failure to release these files (EE/Orange are the worst for this) will result in split service. The strange thing this is a migration but as Lebara are an MVNO then perhaps porting rules apply

Get in touch with Vodafone, ask them to contact their porting team to chase up the previous networks and release porting files.
17th Oct 2022
Sounds like split port. Happened to me when I was moving from 3 to Vodafone.

Mine was like that for 16 days but eventually they sorted it and my number wasn't lost. They also gave me compensation for the 16 days.

Keep contacting them until you get someone who knows what they're talking about. There's always someone.

Good luck.
Author
17th Oct 2022
I am ,literally spending up to 90 minutes a day on their support line. I KNEW on Tuesday when it happened that there was a porting problem. When I called they said "you have to wait 24 hours and I'm sure it'll be fixed". It wasn't. The next day I asked them to report the problem and they said you have to wait for 48 hours after the port before you can report it. So that's 2 days wasted. On Friday they said it was being passed to the porting team. Today Monday they said "The porting team doesn't work weekends!"

So we are almost a week on and still no calls coming in. And no confidence that they are actually doing anything to fix it.
17th Oct 2022
For balance, my port to Lebara went without issue. I have had to call customer service for something else, but they were pretty helpful tbh.
Author
17th Oct 2022
Nice to know. I think this company is probably OK when things work, but if they don't.... you're in big trouble. I Haven't spoken to the same support person twice, there seems to be no record of the problem, each time I call, I have to go through the whole thing again, no sense of ownership nor urgency.
17th Oct 2022
Had same issue for 5 days. Eventually got sorted.
Unfortunately only way is to keep asking them.
Author
19th Oct 2022
UPDATE: Tuesday afternoon, while I was up in town, I suddenly lost all services - voice and data. As I was using maps on my way to a client this was most inconvenient. About an hour later I received my first phone call in a week. Then I noticed that I had 4g data again. FINALLY, after a full 7 days, the issue was fixed.

I still have not received any communication from Lebara about the issue. No check back that everything's working, no apology, and certainly no hint of compensation, so the conversation with them will continue.

But at least I'm back, baby, as Austin Powers might say.
6th Apr 2023
Having similar issues a month after porting across
1st May 2023
I am having a nightmare with Three also! Last week went through online account to transfer my EE number to a Three PAYG simcard (and then back to EE (don't ask)) to have it done on the 25th April and it hasn't happened yet. The old EE simcard has stopped working also.

Went on the online chat to resolve this and was told to wait for 48 hours. Went on chat 48 hours later due to nothing happening and was told the port got stuck in the system and to wait another 48 hours. Today went on chat and guess what...was told the same old BS and I had a proper go at them.

It would have been better to tell them to forget it and just use the new EE number from now on, but will wait another 48 hours and if anyone here knows how to speak to someone to potentially resolve this if nothing happens in 48 hours, please do send some advice this way.
17th Oct 2022
It does happen. I was also a victim. Some could get through, dependent on who their provider was.
Chase them through online chat. Once I was made aware, I raised the issue, anr all was sorted within 2 days.
It is not a Lebara problem, as others have suffered on different networks, but as Lebara are frequently used because of their deals, they are often the one complained about.
Did you port to Asda and back? They are also vodaphone
17th Oct 2022
Can't be of any help I'm afraid but exactly the same happen to me a few years ago. Could send texts and make calls but couldn't received anything.
Long story short..... I gave up, lost my number and took out a new SIM with a different company. Lebara customer service were useless, telling me they couldn't see anything wrong on their end.

I hope things get sorted for you
17th Oct 2022
Must be Vodafone, they screwed up an EE to Vodafone port for us last Thurs, both sims disconnected, they said it would go through Friday, it didn't so they resubmitted it so no phone all weekend, its partly working today, could briefly receive a call but now goes straight to voicemail like yours and no texts or data, hoping it's still going through and will complete by the end of the day. It's a massive pain.

*edit* just tried again, we've gone backwards from voicemail to invalid number again. (edited)
Author
17th Oct 2022
The reason I left Vodafone was after they lost my number for a week in December, from that point they were overcharging me by £35 per month. Then they lost my Spotify. Two weeks to regain access to Spotify was the final straw!
17th Oct 2022
Have you tried contacting them on Twitter? I had issues porting EE > Voda a few years back and nothing got resolved until I took it to Twitter - I guess, with it being public, they then have to be seen to be resolving the issue.
Author
17th Oct 2022
Tried twice on Twitter. Not a peep.
17th Oct 2022
i have ported from EE twice within the last month to lebara. the first time it only worked for outgoing calls and text but incoming calls went to the old sim, which I kept in a different phone during the port. luckily by the end of the afternoon , around 5pm, it all got sorted and the EE sim went dead.

the second time round was done a few days ago and it went without a hitch. however, until late afternoon I could still make calls from my old EE sim even though everything had transferred to lebara. The EE sim finally got switched off at around 3pm.

porting is always a risk and i always keep both sim on 2 phones until the port is complete.
17th Oct 2022
This is expected behaviour. Ports are always quoted to take until COB on port day. Services may be split until it completes
17th Oct 2022
Had no problems porting to Lebara, neither did my boyf (in August). But notalwaysright19's advice sounds reassuring, hopefully you get it sorted.
17th Oct 2022
Happened to me smarty to Lebara ported oly texts texted then live chat sorted a day later
24th Mar 2023
I have the same problem going from smarty to lebara. Did you chat to lebara or smarty to sort this
17th Oct 2022
Happened to me as well, split ports are kinda common. I suggest you raise a complaint and, if they are at fault, you can even get some money at out of it. If unhappy with the complaint, take it to the ADR.
18th Oct 2022
Happened to me too but it was from Asda to three recently.

I transferred my number from 3 to asda and back to 3 last year without any issue. This year when I repeated again,3 to asda was fine but porting out from Asda was a mess, Asda CS said that number your are porting out is not in use, must be used once in 160 days(as their payg t&c), I said I just used asda sim for porting in-out and thats it and all that year I was using it on different network. Anyway after a week I got PAC from asda and gave to 3.

Next year will do but with a different network, not Asda.
18th Oct 2022
I ported my number over from Sky Mobile and it completed today. But I have no data!

I got the provisioning messages and have manually set the APN settings multiple times, but no joy!

I'll try their live chat tomorrow. Anyone else had this issue?
19th Oct 2022
good to hear you finally got it sorted OP. when people port numbers around, they should always factor into account that it may go wrong and they may lose the number completely. i took a risk with my own number recently knowing that if problems happen it would be a complete mess and my number is very important. won't be doing that too often.
20th Oct 2022
Ours started working fully Tuesday but then died again this afternoon.
11th Nov 2022
Did you get it fixed?
11th Nov 2022
Moved our mobiles from three to Lebara and now we can't receive calls from any three mobile and the call quality is terrible. Think we will have to back to one of the proper companies.
20th Mar 2023
I guess I join this club from last 15 days. I moved from Lebara to lyca and problem started there waited for 6-7 days no luck so moved back to Lebara and now struggling with them from last 10 days with no luck. Any help will be appreciated
20th Mar 2023
I am keeping an eye on this thread as I am going to be porting my number from Lebara to Lyca soon
6th Apr 2023
Had the same thing happen with my other half’s phone (have you got an iPhone). Resolved it by playing around in the settings. Not sure exactly what changed it but it started receiving calls. Try another phone if you have one available. (edited)
41 m ago
which settings you change?
20th Apr 2023
I've had issues porting over from Vodafone to Lebara. At first all seemed to be working fine yesterday morning (the day of the port) and I could send and receive messages, make calls etc. Then at around 5.00pm I lost my signal completely and haven't had any connection whatsoever. No calls or messages, nothing. Their customer service told me that the porting files from Vodafone have not come through and I need to wait until the next day. I'm still waiting and still no connection. No they are telling me it could take 48 hours. It's a nightmare
20th Apr 2023
sorry to hear that. i have ported to lebara from sky, EE, even the dreaded lyca and all went well. but yes, if a port goes wrong, it can take a while to sort out if you don't end up losing your number altogether!

hope it gets sorted out. the advice i had read is to keep chasing them and hopefully it will work sooner or later, and that vodafone is pretty bad with port. so i think this is vodafone problem rather than lebara.
1st May 2023
I had no problems moving over from GiffGaff (who piggyback on O2) to Lebara late last year, though I was nervous about it reading some mixed reviews (albeit in the minority).

My main problem with Lebara is calls cutting off after 30 minutes (some blame the 5G chipset in your phone) but it's really annoying if you're through to call centres, etc. Though, that's a different story!
(FWIW, a newer comment on that thread suggests putting your call on hold before it hits the 29 minutes, 50 seconds mark). - thanks to skybluesccfc (edited)