What A Nightmare
By patgalca
@patgalca (18481)
Orangeville, Ontario
June 29, 2019 6:21pm CST
My husband is still at his parents' homestead where he spent the week installing new windows and building a new deck. The landline has been disconnected and there is no wifi. His sister and her husband have been there with him all week as the family pulled together to build the deck.
On Thursday evening, 10pm (11pm where he is) me and the girls all got a notification on our phones that our data had reached its limit and was blocked. I was to click a link to unblock it. Our bill ending is the 17th so there is no way we reached our data for one, plus we always get a notice FIRST when we have reached 90%. We didn't get that. I tried calling my husband, no answer. I called his sister-in-law who said he was sitting right there with his phone and it didn't ring. My daughter went onto our provider's account and saw that my husband's phone number was gone from the account. It said we were at 2,000% over data but only used 2 gbs.
It's all so crazy. I phoned our provider early yesterday (8:30am). It was their opinion that another provider may have made a typo and my husband's phone was shown as being transferred to the other provider. Or, I learned today, someone could have called in to new provider saying they were him and deliberately had the phone transferred to them. I asked why he was unable to phone or text or receive if he was now with another provider and was told that the phone had not been activated. If it was a typo, then the person who was making the transfer whose number was mistyped is unable to activate their phone since the wrong number was inputted. Or some idiot is messing with my husband. Who would want to mess with him?
I have been angry at our provider for not sending us any notification of change of service as they always do. I was angry they were going to charge us a fortune in data because the account holder had left the provider (I guess because my husband doesn't use data). When I tried to unblock the data block and it would not accept my password for some reason. I had it on "view" so that I could see that I was typing it correctly. My older daughter did it on her phone.
It's a terrible mess as our provider has had to reach out to the other provider to request the number be "ported" back. Obviously they are not responding. I tweeted the other provider who wanted me to register with them so they could look into it. I don't think so!
What's worse is it's a long weekend here in Canada with Canada Day being on Monday. And my husband will be flying home tomorrow. My daughter cannot text him his plane ticket..
I received my bill yesterday, as per usual. It was $100 higher than usual. When I went on the account today we had received a credit (but not $100). I have been arguing with my provider that this is all sorts of wrong. Why were we NOT notified of a change to the account? Apparently the law says they don't have to. 
Yesterday morning I was told it would be restored in 24 hours. Today they tell me it's not 24 hours, they should have said 48 hours. I have no frickin' idea when the phone will be restored and whether the 48 hours started yesterday or today when they accelerated my request.
We are at the mercy of the second provider as OUR provider waits for them to respond. Who knows that THEIR hours are this weekend with the holiday.
I'm at a loss. It wouldn't be so bad if my husband was here. It would be hella worse if it was me or the girls whose phones were disconnected.
This is the way I am spending my holiday weekend. 
Yesterday morning I was told it would be restored in 24 hours. Today they tell me it's not 24 hours, they should have said 48 hours. I have no frickin' idea when the phone will be restored and whether the 48 hours started yesterday or today when they accelerated my request.
We are at the mercy of the second provider as OUR provider waits for them to respond. Who knows that THEIR hours are this weekend with the holiday.
I'm at a loss. It wouldn't be so bad if my husband was here. It would be hella worse if it was me or the girls whose phones were disconnected.
This is the way I am spending my holiday weekend. 9 people like this
9 responses
@patgalca (18481)
• Orangeville, Ontario
25 Jul 19
@Bensen32 Change providers... but every time I called to talk to them about this issue I had to state my husband's name and birthdate, the amount of the last bill we paid and my phone PIN number. Anyone can know the first two if they know my husband. I got to the point where I was rattling off this information before they even asked me for it. That's why I don't understand how someone could just go in and change providers.,,,,UNLESS, they went to the OTHER provider and asked for the change over, then they wouldn't need all that info from our current provider.
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (51831)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
30 Jun 19
Oh, dear! 
It's just not right that they can do that.
It's just not right that they can do that.1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (51831)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
30 Jun 19
@patgalca Read it, still not right.
1 person likes this
@patgalca (18481)
• Orangeville, Ontario
30 Jun 19
@BarBaraPrz Because I did my own detective work, they were able to get the phone number back within minutes. When I questioned the reasoning around such behaviour the Bell rep said someone just lost $20,000 yesterday. I immediately thought of our new mortgage and the amount of money in my husband's account. He restarted his phone and checked his bank account. Thankfully the money had not been touched. We are all changing passwords on banking as well as our service provider. @NJChicaa
Edit: He just called and two e-transfers were made yesterday, so he lost some money, but not all of it, and hopefully the bank will give it back to him.
2 people like this
@BarBaraPrz (51831)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
3 Jul 19
@patgalca That's good that he got it back.
1 person likes this
@crazyhorseladycx (39503)
• United States
30 Jun 19
dang, they sure need more regulations 'n these providers. so saddened ya'll havin' to go through all that, but thankfully he'd family there'n not jest totally cut off. hopefully all'll be ironed out soon.
1 person likes this
@patgalca (18481)
• Orangeville, Ontario
30 Jun 19
@crazyhorseladycx They made 4 e-transfers over the course of 3 days amounting to almost $6,000. The bank is aware of this and he will get his money back but until then his accounts and credit card and debit card are all frozen. Looks like I may have to pay all these bills that are sitting here waiting for him. So much for keeping my inheritance money to myself.
1 person likes this
@crazyhorseladycx (39503)
• United States
30 Jun 19
@patgalca oh my, identity theft! i hope he's able to 's well. i've fingers crossed yer not gonna now've more nightmares than ya can handle since they've most likely loads 'f his pertinent info.
1 person likes this
@patgalca (18481)
• Orangeville, Ontario
30 Jun 19
It gets worse. I contacted provider #2 who told me they don't have that phone number, but they could tell me who did. Why did my provider not be able to do this? I called provider #3 (because I have internet with them so I have an account and they could talk to me) who confirmed that they do have that phone number and the phone has been activated (which it hasn't because I tried calling my husband and "the number could not be completed as dialed"). They also confirmed it was under my husband's name and gave me the account number. Now I have to go back to my original provider and give them this information. Basically I did their job for them because they seem to be too incompetent to do it themselves. Except, now that I think about it, if provider #1 said provider #2 had it and provider #2 a day later says provider #3 has it, seems like someone is bouncing his phone number to different providers.
We may have to change his phone number as it appears he has been hacked. 
2 people like this
