Changing from BT to AOL - frustrated beyond belief

andygb

I received a call a few weeks ago from AOL, and it coincided with me wishing to wrap up my home phone, line rental and broadband with one supplier. After discussing it, I decided to go for a packagae for £25 a month, which would give me free UK calls, line rental and broadband.
However, I also told AOL that I wanted to ditch my second BT line (which came about because of joint incompetence between AOL and BT from my "dial up days"), and have only the one line, which I then gave the details of. The guy said that I would have to call AOL support (call centre in India:() and explain to them. I did this the following day, and after speaking to them for one and a half hours, I put the phone down on them through frustration - I could not explain to them that I wanted one phone line.
Anyway, after a couple of days I phoned again, and this time I spoke to two people for a total of nearly an hour, and at the end, was assured that the changeover would involve one designated line, with the new details which I had given them.
So, two days ago, I received a letter from BT, acknowledging that I was leaving them and the number which they were transferring to AOL was

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the old number which I wanted to get rid of:mad::mad::mad:
So, yesterday, I phoned BT, and they said that I would have to contact AOL again:mad:

I am afraid that I have now had it with AOL and their moronic incompetence, which has cost me money from the time which I wanted to switch fron dial up to broadband many years ago.
I now wish to simply cancel the standing order which I have with AOL, because I feel that they have behaved appallingly throughout this saga.

I am also now looking to find another supplier who will do one package, and I would prefer that they do not have a call centre in India, because I do not believe that they are fluent enough in our language to understand anything beyond the most basic information.

Heinz

Doesn't AOL = Talk Talk now?

Anyway, how on earth did you expect AOL to cancel your second BT line? That's a contract between you and BT and only you can cancel it.

andygb

Heinz wrote: »

Doesn't AOL = Talk Talk now?

Anyway, how on earth did you expect AOL to cancel your second BT line? That's a contract between you and BT and only you can cancel it.

I never expected them to be able to cancel it, but I did expect AOL to be able to give the correct details for the number which I wished to use for the package.
That isn't really too complicated is it?
One number - 6 digits (10 if you add the code).
Quite a simple task really, or it should be.;)

macman

I suspect that if you has simply given TT the one number you wanted to transfer, then this confusion would not have arisen. As Heinz said, ancelling your second line requires to you contact BT, it has nothing to do with the transfer of your first line, calls and broadband to TT. They would not even have known that you had a second line.
The whole process (apart from cancelling BT) could have been done online (and cheaper)without any need to use a call centre.
Probably would have been better to do the BT-TT transfer first, the cancel the second line.

andygb

macman wrote: »

I suspect that if you has simply given TT the one number you wanted to transfer, then this confusion would not have arisen. As Heinz said, ancelling your second line requires to you contact BT, it has nothing to do with the transfer of your first line, calls and broadband to TT. They would not even have known that you had a second line.
The whole process (apart from cancelling BT) could have been done online (and cheaper)without any need to use a call centre.
Probably would have been better to do the BT-TT transfer first, the cancel the second line.

OK smarty pants, I am not talking about TalkTalk and did not mention them. I have no dealings with TalkTalk, all of the correspondence has been with AOL, and as I have said, I told AOL several times which number I wished to use - they chose to ignore this very simple information.
The reason why it was not done online, was because an English person from an AOL - not TalkTalk call centre contacted me and dealt with the whole process.
The transfer is being done first, and then the superfluous line will be cancelled.
Unfortunately AOL seem unable to interpret my very clear instructions as to which line I will be using.

macman

You seem to be unaware that AOL UK is just a brand of TalkTalk.
AOL/TT cannot 'cancel' a second line that you pay line rental to BT for. They can only transfer a BT service over to themselves.
Canceling your second line requires you to contact BT and gives notice to them. Nothing to do with TT (or AOL).

andygb

macman wrote: »

You seem to be unaware that AOL UK is just a brand of TalkTalk.
AOL/TT cannot 'cancel' a second line that you pay line rental to BT for. They can only transfer a BT service over to themselves.
Canceling your second line requires you to contact BT and gives notice to them. Nothing to do with TT (or AOL).

Were you a parrot in a previous life?
I have already notified BT that I will wish to cancel the line, but only as soon as AOL switches my BB from that line to the relevant line.
I do realise that AOL cannot cancel a BT line.
I cannot make AOL understand which line I wish to use.
AOL keep defaulting to the line which I wish to cancel with BT.

There - was that simple enough?

macman

It obviously wasn't simple enough for TT though...
Your first post did not make it clear how you were attempting to cancel the second line, nor that the broadband was on the second line, not the first.
IIUC then, you are not just migrating your service from one ISP to another using a MAC in the normal manner, you are migrating your broadband from one number to another, which is a very different thing?
TT struggle to get the basics right, so it comes as no surprise that they've screwed this one up.
PS: thinking about this, if you've attempted to migrate your broadband using a MAC, then it's not going to work, as a MAC can only be used for migrating to another ISP on the same line. Essentially, you can't transfer your broadband to another number like this, you need to transfer your line rental to TT, and additionally sign up for a new broadband service on that line. Then cancel all your BT services (including broadband) on the other line.

andygb

macman wrote: »

It obviously wasn't simple enough for TT though...
Your first post did not make it clear how you were attempting to cancel the second line, nor that the broadband was on the second line, not the first.
IIUC then, you are not just migrating your service from one ISP to another using a MAC in the normal manner, you are migrating your broadband from one number to another, which is a very different thing?
TT struggle to get the basics right, so it comes as no surprise that they've screwed this one up.
PS: thinking about this, if you've attempted to migrate your broadband using a MAC, then it's not going to work, as a MAC can only be used for migrating to another ISP on the same line. Essentially, you can't transfer your broadband to another number like this, you need to transfer your line rental to TT, and additionally sign up for a new broadband service on that line. Then cancel all your BT services (including broadband) on the other line.

You keep referring to TT (TalkTalk), yet none of my correspondence mentionins TT, only AOL.
What is a "MAC"?
I made it perfectly clear to AOL, that the number which I wanted to keep was my landline number, the number I was speaking to them on (if you read my first post then I clearly mentioned this) and I gave them that phone number.
AOL then told me that they would take care of everything, and they would instruct BT accordingly.
They have failed to deal with everything, they have instructed BT incorrectly.
I have today emailed AOL instructing them that I am cancelling the contract immediately.

JimmyTheWig

Have you asked BT to do you a deal for a single line and broadband with free calls? We pay twenty-something a month for this from BT.

andygb

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Have you asked BT to do you a deal for a single line and broadband with free calls? We pay twenty-something a month for this from BT.

Cheers Jimmy, at last a sensible response. I am now seriously thinking about it, the only thing which was stopping me previously, was having to alter our email addresses on everything - business and social - it could be a nightmare.
I am however coming around to thinking about this.:beer: