HELD HOSTAGE BY TALKTALK

zepps

Thanks for the reply jbuchanangb 

All good points and I believe what i meant was they was'nt cut off more like the line was restricted so only incoming calls allowed.

It does seem a bloody mess through, il look into being the nominee for them with talktalk.

macman

I'd get them onto the Priority Services Register as well once this is sorted out.
I didn't think TT had offered this kind of non-LLU 'calls only' service for at least the last decade? Not surprising that an offshore calls centre would struggle to comprehend this.
Even if they don't want to use the broadband, it's probably cheaper to contract to a standard line rental, calls and broadband bundle which may be cheaper than line rental and calls only.

zepps

Just to inform you guys, they phoned BT up again today and spoke to two advisors who didn't understand how talktalk could put restrictions on a BT line, they even noticed that the orders for the swap from talktalk to BT had been cancelled 4 times and didn't know why. but apparently they said its an old line maybe more than 20 years and the only way to solve the issue seeing talktalk wont do it is to disconnect and cancel the existing phone line and after a few days reconnect with a new order and new Number.

Bt have agreed to waiver the £150 charge for the new connection and refund the BT calls package they have paid to BT since February.

I'm not sure if they are going to have just a pstn line or a broadband line but the couple who are approaching 90 years of age are not bothered with having the internet.

I know its practically free nowadays with the line rental.

jbuchanangb

The customer has chosen to positively follow the BT route, and should get what they want in the end. With BT they should be able to retain their number, even if the line has to be disconnected and reprovisioned. I took a walk down memory lane and looked at my Tiscali documentation. Please forgive me for sharing this with you.


Not long after this, something called "Carrier Pre-Select (CPS)" came along which dispensed for the need for either a "Smart Box" or to dial a prefix before all phone calls. This mean that although the line was still owned and operated by BT, calls were routed over the alternative providers network. I realise the customers in this case were with OneTel not Tiscali but the same principle applies. Later on along came Local loop Unbundling (LLU) which meant that line rental could also be paid to the company which was handling the calls. Incidentally the Account number which I redacted above still appears as a reference on my direct debit payments to TalkTalk, even though it stopped appearing on my bills a long time ago.

zepps

Thanks again, yes i do remember the BT operator mentioning it was a CPS line said she's not seen many of those, although I wonder how many of our older generation still have this setup.

Maybe this is why the swap was terminated so many times that the CPS line was been treated like a normal line pstn/llu line.

At the moment they have a bill for £17 from talktalk for June but really the free 500 minutes package they thought they had with BT obviously wasnt being used as the line was being routed to TalkTalk (cps) .

I have suggested they send a complaint letter to TT with the bill and explain all this in detail.

They don't want the old number back either as all this mess has caused them alot of stress and fear TT will still have some hold of them.


By the way I used to work for Openreach in the exchanges so I am familiar with Pstn and LLU etc I used to wire it all in.

macman

Agreed, if retaining the number is not important, then disconnection and a free new line provision from BT is by far the best solution.
Just pay the o/s £17 from TT and then cancel the DD so they cannot take any more. For that trivial amount it's really not worth them getting a marker on their credit history.