Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Switching numbers

My mobile connection was part of the company CUG network, so when I changed jobs, to avoid the hassle of changing my mobile number, I tried to retain the number by requesting the company to transfer the connection to my personal account. Three years hence, nothing happened. It was neither "yes", nor "no", so I just continued using the same no.

The reason I hesitated / waited patiently for so long, was the frightening thought of going through the trouble of informing friends, colleagues, acquaintances, banks, credit card services, and other online & offline service providers about the number change. I had got my cards printed as well, and I didn't want to let the pretty cards go wasted. But frequent disruptions in services, at the most crucial times, owing to non-payment of charges by the company, finally got me running helter skelter for a new connection!

I wanted an easy to remember number. And that simple wish I was told could cost me dear. Just like they auction fancy numbers for car registration plates, mobile numbers too I discovered were on sale - the fancier the number, the higher the price tag. The sweet talker that my husband is, he managed to coax one of the service providers to provide some fancy number options where they could waive off the premium...and finally, my "fancy" wish was fulfilled, without burning a hole in my pocket.

Then came the task of informing the key people on my contact list + all sorts of service providers about the change in my no., and then manually confirming with the curious lot that they could delete/replace the old number with the new number...phew!

The number update with my credit card service provider has been a bit complicated. Since transactions involve the OTP which is sent to the registered mobile no., to change to a new no. involves sending request letter, KYC details with ID/Address proof to their head office. Not sure when my new no. will be updated in their database!

All said and done, it's been an unpleasant & time consuming experience for me thus far, and I just hope I won't have to go through this again, anytime soon!

10 comments:

Bikram said...

:) Well never mind it is all sorted now ALMOST :) so now you can keep this number for ever..

How do you get a personalised number , I tend to change my number every year as we tend to get a cheaper contract when buying a new number rather than renewing the yearly contract..


Bikram's

Insignia said...

Its a big big effort isn't it? Everything is tied to your number. Apart from informing 100s of contacts, friends, relatives, you got to update it at various places. God!

radha said...

It happened to us too. We went abroad and even though we gave a letter to Airtel and paid the safeccustody charges they had our numbers disconnected. If it were not for the fact that our mobile is linked to every possible service, we would have just given it up. Innumerable visits, phone calls, letters for almost three weeks it took,and not before they treated it as a new connection, had to give a deposit, address proof, verification.... Phew ! The problem is, how many people and services to inform.

Ellen said...

Gosh, I can relate to that! And I'm hoping that it won't happen again... ever!

Glad you had things sorted out in the end. Hurray! :-)

Shilpa Garg said...

I can understand. Changing numbers can be pretty daunting! Glad that it is nearly sorted for you now! :)

RGB said...

@Bikram, yeah...all's well that ends well! In India, we try to retain a single number for however long we possibly can. And with Mobile Number Portability, now we can even switch service providers while keeping the same number!

RGB said...

@Insignia, yeah! And if it's for a person like me with the least phone contacts, I wonder what it would be for the '24/7 on the phone' kind of people!

RGB said...

@radha, sounds like an awful experience! How they make our lives miserable, and all for a 10 digit number, that seems so inextricably linked to our lives!!

RGB said...

@Ellen, hope so too! Can't think of going through it ever again!! And yeah, all sorted out in the end :)

RGB said...

@Shilpa Garg, Hmm..yeah! I just hope I've covered the main contacts/services and informed the BIG change :)