Hi guys.
This is not a request for support, I am posting to document a technical situation I just ran into when moving my service to Public. I caused a technical catch 22 situation that took a bit to figure out. This information should be added to your knowledge base and all agents should be aware of this possibility when trouble shooting.
I am simplifying my description to help define the catch 22 in a way that is easy for techs to visualize.
Details:
1) I was with Fido. I ordered a Public package and got my new Public sim card.
2) OLD SIM - Removed my old sim card and damaged my old Fido Sim card. I had never damaged a sim card before, I never swap sims so I had no idea that it was damaged and HOW TO TELL if it was damaged (what to look for on the phone).
3) NEW PUBLIC SIM - Put the new public sim, got on the network, activated the sim and requested a port of my number from Fido. The port request is done by Public staff, I am not familiar with the procedure so I am completely blind to what is going on. While the port request is in place, my phone number appears on my phone with new Public sim card and I thought the port was done.
WRONG.
4) OLD SIM - I did not have my old sim plugged in so I did not receive the text from Fido to approve the transfer. So, my old number was still registered with Fido AND my phone number was now active on my phone on the new public sim card.
This resulted in the following catch 22 situation:
* I could actually make phone calls OUT using my Public sim card.
* All incoming phone calls were going to my Fido voice mail (and technically my Fido connection)
This was REALLY REALLY confusing at first. But as a tech this actually makes sense. What happened was this:
* Public puts in a port request for phone.
* Public activates phone number on my sim, my phone number is now on my sim.
* However, because the port is not approved because my old Fido sim card is broken and no amount of testing with that sim card allowed me to get the approval text, the "network" still understood my phone number to be with Fido which resulted in all phone calls going to Fido and ending up in my voicemail there.
There was no way for Public techs to know about this and because I was not familiar with the process at first it just looked like *magic* happening. I could make calls but inbound calls were routed to Fido.
Once I understood what was happening at the networking level, I contacted Fido and got them to help me approve the transfer. Please note that THIS PROCESS WAS NOT PLEASANT. They refused to approve my transfer on the phone or give me an option in my control panel online. They FORCED me to go to a corporate store and buy a sim card and go through a crazy process to get my service cancelled and approved the transfer.
However, once the transfer was approved, the network now knows that my phone number is with Public and I can now receive inbound phone calls (and texts) perfectly.
5) SUGGESTIONS - The above is probably an edge case that Public techs have never seen before. I certainly had not expected to run into it. Luckily I am a system admin and could figure out WHY things were happening and then convince Fido to do the last leg of the transfer process. In this case, there is NOTHING that Public staff could have done to help me. I would recommend that the team lead review this situation, document the process and identify the potential catch 22 so that your support people have this one in the back of their mind, it could help.
I hope that this post is also available here for others to bump into in case they run into a similar issue.
I hope that helps.
Thanks everyone @ Public for your help.
