BT Line + Tiscali Broadband = Tag nightmare :(

Cat_Lang

Hello

I have recently moved house and two weeks before I moved, I notified BT my line provider, and Tiscali my broadband provider that I was moving house and told them the number I wanted the services transferred to. The previous tenant of the house then decided they wanted to take their number with them, which is fine. Got a new number and asked Tiscali to transfer the service again.

After about 5 conversations with Tiscali, it turns out they cannot transfer it because I have a tag on the line and I need to speak to my line provider. So I ring BT, they tell me to call my Broadband provider. Tiscali were incredibly unhelpful and didn't want to know, so I decided to concentrate my efforts on BT instead.

For 3 long hours yesterday evening, I was passed through pillar to post at BT. I spoke to 6 different people and none of them could help me or had any idea what I was talking about. I did have an open order apparently for a talk package which has since been closed. Will this have made a difference?

I am at the end of my tether, I have no idea what to do next. Should I even be speaking to BT about this? BT did manage to do a tag check on the line which showed that there was something there, but they couldn't tell me what it was or how I could get rid of it.

I know there have been a couple of posts about this and I've read the Ofcom advice but it hasn't really helped.

Any help or advice from anyone elses experiences would be much appreciated, thank you.

BlueFox

Hi, I'm also with Tiscali and BT and when we moved house a couple of years ago we experienced something similar, the "tag" which we were told was on our line turned out to be the previous owner's broadband, it seems they were in the process of transferring their own broadband but as it was still being transferred we were not able to connect our broadband on the new line until the previous owner sorted it out with their provider (ie got the tag removed from the line).

It took a few weeks to get sorted out but I put that partly down to Tiscali's appalling customer service!

If I were you I would keep on at Tiscali as they are your provider so they should know how to sort it.

I assume your phone line is connected now?

Cat_Lang

Well that's reassuring, I've been tearing my hair out over this!

So what did you do in the end? Or did you just wait? All Tiscali have done is send me a letter advising me of what the tag could be i.e. a broadband service, or security alarm or similar and just said I had to sort it out with my line provider. On that letter they provided me with a phone number for BT which didn't work. Not helpful at all!

The BT line is all set up and has been more or less since I moved in.

So do you think it's worth speaking to the last tenants about this?

iniltous

The tag on the line could be something that will stop the line supporting broadband (DACS or TPON to name 2), did the previous occupant have broadband ??, if they had BB no reason why you shouldnt but if the address has never had BB there may be a 'line' problem.
If the previous occupant had broadband but hasnt told their provider that they have moved, then the line 'looks' like its already got broadband so any new request for broadband would be rejected
Your BB supplier Tiscalli are taking the **** by telling you to call BT as you can only call BT Retail and its got nothing to do with them,
BT Wholesale are the part of BT that may be able to sort out a tag on the line (if its just a record of another BB ) but you cannot ring them, Tiscalli on the other hand have a working business relationship with BTW and they should sort the problem out for you by getting
onto BTW , looking to see which SP has a BB on the line and arranging to get it removed

DatabaseError

If you're out of contract with tiscali - now would be a good time to get clear of them..you now have 1st hand experience of their CS

aaronw

Hi,

Just thought i would reply, you might of resolved this by now. But anyways the other guy is correct in stating that it would be down to Tiscali to request the tag to be removed from the line as they are the ISP attempting to provide a service. But if you ring bt retail on 0800 800 150 and ask for the broadband sales team and just state that you are interested in bt broadband and bt vision (make sure you state Vision as otherwise the advisor will not be interested) but there is a tag on the line and could they request on your behalf for the tag to be removed and the advisor should (if you get a nice guy) phone bt wholesale for you (you may be on hold for while as the tags team are slow) and get the tag removed which normally takes 24 hours (i know this because i work for BT wholesale). Or just wait 28 days from when ever the previous tenant ended their broadband service.