topic Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number in Home Phone

Family with sky and now can't ring my number

gjam732 — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 20:40:29 GMT

I was told by someone who rings our landline regularly that they are getting a message stating the "number does not exist". After some digging it seems that anyone who rings us from a sky landline or sky mobile or from a Now landline is getting that message. Everyone else can ring no problem! And we can ring everyone, including those on sky. I've been onto support but they're bouncing it back saying it's sky problem and they can't talk to sky because of data protection. They've also been very unreliable at ringing me back when they've arranged to do so, for which i have now had an apology. However, I've seen older posts on here where this problem had occurred (something to do with split porting or incomplete porting, though we've not changed supplier recently) and someone from plusnet said in that post, "l've just sent an escalation over to BT's
Migration Services Team" and apparently it was then resolved! All I've been offered is a change of phone number but I've had the same number for 40yrs!. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now but as a customer of plusnet i feel they should be doing more to resolve this? Can anyone help. How do i get bt involved?

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

Townman — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 13:15:03 GMT

Hi, @gjam732

A warm welcome to the forums.

Your tale has a common theme - SKY!! NOW is part of the Sky group, so the experience of NOW Broadband users being the same as that of Sky users is not surprising.

Though you have had the same telephone number for 40 years, has that always been with the same supplier? Has it ever been with Sky? Given that you have had it for 40 years, it would be reasonable to presume that the range holder is BT Retail.

Where did your number come from?

It might help to profile this issue by knowing the original network owner for your phone number. You can find the range holder for your phone number here - UK Phone Number Range Holders

If this number has been with Sky and ONLY Sky / NOW users are having problems, then there is more than a fair chance that the issue is within Sky entirely, in that they did not export the number correctly. In which case BT's porting team might not be able to help. Whatever might be do-able from Plusnet's side, I would encourage those having issues with their supplier not routing the call correctly ... to contact THEIR supplier to ask why they are failing to route the call correctly.

If this number was previously with (or belongs to) Sky then there is an issue with their outbound routing; no amount of action by a third party is likely to resolve this issue quickly. Sky needs to identify where their call routing is failing ... assuming that they are actually attempting to route the call outside of their environment.

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

gjam732 — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 15:21:31 GMT

Thank you.

The range holder is Bt.

I was with Now before switching to Plusnet. I've contacted them and they take no responsibility and tell me that it is a plusnet problem. I've tried arguing the case but to no avail.

Ive looked again on Google and find more similar issues with sky/now including one from a sky mobile that couldn't connect to a specific landline that was resolved and the customer recalled the engineer explaining ...
"He said something like - A switch was overloaded with data - I am no expert so apologies to everyone if this is incorrect but I take it to mean that somewhere on the network between my Sky mobile and my Dad's landline there is a network switch that had become inoperable due to being chock full of log data. I guess they just turned it off and on again! It may come as a surprise to some that network switches are not the passive featureless boxes they appear to be. They store much recent routing information to enable them to optimise routing for future packet routing requests. I have known them in small networks to get stalled because somehow the routing data stored is incorrect, obsolete or corrupted, once flushed out they start working again."

Having a solution (or possible solution) doesn’t help if nobody will take any responsibility.

As for getting those who are finding they can't contact me to contact their provider, I have asked but a far as they are concerned, as they can contact everyone else, in their view its not their problem and they just use their mobile or ring my mobile instead. However, this leaves me not knowing how many callers can't get through and with nowhere to turn.

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

MatthewWheeler — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 16:57:40 GMT

Hi @gjam732

I'm really sorry for how long it's taken to get back to you. We've been quite busy recently so it's taking longer than we'd like to reply.

I can see you've got a case open with our High-Level Escalations team regarding this. I've asked our suppliers to check the porting on their end just to make sure that all is correct

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

terrymcc123 — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 11:51:24 GMT

Hi giam732,

I am also having the same or a similar problem, I cannot tell if it is only SKY/NOW customers who are not getting thru to my land line but where I can check that has been the case.

I have not had problems previously since I switched to Plus net (but I can't say when this started as only the caller knows and they do not always know how to contact me if they cannot get thru on the landline).

BT have been the Range Holder since 15TH July 94.

I have tried to update my outstanding call

Question #230340917 - Your Feedback

but I cannot see the "Notification Bell" Therefore I am not able to progress unless I start again.

Not a usual Forum user so apologies if I am not using correctly.

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

Townman — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 12:01:24 GMT

Hi Terry.

A warm welcome to the forums.

Was your number previously with Sky or Now?

You can access your ticket history using the PN Ticket link below.

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

terrymcc123 — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 12:40:47 GMT

Hi Townman,

Yes my last supplier was SKY but I have been over to Plus net for a few months. I typically change supplier at the end of contract to take advantage of any deals. This is the first change where I have experienced this problem.

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

Townman — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 12:52:40 GMT

Superuser citation

This topic has been cited by one of the Superusers; the purpose of which is to provide a note for information which might help to focus continued discussion (but might not result in a staff response).

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

willcutforth — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 14:08:13 GMT

Hey there @gjam732

I am so sorry nobody has picked this up. Is the issue still happening/do you need me to get someone to sort this for you?

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

gjam732 — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 14:18:46 GMT

This is still an issue, now for 2 months. It's with support but they claim they can't do anything. They are even sending me messages saying they tried ringing me on my mobile and it wouldn't let them leave a message (i assume that's so they can update their log that their was action taken) it is UNTRUE. I have had no calls at all....i am happy to share my call log in my phone to show that I'm now being LIED to. I'm guessing they dont know what to do. They basically admitted as much in that their only solution is to offer me a new number but I've had this number for over 40 years...... any help would be appreciated. One of the main callers who can't get through is a relative with Parkinsons and its a major concern.

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

gjam732 — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 21:06:08 GMT

Just noticed you ARE plusnet support. Please speak with <CSA name removed> maybe he can tell you who he tried to call about this as it wasn't me.

Moderator’s Note: Personal information removed but still visible to Plusnet staff as per Forum rules

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

gjam732 — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:24:16 GMT

Just thought it right i should update this and apologise as it appears that the mobile number on record was incorrect and the support member had tried to ring what he thought was my mobile but one digit was wrong on the records. However the fault remains and it seems the next step is to send an engineer even though we all agree there is no fault on the line.

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

willcutforth — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:53:02 GMT

No worries.

As the issue is with our higher escalations team, there isn't much more I can add as they are the case handler and will deal with it from there for you. If you do need me to give them a prod to pick up the case, please let me know

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

Townman — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 19:18:31 GMT

@willcutforth

It seems utterly useless contemplating sending an engineer out to do nothing relevant to a call routing issue from Sky / Now to a number ported away from Sky / Now ... when the rest of the world can call that subscriber without issue.

As per the SU escalation, there seems to a recurrent problem in the port away from Sky / Now process ... probably somewhere within Sky / Now. Would referring this to the BTOR porting desk be a more productive approach than wasting a valuable engineering slot?

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

gjam732 — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 19:47:58 GMT

Totally agree. That's what I've been asking for and why i got so frustrated on the phone with the higher escalations team earlier and ended up hanging up on them. I'm no tech whiz but even i can see this is not a line problem!

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

RichardB — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 19:20:45 GMT

I believe the Sky/Now customers trying to call @gjam732 should be raising this as an issue with Sky/Now to resolve.
They are not getting the connectivity to your gjam732's number and are active customers of Sky/Now.
Regards
Richard

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

Townman — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 19:45:15 GMT

Such is the recommendation I made previously. It’s is a failure to full port out the number from Sky / Now.

Would be interesting to know if any Sky mobile subscribers experience the same failure to route the call?

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

gjam732 — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 22:04:58 GMT

Yes. Sky mobile callers have the same problem.
However, i am now a customer of Plusnet who agreed to take my line over from Now and, as in the terms of the contract we have agreed, they state that they will provide me with the ability to make and receive calls. As their customer, with an issue preventing them from fully being able to meet their contractual obligations they should be taking action to rectify the fault. I have been chasing backwards and forwards between Plusnet and Now basically with each blaming the other. " Now" will not do anything as I'm not their customer. Those people getting the "line no longer exists" message when trying to call me have only my phone number as an issue for them and understandably feel that the fault is mine as they can contact everyone else so are not inclined to try to resolve it. I on the other hand have a cumulative problem and don't actually know the full extent.
At the end of the day I'm a plusnet customer with an issue on a line they agreed to take over and who are happy to continue to receive my full monthly payments. Surely there should be some interaction between these companies to resolve these issues - clearly others have been and are now affected with this and similar issues.
I have agreed to let them waste the time of an engineer visit with the hope that it will escalate to the point that Openreach take the necessary steps to resolve it.
Whichever side you look at this from (plusnet or sky), it is not my fault that the problem exists and as a service user I cannot be expected to fix it.
Maybe this needs to go to Ofcom?

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

Townman — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 22:16:20 GMT

Who is the range holder for the number.

Where did your number come from?

It might help to profile this issue by knowing the original network owner for your phone number. You can find the range holder for your phone number here - UK Phone Number Range Holders

One can spin this anyway one wants, at the end of it the problem is restricted to current Sky / Now subscribers cannot make calls to a number which Sky / Now have ported out. The port process needs several parties to do the right thing - the acquiring party to request the number port and the relinquishing party to release the number AND ensure that call routing is sorted. It is quite evident that Sky has failed to ensure that calls to number which were once theirs are now "exported" out of their network.

This needs then to resolve their issue. Plusnet have already passed this upwards, it would help if the parties conered contacted their supplier and made VERY CLEAR that the issue relates to calling a number which was previously with Sky, has been migrated out ... and there appears to be an issue with Sky's routing ... and are not fobbed off with "its not our problem".

Clearly you having no commercial relationship with Sky are not in the best position to address this with them ... but your callers are. Might they be friends / family?

Re: Family with sky and now can't ring my number

Mustrum — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 23:08:48 GMT

Ofcom are not going to fix it, as a PN customer report the fault and complaint to them, your family can help speed up the fix by reporting and complaining they are unable to contact your number to their service providers.