Transferring provider is still too complex

NorwichMan

My recent experience trying to transfer from plusnet to Virgin for broadband and phone has not been much fun.

I notice I’m coming to the end of my contract, and if I do nothing my price will go up, so I look at my options and decide to move to Virgin Media. Place order (via MSE link) on 14 June, and am surprised there is no way to specify an earliest transfer date to match the end of my existing contract, but I go ahead anyway.

Then I call plusnet and they say it’s fine, Virgin use a separate line and they won’t cancel on my behalf, all I need to do is call them to manually cancel the contract 14 days before it ends. Then I get an email from plusnet saying the transfer will happen on 24 June and that will cancel my contract, this is some days before the end of my contract so I get concerned about an early cancellation charge. So I call plusnet back and they say I need to speak with Virgin to get the date changed.

Calling Virgin and getting to speak to someone is not easy, but when I do speak with someone they are happy to push back the transfer date to the day after my contract ends with plusnet. I then call plusnet, the person I speak to says I shouldn’t have done that, it would have been fine as it was and now there’s a risk my phone number won’t transfer. He has cancelled the transfer scheduled for 24 June and says I should check again that a new transfer request is made by Virgin for the new date. He doesn’t think I should request a manual cancellation, even though it’s now 14 days before the end and this is what the first plusnet rep I spoke with told me to do, this rep says it’s better to wait for Virgin to do it so they can transfer the phone number.

I am left completely confused and unsure now what is happening when, and whether I may lose my landline number. If Virgin had an option to specify transfer date when signing up, this would be better. Getting through to plusnet and speaking with someone is much easier, but their reps give conflicting advice.

To top it all, broadband genie say my order didn't track,  and so I may not get the amazon voucher,  and so this may end up being not such a great deal financially.

Arrgghhhh!!!

iniltous

Transferring to or from VM to another company using Openreach has some additional complications but can also be simpler than OR to OR, it’s only because you want to port your phone number there is an issue.
TBH you probably have got needlessly involved , but trying to get the exact date of your expiring minimum term as the install date of the new service isn’t a good idea.
By asking VM to takeover your number, they should open a dialogue with PN, so the date becomes something between them ( not you), if the changeover is a few days early or a few days later than what you want, it hardly matters, any overpayment ( a full month at the new PN price but a refund of most of that later, or a few days ETC won’t be much ) so you would have been better advised to ( once VM were instructed) to leave it work through.
By getting involved you do risk losing the number 
As far as specifying a date, you don’t know the workloads of VM or Openreach, what if you picked a date , and VM couldn’t do the work on that day, what then ?, if you have decided to leave PN , and ‘signed up ‘ with the new company , you should be thinking the changeover will be approximately 14 days later, but assume it may be a little earlier or later, assuming getting VM doesn’t involve any major work