oranges (Photo credit: WGyuri)

Today a tale of my phone upgrade to help out anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation.  Last Saturday I collected my new phone – a shiny, newly released Sony Xperia Tipo, took it home, rang up Orange to arrange to have my number transferred from my old sim to the new one then waited the normal two to twenty-four hours for the Sim Update to arrive.

Nothing.

I Restarted the phone and waited.

Nothing.

I called Orange customer care, the third person I’d spoken to so far over two calls finally tried calling my number and came back and said “it’s just going to answerphone.”  “I know” I replied.  “I haven’t had the sim update.”  She said she’d send the update text again.

Nothing.

So I called again tonight.  The chap I spoke to asked me straight away where I’d bought the phone from, I told him I’d bought it from the Orange Website and he immediately told me what the problem was, confirmed my order number and details, rectified it, apologised for the situation and within a minute I had a working phone.

The problem?  Phones ordered via the web direct from Orange are blacklisted until you call to activate or transfer them, the first person I spoke to on saturday should have noticed this and unblocked my phone.

So if you’re having trouble activating a phone bought directly from your network (this may also be true with other UK networks) ask if it’s been de-blacklisted properly.