Number stolen by BT

bbb_uk

This thread is getting out of hand.

I agree with gt94sss2 in that it sounds as though a BT OpenReach engineer has miswired whilst working on the exchange.

Your friend cannot claim directly from BT OpenReach as she is not a customer of theirs but has to claim it back from UW who in turn would have to put a claim in against BT OpenReach if they have miswired.

Remember its UW who have broken the t&c of the contract with your friend through what appears to be no fault of their own hence why I don't think your friend can claim directly from BT openreach because they (BT openreach) only provide services to other teleco's and not directly to the public (as far as I'm aware).

So tell your friend to claim against UW for failing to provide the service and UW will probably, once the facts have come to light, claim against BT openreach. That way no one is out of pocket.

hammy_the_hammer

Lewis_Gerolemou wrote:

I am a "resting" Utility Warehouse distributor but I still help customers when they have problems. A customer (also a friend) who pays line rental to UW called yesterday to say that her landline had been disconnected by BT and her line and number had been reallocated to a person who lives down the road. Apparently the other person's line had technical difficulties and it won't be fixed until Sept 26th. BT have refused to talk to my friend because she is not a customer of theirs. She has informed UW who are trying to resolve the matter with BT. I intend to complain to OFCOM , surely its not right that BT can just cut off a person who is not their customer and re-allocate the number.

this is just so silly !
bt / openreach or whoever don't intentionally / deliberately give another customers 'telephone number ergo dial tone' to another customer who is "experiencing 'technical difficulties and it won't be fixed until Sept 26th".
it's so blatantly obvious that some customers in that street have line problems . the lines have been crossed or misrouted in the network and it will take openreach engineers to resolve this.
do you actually believe that a customer would accept a temporary fix for their phoneline for a few weeks by being giving someone elses number and receiving all their calls ?

edited for spelling

gt94sss2

Lewis_Gerolemou wrote:

Well this is exactly what they have done, would you like me to give you the lady's number so you can check for yourself?

Crossed wires are not the same as disconnecting someone or deiberately reallocating someones number.

Of course the other party have reported it to BT, they are fed up wuth getting my friends phone calls. Why should UW pay compensation if it was BT that disconnected them from their phone line and gave it to someone else?

UW should pay your friend compensation as they are not providing what they promised in their contract to supply (a working telephone line).

In the same way, BT Retail will, at some stage, compensate the other party for all the problems they are having with their service.

Both BT Retail and UW can then claim against their own supplier (Openreach) for the loss of service.

Regards
Sunil

Lewis_Gerolemou

UW customer service tell me that the fault was passed on to BT last week (fault occured on Tuesday ). The earliest BT can get an engineer to the site is Wednesday - brilliant service - but then its UWs fault isn't it!

bbb_uk

Lewis_Gerolemou wrote:

The earliest BT can get an engineer to the site is Wednesday - brilliant service - but then its UWs fault isn't it!

No it's not but they are indirectly liable!

As I said your friend isn't a customer of BT in anyway, shape or form so therefore BT aren't directly liable to your friend - just to UW. I agree unfortunately it does look bad on UW, but that's the nature of the game and the risk that UW take when they take people on for linerental.

utilitybroker

If you go to the UW T&C which after 5 years you are no doubt familiar with

http://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/store/tacs/tacs.pdf

Your see under Home Phone Service at Sections 3m and 6b they will accept liability in certain cases and pay compensation,whoevers fault it is.

Slightly off thread. Whilst UW line rental may appear to be cheaper at £10 to BT,s £11 they charge you for caller display, BT dont, so if you want caller display UW are in fact dearer.

Also their E&W call package is £5 where as BT is £3.95p .
So they really should do something about this misleading statement on their Front Page.
"As a residential customer you benefit from guaranteed savings on your call charges compared with BT's best prices."
https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/store/index.taf?exref=

bbb_uk

utilitybroker wrote:

Whilst UW line rental may appear to be cheaper at £10 to BT,s £11 they charge you for caller display, BT dont, so if you want caller display UW are in fact dearer.

Don't forget that UW charge you over £1 a month to be a "member" to benefit from so-called cheaper prices!

utilitybroker

bbb_uk wrote:

Don't forget that UW charge you over £1 a month to be a "member" to benefit from so-called cheaper prices!

Its £1.76p a month inclusive of vat.(Over £21 a year.) I have never been able to work out what their members get for it.

bbb_uk

utilitybroker wrote:

Its £1.76p a month inclusive of vat.(Over £21 a year.) I have never been able to work out what their members get for it.

Their website was down when I posted so I couldn't get the exact figure - it's working again now!

I too can't figure out what benefits members get when there is so many other cheaper options available.

utilitybroker

bbb_uk wrote:

Their website was down when I posted so I couldn't get the exact figure - it's working again now!

I too can't figure out what benefits members get when there is so many other cheaper options available.

Yes now they are probaly one of the most expensive suppliers of energy ,they havent got a lot going for them.The USP of having all your utilities on one bill ends up costing the customer an arm an a leg.

If you took a solely telephone customer who was on their E&W package with line rental and caller display and nothing else it would cost them £10 line rental ,+ £5 call package,+say £1.50 caller display(might be dearer) ,and + membership of £1.76p a grand total of £18.26 a month.

Same deal with BT£11+ £3.95 p = £14.95p a month. Nearly £40 a year cheaper.

Same deal with BT £11 and Primus Saver 2 (foc) =£11 a month.Over £87 a year cheaper.