O2 cannot provide service through same exchange when I move.

wild666

I contacted O2 today to transfer my service (phone & BB) to another property according to the checks I made using Kitz website both propery's are serviced by the same exchange, only to be told first that there would be a connection charge of £80+ for the line (I think that's what he said) and then that they couldn't supply my new address. The new address is 1.13Km away by road 700M direct.
The person I spoke to in the connections dept. or whatever they put me through to said that I would have to pay £180+ as the contract was been terminated early. IMO it is only been terminated because O2 cannot supply the service that I asked to be transferred. The stance of the O2 manager is that I don't have to move I chose to, I am not choosing to move but moving before the council apply for possession because the place is far too big for me and O2 was made aware of this before I set up the contract plus I told them it could be a month or 6 months before I moved. I was going to go for the monthly rolling contract which didn't have the 3 months free BB but when the person said they give one free move per year and all my choices of property were closer to the exchange than I am now, I specifically chose the areas to keep on the same exchange, I decided to start the 12 month contract, at no point was it mentioned by the O2 rep that they did not provide LLU to certain areas around where I live.
I am waiting to calm down before I fire off a letter to head office as for one I would have thought that if you paid the full 12 month amount they are asking you then own the router that, I nearly forgot, they have asked me to return in the pre paid envelope they are going to send.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Several things:

Normally the contract for supply is to your address where you are at the time. So yes, you are indeed cancelling early and in theory should be subject to early termination fees.

There is no guarantee that they can supply you at any other address.

O2 use BE where it has an LLU presence at the exchange. BE's availability is limited to lines which are only about 3km long so in theory people who live within about 2km of the exchange. But the line length is the arbiter not the distance. You could well be 1.13km by road, but with a line length of 4km, so O2/BE won't supply.

However you don't say why they can't supply at the new place. One possible reason is that the LLU kit is full to capacity. If the exchange is the same, then this seems daft, but what could happen in between the old service being cancelled and the new one set up is that the one port that's available - yours - gets given to someone else. I have seen this issue before and O2 did get it managed and sorted out for the customer, but it took some effort.

Are you sure it's the same exchange? If you have the phone number of the new property (old tenants line) then put that into www.samknows.com availability checker and it will tell you which exchange you're on. It's not necessarily obvious. Some places like Milton Keynes have very odd routing and it may not be the closest.

Now, all of that said, you should download and take a look at their Terms and Conditions. As I have a feeling that I read that O2 will cancel the service without penalty if they can't supply you at the new address. That was a while back and it seems odd that they would state that, it might have changed now, but that's your friend as far as the charges are concerned.

kwikbreaks

O2 certainly used to do one free move per year.

They will always be able to service a new address with a phone because even if they have no LLU presence or their kit is full up they also resell BTw products as the abysmal O2 Access product and would offer that.

Did you decline to have a phone connected? If so then that is why they can't move you and yes it is an early termination in that case.

macman

OP seems to be under the impression that a free home move will still apply even if there is no active line at the new address?

spike7451

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

Several things:

Normally the contract for supply is to your address where you are at the time. So yes, you are indeed cancelling early and in theory should be subject to early termination fees.

There is no guarantee that they can supply you at any other address.

O2 use BE where it has an LLU presence at the exchange. BE's availability is limited to lines which are only about 3km long so in theory people who live within about 2km of the exchange. But the line length is the arbiter not the distance. You could well be 1.13km by road, but with a line length of 4km, so O2/BE won't supply.

However you don't say why they can't supply at the new place. One possible reason is that the LLU kit is full to capacity. If the exchange is the same, then this seems daft, but what could happen in between the old service being cancelled and the new one set up is that the one port that's available - yours - gets given to someone else. I have seen this issue before and O2 did get it managed and sorted out for the customer, but it took some effort.

Are you sure it's the same exchange? If you have the phone number of the new property (old tenants line) then put that into www.samknows.com availability checker and it will tell you which exchange you're on. It's not necessarily obvious. Some places like Milton Keynes have very odd routing and it may not be the closest.

Now, all of that said, you should download and take a look at their Terms and Conditions. As I have a feeling that I read that O2 will cancel the service without penalty if they can't supply you at the new address. That was a while back and it seems odd that they would state that, it might have changed now, but that's your friend as far as the charges are concerned.

I agree with Mark,in my experiance it's more likely that the exchange is full.The are only a certain amount of ports available in an exchange & often,when a new housing estate is built,it takes some time to install new ports into the exchange after the estate is built.

wild666

You could well be 1.13km by road, but with a line length of 4km, so O2/BE won't supply.

The address they supply the service to now, for a few more days, is 2.7Km by road from the exchange, more than twice the distance and this is the newer property the other property was built in the 50's maybe earlier

Did you decline to have a phone connected? If so then that is why they can't move you and yes it is an early termination in that case

I only queried why they wanted to charge £86 for installing a line when I had seen the connection box just below the window when I looked round the property.

OP seems to be under the impression that a free home move will still apply even if there is no active line at the new address?

All I did was ask why the charge for a new line when I had seen a line inside the property.

Exchange: York BT Code: MYYO




Location: The Stonebow, YO1 7NT

Both property's are serviced by the same exchange, I knew this because I had been using both Sam knows and Kitz websites to check the areas I had chosen on the council housing application form and all the postcodes I put in, getting them from the royal mail site, gave the same MYYO exchange, even though reading a 3" screen is hard on the eyes.

O2 are in the best position to know the services they can provide to each exchange but their moving home on-line page is somewhat miss-informative starting by saying that

What to do if you’re moving your broadband and home phone

If you’re moving home, it’s best to let us know 2-3 weeks before you move. You’ll need your new
address and moving date. We’ll move your home broadband and home phone to your new address.
If you need to make any changes to your package, we’ll let you know.



Call us on 0800 230 0202.

Absolutely nowhere on there site does it clearly state that even on the same exchange they are restrictions on where they can supply the phone service the only reference is to broadband been through a BT line and something about if they need to make changes to the service when moving address. IMO they have made the change but used it as if I wished to terminate the contract early. The rep, while I was still stunned at been told I could not be provided with the same service and passed me on to another department where it was said by the O2 rep that I wished to cancel the contract

In the above quote from the O2 moving home page it says they WILL transfer the service and to give 2 to 3 weeks notice

About unbundling

Unbundling means O2 has installed its own broadband equipment into a BT telephone exchange.
Once your telephone exchange has been unbundled, we can connect you directly to the O2
Broadband network (via your BT phone line) rather than having to rely on BT equipment in the
exchange.



This allows us to offer cheaper and faster Home broadband packages.

The above from their moving home page clearly says that once they have unbundled the line they can connect directly to their network rather than relying on BT. In my opinion that means they should be able to cover the whole of the exchange but are more than likely to be unwilling to due to financial cost thus selectively picking where they supply their service.

spike7451

Another reason you may not be able to get broadband is if the is a DACS system on the line.

DACS stands for "Digital Access Carrier System".

DACS is a technology that allows 2 telephone lines to go down a single copper pair and back to the telephone exchange.

DACS was a technology used by BT if a user required an extra telephone line and there was no full spare lines available or if there was a problem with another line and users had to share.

If you find you have DACS running on your telephone line then you are likely to have some problems when it comes to broadband. Unfortunately this is a problem that those who do have DACS on their line have to face and you may have to kick up a bit of a fuss with BT to get the issue solved. Even if DACS was installed before you moved into your house there can still be a problem.

http:// www. broadbandwatchdog.co. uk/dacs.php