New Account with FTTP & Plusnet TV

[#1]

All 

Im presently on the  FTTP trial  and  after another price increase  from sky , I looked at the  plusnet TV , which  seems to  fit our  needs . 

Rang up today to order it  and  was told  it was  not possible to add it with  my account , as  due to he well  known billing  problem , my  account  cant  be updated , so to  add  TV , they would  have to  create  me a  new  account. When I pointed out  I was on the  FTTP trial , and asked if this would  be affected  by setting up a new  account  , I was  put on hold , I'm presently  waiting for a  callback which  could  be today or  tomorrow, but the  chap on the  phone said a  new account  may  affect my  FTTP service  

Has anyone else  had a  new  account set up  because of the  billing problems  and   kept their  FTTP Trial package , or  had problems 

[#2]

@Steelman99 

Can't help with any Account problems but you can't get PlusNet TV if on the FTTP Trial. It's due to the way the system is set up. Ordering PlusNet TV requires your phone number to valid your "speed" meets requirements - this can't be done with your FTTP account.

Because it's a Trial FTTP services weren't / haven't been integrated with the rest of PlusNet's back office systems. This is usually why support staff have no idea about FTTP!!!

You can get the BT Sport app is you so wish. I use it & Chromecast to watch on my TV.

Brian

[#3]

If that's the  case , Plusnet  gets worse 

will see what they say when they ring  back  ,but if that's the  case  , will look at  jumping ship to BT once the  line rental savers  done with  Yes  BT  are  more  expensive  but   once  you  take into account what Sky are  charging  me ,  its  not any  dearer  and  the internet speed is  double  plusnet's 

[#4]

@Steelman99 

PlusNet may be "worse" for you given they can't add PlusNet TV to your account but that's the way their service is. Note that the original advice given to you was wrong but it's not unusual for support staff not to know anything about FTTP.

The whole point of a Trial is to see how it worked. PlusNet may, or may not, offer a commercial service in the future but until that decision is taken they had / have no need to update their back office systems to cope with FTTP enquiries.

The FTTP product offered on the Trial was based on the FTTC service ie 2 speeds. The faster speeds now available were not on the market when the trial was set up (it ran for several years). Once again, PlusNet may, or may not, offer them if a FTTP service is introduced.

I don't have a phone line so can't comment on prices but I suspect you're right saying there's not too much difference if you use both phone and internet. However, as I don't I won't get a cheaper service anywhere.

Note that you also get a far better router from BT (PlusNet after all is BT's "value" brand!!!)

Brian

[#5]

Thanks for getting in touch @Steelman99 I’m sorry to see you’re thinking of leaving us.

Just to confirm, I’m afraid that we can’t provide YouView when you’ve got an FTTP service because due to FTTP only being a trial with us, our system checks for FTTC availability down your landline telephone number and if there’s none it won’t allow us to set up a TV subscription. 

While there are a very, very small number of customers who do have YouView and FTTP this is from the legacy trial days using a complicated workaround that’s not feasible anymore to do. 

Also closing your account and opening a new one will not fix the issue, a likely outcome will be that we won’t be able to correctly open a new fibre account as our sales signup system doesn’t recognise FTTP availability.

We are however able to provide you with the BT Sport App for £10 per month if that’s something you’d be interested in.

If you do decide to leave then I’d bear in mind that unless you have more than one port on your ONT box you’ll need to request us to cease your service so your new provider can reactivate it, because there is no migration/transfer process for FTTP.

In addition to cease an FTTP service, this will take 5 working days and to reactivate it takes 1 working day(At least when we reactivate FTTP).

If you want to transfer your landline phone number to your new provider then unless they’ll be able to transfer this first before you ask us to cease your FTTP, we may need to step outside process on this occasion and temporarily keep your account open as a phone only account. Feel free to drop me a PM if you need any help with that. 

Obviously if you have more than one port on your ONT box this makes things a lot simpler.

I hope this helps. 

[#6]

Interesting that you  say there is  no  migration process  for  FTTP  , as  Plusnets  T&C say that they will  provide a  MAC code to enable you to  migrate - will  cross that  Bridge  when my  line rental saver  runs out 

"If you wish to move to another service provider during the trial, we will issue you with a Migration Authorisation Code (MAC) for your FTTP service."

[#7]

Thanks for getting back to us @Steelman99 

MAC's were removed in 2015 in favour of the gaining provider led migration process devised by Ofcom.

Unfortunately as per my previous response there is no migration process for FTTP. 

Can you advise where you've seen that we've said we'll issue you a MAC?

[edit]

I've found the article and I've passed this onto our products team to investigate further.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention

[#8]

@Steelman99 

Apart from physically looking at your ONT to see if there are spare ports you might want to try the DSLChecker.

http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome

After the results the narrative might contain something like

ONT exists with active service. A spare port is available. A new ONT may be ordered.

I happen to know my 2 year old ONT has 4 ports but a newer model was introduced shortly after my install.

Brian