phone line restricted, pls help?

annhan

Hi All

Having found today that i have an outstanding bill with SKY for £800, they have now restricted my phone line.

Now this is mostly my fault as i thought the payment i was making to BT was calls included and SKY did not send me any monthly bills for 2 years.

My SKY phoneline has now been restricted.
I have sorted a payment plan today to clear this at £100 my month but my phone line is incoming only.

Now my question is if i wish to open a new account / phoneline say with BT/VIRGIN or whoever....will this be possible as according to SKY they say they will not allow this to happen, are they able to do this?

thanks
ann

Heinz

I'm not sure I understand how you could possibly have misunderstood who you should have been paying for your calls but, regardless of that, your resulting debt will probably be a barring factor for you trying to get another line.

However, if I'm reading between the lines correctly, it sounds like you still have your line rental with BT and are up to date with payments to them.

A BT line has the ultimate advantage of being the only one on which the use of override providers cannot be prevented and so, despite Sky having barred your outgoing calls via their network, if you open a www.18185.co.uk account (Direct debit payment method recommended), you will be able to use the 18185 prefix for most of your calls (and pay them separately from BT and from Sky).

annhan

Heinz wrote: »

I'm not sure I understand how you could possibly have misunderstood who you should have been paying for your calls but, regardless of that, your resulting debt will probably be a barring factor for you trying to get another line.

im not sue how i made such a blunder either.

However, if I'm reading between the lines correctly, it sounds like you still have your line rental with BT and are up to date with payments to them.

that is correct

A BT line has the ultimate advantage of being the only one on which the use of override providers cannot be prevented and so, despite Sky having barred your outgoing calls via their network, if you open a 181585 account (Direct debite payment method recommended), you will be able to use the 18185 prefix for most of your calls (and pay them separately from BT and from Sky).

Thank you for the tip, i will look this up but just to clarify i cannot open a BT line for outgoing calls till debt is paid?

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer, i really appreciate it.

..................................

Ypaymore

BT might possibly let you have another line if you have been paying your line rental on time.but you dont need to incur further expense and pay to have another BT line connected anyway. Just use www.18185.co.uk to make outgoing calls via the existing line as pointed out.

iniltous

BT cannot stop a 'delinquent' account from moving to another provider, so I doubt Sky could either, but as already mentioned if they have 'marked' your credit rating then that may cause other companys to say no offering you service, or apply conditions (like a deposit)
I think Ofcom view is, Telco's may stop people moving who are in dispute with them (as they may be disputing a bill) so you can move and the losing company can chase you for any outstanding money.
As far as using overide providers with your account in dispute, I'm not sure it will work, CP's can restrict service 'route to credit control' where any call made is routed to the CP's billing department,regardless of the digits dialed, its a WLR3 facility offered to CP's by BTW

annhan

mmmmmmmmm interesting, i will try with BT and see if they will allow me use of my number via them and i am happy to deposit an amount. If that does not work then i will also try 18185 and hopefully one of the 2 ideas will be good till i pay off SKY.

Thank you for the answers.

Heinz

annhan wrote: »

mmmmmmmmm interesting, i will try with BT and see if they will allow me use of my number via them and i am happy to deposit an amount. If that does not work then i will also try 18185 and hopefully one of the 2 ideas will be good till i pay off SKY.

The fact that you currently use Sky Talk as your CPS calls provider means you cannot use your BT line for making calls via BT (the 1280 prefix which would normally allow you to does does not work with Sky Talk).

As explained though, 18185 will work if you open an account with them online (and, at 5p each for UK 01, 02 and 03 calls of any duration, that may even be cheaper).

annhan

so even though my phone line was originally set up by BT and number was created and given by BT, i now cannot re open an outward phone contract with them....does skytalk really have that much power?

a bit confused, as i have now applied online for a BT account and have chosen a call package and have been given an activation date.

can sky still put a stop to this?

thanks

Heinz

I'm a bit confused as to how you can have applied for a BT account online (as you have your line rental with BT, you already have a BT account).

OTOH, you can, of course, apply to BT to move your calls back to them and will then need to select one of their 3 calls plans.

Don't dismiss 18185 though - used in conjunction with whichever of the BT calls plans you choose, it could be a real money-saver for you (as it is for many others).