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EH! - Your landline is being taken over

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quelquod
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EH! - Your landline is being taken over

Received an email from PN today to say:

"Your Landline Is Being Taken Over

Here's what you need to know

Another service provider has told us that someone wants to take over the above line ….."

etc. etc.

Wow - what's this?

So phoned PN. The CS agent didn't know what it was about but queried 'provisioning' and reported back that he'd had it stopped.

Noticed that I'm not on contract so entered sales spiel and we hung up.

 

So what's this about, what happened, should I be concerned?

It sounds as though some provider has tried to allocate my phone number to someone else somehow, but is that even possible?

BUT - now I notice that it's to take effect from my billing date - coincidence?

AND - when I check my account under the Home Phone Control Panel ->Call Features I find this message:

"Thanks - we'll start processing your product change request. Please note, as today is your billing date you might be charged for your old product until the new one can be activated. This will be calculated on a pro-rata basis and will appear on your next invoice. "

But I've not made any product change requests. So is this some weird PN glitch or has someone somewhere pushed the wrong button?

Anyone any ideas?

 

 

 

Democracy - 3 wolves and a lamb voting about what to have for lunch!
14 REPLIES 14
Browni
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

Could be as simple as somebody with a number similar to yours entering a typo whilst placing a genuine order.
quelquod
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

I did think of that but it doesn't explain the odd message in my Phone account settings. Also it's a coincidence that it's with effect from my billing date.

Surely the systems aren't so daft as to reallocate someone's phone number just because someone else enters a typo?

Democracy - 3 wolves and a lamb voting about what to have for lunch!
Browni
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

That is the purpose of the email, to catch when somebody has made a typo or even worse, attempted to 'slam' the line.
Mav
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

Moderator's note:

Thread moved from Tech Help to My Account/Billing.

Forum Moderator and Customer
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Townman
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over


@quelquod wrote:

Surely the systems aren't so daft as to reallocate someone's phone number just because someone else enters a typo?

If you conjoin ordering mistakes with poor infrastructure records held by BT Openreach nearly anything is possible.  Another supplier mistyping a phone number or getting an address confused and lines can be taken away from unsuspecting users within 10 days.

There was a case reported in these forums a few months back of a twice named ISP referencing a similarly named property causing the Plusnet subscriber to lose their line and phone number to a new neighbour … whilst they were on a two week holiday.

There's a no win situation here for all in the industry … the imposed 10 day delay is a source of many complaints when migrating services … yet in situations where mistakes are made, it is potentially not long enough to cover being away for a decent holiday break!


 

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Gandalf
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

Fix

Sorry to hear you've received notification about another provider taking over your line.

This is usually caused by someone using your telephone number to order a service with another provider.

I can see we've cancelled the order which would've notified that provider, so hopefully this doesn't happen again.

 

"Thanks - we'll start processing your product change request. Please note, as today is your billing date you might be charged for your old product until the new one can be activated. This will be calculated on a pro-rata basis and will appear on your next invoice. "

 

This would be unrelated and isn't indicative of a product change going through despite the wording.

I believe we've raised this in past for further investigation. Sorry for the confusion caused.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
quelquod
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

Thanks all.

not had this happen before so I was quite taken aback!

Democracy - 3 wolves and a lamb voting about what to have for lunch!
Gandalf
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

No problems. 

All's well that ends well as the takeover order is stopped Smiley

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
quelquod
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

Irritating things are continuing to trickle in though.

Friday I had another letter from EE telling me that they would transfer my phone service in 8 days' time unless they heard from me. Obligingly they gave me a phone number this time (the previous letter said to phone but not where to) so I rang therm. Quoting Data Protection they wouldn't discuss the line transfer request since it wasn't me who had made it. What? - IT'S MY LINE!! I managed to get through to someone called 'provisioning' and after a lengthy chat he said the transfer had been cancelled. No - there wouldn't be a confirmation letter. No - he couldn't tell me who had ordered it.

Saturday a card arrived for an Ashley King at my address. Risking prosecution for interfering with the mail I opened it (in error Wink) and it was a welcome schedule for him/me to EE Fibre Broadband.

So I guess I'll call PN CS again tomorrow to check that things are really stopped. As it happens I go on holiday shortly. I wonder if my service will still be here when I get back.

What a sodding stupid system. Does this mean that I can cheerfully order new services for half the town and cause massive inconvenience and no one can do anything about it because no one can check that the requests are actually valid. What happens to whoever made the false request? Do EE have a way of letting them know things have gone wrong?

And of course EE and PN are both part of that wonderful edifice BT - maybe explains some of it.

 

Democracy - 3 wolves and a lamb voting about what to have for lunch!
Gandalf
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

From what I can see the takeover order is still cancelled and there are no new orders placed.

It sounds like the letter you've received from EE is essentially the fall out of the order that we notified you about.

As well as us cancelling the line takeover which should trigger a message something along the lines of "end user not moving", if you've made EE aware of this too, I'd expect them to double check things with their customer before they try again.

Sorry that we can't do more to help you.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
Townman
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

Identity theft and fraud are deep concerns these days.  Someone ordering something against your address could be a mistake or an attempt at fraud. This sounds similar to a recent issue that I had - I received a named person invitation to chase PPI claims at my address.  The named person was totally unknow.  I spoke with the PPI claims company and asked where the addressee details came from.  They referred the matter to their data suppliers, who after two weeks, came back advising that someone living nearby had filled in a response to a marketing campaign and got the last bit of the post code wrong, thereby conjoining their name with my address.

Yes in the case of phone lines, that is all it takes, Fred Bloggs to request taking over a service at a known address … least that is where it starts.  If Fred gets the post code wrong, it can mean that service at the wrong address is impacted.  For example, near me all with the same "stem" name there is a Close, Court and Lane, the latter also having a "sub-cluster" all having the same number house as mine, all with rather similar post codes.  Thereby fowl-ups are easy to make.

You could try doing a person search in the phone book or on 192.com.

 

It might be possible that Plusnet can via BTOR pass on the fact that the named person does not have any association with your premises.

Personally I would be concerned to know if this person has made any credit agreements in association with your address, or has made any attempt to take over gas, power, water or local authority relationships.  If they can make a mistake with their address with one supplier, they can make the same mistake with another!

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

quelquod
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

That had occurred to me! Sad

And to cap it all, EE sent me a text asking me to confirm some details - unfortunately as it's a short code I can't reply!

Democracy - 3 wolves and a lamb voting about what to have for lunch!
Jonpe
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

@quelquod  Let's hope you don't find Ashley King living in your house on your return from holiday.

Gandalf
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Re: EH! - Your landline is being taken over

It might be possible that Plusnet can via BTOR pass on the fact that the named person does not have any association with your premises.

While I don't fully believe we can do this, I've emailed our suppliers migration team with the details.

If possible they'll pass the message on to the provider in question.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet