Dial tone, can dial out, bband fine, can't dial in

ktothema

Title in a nutshell!

Following some broadband issues with Sky which mainly appeared router/sky settings related and Sky not interested in helping, we recently switched to Plusnet. They took over Tuesday but since then no one can dial in. If you dial us the call stays silent then fails. There's a dial tone, we can dial out, line tests are ok and broadband works fine. Definitely dialling the right number.

BT guy came out today but said it was an exchange issue and they've passed back to plusnet to solve. This was after double checking the number and attempting to dial it from his mobile.

Anyone suffered something similar?

iniltous

Were you keeping the number you had with Sky and taking (importing) it to Plusnet ?, if so then its almost certainly a number porting issue. Simplest way of explaining it is that calls made to your number go into Skys network and should be redirected back out to your new provider but are not being and this would require Sky to sort it out for you..
If you got a new number from Plusnet then its probably going to be an exchange line card problem (no ringing current being applied to the line) and the Openreach engineer should pass the fault to another part of BT,(BT Operate) who look after the exchange equipment

ktothema

iniltous wrote: »

Were you keeping the number you had with Sky and taking (importing) it to Plusnet ?, if so then its almost certainly a number porting issue. Simplest way of explaining it is that calls made to your number go into Skys network and should be redirected back out to your new provider but are not being and this would require Sky to sort it out for you..
If you got a new number from Plusnet then its probably going to be an exchange line card problem (no ringing current being applied to the line) and the Openreach engineer should pass the fault to another part of BT,(BT Operate) who look after the exchange equipment

This is brilliant info. Sky have mucked us around a lot and originally we were told we would have a new number, only for them to release the number when they finally released the line (they kept refusing despite us being out of contract and having issues - then had the nerve to say they didn't know why they were doing it as it was against offcoms rules!).
Would we need to get plusnet to sort this or do we need to shout at sky?

iniltous

ktothema wrote: »

This is brilliant info. Sky have mucked us around a lot and originally we were told we would have a new number, only for them to release the number when they finally released the line (they kept refusing despite us being out of contract and having issues - then had the nerve to say they didn't know why they were doing it as it was against offcoms rules!).
Would we need to get plusnet to sort this or do we need to shout at sky?

As Plusnet are now your provider its up to them to get onto Sky on your behalf, but if you still have contact details for Sky you could also get onto them as well telling them they need to get their number portability people involved

macman

It's an issue for your line rental provider (not your ISP, unless the same).

DVardysShadow

Try ringing out to a mobile and see what number is displayed.

ktothema

We went back to plusnet on this possibility last week (they're our line provider as well as ISP now). They wanted bt to continue the investigations at the exchange as they said this was more often where the issue is. But they came back this morning and said that it's looking like the number hasn't ported correctly. And have warned that ultimate worst case scenario will result in our number being changed. Not a massive issue for us as we had expected that anyway.

Phones4Chris

Sounds to me that Sky have definitely not ported your number. I believe under OFCOM rules they are obliged to do so, so ring them up and give them some stick. A call to OFCOM for some advice might be a good idea.

ktothema

Sky are currently ignoring Openreach's attempts to get this ported over properly. Yesterday we dug out their email where the sent us the ofcom rules, and replied saying "thank you for this information. Can you please explain then why you are continuing to refuse porting of our number? Please ensure the port happens urgently or we will be reporting you to ofcom". Plusnet suggested we try to let them and Openreach sort it first, but agreed an email like that may put some fire up their butts.

ktothema

Ah the joys of number porting! Sky responded to our email basically telling us to eff off as they werent our provider anymore, which oddly we knew (!) and had mentioned to them. A quick threat of a chat with ofcom resulted in sky finally talking to Openreach. Turns out virgin now have our number and have refused the port today. Sky switched our service off before they were supposed to so the number reverted back to virgin. Now we're awaiting to see if virgin will turn down the second request.

Does anyone know if we're still entitled to our number under ofcom rules given that the number has gone back to virgin? I'm inclined to make a complaint about sky's actions in this business.