SOS only! Where has my service gone?

[Keith207]

I have been stuck in Melbourne, Australia since the start of the pandemic. I hope to be back by July 22.

In the meantime my Virgin Mobile service has disappeared.  I am still paying a monthly direct debit of GBP 6.23 from my UK bank account but my phone now shows only  SOS Only and I can't use it.

I did receive an email notification recently that I thought was a scam saying Virgin was sending me my sim card quoting my phone number and order number. I deleted this obvious scam as I have had my sim and phone number for at least 20 years. It was sent to my old London address that I had forgotten to update. I have updated it now.

Contacting virgin mobile has been impossible as I cannot find an email to send to and I cannot use my phone (SOS only) to ring the UK only numbers shown on the websites. I am wondering if I should sacrifice my beloved long held number and simply cancel my direct debit. It is all so frustrating and unsolvable. Any help would be appreciated

[enlli · Accepted solution]

It wasn't a scam as in the UK Virgin have moved from using EE to using Vodafone and it was necessary to replace some of the older SIM cards which would cease to work. This is what has happened in your case.

Hopefully one of the team here will be able to help, but it will require the new SIM being sent to a UK address first 

[Tom_W1]

Hi @Keith207, thanks a lot for your post here in the community and I'm sorry to hear of your concerns.

We've been updating our mobile services and the migration from EE to Vodafone required a new SIM sending out. You should have received a text message advising you have up to 14 days to activate the new sim before the old one is terminated, which it appears to have been as things stand.

Now going forwards, any new SIM's do need to be activated in the UK, meaning we'd need to send this to a UK address and it'd also need it activating in the UK too in an unlocked handset for example.

Do you have any UK address with friends or relatives for example that you'd have in mind we can send this to? You would then obviously need to get who we send it to, to arrange them to post the SIM Card to get to you in Australia.

Please don't provide this address publicly, but if you'd like us to arrange this then please respond accordingly and we'll take things from there.

Many thanks

[Keith207]

Hi TOM W1 - thanks for the offer of help. My sister lives in UK and I have changed my previous London address to hers. It is now registered on my account. I can ask her to activate the new sim and send it to me her in Melbourne. Thank you so much for helping me. I am not sure what the next step is but I await your guidance. You will need to identify my account I presume.Thanks again

[Tom_W1]

Hi @Keith207, thanks so much for your confirmation and understanding.

Yes that's correct, so the next step is I'll pop you a PM to ask you to confirm some security details so I can do this for you.

Please expect this PM to arrive shortly, and respond when you can!

Many thanks

[Tom_W1]

Hi Keith, thanks so much for your confirmation - you're very welcome!

I'm just responding publicly to close the thread off.

Yes - the SIM that we sent previously is no longer active as it hasn't been activated within the 14 day timescale so this won't work in any device. The new SIM that will reach the address we discussed via PM, will work though provided it's activated within 14 days!

I'm glad to have helped Keith, and all the best to you in Melbourne until you're back home in the summer.

Many thanks