Retaining my number

[#1]

Plusnet have changed my homoe number! I am not sure what I did not tick when the sales representative took me through the sign up of my new broadband but it defenitely wasn't you will have to pay £36.63 if you don't tick this now.... i cannot prove that I did, or that I didn't, or that I told the sales representative my number but he didn't do whatever... I don't have the transcripts, or the contract I signed for that matter. I'm sick of paying money out, it is not fair, it is too much, I just want to cry

[#2]

I'm having the same problem, but I guess because I am not as senior as you Plusnet are not being as nice to me and they want to charge me £36 to change it back, and are gaslighting me that it is my fault, if I had been asked in any clear way at the time of signing up whether I wanted to keep my current number I would definitely have said yes!

[#3]

@Disbeliver When did you switch, and who from?

[#4]

Some time in the last week of Jan, I'm moving from Virgin, they knew that as I discussed at length with the sales representative that I didn't want any new cables and the need to pay a whooping charge for the engineer to come and the difficulty to set dates for them to come...

[#5]

OK. Moving from Virgin could be one of the issues, but lets just see if there is a way round this. Is there a previous BT connection in the property, or is the only line/box Virgin?

[#6]

There is a box, the openreach guy has been today and I've received the email saying "this is your new number!!!" when I called to ask why they had changed it they said it is my fault for not stating at sign up that I wanted to keep it. I sincerely do not recall at any point there being a question to that respect, and I signed up with a sales representative on the phone, and I clearly recall the porting box for the mobile number, nothing for the home. 

So now they will only change it if I pay them more money.

[#7]

OK, this sounds like an agent error, but they certainly should have asked the question - I understand it is asked on the on-line sign-up journey.

@Gandalf - any comments?

[#8]

Thanks for reaching out @Disbeliver and I'm really sorry to see what's gone on here. I've had a look through the account and it appears as though we were not provided with a landline number during the sign up journey.

It does look like we sent you an email on 24/01/2022 and advised you what your new number was going to be, had we been aware that you wanted to retain the original number then, we'd have been able to cancel the orders down and resubmit them with the correct number.

As such, a one off fee of £36.63 will be payable if you'd like us to import your number. Please be advised though, if the range holder (original owner) of the number isn't BT, and the number is ceased, we won't be able to retain it at all unfortunately.

[#9]

The account appears to have been created online @Disbeliver, and the first agent to access the account accessed it today, so I'm a bit puzzled.

Please see my response on this thread - https://community.plus.net/t5/Home-Phone/I-want-to-keep-my-home-telephone-number/m-p/1855671#M35058

[#10]

Moderator's note(s):

Posts from the above-linked thread merged to keep support in one place.

[#11]

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@Disbeliver wrote:

Plusnet have changed my homoe number!

I'm moving from Virgin, they knew that as I discussed at length with the sales representative that I didn't want any new cables

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For the benefit of anyone else moving from Virgin to any ISP using the BT infrastructure...

1. Virgin uses it own private cable network so if you want to move to an ISP who uses the BT Openreach network (which is most of everyone else) then you WILL need different cables.  If there is no existing serviceable BT network to your property, then such a move WILL REQUIRE NEW CABLES
2. Migration from Virgin to any BT borne communications provider is not fully supported by the OFCOM migration process / rules - even where the customer specifies the existing phone number (as apparently did not happen here) the new service might well have to be provided on a new number until VIRGIN release the existing number

We have seen cases where the new (BT) line reports as having the customer's existing number and OUTBOUND calls report the correct CLI, however INBOUND calls are still presented on their Virgin line (if the telephone is still plugged in).

In this case, the number has not been changed, but rather the new (BT) line was provided with a new number and apparently there was no request on the order to port the existing number from Virgin.