BT fail to reinstate cancer victims number

chippy123

BT have on FOUR occasions failed to reinstate the correct phone number on my fiance's line. My fiance has BREAST CANCER and is due to have a mastectomy on Monday 12th Dec, and due to the utter incompetence of BT we have no internet, as BT have on FOUR occasions failed to reinstate the correct number, this is still on going. As you can imagine this is causing a great deal of stress at and already difficult time.

Any advice on how to escalate this and get a resolution?

peterod1

May I ask what the events were before hand that led to it having to be reinstated in the first place in order to better understand.

chippy123

Initially she had asked the line to be ceased as we were in Australia. She then had the diagnosis, and before the cease went through, asked BT to leave the line in service. BT agreed, but still carried out the cease. We successfully had the line reinstated, but BT didn't use the original number as asked. They have failed to correct this on three other occasions, each time giving us a new number.

duchy

So it's only the number-not the line ?
Happens sometimes -that it simply cannot be reallocated to a new line -which is essentially what you have as the previous line did cease (I believe BT's systems have a built in time lag before numbers become reavailable for allocation so numbers are not reallocated too quickly to avoid the new subscriber getting bothered by the old subscriber's calls)

With so much going on I'd cut my losses and just give people the new number and concentrate on the important stuff like preparing for a really nice Christmas before the surgery. Once a cease reaches a certain point of no return it can't be stopped. TBH I can't see HOW they'd get the old number back now -I work for a different telecoms company and I know our policy would be to say it simply wasn't possible-and four attempts appears to indicate this is the case this time.

If BT have told you however that with their systems it IS possible and simply haven't done it correctly-then complain to OFTEL.

EDIT It may be that that are continuing to try hoping to hit the time period the number is reavailable again -what have they actually said about why it failed ?

System

What bearing does the fact she has breast cancer have on BT failing to give you your old number back? Sympathy vote?

visidigi

!!!!!! wrote: »

What bearing does the fact she has breast cancer have on BT failing to give you your old number back? Sympathy vote?

I'm with you on this - it has no bearing at all on the issue - the thread title looks like it was written by someone working for the daily fail (mail).

giraffe69

If BT have re-instated the line but with a different number then I can understand the annoyance concerning telling everyone it is a new number but not why there is no internet.

Ady87

If the number originally didn't belong to BT years back, then as soon as it was ceased that number will have been sent back to the owning company. You will find customer services try to do a renumber and fail but most wont know why its failed till it's been escalated.

If you attempted to cancel the cease order past the point of no return, the cease will still have gone ahead, and that number now will be sat in limbo, cleaned, moved to another prefix in the UK.

chippy123

visidigi wrote: »

I'm with you on this - it has no bearing at all on the issue - the thread title looks like it was written by someone working for the daily fail (mail).

What bearing does the fact she has breast cancer have on BT failing to give you your old number back? Sympathy vote?

I would have thought the relevance fairly obvious to most people, the operation date is 12th Dec, now 4 days away, due to the number change we have no Broadband, friends and family, several of whom are abroad, her eldest daughter is in Rome, cannot contact us on the old number or by Skype and getting in contact with them is time consuming and stressful. Internet is via a very shaky GPRS connection.

I hope this clarify's things to you both, I didn't think it necessary to spell that part out, but sadly rather than post anything helpful, you both decided to look for some troll material, thanks, I really needed that right now.

chippy123

duchy wrote: »

So it's only the number-not the line ?
Happens sometimes -that it simply cannot be reallocated to a new line -which is essentially what you have as the previous line did cease (I believe BT's systems have a built in time lag before numbers become reavailable for allocation so numbers are not reallocated too quickly to avoid the new subscriber getting bothered by the old subscriber's calls)

With so much going on I'd cut my losses and just give people the new number and concentrate on the important stuff like preparing for a really nice Christmas before the surgery. Once a cease reaches a certain point of no return it can't be stopped. TBH I can't see HOW they'd get the old number back now -I work for a different telecoms company and I know our policy would be to say it simply wasn't possible-and four attempts appears to indicate this is the case this time.

If BT have told you however that with their systems it IS possible and simply haven't done it correctly-then complain to OFTEL.

EDIT It may be that that are continuing to try hoping to hit the time period the number is reavailable again -what have they actually said about why it failed ?

Interesting info, technically it would be quite easy from the switch to reinstate the number ( back in the original System X days the sub number was connected to the line via the DSB function). I guess the front end systems may prevent this from hapening, but BT have never siad it is not possible, the sales teams have always stated it can be done.

The line has been reinstated, but with the wrong number. It is not that easy to get round to all concerned, if it were that's what would happen.

chippy123

giraffe69 wrote: »

If BT have re-instated the line but with a different number then I can understand the annoyance concerning telling everyone it is a new number but not why there is no internet.

Humm, is that correct? I don't have any real knowledge of the binding in the DSLAM area. Can you explain?