How to contact BT Openreach re old number transfer.

Bendy_House

Long story short, I transferred from TalkTalk to Vodafone for my Fibre and Landline phone.

Voda's online process asked if I wished to keep my existing LL number, and this was important to me. However, it wouldn't work - kept saying it couldn't be done, as it either didn't tie up with the address (it did), or I'd moved to a different area (I hadn't).

Contacted both TT and Voda, and TT confirmed the requested transfer was for everything, and there should be no issues. Voda couldn't come up with an explanation, tried to blame TT..., but ultimately promised - repeatedly - they would transfer my number afterwards, if not during the process.

On that basis, I went ahead.

Yup. New number provided, and they claim it cannot be transferred, "'cos BT says so".

Any BT engineers or office employees on here?! My old number is currently defunct - silence when dialled. So, the actual NUMBER still exists as a number, and 'unused' number.

What do Vodafone have to 'do' to BT to make them activate/transfer/whatevs my number?!

I've tried contacted BT Openreach via their website - not a chance. Menu system which takes you back to square one.

Lawdie...

 

wongataa

Consumers cannot contact Openreach.  They will only deal with businesses.  You have to deal with your phone provider about this issue.

The_Fat_Controller

Vodafone appear to have issues porting numbers, keep on at them.

Bendy_House

Thanks, both.

So, Ofcom it is...

The_Fat_Controller

OFCOM do not take on individual complaints.

You need to make a formal complaint to Vodafone and if not resolved take it to CISAS.

However, the timescale involved means a much greater chance of your number being lost.

J_B

When this happened to me, the number went into the invisible ether for X days, but then was released for general use again.

I went with BT for the new phone only service and they were able to retrieve it

As said, keep on at Voda

Bendy_House

The_Fat_Controller said:

OFCOM do not take on individual complaints.

You need to make a formal complaint to Vodafone and if not resolved take it to CISAS.

However, the timescale involved means a much greater chance of your number being lost.

Thanks, TFC - that was useful advice.

I made a formal complaint to Voda, also informing them that the next step would be Cisas.

Someone on the Voda forum told me that this has now't to do with Openreach, but that TalkTalk would still 'have' the number, and it was for Voda to contact TT again and request its transfer.

Another 'chat' with Voda on the 18th with this info, the rep took a good few minutes, and then confirmed they'd made that request to TT. This morn, my phone started ringing again.

Blimey - I was really expecting the worst outcome, but it has finally been sorted.

I can only surmise that Voda are populated by a bunch of twits.

zagubov

Well done- you've done better than us. We tried to port our LL number from Virgin to BT and both were adamant it was the other firm's job to transfer the number over. 
For phone companies they seemed completely incapable of sorting this out over the phone.
End result - lost the number and had to be issued a new one.

Bendy_House

zagubov said:

Well done- you've done better than us. We tried to port our LL number from Virgin to BT and both were adamant it was the other firm's job to transfer the number over. 
For phone companies they seemed completely incapable of sorting this out over the phone.
End result - lost the number and had to be issued a new one.

Ah. For some reason, Virgin are different, I think. Is it because they are independent of OpenReach or something, I don't know. But I'm pretty sure I have read - in all my tedious research for this - that Virgin numbers are sort of their 'own', and non-transferable.

Something like that. But if that's the case, they should have been completely upfront about it.

If it ain't the case - if BT are just being incompetent (like Voda were), then 'formal complaint' and escalate to CISAS.

molerat

I think that the telecoms industry should get some sort of regulator with a framework that sets out ground rules and standards ...... ..... Oh, wait a minute

debsy42

When I worked for Virgin Media a few years ago number ports were very common and the numbers were quite happily ported between Virgin and BT both ways. Believe it or not they were one of the few things that seemed to go wrong and any problems were solved quite quickly as the two depts at the different companies seemed to have a good working relationship. Maybe things have changed and not for the better since I left.......