Denied One Touch Switch of Landline Number Plusnet deny existence of my Landline to other suppli

[#1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@thwackety 

"BT spun out openreach some years later (which will have been for business not consumer benefit), but still own openreach"

Actually, it was OFCOM that forced BT Group to spin out Openreach into a separate company within the BT Group.

This was done to ensure that rival telecoms companies had equality of access to BT's local network - so ultimately it was for the benefit of consumers.

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Just stop it - I'm not interested.

So, you agree that they're still a part of BT Group. Well done.

You may have also noticed that this hasn't actually worked - a BT Group line that was taken over by another BT Group company, transferred to them by another BT Group line was transferred in such a way that when a customer of BT Group company tries to leave a BT Group company with their landline number cannot do so because one of the 3 BT Group companies involved did so in a broken fashion such that the last BT Group company is incapable of telling other non-BT Group companies that said customer has a landline with BT Group company because they're blaming a  different BT Group company for not shifting a BT Group product from a different BT Group company correctly in the first place.

Do you understand that you are at this stage coming across as a troll simply to be annoying - and the ONLY reason - THE ONLY reason I am posting in here is because plusnet have a history of only responding to public shaming as far as I can tell.

Please let the plusnet forum staff do their job  - the nice lady I spoke to from them last week said she'd try and get it sorted BUT it's far more difficult and awkward for her than it should be and the only reason I am posting in here is because of BT Group company's incompetence.

Is your sole purpose here just to be annoying - I mean, you're not actually working for plusnet are you? You're just being annoying for the sake of being annoying?

Yes? OK. Please, just go troll someone else.

[#2]

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@MisterW wrote:

(Given the region I'm in is expected to start having copper/landline switch off happening this summer - meaning they

It's not quite as simple as just enabling the service in the router, it requires infrastructure and support to provide a digital voice service. The current landline service and support is provided entirely by Openreach, ISPs have little support needs, they effectively pass all faults straight to Openreach. With DV , suppliers need their own diagnostics and support functionality.

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This is utterly irrelevant to the problem in hand.

Yes, as a software engineer who's built network systems for the past 1/4 century I know it's not quite as simple as just flicking a switch. But frankly it's not difficult, and it was a simple business decision on their part. It IS pretty trivial to run a VoIP service - especially if bought in as a white label service. Now where could the buy that in from? Oh yes, another part of BT Group amongst many other possibilities.

Please this isn't helping.

Mansplaining things like this isn't helpful.

I'm personally close to looking into legal options to get this sorted because I know they take time and if I have to escalate this through the courts I will. Telling me that plusnet are incapable of making alternative business decisions isn't helpful either. They are. They could make the decision and either buy it in as a white label service, or hire the staff. Simple stuff. (It's not like VoIP is a new technology after all with many variations over the past 60 years)

Not only that I've said before that the key reason why I need to take the  landline  number with me is because I'm a registered carer for 2 people and need to ensure that the NHS can get through on the landline number because they do not ring back on mobile numbers - at least not round here. (maybe they do near you, they don't here) This does lead to appointment cancellations and being thrown back in the appointment queues even for things that are important. I'm not going to argue the points on medical realities on a public forum either.

I only say this to ask that yourself and Mr_Paul decide to stop second guessing every single thing I say that you take issue with. Ask yourself "Is my heckling this upset person helpful?" You're not going to convince me that Plusnet are a good and decent company any more, and does just make me upset and doesn't solve the core problem. (If it was possible on these forums to block other users, I'd block Mr_Paul at this point since he's only trolling/heckling/piling on)

I do appreciate you trying to guess what Plusnet have got wrong.

I do appreciate you escalating it to their staff. But this isn't helpful.

I've now got 21 days as this ticks down for Plusnet to get this resolved, and you're not helping.

[#3]

I'm sorry if you feel my comments are unhelpful.

I'll now leave you in the hands of the Help team.

[#4]

Good morning @thwackety and everyone that has taken time to respond to this post, and to @MisterW for escalating this to our attention, our apologies for the delayed response. 

Just to follow up on this case,  I have raised this matter with Stategic Imperatives (WLR), as they also cannot see any reasons for the failed port number, they have raised an ORDI (OpenReach Data Integrity), this was raised over the weekend and there are no further updates at the moment. As soon as I have some movement I will update this post.

[#5]

Hello Tina,

Thank you for this. I'll give 48 hours for you to complete this investigation. (Based on the fact that I know that openreach have a default of 48 hours for most things, nothing more)

To be clear, I've tried this now with multiple providers, none of whom are able to confirm that I active an active landline with Plusnet. This means it is clearly a problem on the plusnet side of things with the One Touch Switch, not others - since it's precisely in this case that the OTS system is supposed to work.

Furthermore, the providers I've checked have not been "jonny come latelys" but well known long standing companies:

* Andrews and Arnold

* Sky Broadband

* Virgin Media

* Vodafone

* Zen Internet

If you don't believe me, I can and WILL create screencast of the problems to prove the point. Where would you like that posted? 

So whichever part of BT Group is at fault, I would appreciate it if you could get this resolved, and get it resolved quickly. I'm considering legal options at this stage if you start charging me £62/month at the end of the month for your collective incompetence with regard to this.

As a reminder, history:

* BT Customer for landline since before 2001

* Plusnet customer since 2002

* Moved a few times, staying a customer of both - until we moved to current location in 2010.

* In 2010, was still a BT Customer for landline; a plusnet customer for broadband

* Switched my Landline service over from BT to Plusnet IIRC about 17 months ago, possible 35 months ago

FWIW, Sky theorised that the problem might be related to the fact that the number was ex-directory. So I phoned yourselves at the weekend to get that changed. It should have been completed now. The person I spoke to blamed the other companies for "getting it wrong", but frankly that doesn't seem reasonable, considering that  there's literally 5 companies that I've had check to see if they can do the OTS, and identify if I have a landline and confirm they can take the number over.

The fact that the 5 well known, reputable, etc businesses cannot ascertain whether I have a landline service with yourselves - as we all know I do, means that this is very much a plusnet problem that you are making my problem. You can blame other parts of BT Group all you like, but fundamentally you're all part of BT group, so please, actually get this resolved so I can stop talking about it on here.

Also, what happened to Cri who was dealing with this? Or Josh who she said might take it over?

And in case you're wondering, I just checked again with the same results.

• "There is no active landline service matching your Plusnet account details, but we found a broadband service."

No matter which way you dice this, it's a plusnet issue that you're making my problem.

Thank you again for looking, but I am running out of patience.

Michael.

[#6]

STILL NOT RESOLVED.

@Tina11192 

• 6/5/25 - Mentioned on here  (actually night of 5/5/25)
  • At this point I'd checked Andrews & Arnold and Sky Broadband which confirmed the issue.
• 6/5/25 - Phoned Plusnet - told to wait 2 days while they hoped openreach would fix
  • The "engineer" I spoke to (after the sales guy I was stupidly put through to realised that actually something needed fixing) said I would get the run around from yourselves while I went back and forth. 
• 8/5/25 - Spoke to someone at Plusnet "Cri" - 8/5/25 - Told they would look into and resolve, and either they or Josh would get back to me
• 7/5/25 - Tried repeated providers since sales buy stated it wasn't plusnet's fault. (it is)
  • Andrews & Arnold cannot take over number due to Plusnet responding that I'm a customer without a landline (via OTS)
  • Sky Broadband said plusnet say I have broadband but no landline (via OTS)
  • Virgin Media - same error through OTS if I ask for landline number continuity
  • Zen Internet - same error through OTS if I ask for landline number continuity
  • Vodafone - same error through OTS if I ask for landline number continuity
• 10/5/25 - Spoke to someone at sky who suggested ex-directory nature might cause issue, spoke to plusnet to get made non-exdirectory - did not resolve the issue.
• 12/5/2025 - "Tina" responds - as if this the first time that the issue has been raised. (Is Cri and Tina the same person? or is it a shared account?  No response)
• 13/5/2025 - STILL NOT RESOLVED 

Rather than resolve my problem, I've had at least 3 people from plusnet try to sell me a different product with a different member of BT Group. I have zero confidence at this point in their ability to resolve this, so I'm not prepared to buy that other product.

Plusnet support team: What is the ETA for a resolution to this problem that you are causing me? Is this your usual standard of support or is this unusual.

You've had a week. How much longer?

[#7]

I just want to summarise what happened after the above message, and pass on some thanks. (I feel if complaining and things get fixed, thanks is warranted!)

• I phoned plusnet help again, this time put through to an engineer - whom I failed to catch the name of, but he was very helpful.
• He also then put me through to James (if plusnet don't use last names here I won't post the last name), who detailed when Openreach had been contacted, and also the expected timescale for the ORDI fix, and was very kind.
  • (Incidentally, while I might come over as a grumpty bum on here - text is naff that way, I've hopefully treated everyone on the phone the way they'd hope to be)
• Since James said Openreach should resolve their side of things by today, I waited until late this afternoon, and they have indeed fixed the issue.

While I'm sad to leave Plusnet having been with them for around 23 years now - it being triggered by a business decision on landlines - I'm pleased that the final issue was resolved in the timescale that James gave me, which is appreciated.

Anyway, people who have been helpful include Cri, James, the 2 unknown engineers, and last but not least @MisterW who's assessment of the situation was bang on. 

@MisterW Once again, thank you for your kind intervention, it was very much appreciated.

Michael.

[#8]

I'm glad it was finally sorted.

[#9]

After all this, even though I'm moving providers, due to plusnet incompetence, the termination date got moved 4 days past the end of the contract.

Despite assurances this wouldn't happen by repeated plus net representatives, I've being charged £53.57 for 4 days service in June. Something that should've "just worked" took 10 days for them to fix, and because of this my contract is ending 4 days after the end of contract period, and they're charging. (As opposed to 6 days before the end of the contract - due their their incompetence)

Over 20 minutes on hold to hold music clearly intended to drive someone mad and waiting for someone to get back to me to confirm that I'll either be billed a reasonable amount (or not at all since this is plusnet's fault).

So much for promises like this:

Regarding your concerns about your bills as your contract is due to come to an end at the end of this month, if we cannot resolve these issues we can apply a credit to your account to price match your contracted price for next month if need be. Please just refer back to this message if this is needed nearer the time.

Doesn't mean anything if you get sent a bill of £53.57 for what will be 4 days service because plusnet - who I have the contract with - couldn't get their act together and have working systems.

I wonder if anyone at plusnet billing can/will ever pick up their phone?

(Doesn't seem like it - given 22 minutes of the worst hold music I've ever heard)