Who is right, BT or Virgin?

Nobbie1967

I'm having a very frustrating time trying to transfer from Virgin to BT. I got the broadband and phone line two weeks late, but BT have been unable to port my number across since last November. I seem to be in a catch 22 situation now.

BT tell me to request a line cancellation from Virgin and that they can then put in a port request to Virgin and get the number.

Virgin tell me that BT can put the port request through now and the number will transfer. They have told me if I cancel the Virgin line as requested by BT then They cannot transfer the number.

Does anyone know the truth? They refuse to talk to one another, so I'm left as piggy in the middle 😡

lee111s

It's usually up to the gaining provider to resolve.

phillw

It's for businesses, but I assume it's the same.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice-for-businesses/switching/switching-landline

Porting from cable to non-cable or vice versa appears to be different to porting BT lines between providers. I'd follow BT's advice and then if you lose the number then ask for compensation (however I'm not that attached to my phone number). Virgin may be purposefully trying to stall you from switching away. When I switched from Virgin cable then I didn't trust that the handover would go well, so I didn't cancel with Virgin & only gave notice after the number had ported.

But in retrospect, the handover went through fine so it just benefitted Virgin as they got an extra month line rental. A few years later Virgin tried to prevent me switching a mobile phone away by telling me that the lower monthly cost that Tesco had offered was exclusive of VAT and that their prices were inclusive of VAT. It was a lie of course and I still switched.

You need an overlap though as if the line is deactivated before the number has been ported then you will lose it.

lee111s

You won't get compensation. You don't own a number.

iniltous

The number port (if requested and correctly applied for) should have been part if your BT line install, obviously something has gone wrong, and you will probably never know who messed up, BT will blame VM, and VM will blame BT
I would try registering on the BT Comunity Forum, and asking for help there, you could be put in touch with BT staff, and looking at previous posts on that site, people in the same situation, seem to get the number they want ported soon after the BT Mods get involved.
Is your VM service still live ? , if it is then you probably want to cancel it anyway otherwise you will be paying both VM and BT for line rental, if it's still live, you could leave a phone in the VM socket and recive incoming calls on that and use the BT line for outgoing calls until the number port is sorted out

Retrogamer

Virgin media are correct. If they cancel your Telephone line, it frees up the number where it returns to a pool of available numbers and will likely be allocated to someone else.

When a line is ported or migrated, the number normally follows it unless someone's done something wrong which isn't all that uncommon when it comes to BT

phillw

Retrogamer wrote: »

Virgin media are correct. If they cancel your Telephone line, it frees up the number where it returns to a pool of available numbers and will likely be allocated to someone else.

Only after it's cancelled though, I think what BT are suggesting is you give notice to virgin and then they'll grab the number before it is actually!cancelled.!I had a lot of issues getting my number!to ported to virgin, because they don't go through the same system as ADSL to ADSL transfers.

LazyTyper

Nobbie1967 wrote: »

I'm having a very frustrating time trying to transfer from Virgin to BT. I got the broadband and phone line two weeks late, but BT have been unable to port my number across since last November. I seem to be in a catch 22 situation now.

BT tell me to request a line cancellation from Virgin and that they can then put in a port request to Virgin and get the number.

Virgin tell me that BT can put the port request through now and the number will transfer. They have told me if I cancel the Virgin line as requested by BT then They cannot transfer the number.

Does anyone know the truth? They refuse to talk to one another, so I'm left as piggy in the middle ��

Technically what Virgin Media have advised is correct.

Have BT told you what the actual issue is (allegedly)?

If you have not already, insist on speaking with a manager at BT. Or raise a formal complaint so your case gets handled by someone competent and can take ownership of this issue until it is resolved.

I would also suggest you put in writing to Virgin Media that you are trying to port your number. If they have this before any ceases are placed then that will really help should things turn ugly later on.