Virgin Media recycled phone numbers

marleyboy

For a Year since having our Virgin phoneline installed, we got fed up of constant phonecalls from debt agencies for the previous user of our phone number.

Fair enough we thought, these things happen, so we rang Virgin (after calls from debt agencies at 3-4am) asking them to change our number.

They did so, I was satisfied with a new number even if it meant getting in touch with friends n family to let them know, up until we were getting calls for the previous owner of that phone number. It turned out this person had only just changed their number, which went straight to us (in less than 2 weeks).

I was fuming at this point, so I rang Virgin demanding a number that has not only just been taken offline. They assured me "We dont recycle numbers, they are all randomly created.", they were not prepared to change the number again unless we paid a fee :mad::mad:

Oh well, its done and dusted now I thought, up until we had a phonecall for the previous owner of THIS number.

If that wasn't bad enough, we phoned our doctor, who asked me if we had changed our phone number recently, I said Yes, and explained the circumstances. He said he had phoned our previous number only for someone to rant at him that they keep getting calls for other people on their phone (our previous number) which within two weeks they had passed over to them.

Just what the heck is Virgin playing at, is it too difficult for them to hold off on old numbers for at least a Year before passing it on to other people, whilst informing us all its just some coincidence in their random generator.

Rant over!!!!

dizziblonde

Had this with the previous owner of the number apparently being an idiot who'd ticked every "please bombard me with marketing calls from dodgy overseas call centres" box on things going - had them refusing to stop calling the number because Mrs Weaver had requested being called and they didn't know who I was to say not to... had TPS useless to act.

In the end we moved off Virgin when we moved - and while we're getting a spate of silent calls at the moment - it's nowhere near as ridiculous as it was.

marleyboy

Likewise I have told the Mrs that anymore of this and its Bye Bye Virgin.

TheSaint_2

Use Voip - you use the virgin broadband, plug a voip phone into your router (siemens gigaset is a good choice). Sign up for a voip service - there are several out there (voiptalk, sipgate to name just two).

Enjoy a phone bill of around £3 per month with no line rental.

Sorted

I got sick of the constant calls on my virgin number too. Since getting voip I have not looked back once.

DCFC79

TheSaint wrote: »

Use Voip - you use the virgin broadband, plug a voip phone into your router (siemens gigaset is a good choice). Sign up for a voip service - there are several out there (voiptalk, sipgate to name just two).

Enjoy a phone bill of around £3 per month with no line rental.

Sorted

I got sick of the constant calls on my virgin number too. Since getting voip I have not looked back once.

can you call normal landlines with 1

marleyboy

Was wondering that myself.

Esqui

Same here with Virgin. Always getting calls for a Mr Williams who lived on the other side of town. We've had this number for over 2 years, but still getting them.

TheSaint_2

Yes - it acts like a normal PSTN phone. You select a local 01xxx area code that you want when you sign up online. It then gives you a regular local phone number.

Everyone on BT etc can call you at normal local rates, and you can call uk wide on one tarrif (I think mine is about 1p per min).

You can also call worldwide at shockingly cheap prices too

DCFC79

TheSaint wrote: »

Yes - it acts like a normal PSTN phone. You select a local 01xxx area code that you want when you sign up online. It then gives you a regular local phone number.

Everyone on BT etc can call you at normal local rates, and you can call uk wide on one tarrif (I think mine is about 1p per min).

You can also call worldwide at shockingly cheap prices too

thanks, think ill investigate it a bit more,

Nilrem

re VOIP services, the big thing to remember with them is that they are not necessarily good for emergencies/during power cuts
IIRC there are often problems with the caller id etc if you use them for a 999 call (they may not direct the police etc to your current address*), and are almost certain to fail in a power cut**.

Re the number recycling, from what I understand in some parts of the country the number of available "free" phone numbers is running low, with some of the phone companies not having many spare and the regulator not having many new blocks to give out.
IIRC the regulator used to give out the numbers in blocks of a 1,000 or 10,000 or something to telecomms companies, which meant that if a company wanted 5 numbers they got most of a block spare, whilst if they wanted 9,500 they only had 500 spare from it, and with the number of different companies, and shear number of people with a phone now there are some areas where the regulator has given out most/all of the available blocks in an area code so it's become harder for the companies to get numbers that are "virgin" (if you'll pardon the pun).

Basically in some area codes pretty much all the numbers have been used at least once, which is part of the reason they've created new codes for some areas in the last few years, as even with reusing the numbers they were running out of "currently available" ones.
Or to put it another way VM might well be assigning them at random from a pool of available numbers, but if the pool is short on numbers there is an increased chance you'll get one that has recently been in use (and given the numbers of people who are changing their providers on a regular basis it's probably going to get worse).



*Unlike a landline which rarely changes physical location you can potentially use a VOIP account in different addresses on different days.

**A landline phone is powered from the exchange, which normally has good backup power supplies.

TheSaint_2

Nilrem wrote: »

re VOIP services, the big thing to remember with them is that they are not necessarily good for emergencies/during power cuts
IIRC there are often problems with the caller id etc if you use them for a 999 call (they may not direct the police etc to your current address*), and are almost certain to fail in a power cut**

True about the power cut - but who doesnt have a mobile these days?

Not true about the emergency number routing. I use sipgate and when you sign up you select a number with a local dialing code - you then verify that your address is within that dialing code and they route the emergency call accordingly.

There is also (i believe) legislation which came into force a year or so ago which ensures that voip providers route emergency calls correctly.