Cease on line, orders won't process, no service for a month

KingsGambit_2

Hi all, I found a similar thread to my issue on this forum so hope this is the right place to seek advice. I have what may be a complex issue and hope someone might have some insight into this.

I was with Vodafone broadband and put in an order with Shell Broadband for phone and internet, intended to switch to the new provider and keep our phone number. The activation date of Nov 1st came and phone stopped working. 12 days later, broadband stopped working and there's now no phone and no internet at all. I've tried five times with Shell who believe there's still "a cease on the line". According to Vodafone, everything is now deactivated/disconnected for my old services.

So I'm in a strange limbo. I have no service from old provider, no service from new provider and I'm desperately trying to get reconnected with our old phone number. No-one seems able to help and OpenReach apparently cancel any orders either try. I phoned Vodafone assuming that they were the owners of my old phone number hoping that they of all people could reassign it to me.

Am I stuffed now and the phone number is gone forever? Is there any where I can check if there is a cease on the line, or anyone at Openreach I can speak to to advise resolving it? Mobile phones have PAC codes to keep old numbers, how is it this awful for landline numbers?

Right now i have no phone, no internet, two cancelled orders with each ISP and would love to know if there's any way i can get connected with my old number. Many thanks in advance.

iniltous

Openreach are not a consumer facing organisation so your issue is with Shell , and take no BS from them if they try and blame others , you never made an order with Openreach, they have no relationship with you , your relationship is with Shell, no one else .

Unfortunately there are many variables as to what may have happened, when you were a Vodafone customer, what number were they providing you with ? , a number that was originally a BT number , a Vodafone number , or a number you had with another provider ( Sky , Talk Talk etc ) 
VF can use Openreach WLR or other providers LLU networks .
Shell can use Openreach WLR but also other LLU networks and have recently been taken over by Octopus.
In September,  ‘WLR’ lines from Openreach were removed from sale , so any service that was going to supply telephony had to be an IP service , where the phone plugs into the router not the phone socket I recon this is where your order has gone wrong , Shell using products that don’t exist anymore.
OR don’t cancel orders for no reason.

Have Shell not even provided broadband with any old number while they ‘work’ on trying to get the number back from VF ? ,  I would be dumping them and using someone else , however  it’s likely the number won’t be retrieved .

KingsGambit_2

Thank you very much for the reply. I don't know why my username has a _2 on it! How odd!

To answer the question, I suspect I probably could get a service with any old number, but this is my parents' landline number of 15-20 years or more and it's so complex to change it.

I don't know who owns it, but I suspect actually it may be from Virgin Media originally. It's 20 years of different providers, but I think when we moved to Virgin Media all that time ago, we had an entirely separate line with this number. Switching back to ADSL/BT line broadband from Virgin fibre, the number came with through however many provider changes over the years, including a second run with Virgin in fact. The number has transferred between however many providers (it's probably single-digit amounts) for over 15 years.

I've had 5 orders with Shell get put through and get cancelled in turn. I tried Vodafone again thinking it was last theirs and maybe I'd have luck with them but they cancelled the order too, I will guess because of still "a cease on the line".

I'm really hoping that we can keep the number, wondered if I have any options or recourse or if I must bite the bullet on a new number. Would getting a new number and trying to "port" the old one somehow be an option? If I signed back up with Virgin Media for example? Right now I don't care about saving money or best deals anymore. :-(

iniltous

It’s ousted to to be possible if using the original number issuer to get the number back ,  normally requiring a temporary number while the wanted is returned to the number range holder , then a renumber order from the temporary number to the required number, but ( this is with BT , can’t vouch for others ) the introduction of DV ( digital voice ) has to a large extent stopped that .
If the number is a Virgin number originally then they may be able to re allocate it ( obviously requiring you to sign up with them ) but they won’t  guarantee getting it back so you could end up with a provider you don’t really want with any old number .
You can check the number on the Ofcom website if it’s not clear who ‘owns’ the number range .