BT Have change landline number without 'permission'

snarffie

Hi,

I'm a bit resigned to the situation,but thought it worth posting to see if there are any suggestions as to potential next steps.

I set up a BT phone and broadband connection for a family member who was previously on Sky phone and broadband.  The BT package is the Home Essentials package, which has a good fibre broadband connection and VOIP phone.  The previous Sky setup was a standard broadband with PSTN phone.

1. My first call to BT sales asked for the PSTN line to stay put and they agreed.  When I received the email confirmation from BT, the text said that the phone would be a VOIP.  I got in touch with BT to explain that we wanted to keep the PSTN line for emergencies and they confirmed that the Home Essential package isn't compatible, so I cancelled.

2. After speaking to the family member, we created a new order with the Home Essentials and VOIP phone and I requested that the phone number stays the same as it is currently as it has been for about thirty years.

3. A few days before the installation date, I phoned BT to double-check that the existing number would stay in place and they said that they would call my family member (they would no longer speak to me as I wasn't the customer) to confirm.  This didn't happen and the switchover was carried out a few days later as planned.


I have now discovered (one day after activation) that they have in fact given a new number to my family member and have told me that there is no way that the old number can be reinstated as it has been provided to another customer.  No amount of foot stomping would change their position.

Is there anything I can do, please?

tightauldgit

What's the process for the part in point 2 where you say you requested the number stay the same - is there a checkbox or something on the order which says 'do you want to keep your old number'? Do you have a record of the order saying that and any confirmation from BT acknowledging it?

If the number has already been assigned to someone else then you aren't going to get it back, but they might sling you a few quid to compensate for the upheaval. 

littleboo

How long ago did this happen? Numbers are quarantined before being re-issued for obvious reasons, so doubtful that its been reallocate unless this was some time ago. Have you tried calling the original number?

iniltous

If the number was with Sky , even if it were previously a ‘BT’ number that was ported to Sky in the past , and getting that number returned from Sky was never successfully requested and completed ( as part of the order that provided the (BT) Home Essential package)  it doesn’t matter the reason , failure on BT part , or on the person who ordered service with BT.

BT cannot ‘get it back ‘ as such , firstly because it’s still a ‘Sky’ number ( even if it were ported to Sky for now it’s still a Sky number  ) , eventually, if it were originally a BT number , it will be returned to the range holder ( BT ) and with regular PSTN service, it would have been be possible ( after a while ) to renumber whatever BT phone is number currently allocated to  the the wanted number ( once out of quarantine ) , but as the phone service is DV , that’s not going to be possible, that window of opportunity to move PSTN onto DV is only available for a short time , and the time to return the number from Sky to the range-holder and then the quarantine period will be longer than that PSTN to DV period ( 30 days I believe ) 

Even returning to Sky probably wouldn’t be successful in getting the number back , if the number has started  its journey back  to the range holder , or  if OR have a stop sell on copper products , even returning to Sky copper pair service may not be available.

The chances of the number already being returned , out of quarantine and already reallocated to another BT customer is so minuscule and is probably just not true

J_B

littleboo said:

How long ago did this happen? Numbers are quarantined before being re-issued for obvious reasons, so doubtful that its been reallocate unless this was some time ago. Have you tried calling the original number?

When similar happened to us many years ago, the number was 'quarantined' as above.

Constant badgering on a daily basis eventually reclaimed the original number!

snarffie

We contacted BT the day after the contract started, so not even 24 hours from the old number being terminated.  I told the operator that I can’t believe thatBT don’t have a system in place whereby the number is held before being released to a new user.

I did wonder if the number was owned by Sky, so BT’s hands are tied, but the principle of the number literally being terminated a day before BT being alerted of the issue and BT being unable to do anything is ludicrous.

The original number is dead. Just a series of weird clicks.

J_B

snarffie said:

The original number is dead. Just a series of weird clicks.

Which maybe means that all is not lost yet.

Contact BT and ask to change your number perhaps?

snarffie

J_B said:

snarffie said:

The original number is dead. Just a series of weird clicks.

Which maybe means that all is not lost yet.

Contact BT and ask to change your number perhaps?

I thought the same and called them again this morning in the hope that the original operator was giving me duff information.  I got through to a much more competent operator (night and day difference) who seemed to have a handle on the technical side of the problem and suggested that the number may have been unavailable because my request to change back was put in too soon (I did suggested this to the original operator, but was told this isn’t the reason-it’s just ‘gone’).

Anyway, she got onto the system and seemed to have sorted it, but the system again kicked out the request to port the number back.  She has promised me that she will keep trying. Ia am crossing fingers in the hope that she does and has success.

For information, I was told that the released number goes out of service for 14 days in which time it is only available to the original user (we’re well within that time period).  After 30 days, the number goes in to ‘quarantine’ and sits there for a further 6 months or so before being released.  Apparently, once the initial 30 days elapses, it’s pretty much unavailable to anyone (including the original user) - not sure why.  Again, when I originally raised the problem and told the operator that it was crazy that a number is just transferred over without any breathing space, she just said words to the effect of ‘computer says ‘no.’’

Clive_Woody

A similar thing happened to me when I switched to BT full fibre from a small local provider, despite stating during the application process that i wanted to 'port' my phone number to BT I was assigned a new number. A quick phone call to BT, a brief period on hold, then they told me that my original number would transfer to my new account in a couple of days.

If you are a Twitter user try contacting them on there with a private message as they are much more helpful than the Customer Service helpline folk - there were originally issues switching to BT and the Twitter folk raised a complaint for me and it all went smoothly, I even got a call from the BT Twitter team once it had finalised to check everything was okay.

snarffie

Thanks Clive.

I would have gone with your Twitter suggestion, but I think the operator who has taken up my problem is trying hard to get this done for me and I think I’ll give her some space.

I’ll keep the Twitter option in the back pocket though..