Telephone numbers been swapped

[#1]

Hi,
I used the Help Assistant yesterday, 15th July, to report a fault on the phone line. Message was as follows-
Question #72020301  "Fibre Optic Broadband works fine but telephones not working since lunchtime today, no ring tones on outgoing and incoming calls although a ring tone can be heard on mobile when ringing home number.
Tried fully charged cordless phone in master socket but still same".
It seems we have now 'lost' our phone number to someone else. This was only found out by chance late afternoon yesterday. Shortly after sending this message I received a call on my mobile. The caller told me that he had tried twice to ring my land line and the phone was answered by a lady with a totally different telephone number.  To verify this I rang my land line from my mobile and indeed ended up speaking to this lady who was aware of the problem.
This lady is also a Plusnet customer and has recently moved into Lancaster.and had already reported the fault to Plusnet who said they would send an engineer on Wednesday morning, I presume to the exchange, and that Plusnet would be in touch with me to explain the situation.
Can you tell me why Plusnet has not been in touch. It's pointless ringing the landline but you have my mobile number and e-mail address. Can you verify an engineer will be visiting the exchange to sort this.
The only thing I have had is what looks like an automated reply today at 1.04pm from [mremoved]  to my first query telling me to test the phone in the master socket, despite saying I had already done so and asking if I needed a home visit from an engineer, but obviously someone has messed up in a cabinet or the exchange, it's not a fault with our telephones or internal wiring.
Somehow this lady has our number and maybe we have hers but whilst she can obviously receive calls, we cannot take or receive any. Anybody heard of this before and I will ask again - Why has Plusnet not been in touch with me to inform me just what is going on.
dick:csa

[#2]

Quote from: kenrichy

Somehow this lady has our number and maybe we have hers but whilst she can obviously receive calls, we cannot take or receive any. Anybody heard of this before .....

Yes, I've heard of it happening before.
If it ever happened to me, amongst other things, I'd examine my next bill to ensure I got a refund for all outgoing calls and any other charges for the period when the line was being used by the other party.

[#3]

Hi @kenrichy
Cheers for your time on the phone just now (glad it was you that answered this time!) and really sorry to hear about this unfortunate problem.
The reason we've not been in touch is due to the fact that the issue is related to a fault we're dealing with for the other party (i.e the lady who has ended up with your number) so the issue being fixed for yourself is dependent on that issue being fixed.
We do realise where as that hinges on how things play out with the other person that you should have been kept in the loop all the same so I'm sorry that our process got in the way of that happening and that's what I wanted to make sure happened if there was still an issue.
Apologies again and just really glad to hear that this has been fixed.
Adam

[#4]

Hi Adam
Thanks very much for your telephone call this morninng, that personal touch is worth it's weight in gold.

[#5]

Quote

that personal touch is worth it's weight in gold.

Thanks for saying so, we'll always aim to do that wherever possible