THIS IS URGENT! Broadband and phone cancelled by someone else!
phj wrote:
@JonoH wrote:
As your address does not actually exist (Or more accurately is outdated) on Openreach systems, the type of order we have had to place will require our suppliers to perform a survey to assess hot to
Not to split hairs here, but outdated is not correct either. My house name has never changed, nor has next door's. The Openreach system is quite simply incorrect. Both addresses have had the same hardware in terms of physical lines attached to the respective properties since they were installed decades ago.
Outdated is correct.
Your address does exist on the system, however it shows as a silver key address. Current up to date address records are listed as gold key addresses and orders can be placed at these and be appointed straight away if there is a spare pair available.
As the address is (Or rather, was yesterday) a silver key address, the order had to be placed with a survey, to assess capacity for the line.
As your line was previously registered on Openreach systems at your neighbours address, and has since been rerouted there, our request to take the line back was rejected. As we would essentially be taking another users line at another physical location, where it is also registered.
@phj wrote:
@JonoH wrote:
With this order type we are not given an option to select a preferred phone number, so we will have to wait until after the line has been installed to try and renumber the line back to your previous telephone number (we still cannot guarantee this will be a success)
I'm surprised at this response from Openreach. When my son signed up for a new provision of phone line, he was given a choice of numbers over the phone to pick from.
This would make sense if Openreach records showed the address as a gold key address. However, I'm afraid if no lines are registered at an address for an excessive amount of time, they become silver key addresses, which means a different order type has to be placed so our suppliers can assess capacity for the new line (As any lines previously there may have been rerouted and utilised at other nearby addresses)
phj wrote:
I'm not going to accept not getting my old number back so I suggest this escalated in the DSO process as I will take this further and further until the number ending in 597 is returned to my line. Somebody high up the management scale in Openreach must be able to knock heads together to makes sure this happens? The time and cost to me to advise a new telephone number to all and sundry who've known me to be on my 597 number for the last 30+ years is immense. This needs to be escalated high up in Openreach to make sure the restoration of my number does happen. Surely just being able to stop the number being reissued to another address could at least be done?
I'm afraid at this stage, no guarantees can be made to reserve a number that is not currently in use. However, as per previous responses, we will continue to do all we can to try and get this back as soon as possible.
@phj wrote:
In addition to this, it's somewhat angering that BT (that's the new neighbour's supplier), have steamrollered their customer's requirements over mine.
They have taken over a phone line that was showing at their customers address and then raised a fault to make the line work when it wasn't after their orders completed.
Granted the new provider have not restarted the stopped line that was showing at the other address, and instead took over a working line that was showing at that address, however based off of the records on Openreaches systems, they haven't really done anything wrong as such.
@phj wrote:
I guess they have more influence over Openreach?
Absolutely not. Openreach would have to provide all ISPs with an equivalent level of service. However I'm afraid disconnecting another ISPs customers line that has since been re-routed physically to their address, where it is also registered, is not something they would do.
@phj wrote:
The new neighbours have now had their services provided within a couple of days of the issue beginning, yet I'm left faffing around waiting on site surveys, delayed broadband re-provision and am at risk of losing my well known telephone number.
As the other provider are providing a line at an address where it registered, they likely just had to raise a fault report for an engineer to fix a fault (By re-routing the line to the correct address)
@phj wrote:
More angering is that BT, PlusNet and Openreach are effectively under the same group ownership aren't they? Why is it then that this entire mess cannot be undone more easily? The system currently in place is frankly abysmal, seemingly cumbersome and almost unworkable for the guys trying to help here at PlusNet, or indeed any other customer facing supplier.
I'm afraid despite being part of BT Group, it would completely go against Ofcom equivalence rules if Plusnet were able to contact BT or the other way, or if either of the ISPs could pull strings with Openreach.
@phj wrote:
@ JonoH wrote:
Slightly unfair, we did send a a letter via email, we just didn't also send it via normal mail as we normally would, this wasn't done on purpose and as explained earlier is a data matching error. No process will work correctly 100% of the time, our accuracy is currently over 90% we know it's not good enough and we're working on ways to improve that as we speak.
This is true, an email was sent (and junked) once. This is plainly not a robust enough system. As I've suggested previously, a letter must be sent 100% of the time in future. I don't understand why the billing address cannot be used, and the meaning behind the data not being good enough to send a letter 100% of the time and only 90% of letter sent? Also, as a further suggestion for improvement, should a reminder email perhaps be sent 7 days before termination and perhaps again 3 days before termination? There's a chance one of them might get seen then!
I'm afraid this is neither in mine nor Jono's control, however I understand Jono has been discussing this with some other teams. What I can say is that the current system is fully compliant with Ofcom regulations.
I had to wait for the renumber to complete and records to update first before we can place your broadband order, however I've not forgotten about this and will provide a date for the fibre activation as soon as I'm able to.
I was just about to place the order when I saw the notification for this post.
Hi Peter,
My tests are showing a loop on the line, which is basically a short circuit. This is likely to be the cause of the issue. I've reported this through to Openreach. We'd expect to receive an update within the next 48 hours.
