@scribblesvurt what you have run into is a classic case of ‘computer says no’ but luckily for you, you’ve had the good fortune to deal with someone who was prepared to bypass the official arrangements and sort out a resolution for you.
What has happened is something like this. VM have a shortage of new hubs (best not to ask), and whereas in the past they would be happy to simply send one out to customers where it seemed like this would help, in an attempt to better manage supplies, they now insist on an engineer visit so said engineer can ascertain if a hub swop is really needed. So far so good. Evidently the system that customer services use has been updated to not allow a new hub to be provisioned without an engineer visit - but it would seem that no exception has been made for the (uncommon) case that you have, where you already have a replacement hub. It’ll be one of those cases where it’s blindingly obvious what can be done, but the system is not allowing it!
Had an engineer attended, they would simply have called VM and had the MAC address of the hub 3 associated with your account - honestly, you were really fortunate in getting someone who had the ability to override the system and do exactly that without the need for a visit.
Hopefully said person is not now facing a disciplinary procedure for not blindly following the prescribed method!
