Help/advice needed re phone line please
Hello
I apologise in advance for this as it's a bit long winded but have reached a point where I feel like bashing my head against a wall!
I decided to change BB and phone supplier to Plusnet to reduce costs. I placed an order and paid a years line rental up front to reduce costs even more. Prior to this my phone line has always been with BT and my BB ended up (through several takeovers) being with Talk Talk Business (was originally Freedom2Surf). It took me 3 weeks to get a mac code from TTB (long story) but finally they gave it to me and the transfer of my BB to plusnet went through smoothly. I thought the phone line would follow suit but it's proving to be a nightmare.
I first realised there was an issue with PN taking over the line when I logged into the members centre and saw a message saying there was 'social telephony' present on my line. I was asked to call BT and request them to remove this so the order could complete. Rang BT (lots of being on hold and transfers to various depts) and was assured there was no 'social telephony' on the line and no reason why PN could not take it over. Years ago I was on the BT Lightuser scheme and asked BT if something hadn't been updated correctly and was therefore providing a false result, but they said definitely not.
Rang PN to report what BT told me. Was told there definitely is 'social telephony' on line. The chap I spoke to sent me a copy of the information PN get when they try to place the order so I could call back BT with proof.
Rang BT again - (another half hour on hold) spoke to customer options - No, definitely, definitely nothing on line. Plusnets tools must be faulty. Asked them to escalate it and was told PN are the ones who must do this to BTwholesale, not them (BTretail).
Rang back PN (by this time I've spent my whole evening on the phone) - Relayed info from BT and was told it would be escalated to BTwholesale who would pick it up within 24 hours and manually overide it. 'YAY - finally a result' thinks me...
Left things go for the remainder of the week in the belief it was all going through fine and I would be notified when PN had the line.
Today - rang PN to ask what stage the order was now at as it had been nearly a week since all the above happened. Was told that it hadn't been escalated and that I had contacted them to say the social telephony was removed? I don't know if this was some sort of cross communication but I have not done this! Anyway, PN said they wouldn't be able to escalate it to BTwholesale as they don't own the line so it would be BTretail that needed to escalate. It was still showing as social telephony on the line when they use the SI system?
Rang back BT - No, there is really really really nothing on the line that shouldn't be - supervisor also checked - and its PN who must contact BTwholesale. Aaarggghhh!!!
Rang back PN - Nothing further they can do, its not them who can contact BTwholesale.
Went back to work...
This evening - rang back BT, transfered to PTSN dept - there is catagorically nothing on the line and no reason PN can't take over the line. Was told that they can't even see an order request has been made at all!? Something to do with Gateway/Gatekeeper? He said it would show on the system as a failed aquisition order - and that PN must be trying to do it wrong?
On the positive side - all the staff at PN I have spoken to about this have been lovely, they don't know what else they can do to help
So basically this is where I'm now at - please, please can someone suggest what I do next as I' at a total loss? I actually feel like crying with frustration
I apologise in advance for this as it's a bit long winded but have reached a point where I feel like bashing my head against a wall!
I decided to change BB and phone supplier to Plusnet to reduce costs. I placed an order and paid a years line rental up front to reduce costs even more. Prior to this my phone line has always been with BT and my BB ended up (through several takeovers) being with Talk Talk Business (was originally Freedom2Surf). It took me 3 weeks to get a mac code from TTB (long story) but finally they gave it to me and the transfer of my BB to plusnet went through smoothly. I thought the phone line would follow suit but it's proving to be a nightmare.
I first realised there was an issue with PN taking over the line when I logged into the members centre and saw a message saying there was 'social telephony' present on my line. I was asked to call BT and request them to remove this so the order could complete. Rang BT (lots of being on hold and transfers to various depts) and was assured there was no 'social telephony' on the line and no reason why PN could not take it over. Years ago I was on the BT Lightuser scheme and asked BT if something hadn't been updated correctly and was therefore providing a false result, but they said definitely not.
Rang PN to report what BT told me. Was told there definitely is 'social telephony' on line. The chap I spoke to sent me a copy of the information PN get when they try to place the order so I could call back BT with proof.
Rang BT again - (another half hour on hold) spoke to customer options - No, definitely, definitely nothing on line. Plusnets tools must be faulty. Asked them to escalate it and was told PN are the ones who must do this to BTwholesale, not them (BTretail).
Rang back PN (by this time I've spent my whole evening on the phone) - Relayed info from BT and was told it would be escalated to BTwholesale who would pick it up within 24 hours and manually overide it. 'YAY - finally a result' thinks me...
Left things go for the remainder of the week in the belief it was all going through fine and I would be notified when PN had the line.
Today - rang PN to ask what stage the order was now at as it had been nearly a week since all the above happened. Was told that it hadn't been escalated and that I had contacted them to say the social telephony was removed? I don't know if this was some sort of cross communication but I have not done this! Anyway, PN said they wouldn't be able to escalate it to BTwholesale as they don't own the line so it would be BTretail that needed to escalate. It was still showing as social telephony on the line when they use the SI system?
Rang back BT - No, there is really really really nothing on the line that shouldn't be - supervisor also checked - and its PN who must contact BTwholesale. Aaarggghhh!!!
Rang back PN - Nothing further they can do, its not them who can contact BTwholesale.
Went back to work...
This evening - rang back BT, transfered to PTSN dept - there is catagorically nothing on the line and no reason PN can't take over the line. Was told that they can't even see an order request has been made at all!? Something to do with Gateway/Gatekeeper? He said it would show on the system as a failed aquisition order - and that PN must be trying to do it wrong?
On the positive side - all the staff at PN I have spoken to about this have been lovely, they don't know what else they can do to help
So basically this is where I'm now at - please, please can someone suggest what I do next as I' at a total loss? I actually feel like crying with frustration
Hi there,
I'm really sorry to hear about this and perfectly understand that you'll be feeling very much stuck in the middle here.
To be 100% honest and to show that we're not interested in playing the blame game (as things can often appear to customers in scenarios such as this) I think some aspects of this could have been handled better by both ourselves and by BT.
I'm going to advise that you leave this with me for now whilst I make sure I'm totally sure of the correct process for how we handle these on our side and check if we have any recourse if we suspect any issues with the records we're seeing.
I'm really sorry to hear about this and perfectly understand that you'll be feeling very much stuck in the middle here.
To be 100% honest and to show that we're not interested in playing the blame game (as things can often appear to customers in scenarios such as this) I think some aspects of this could have been handled better by both ourselves and by BT.
I'm going to advise that you leave this with me for now whilst I make sure I'm totally sure of the correct process for how we handle these on our side and check if we have any recourse if we suspect any issues with the records we're seeing.
Thanks for the reply Adam, will wait till I hear from you further before making any more calls to yourselves/BT
Hi Adam
Thanks again for your help in trying to sort this problem out. I have spoken to BT yet again (and passed on all the relevant info from you) and just wanted to let you know their response - after a 30 minute call with someone in customer options (and her manager) the upshot from them is that because they can't see any problem at all from their side, they can't raise it with BTwholesale as they see nothing to raise. They said that any company (such as Plusnet) has the means to raise it with BTwholesale if that company wants to take over the line. She did say to me that she is pretty much sure that whatever the problem is, it will only be able to be seen from within BTwholesale (not Openreach).
So, please please can you raise it with BTwholesale as Plusnet are the company who see the problem, not BTretail?? If you really can't do this then I need to know what happens with regards to my broadband bill, as I wanted to move to Plusnet for phone and BB, and signed up to the half price BB for a year and paid my line rental a year up front? Am happy to stay with you for BB as long as my phone not being with you doesn't mean I suddenly get charged extra for BB, if that makes sense!?
It looks to me like I am stuck forever with BT as my phone provider, which seems really unfair
Thanks again for trying.
Thanks again for your help in trying to sort this problem out. I have spoken to BT yet again (and passed on all the relevant info from you) and just wanted to let you know their response - after a 30 minute call with someone in customer options (and her manager) the upshot from them is that because they can't see any problem at all from their side, they can't raise it with BTwholesale as they see nothing to raise. They said that any company (such as Plusnet) has the means to raise it with BTwholesale if that company wants to take over the line. She did say to me that she is pretty much sure that whatever the problem is, it will only be able to be seen from within BTwholesale (not Openreach).
So, please please can you raise it with BTwholesale as Plusnet are the company who see the problem, not BTretail?? If you really can't do this then I need to know what happens with regards to my broadband bill, as I wanted to move to Plusnet for phone and BB, and signed up to the half price BB for a year and paid my line rental a year up front? Am happy to stay with you for BB as long as my phone not being with you doesn't mean I suddenly get charged extra for BB, if that makes sense!?
It looks to me like I am stuck forever with BT as my phone provider, which seems really unfair
Thanks again for trying.
I'm sorry to say that there's nothing further we can do I'm afraid.
As mentioned when I called the issue isn't related to wholesale in anyway. They are our broadband supplier whereas Openreach supply phone services.
I understand this must seem confusing and frustrating when caught in the middle and I hope you can see that we've given this a good crack of the whip for you.
As mentioned when I called the issue isn't related to wholesale in anyway. They are our broadband supplier whereas Openreach supply phone services.
I understand this must seem confusing and frustrating when caught in the middle and I hope you can see that we've given this a good crack of the whip for you.
@Adam - Thanks for your reply - are you able to answer the second part of my last post? Or could you tell me who to contact about it?
Quote from: tracys
I need to know what happens with regards to my broadband bill, as I wanted to move to Plusnet for phone and BB, and signed up to the half price BB for a year and paid my line rental a year up front? Am happy to stay with you for BB as long as my phone not being with you doesn't mean I suddenly get charged extra for BB, if that makes sense!?
@spraxyt - - looks like this will have to be my next step as whatever phone provider I try to go with in the future will encounter the same issue Plusnet have.
Thank you
Tracy
Hi there,
As we were saying we spoke yesterday it's not something we could raise to BT Wholesale as it has nothing to do with them. Basically they are our supplier for broadband, not phone services.
It is something we've so far broached with Openreach who are our phone service supplier
With regards to billing it is possible to have phone with BT and just your broadband with us but that would I'm afraid mean not being able to get the half price offer which is only open to those being able to take up phone and broadband together.
Just let me know if you want us to refund the fee taken for Line rental saver.
Quote Thanks for your reply - are you able to answer the second part of my last post?
As we were saying we spoke yesterday it's not something we could raise to BT Wholesale as it has nothing to do with them. Basically they are our supplier for broadband, not phone services.
It is something we've so far broached with Openreach who are our phone service supplier
With regards to billing it is possible to have phone with BT and just your broadband with us but that would I'm afraid mean not being able to get the half price offer which is only open to those being able to take up phone and broadband together.
Just let me know if you want us to refund the fee taken for Line rental saver.
Just thought I'd update this as it may help someone else in the future with a similar problem.
The email I sent Ian Livingstone was passed on to Plusnet and I had a call from Luke [mremoved] HLE-LS (not quite sure what those letters stand for but hey ho :)). He has been really good at keeping me informed of whats going on - the latest call I had from him was to say there is some anomally on the line and it is now awaiting a response from the 'ordi-robot' (don't ask me!) and then my phone line should be transfered in to Plusnet.
So, I suppose the moral of this story is DON'T GIVE UP!! Keep on trying - even when everyone tells you there is nothing they can do, there is always someone else who actually can help
P.s I hope I haven't just tempted fate by writing this - maybe I should have held off untill I had definite confirmation the anomally was vanquished...
jim:csa
The email I sent Ian Livingstone was passed on to Plusnet and I had a call from Luke [mremoved] HLE-LS (not quite sure what those letters stand for but hey ho :)). He has been really good at keeping me informed of whats going on - the latest call I had from him was to say there is some anomally on the line and it is now awaiting a response from the 'ordi-robot' (don't ask me!) and then my phone line should be transfered in to Plusnet.
So, I suppose the moral of this story is DON'T GIVE UP!! Keep on trying - even when everyone tells you there is nothing they can do, there is always someone else who actually can help
P.s I hope I haven't just tempted fate by writing this - maybe I should have held off untill I had definite confirmation the anomally was vanquished...
jim:csa