Gave Virgin my PAC code & people are receiving texts from a different number!!! >:|

[Wotdusdafoxsay]

Hi,

I have had this new phone contract a couple of weeks now, I've just received my first bill.

I gave Virgin my PAC number (twice btw & then on the phone too...) & somehow, weeks later now (frustrating!), my sister has just let me know that my texts are showing up as from a totally different number. To confirm this, I asked a few people to read my number out loud from the texts I'd sent them since I got this phone.

My calls come through as my actual number as far as they can tell but you've not applied that number to my texts & I have to transfer the PAC within 14 days or not only does it not work, but it means my contract with the previous company keeps going. I'm so peed off to be honest because now even i dont know what my number is - apparently I have two, which I'm sorry but is unacceptable & if I'm on two contracts - I refuse to pay anything from this random number because I gave you literally as much info as you asked for and then double/triple checked!!

Being with Virgin has been a mistake so far. 😥

[Ilyas_Y]

Hey @Wotdusdafoxsay thanks for reaching out to us and a warm welcome to the Virgin Media forums.

I'm sorry to hear about the issues with the number that's bene ported over.
Can you confirm for us what device you are using you are using?

Can you also check the number that is showing on the phone please, go to your settings and then select the phone information and let us know what number is showing up there.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[Impith · Accepted solution]

I tried to post this reply twice already and it hasn’t appeared, so apologies if I do end up with multiple postings. I’ll remove the link I included and see if that helps.

I had exactly this problem (or maybe just something very similar) when I 'moved' from VM Vodafone to VM O2. Phone number ported, but 'texts' appeared as though they were from the temporary number allocated to the new SIM before the port.

I found that the 'texts' were not really texts because I had previously turned on (well, I gave in to all the nagging prompts) the rich chat feature. So 'texts' were not texts, but were messages sent over a data connection.  The problem was apparently caused because I ported to the new SIM without turning off rich chat features on the old SIM first, so the rich text was still linked to that old SIM.

After playing with the message settings 'chat features', turning it off and on, verifying my number to no avail, I found a reference to turning it off at Google's end. If you google “Disable chat” then the information you need should be at the top of the results. It is a page titled “How to turn chat features off – Google Messages”.   This allows you to enter your number, and using the "without your previous device" instructions, assuming your number has indeed been ported, it sends you a text containing a code. You can then turn off chat by entering that code.

The description sounds more complex than it actually is... and if this is indeed your problem, it is not the fault of Virgin!

[Wotdusdafoxsay]

Under contacts, my number appears as my old phone number, which is correct. I knew that though as when I phone people, they see my number ending in 18. The number they get when I text is totally different though and ends in 21, that's not my number.

My phone is Samsung A23 I think.

[Wotdusdafoxsay]

Thank you, I'll give this a look! 🙂

[Ilyas_Y]

Hi @Wotdusdafoxsay thanks for the update.

Let us know how it goes and we can continue on from there.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.