advice needed PLEASE...

Tinkerbell3

Does anybody know how I got about finding out who was the last company who had the line rental on my line?

following on from a thread I posted yesterday http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1467449, in regards to BT informing sky that a third party was taking over my line who then went on to disconnect it either the same day or a day later all without my authorisastion or even me knowing.
After about 7 hours on the phone today to BT and sky im still none the wiser who this company is, how my number is completey differant but not working, apparently the current telephone number/line is a direct dial number which is what someone has when running a business from home, I cant seem to find out who is the line provider for this number

And the only help BT want to offer is setting up a new line for £125, they apparently know nothing about whats has happened, and have no way of finding out as im not their customer and I need to sort it out with Sky who dont know who took the line from them :mad:

So how am I meant to find out who requested the line to be deacativated?

Tinkerbell3

I just went on to Skys website to see if I tried signing up for sky talk or broadband with my original number would it work and got the following error message..

To join Sky Broadband you will need a working BT phone line. It looks like you may be with a company such as Virgin Media/NTL, living in a cabled area, with a combination of broadband, phone and TV services delivered to you via a fibre optic (non BT) phone line.

Find out more about how to switch from Cable to Sky in five easy steps.

Not a Virgin Media/NTL customer?
Some phone/broadband providers (such as Talk Talk or Bulldog) will have completely taken over your BT phone line. To order Sky Broadband you will need a working BT phone line, so you need to contact BT and ask them to reconnect your line.

If you have recently moved or ordered a new BT line, the telephone number may not yet be registered in the BT database. Once your BT line has been active for 5 days, you will be able to check which of our Sky Broadband products is available in your area.

So that suggest Talktalk, Bulldog have taken my line or its switched to Cable, which ever it is I have no idea how, why or who. So do I need to ring every company and ask?

JustPassingBy

Tinkerbell3 wrote: »

After about 7 hours on the phone today to BT and sky im still none the wiser who this company is, how my number is completey differant but not working, apparently the current telephone number/line is a direct dial number which is what someone has when running a business from home, I cant seem to find out who is the line provider for this number

And the only help BT want to offer is setting up a new line for £125, they apparently know nothing about whats has happened, and have no way of finding out as im not their customer and I need to sort it out with Sky who dont know who took the line from them :mad:

Some not particularly well organised ideas:

Get on to Sky again. Obtain every detail on the history of the line with them. Dates of transfer, correspondence sent to you, reference numbers, nature of contract etc. I'm finding it difficult to believe a line can disappear into thin air.

Contact BT. Get the date of the transfer of the line to Sky and any transfer back to BT. Ask why you still have a BT account if (as you think happened) the line went to Sky. Ask why they have taken line rental if you are not a customer.

Tinkerbell3

JustPassingBy wrote: »

Some not particularly well organised ideas:

Get on to Sky again. Obtain every detail on the history of the line with them. Dates of transfer, correspondence sent to you, reference numbers, nature of contract etc. I'm finding it difficult to believe a line can disappear into thin air.

Contact BT. Get the date of the transfer of the line to Sky and any transfer back to BT. Ask why you still have a BT account if (as you think happened) the line went to Sky. Ask why they have taken line rental if you are not a customer.

Yes I was finding it difficult to believe a line can dissapear but from what I can gather the line is now a cable line, I have know idea how and no idea hot to find out which company switched it to cable :rolleyes:

Im angry with Sky aswell because they told me on the phone on wednesday that they sent me a letter on 16th Jan to say 'Sorry you're leaving us...., if you want to stay with us or did not authorise the switch over please contact us' the usual thing when you switch but I never recieved this letter, because despite moving in October 2007 and only ever organising my Sky+ and Broadband to be installed at my current address and my phone switch overs at this address, not to mention the numerous calls i've made to them to change the address properly they still had my old one on the system and sent the letter there :mad:

*informer*

It is tricky. Firstly, BT Retail do not get to see sight of your order of transfer between one service provider to another unless they are directly involved, ie the transfer is to or from them.

All service provider are aware that transfer request are made via Openreach. Openreach will only deal with Service Provider, but it is possible for Sky to contact them to find out more information and work with them to have it transferred back. Its pointless calling BT Retail to be honest.

JustPassingBy

Tinkerbell3 wrote: »

Yes I was finding it difficult to believe a line can dissapear but from what I can gather the line is now a cable line, I have know idea how and no idea hot to find out which company switched it to cable :rolleyes:

You said 17070 worked, which would imply it is still a BT line as 17070 is a BT network test.

This could help to find who owns the number 17070 gives you:

http://www.magsys.co.uk/telecom/codelook.asp

Im angry with Sky aswell because they told me on the phone on wednesday that they sent me a letter on 16th Jan to say 'Sorry you're leaving us...., if you want to stay with us or did not authorise the switch over please contact us' the usual thing when you switch but I never recieved this letter, . . . . .

You could do with laying your hands on this letter. Presumably your deal with Sky was a 12 month contract. What was their reaction to it being broken barely a month after it coming into force? Maybe Sky themselves do not know who the line was transferred to but you need to push them on this along the lines suggested by *informer*.

Tinkerbell3

JustPassingBy wrote: »

You said 17070 worked, which would imply it is still a BT line as 17070 is a BT network test.

This could help to find who owns the number 17070 gives you:

http://www.magsys.co.uk/telecom/codelook.asp

You could do with laying your hands on this letter. Presumably your deal with Sky was a 12 month contract. What was their reaction to it being broken barely a month after it coming into force? Maybe Sky themselves do not know who the line was transferred to but you need to push them on this along the lines suggested by *informer*.

Thank you for that link, i tried and this came up. Does this mean that BT have this line? should I contact them again regarding this new number?

Code:020 8316 Area:LondonLocality:Woolwich, LondonOperator:British TelecomTariff Band:National (inc VAT)Service:Geographic

There isn't actually a contract with Sky talk so you can leave at any time

JustPassingBy

Tinkerbell3 wrote: »

Thank you for that link, i tried and this came up. Does this mean that BT have this line? should I contact them again regarding this new number?

Code:020 8316 Area:LondonLocality:Woolwich, LondonOperator:British TelecomTariff Band:National (inc VAT)Service:Geographic

It looks that way. But why should the number on the line change?

Did you say you can neither phone out nor receive calls? Leaving aside whether the transfer was authorised by you it could be it has not been carried out correctly.

And you have a BT account under the old number?

Contact BT. Ask them what number they think you are calling from. Get the account number for it (although they generally ask you for it so they can verify you are the account holder). Determine the dates of the transfers - to Sky and back again.

deklan99

If you dial 17070 and get line number and other options ie. quiet line test it's a BTw line and rental could be with any provider.
Only getting line number could be Talktalk/Tiscali LLU etc..
Still nothing to do with BT retail.

iniltous

If someone called another TELCO ( cable company )and asked for your 'BT/Sky' number to be exported to the cable company so it could be delivered over cable ( number portability) and either by mistake (wrong number given to, or entered by the cable company) or someone messing you around, then BT/Sky (or whoever supplied your line) would arrange a 'stop renumber' on the line this would explain why your line has a number you dont recognise, but cannot use......if you suspect that your number is now a cable number call the cable company and ask if your number has recently been 'imported' onto their network,
Have you tried calling your own number ? did you get ringtone or an answer ?
I assume BT were not your phone line supplier but Sky were (are) so no point calling BT (retail) as they have no relationship with you anymore
if Sky say that you never moved your line rental to them (because BT cancelled the move) then you would think Sky would have contacted
you to ask why you changed your mind and BT would have you on their records as a customer
I dont think BT retail can stop a line being taken over by another company (even if there is a dispute between BT and the end user) OFCOM wouldnt allow that

Quentin

Tinkerbell3 wrote: »

Thank you for that link, i tried and this came up. Does this mean that BT have this line? ......
Code:020 8316 Area:LondonLocality:Woolwich, LondonOperator:British TelecomTariff Band:National (inc VAT)Service:Geographic

All that means is the number was originally allocated to BT.

As numbers can be ported between various telcos, this info can't guarantee who actually now issues the bills!