Moving from virgin

[#1]

Hi all, not sure if this is the right section but here goes.
I am thinking of moving from virgin to plusnet. First, how do I keep my virgin number, is it in the sign up process?
Second, the is a BT line in to the house but it's been unconnected for years, would this need replacing or is it going to cost me more money?

[#2]

Just moved from Virgin , my advice don't. Virgin hike prices but you can tell them that you are leaving and they always offer a reduction. Virgin don't charge for service calls. With Plus net you have to agree that if they consider the fault to be in your wiring they charge £65. I used to work in the service industry it is so easy to blame the customer for the fault and charge the customer falsely, when the fault actually lies with the company. A nice little earner for them.

Even if you have a BT line into the house they will charge you a connection fee of £6.

Virgin is reliable and the phone line is always of good quality. My present line with Plus net (BT) is so bad I cant make calls, due to background noise. If I were not moving to an area that Virgin do not cover I would not have switched.

[#3]

That should read:

Even if you have a BT line into the house they will charge you a connection fee of £65.

[#4]

Thanks for that, I haven't rang virgin yet, I'm just getting some back up options ready.

[#5 · Accepted solution]

Hello @John_ and a warm welcome to the community forums

I see no reason why we won't be able to retain your Virgin number, as long as the line is active for us to port the number over. 

For example, if you do choose to join us I'd advise to get in touch with Virgin to give them the notice period to cancel your account once we've confirmed your activation date, but making sure they don't cease the line before the number is ported over.

If there's been no active BT line for a number of years I believe we would need to arrange a new line installation which does come with the installation charge of £49.99. If you private message me with your Post Code and House Number I'll be happy to check the availability at your address to see what options you have.

As for the possible £65 charge that's mentioned, this is essentially in a fault scenario.

For example, once the services are provided if down the line you have a fault with your service and we arrange a fault engineer that diagnoses the problem with your internal wiring/equipment the charge is applicable. We try our best to avoid it by running through a few checks within your property to help rule it out.

Do you have a BT socket in your house?

[#6]

Yes the is a BT socket but as I say it's never been used since the 90s

[#7]

If you do sign up with us and find that you are having problems with your service and a fault engineer arranged that diagnoses the fault to be the socket then yeah it's likely the £65 would be applicable.

The check we'd usually do to rule out the wiring/socket from being an issue, is to try the test socket which is behind the faceplate which does involve unscrewing it. Though, it's possible the socket may not have a test point if it's pretty old.

Not to discourage you from signing up, just presenting the facts for you to make an informed decision and to set your expectations. If you have any further queries or anything else I can help with just let me know.

-Edit-

What I've mentioned is worst case scenario I believe, and it's also likely that there's nothing wrong with the phone socket you have.