Switch to Now Broadband and have lost old number

JJ_Egan

Problem is as always you do not own the number .
This reads as a TT problem as PO are resold TT .

iniltous

ralawrence wrote: »

I have just received an update from "Now Broadband" and I quote directly:-

Unfortunately we are unable to retrieve landline numbers from Post Office or TalkTalk

Amazing and difficult to believe.

Strange choice of language , they don't say 'we cannot port landline numbers from the PO or TT ' they say 'retrieve' , and if that means that after they mess up a port they cannot then 'retrieve' the number , no surprise there, if they actually mean they cannot port numbers from probably the second biggest landline provider, then their staff should warn TT customers exploring joining Now Tv and Sky, and the website should have a warning too

adonis

I think this is outrageous, if a company cannot guarantee that the number will be kept if needed, then they should be able to stop the transfer.

kukuman

Sorry I cannot help, I have the same problem now trying to port from SKY to nowTV.

According to ofcom you have full rights of your number.

zolablue25

kukuman wrote: »

Sorry I cannot help, I have the same problem now trying to port from SKY to nowTV.

According to ofcom you have full rights of your number.

Odd that there are problems with porting from Sky to Now TV as they are pretty much the same company. Indeed someone on here posted recently that their old Sky router still works even after his switch to Now TV.


I have to admit, the regulations are supposed to make switching easier by ensuring people are able to keep their number but there seems to be no comeback when suppliers fail to do this. It certainly has made me wary of switching away from Sky - which is a shame as when my current deal ends I will be paying twice as much as I need to.

iniltous

Quite a while ago I was reading an article that said Ofcom were looking at the way landline number port is managed by the industry.
They were concerned because at the moment if ( for example) you are a customer of Company A , with a number from that companys allocated number range, and want to change provider , (for example to Company and take your number with you to Company B then Company A ( even though you no longer have any relationship with them and more importantly you don't pay them anything) they still have involvement in your ability to recieve incoming calls on that number.

If enough customers decide to ditch Company A , and Company A eventually folds because it's income is reduced ( by customers leaving) but their costs ( including porting numbers to other rival company's) haven't , then basically what happens to all those ported numbers ?, all of a sudden Company A ceases trading and their ex customers that ported the number get no incoming calls.

Company B cannot just takeover Company A's number range , it's unlikely they would want to anyway, and not all Company A numbers are ported to Company B, some would be to Company C , and D etc...and in this cut throat Teleco environment , Ofcom obviously think it's just a matter of time before a Telco ( big or small) goes to the wall.

zolablue25

iniltous wrote: »

Quite a while ago I was reading an article that said Ofcom were looking at the way landline number port is managed by the industry.
They were concerned because at the moment if ( for example) you are a customer of Company A , with a number from that companys allocated number range, and want to change provider , (for example to Company and take your number with you to Company B then Company A ( even though you no longer have any relationship with them and more importantly you don't pay them anything) they still have involvement in your ability to recieve incoming calls on that number.

If enough customers decide to ditch Company A , and Company A eventually folds because it's income is reduced ( by customers leaving) but their costs ( including porting numbers to other rival company's) haven't , then basically what happens to all those ported numbers ?, all of a sudden Company A ceases trading and their ex customers that ported the number get no incoming calls.

Company B cannot just takeover Company A's number range , it's unlikely they would want to anyway, and not all Company A numbers are ported to Company B, some would be to Company C , and D etc...and in this cut throat Teleco environment , Ofcom obviously think it's just a matter of time before a Telco ( big or small) goes to the wall.

Out of interest (as I genuinely don't understand the mechanics of it all) how does this differ from porting numbers on mobile networks?

mgns

Has anyone else had problems with keeping their old phone number when switching to Now Broadband?

I'm considering moving my broadband and phone from Sky to Now - hoping that it should be painless given Now are owned by Sky. However, I'm a bit concerned with Now's competence given the number of similar complaints on their customer service forum.

YorkshireTyke

It seems that Now have a history here ; plenty of posts on their own forum re. failure to port number, failing to notify of new number / change, blaming customer for "not ticking the right box". 
The reality is that they are cheap-skates and don't care ; BT Openreach tell me that Now can recover my "lost" number by raising a Number Port order directly with Openreach, who will recover the number from its current holder (service provider) and re-allocate it to Now so they may give it back to me ; Now tell me that they do not subscribe to the Openreach Number Port service, so they cannot raise an order - they tell me to talk to Talktalk, but I am not now their customer so I cannot contact them (and they probably wouldn't be interested).  
I don't think Now are currently suited to providing effective technical or customer support to underpin a broadband service, and should pull out of the market - they should certainly be avoided by anyone who wants to keep their existing number when changing service provider.  
(I would like to see a survey result for Now customers - did you ask for old no. / did you get it / if not, were you warned beforehand / were you even told your new no. / did you complain / if so, what was the response? )

JJ_Egan

Well they are basically a cheap service with all the lack of CS that cheap entails .

Not all numbers can be retrieved if its already reissued .

Other providers also have number porting problems .

<(I would like to see a survey result for Now customers>

You can make a new thread with poll , though they can be very unreliable  as to the true facts .