Phone won't register on the network.

[cyrill666]

Hi Folks,

A couple of weeks ago my phone was lost, presumed stolen.  So I went through the process of having the phone blocked, submitting the IMEI number etc.  Asked Google to factory reset the phone when next connected to the internet etc, etc. This all went really well.

The phone was recovered and back in my possession less than 24hrs later.

I have now talked to support 3 times and received 3 separate new sim cards for the phone, but it just won't register on the network with the supplied sim cards.

I have another virgin mobile phone (my wife's phone) and swapping the sim cards works! Both devices register on the network properly, albeit with the wrong numbers.  If I then swap the sim cards back into their original phone, my wife's phone with her old sim works perfectly fine but my lost/recovered phone won't register.

I'm completely at a loss as to why this might be happening.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Gary.

[Carley_S]

Hi cyrill666

Welcome to the community.

Sorry to hear that you're having issues with your mobile after it's been found. It's possible that the handset is still blacklisted/blocked as the sim works in other phones. We can have a look to see if we can reserve this for you. Please join me on private message so I can locate your account and pass account security. You can see your private messages at the top of the page, in the envelope icon. 

[cyrill666]

I was talking to Natalie_L, but she must be away today.  Can anyone else jump in and help on this issue please?

Thanks.

[Tom_W1]

Hi @cyrill666 thanks for your reply to us here in the Community.

We are not an instant reply service here on Forums, we do try our best to respond as soon as we can but we do have to take in account for rest days so this is why we advise response times may be up to 48 hours.

To ensure efficient workload across the team, we can't always pick up other colleagues' work as that way we may neglect the customers we have taken on ourselves. The exception to this of course, is if the relevant colleague is off longer than 48 hours.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime while Natalie responds.

Many thanks

[cyrill666]

Thanks Tom, you're a star.

[cyrill666]

This is now day 15 without a working connection.

So as an update on this I've just rung 789 and gone through the troubleshooting process (again) with no fix.  The chap was very nice but ended up suggesting that I take it to my local Carphone Warehouse for support.  Surely that can't be right for a 6 month old phone, bought directly from Virgin?

To be clear.  The phone works just fine with another Virgin sim.  Also works fine with an O2 sim.  It just won't work with the replacement sim for this account.  This would tend to suggest a problem with the sim however, the sim itself works fine in other phones.  My issue is that the sim being sent will not work in the phone it's intended for (exactly the same for 3 sims sent so far) - surely that's a config issue on the network somewhere?

I've been with virgin for years, and I don't want to leave, but I may have to consider moving to another provider just to get a sim that works!

Thanks.

[David_Bn]

Good Afternoon @cyrill666, can you please advise me what error message or code populates on the screen when you insert the sim card?

What model of handset are you using? Have you directed this to the manufacturer?

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[cyrill666]

Hi,

No error message when the sim is inserted but does say "not registered on the network" when I try to make a call - it just won't register on the network with the supplied sim (perfectly fine with others, even another virgin sim).

It's a Samsung A32 5G.

No, I haven't directed this to Samsung as the phone works perfectly with other sims.

[David_Bn]

Thanks for coming back to me @cyrill666, can you tell me if you've been able to try switching down to 4G, or even 3G to see if you're able to gain any coverage?

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[cyrill666]

Thanks - no change, unfortunately. I tried each setting.