i_am_sy many members that are incorrectly advising not to the report the SIM lost/stolen and to perform a SIMswap instead.
Neither method is exclusively appropriate.
For many members, it will be more important to get their phone number back into working order in the fastest possible time. Until they do that, they cannot access their bank account or any other service that requires validation by text message.
Currently, reporting the sim or phone as stolen will ensure that it takes at least a couple of days longer to get their phone number back into working order. They’re not despatched same day and even at the best of times there’s only a 90% chance of the sim being delivered even on the following working day. If there happens to be a weekend in between, that’s a long wait.
Ideally, the first person that answers a help question should explain the merits and drawbacks of both methods so that they can make an informed decision. Perhaps we need a good, well written KB article – one that begins by asking the question “What is more important to you? Reporting your phone as stolen, or getting your phone number working in the earliest possible time?”
Long term, the ideal solution would be to change the procedure so that there’s a single page which reports the phone as lost or stolen and then gives them the choice of waiting for a special sim by post or using a shop sim, but with the sim and phone being blocked immediately regardless of the choice they make.
We don’t currently have that and it’s probably not likely to happen any time soon.
i_am_sy text is out of the questions as the phone is missing, so email is the only option, so if the member gets to this point and doesn’t have access to their email they are now stuck
That is a good point, and one that has only been the case for a short while. But the staff member who announced 2FA on sim swaps insisted it wasn’t a problem and the agents would be able to sort it out. My feeling is still that the 2FA should be by a method that doesn’t require the use of the existing phone number.
Better would be to ensure that members don’t get into that situation. https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Tips-Guides/Make-sure-you-have-independent-access-to-your-email/m-p/23127402#M165166 tries to warn against that. No member should ever allow their phone to be their exclusive access to email.
i_am_sy Simply put there is a process for Lost/Stolen, we should help members follow that process everytime, as it’s specifically designed for this situation.
I would agree if we could give the member an option to maybe pay extra and get guaranteed next day before 1pm delivery. But the cost of doing that is £6.70 from Royal Mail, and even that’s assuming we can despatch the sim early enough on the same day.
