How long ......

[#1]

..... should it take to move to Home Phone?
We applied to change to Home Phone on 29th Feb. This was acknowledged by email the same day.
This morning, I got another email saying that the move is only just starting to be processed and it would take up to 2-3 weeks.
I'm wondering why it has taken so long before anything has started happening. Over the weekend I put in a question asking to be put onto the special 12 month contract with the initial 3 months discount and the reply to that said it would be processed once Home Phone had been activated, which is fair enough. Has this request kick-started things?

[#2]

A quick looks at your account shows that the direct debit only became active yesterday, our system waits for this before placing the home phone order. Typical timescales from this event are around 10-15 days.

[#3]

Thanks Chris.
I was paying via credit card before so that probably explains the delay in things getting started. Hadn't thought about the time needed to set it up. I'd just been thinking of a couple of weeks from when we put the initial request in.

[#4]

I, too, have been waiting for a transfer date for the Anytime 240 product since 03/03/08.  My ticket #24238093 is still to be answered.  Is Mand on holiday?

[#5]

Update on last comment.
My question has now been answered, thanks Mand.  My transfer date is 28/03/08 so it does take a little while to get these Home Phone products activated.
Just had a (free) phone "barny" with BT about my recent bill.  They charged me £5.25 for Caller Display because I didn't make any chargeable calls in the last quarter (they don't make this very clear).  Also charged me £11.00 per month for rental but should have been £10.50.  Yet more reasons to leave BT for Plusnet. !!!

[#6]

Oh! I haven't had a transfer date. I suppose that's because the DD had to be sorted out first.
BT charged us an unspecified 'one-off charge' which turns out to be because we've used 1571 but have our calls with another provider (Tesco). Helpful person told my husband to dial 1280 (I think) before the 1571 when we queried it for the second time it's appeared on a statement but it's too late now for BT!!!

[#7]

Yes, my unspecified "one off charge" was for Caller Display which should be free according to BT's Pricacy at home policy.
I moved from Tesco to Orange (not recommended) and had the same problem.  Stick with PN they will sort you out in the end.  Have patience.

[#8]

Got our transfer date today - 27th March. Hurrah!
Looking forward to having 'caller display' 'cos our phone can be set to play different 'tunes' for different people when that's activated. Was too mean to pay BT for it.

[#9]

Caller display is free from BT.
At least it is if you choose one of their privacy/protection services (can't remember the name) - gives you caller display and registration with the TPS.

[#10]

Quote from: Mad

Looking forward to having 'caller display' 'cos our phone can be set to play different 'tunes' for different people when that's activated. Was too mean to pay BT for it.

Bad news! As HPSauce said, Caller Display is free (subject to making a few chargeable calls) from BT as part of Privacy at Home. Plusnet charges £1-50 pm.
http://www.plus.net/residential/phonecalls/home/homephone_features.shtml

[#11]

The name of the package is "BT privacy at home".  Caller Display is free if you sign up for this, but you have to make chargeable calls with BT otherwise they make a charge of £1.75p per month (used to be £1.50) yet another price hike which BT didn't tell anyone about.  Just had my BT phone bill, they didn't even apply my 50p per month discount for paper free billing.  Can't wait for the transfer to PN later this month.

[#12]

Yes, it would have cost us the extra for caller display as our call package was with Tesco.
It was the sneaky way BT brought in the extra charge for 1571 if you don't have your call package with them, not even specifying what the 'one off charge' is for on their statement, that was the last straw in deciding to switch to PlusNet's Home Phone. I now know you can get it free if you dial 1280 (iirc) before 1571 but they only told us that after I'd put the ticket in to change.
TBH, our phone costs won't be much different - swings and roundabouts. With the free evening calls in addition to our current free weekends (evening calls are a fixed cost with the basic Tesco package) it could be a few pence cheaper and PlusNet's call set-up cost is less, which will make a difference in the right direction.
I was annoyed with BT (see above) and we don't get many Clubcard points from Tesco as we don't make that many chargeable calls so it seems neater to have the whole lot from the same company as our broadband, seeing as we can.
P.S. HP Sauce, we've been registered with TPS for long before BT brought it in as part of their 'Privacy at Home' package, so we didn't bother signing up for that, knowing they would charge us extra for the 'caller display' element!