HELP please - Unauthorised line cease

ModernSlave

Hi

I followed Martin's advice for cheap home phone calls and broadband and rent the line from BT with extra services from Primus and broadband from Madasafish.
This month I received a letter from BT saying a company had told them I wanted to switch from BT line rental to them. I called BT and said that I had not agreed to any such switch. They said they would stop the switch and fill in a complaint form for OFCOM.
I just checked my BT account online and my phone line has been ceased! I called Primus and they're sending me a letter stating that they have made no such request. I called Madasafish and they say I only have broadband with them. So who has done this to me??
BT say there is nothing they can do to help me and they can't tell me who has asked for it. They say I will have to apply for a new account in two weeks time and just make do without phone service or broadband until then.
But Madasafish say my line is still active for broadband.
I am so confused and upset by this. I have not asked for anything like this to happen and don't understand why BT let it be done against my express wishes.
Please could you tell me if this has happened to you or if there is a different BT dept I could call to sort it out? I have spoken to 3 different BT depts today and none of them can offer me any help.
How is it possible that this can be done without my permission?

BritBrat

You are not the first who have had that here, maybe not as bad as you and having to get a new line.

I am not sure what you can do but if it was me and I was going to have to pay for a new line I would be looking at court action but who against I don't know.

Sometimes Data Protection is an joke.

I would send an Email to Ben the CEO of BT, he is good:
[EMAIL="ben.verwaayen@bt.com"]ben.verwaayen@bt.com[/EMAIL]

sicker

An email of complaint to 'ben.verwaayen@bt.com' may get you a quicker responce.

LardyCake

Something very similar happened to me, see this thread: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=455795

Fortunately I got it it stopped in time. I also complained to Ofcom by following the link "gt94sss2" gave in that thread. This was not much help really as:
1) Ofcom don't follow up individual cases
2) Ofcom were unable to tell me the name of the company that "did it" (they asked me to tell them if I found out!)
3) Ofcom could not, therefore, even allocate the complaint to a collective "black mark" against a company.

It seems to me that Ofcom rules are too lax in this area; nobody should be able to cease/take over your service without your positive permission. i.e BT OpenReach should not action orders until they have also obtained the consumers consent.

Out of interest (and in case there is some sort of pattern) what exchange are you on? (you can find out by putting your number into http://www.samknows.com/broadband/phoneno.php if you don't know it)

I'm on MRHUL (Manchester, Hulme Hall)

ModernSlave

LardyCake wrote: »

It seems to me that Ofcom rules are too lax in this area; nobody should be able to cease/take over your service without your positive permission. i.e BT OpenReach should not action orders until they have also obtained the consumers consent.

Out of interest (and in case there is some sort of pattern) what exchange are you on? (you can find out by putting your number into http://www.samknows.com/broadband/phoneno.php if you don't know it)

I'm on MRHUL (Manchester, Hulme Hall)

I am on LNCED which is Crouch End in London. I too cannot believe that your signature is not needed to such changes to happen. You know how energy suppliers have a consumer watchdog (not OFGEM, I can't remember the name). There should be a consumer watchdog for telecoms providers as well.

LardyCake

Doesn't look like its the exchange then. Have you ever been a customer of Bulldog/Pipex on that line? The reason I ask, is that I was in the past and there have been news stories about the Bulldog user database being stolen... I am totally mystified as to how this happened to me because I do not give out the number of that line and I am ex-directory.

Any experts out there that can help us?

ModernSlave

LardyCake wrote: »

Doesn't look like its the exchange then. Have you ever been a customer of Bulldog/Pipex on that line? The reason I ask, is that I was in the past and there have been news stories about the Bulldog user database being stolen... I am totally mystified as to how this happened to me because I do not give out the number of that line and I am ex-directory.

Any experts out there that can help us?

I'm also ex-directory and the only people who have the number are family. I've never been with any provider other than Madasafish.

The weird thing is that I'm using the internet right now on my line. BT say they ceased my line on 17th and no one can phone me, but I'm on the internet!

Drunkstar

ModernSlave wrote: »

I am on LNCED which is Crouch End in London. I too cannot believe that your signature is not needed to such changes to happen. You know how energy suppliers have a consumer watchdog (not OFGEM, I can't remember the name). There should be a consumer watchdog for telecoms providers as well.

Ofcom. So they claim.