Family with sky and now can't ring my number

[#1]

I have already had a positive initial response, with a promise of a review.

[#2]

This is now FIXED.

NOW have sorted it and I'm trying to find out how (if i do I add it on here)

However this has left me with a really sour taste. I think that it is disgusting that telecom providers can't talk to each other when something like this happens.

I was only able to pursue this from the NOW side because my daughter is a customer of theirs. Had I not had any friend/ relative that could complain and push the complaint then it would still be an issue. IT WOULD NEVER BE RESOLVED.

It felt so wrong that PN could just hand it back to me, the customer. I maintain that they (and whoever the previous supplier may be) need to take responsibility as they agreed to take this line and provide a service which they then could not do. Instead of giving that issue back to me, they should be resolving it by talking with each other. Ironic that 2 communication companies cannot talk to each other!

To be told by one side that its not their fault so they can't do any more and then by the other that they can't do anything as I'm not a customer any more is incredibly frustrating. It can't be right and it certainly isn't fair.

It needs a system change to encourage providers to work together.

[#3]

Would be interesting to know how this was fixed - by the repeated report to the source of the problem (Now / Sky) by your family … or my escalation which suggested that this would be sorted promptly … at a very high level within the industry?

“Townman, thanks a million for the note. I will look directly into this now. Yes indeed there is an industry forum for porting issues so we will look to resolve through that. Lord knows why not sorted already but let me take care of it and thank you for passing my way.”

Whatever, it is great that you have the issue (which Sky should not have caused in the first place) fixed. For a multitude of reasons I would (will) never use any LLU provider. The consequences could (as you have experienced) be painful.

[#4]

Hi

I think this was fixed through the contract via NOW. They had earlier that day agreed to pass it to the network team.
I asked my daughter to contact them again and ask what, why, where but this is all we got back....

"Good morning
I am glad this is now resolved for
you now.
I have checked and the network
team have written that the the
issue was to do with the
cancellation on the line when your
parents switched providers this
removed their number."
I do hope that this isn't now just forgotten until someone else has an issue like it (as clearly there are others).

[#5]

Hi @gjam732 

Life is odd - just as your response here arrived, so did feedback from my industry contact too.  I contacted them last night to advise that your issue had been resolved, but it was not clear what delivered the fix - your daughter's complaint or my contact's intervention.  Their reply is as below.

"Townman, yes I think this was our engagement.  There is a specific industry forum to fix these types of issues, which we took this into yesterday morning [think around 8am] and it was fixed yesterday during the day. 

I think the issue was twofold – but I am not 100% clear on this yet. I think NOW had been aware but had not managed to fix and yesterday this was expedited and the right team resolved quickly.  

So thank you once again hugely for intervening . . . you helped this customer but at the same time highlighted things we can improve for us and for Now."

I would not be surprised if NOW were already all over this case when your daughter made contact.

As I said, I am glad that this is now sorted by those whose problem it always was to fix.  I am confident that lessons will have been learnt by all parties and note the telling "yet" in the reply above, which suggests to me that further follow-up is taking place. I would not be surprised if some people now have bleeding ears!

Sometimes the reality is that those tasked with fixing complex issues simply do not have the reach / authority to get traction on issues outside of their own organisations.  There are some things the SUs have a channel for, but it is something not to be abused and only used when all else appears to fail.  I have used it twice in the last 6 months, both for externally caused issues.

[#6]

Thanks Townman

It was so frustrating. In November I contacted PN about this and the person I spoke to then, from that first call, was clearly aware of the problem. He asked me to provide info of numbers, get people to call me and send him details and said he was already dealing with others and the common thread was Sky. Then it was passed to someone else and from my perspective it felt like there was then no willingness to try to resolve it, more a motivation to prove it wasn't PN "fault". PN tried to hide behind DATA PROTECTION but of given both PN and NOW my permission, as the data subject, to discuss it. As a customer of one and a former customer of the other I was stuck with nowhere to go. This may seem a minor issue but actually it did cause me quite a bit of stress mostly because of the frustrating lack of progress. To me it was a simple as PN speaking with NOW. From what you have said it seems that is in fact the way it was solved in the end (via 3rd party). I really do hope you are right and there have been some lessons learnt and that other customers don't ensure the same frustration I have.
Thanks again for your help and apologies if my "tone" became a little argumentative as time went on and my frustration built. Hopefully this is my last comment on here!

[#7]

Just a wee bit of context setting ... "more a motivation to prove it wasn't PN 'fault'"

I have spent decades in IT systems support and can advise that ALWAYS has to be (MUST be) the starting point within the support process: verify that all has been done within your own space to verify that the issue (fault) does not reside within your own systems.  After that appropriate escalation should take place.

[#8]

Hi Townman

FYI

Looks like it WAS NOW that sorted this. Your man just contacted the same guy that I was dealing with in the support team. He just sent me a final message in this in which he said..."They emailed one of our execs which filtered back to me. I can assure you that no one but myself was on your account during this time (accept me) and hence this didn’t fix your problem."