moving home

whatsthenews

Elderly parents are moving house on 11th.
They currently have TV/broadband and phone via Talk Talk who say they can transfer their service on 17th.
The property they're moving to currently has phone via BT according to the vendor.
When we've moved recently because we only use our mobiles I've not taken much notice of what happens with the landline whilst waiting for broadband / TV service to start.

Parents do have mobile phones but they don't use them much and tend to forget to charge them etc etc.
I'm assuming that they'll be left without a landline service between the 11th-17th? Would they even be able to make 999 calls or will the line just be dead?
Would it be possible for them to take over the BT service already at the property for just a few days until Talk Talk service is transferred?

iniltous

Will they be able to make 999 calls from a stopped 'BT' line while waiting for TT to activate it ?....I don't know, possibly not.
Can they take over the stopped BT service for a few days until TT take it over , No, why would BT offer that, as they get absolutely no benefit from it...try asking TT to expedite the order, AFAIK it can be done , but it costs the provider(TT) extra ££'s to ask OR to do work quicker than the normal lead times .

whatsthenews

Thanks.I meant take over the BT line and pay for it. Sorry but I don't really know how it works.
Will ask TT if they can expedite it.

iniltous

whatsthenews wrote: »

Thanks.I meant take over the BT line and pay for it. Sorry but I don't really know how it works.
Will ask TT if they can expedite it.

You said 'for just a few days until Talk Talk service is transferred', and no provider (not just BT) would provide service on that basis , they all would require a minimum term, if the line were a Sky line for example you wouldn't be able to take that over either for a few days until the TT date, they would expect to provide service for 12 or 18 months.
I suppose that unless no notice was given to TT about taking over the line at the new address, the question you should be asking is why can't TT take over that line on the day of moving instead of 6 days after it.
You could try asking the people moving out when they have asked BT to stop their service, if it's after the 11th, then it's possible your parents could use their (BT) line if necessary , upto the date BT were asked to stop the service on the line, if the reason TT cannot take over the line until 17th is because the current occupiers have given BT the 17th as the date to stop service, it may work out OK

whatsthenews

I checked again on Saturday and got the same message.
When I asked the operative today about that (having explained their ages and disabilities and the fact they've been with TT for 15 years) was told that no, they were getting a new phone number and that there is no system error regarding asking to keep the same phone number and that it needed to be requested then.
Of course asking to change to a new address starts a new contract.

Have been in touch with Ofcom.
Any ideas of where else to go to try and sort it out?

Slinky

When we bought a new house last year, the existing line was still live a fortnight after we took ownership! We hadn't realised as we were doing the house up to rent out and therefore weren't bothering about the line. We just picked up the old phone one day to discover the dial tone was still there. Chased the estate agent up a couple of times who relayed back that the vendor's had told the provider the date of sale and it was down to them to disconnect the line.

[Deleted User]

whatsthenews wrote: »

Have been in touch with Ofcom.

Why on earth are you wasting Ofcoms time over this?

iniltous

whatsthenews wrote: »

I checked again on Saturday and got the same message.
When I asked the operative today about that (having explained their ages and disabilities and the fact they've been with TT for 15 years) was told that no, they were getting a new phone number and that there is no system error regarding asking to keep the same phone number and that it needed to be requested then.
Of course asking to change to a new address starts a new contract.

Have been in touch with Ofcom.
Any ideas of where else to go to try and sort it out?

Are they moving far ?, if the move is within the same exchange area, then many providers would arrange for the number to be transferred to the new address, but that is not 'number porting' , TT are under no obligation to offer this , and if they insist if you move house you get a new number, it the customers choice, accept that or change provider ...obviously if they are moving across exchange boundarys they cannot take the number with them irrespective of provider .

If enough notice were given to TT, and TT were in effect providing a new line ( not attempting to takeover the BT service at the new address) then it's hard to see why they couldn't have arranged it for the 11th...TBH, if they are not keeping the same number and are not inside a minimum term with TT ,personally I would have looked at other providers that could have arranged this on the required date, but it's a bit late for that now , as no provider could do what is required this close to the 11th

whatsthenews

Thanks forall the helpful advice. Wish TT had been so helpful


We requested the move on Oct 3rd. TBH if it hadn't all been so stressful (have had 2 other move dates set up before this one, 1 a week ago and another 4 weeks ago, lost deposits for removal firms, solicitors and person we buying from being a PITA about getting idemnity insurance etc etc) we would have looked elsewhere. As I say, we're not reliant on our landline phone as we never use it for calls, only have it for fibre, but they are so we had no idea how quickly ayone else might be able to do it.


What we're really frustrated about is the fact that, mainly because we knew TT wouldn;t speak to myself or husband regarding parents account but also because it's quicker, we ordered the move online.


They're moving 5 miles . At the moment they're 0191 38 and looking at other phone numbers in their new area, they're also 0191 38.
If the "keep your number" function had been working ,rather than saying something along the lines of "not able to check the database" they would have been able to keep their number. We didn;t want to delay booking the move for any longer when we saw the 17th as the date.



TT have replied to the complaint in which we specifically mentioned that the site wasn't working correctly and that has resulted in parents losing their right , as stated by Ofcom, to keep their number


"Dear

Thank you for contacting TalkTalk regarding your renumber.

This is not the kind of experience we want you to have and I can understand why you have been very frustrated.

Unfortunately I need to make you aware that once your number gets lost or changed we are unable to retrieve it again as it goes through recycling.

I hope I have explained things clearly for you here. If you have questions about anything else, feel free to get back to us.

You can also find lots of helpful information and advice relating to your services on your My Account at https://myaccount.talktalk.co.uk

Kind regards,"


Unfortunately at the moment because we have a home move order in the system we can't go into the system and try and set a home move up to see if the same message appears when we click "keep current phone number" and get a photo or screen shot to send them. Will certainly be doing so after the move takes place. Shame we're not with TT (well not really!) so we could check with our account.


I believe TT are fully aware of this "error" in the online move ordering system, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if it's engineered. If you move and change your phone number then you have to take out a new 12 month contract with them-which is precisely what's happened here.

iniltous

019138 isn't enough of the old or new number to decide if it's different exchanges involved , TBH , if for example , one number is 0191381 the other was 0191382 that could well be two different exchanges in the Durham area...if that's the case , chances are , regardless of provider , a change of number would be neccesary , as you cannot take a number from one exchange area to another exchange area.
The town may be informative, for example if they were moving from Sacriston to Meadowfield that would probably be a large enough move to require a new number from the new exchange

whatsthenews

iniltous wrote: »

019138 isn't enough of the old or new number to decide if it's different exchanges involved , TBH , if for example , one number is 0191381 the other was 0191382 that could well be two different exchanges in the Durham area...if that's the case , chances are , regardless of provider , a change of number would be neccesary , as you cannot take a number from one exchange area to another exchange area.
The town may be informative, for example if they were moving from Sacriston to Meadowfield that would probably be a large enough move to require a new number from the new exchange

It's Chester-le-Street to Newton Hall Estate, 5 miles south along A167, just ? near Pity Me. Looks like there's a mixture of 383,384,386 but thre may be others. My parents were 388. Could be that the online move order system spits out an error message when it's not possible to keep your number.
Anyway- looks like parents are just going to have to deal with it now.