any issues with phone number retention

londonTiger

For reasons we wont go into my brother wanted me to change my phone bill payer name to his.

We had a hiccup with the transfer from mine to his name and initially BT provided me with a new number.

Long story short after a few angry calls they fixed and allowed us to keep our old number.

I am now moving to plusnet to get a dual phone & internet deal. I have asked them to keep the number but the sales clerk said they will try their best [read no guarantees] and will notify me if they are unable to keep the number.

What are the chances of this going ahead smoothly? I am not a new customer to plusnet, I'm out of contract and am signing up to a new 18 month contract.

Do I still have cooling off with plusnet, and if they are unable to retain my number can I cancel the new contract under this?

I rarely change utilities for this reason - they always mess something up. last time we changed utilities we were given a £2000 bill. We protested and they just brought it down to £500ish for some reason. Really fishy - if they honestly thought £2000 was owed why did they drop it to £500 so easily?

Quentin

Nobody will guarantee you keep you number when you move to them, but as you are currently with BT you should be OK simply transferring to PN (a BT subsidiary) - or are you wanting to take over the line from the current "owner" (which might have a higher chance of a mix up!)

londonTiger

well the bt number is under my brothers name. the plusnet BB in under my name.

That may complicate transfers right?

londonTiger

First sign of trouble.

They have made an arrangement for the number to transfer on 15th March. But they have signed me up to a BB contract for 18 months starting today and stated that the 14 day cooling off period starts today.

So basically I have 1 day to check that the number has transferred over if not I'm !!!! out of luck as did not call in before close of business on the final day to cancel my contract.

System

Considering that companies are supposed to do more to prevent slamming, I'm surprised that they are allowing you to
a) move the phone account to a different provider
and b) add a further service to a line that you do not pay the bill on.

cajef

Be interesting to see what happens when Plusnet attempt to transfer the line to them and then discover the account is not actually the OP's.

Quentin

londonTiger wrote: »

First sign of trouble.

They have made an arrangement for the number to transfer on 15th March. But they have signed me up to a BB contract for 18 months starting today and stated that the 14 day cooling off period starts today.

So basically I have 1 day to check that the number has transferred over if not I'm !!!! out of luck as did not call in before close of business on the final day to cancel my contract.

BT normally will contact you to make sure you want to move the phone line before the change takes place.


But as previously posted, whatever the circs PN won't guarantee you get to keep your number when they set up the line.


In your case, check in who's name they have set up the phone contract! (And take it from their reply)

londonTiger

!!!!!! wrote: »

Considering that companies are supposed to do more to prevent slamming, I'm surprised that they are allowing you to
a) move the phone account to a different provider
and b) add a further service to a line that you do not pay the bill on.

I have phoned them up and spoken to plusnet and they have confirmed that the number they have allocated to me is my exisiting number. So as far as the cs person is aware this is going to be mine on transfer.

I have considered ceasing this just in case and then changing the account holder name with BT but doing so will renew the 12 month contract with BT which I don't want to do.