Pains me to say it but wish i'd stayed with Tiscal!!

[#1]

The saga begins on the 14th Jan. I get an e-mail telling me my new phone line is active. I ring it, it rings but not in my house. Phone my old number and thats still active. So I log a ticket straight away. On the 16th I get a call back from a really nice man who tells me Tiscali have said they are working on the line and it will be disconnected on the 18th. I bide my time and by the 19th I still have my old phone number ringing in the house. Phone the new number and it rings but who knows where!!
I cancel my DD as I am not wanting to pay for a phone line I am not getting to use. Also I am still being charged by Tiscali. I don't have the money to be paying 2 suppliers.  I phone Plusnet to tell them this, don't want them to think I am ignoring them and confirm the bill will be paid as soon as I have the use of the service. Still no call back from the support team. I then start getting e-mails and texts saying I need to pay this £11.99. For the phone line I still have no access to. 1 week later, on the 23rd Jan I get a voicemail saying they will send a BT engineer out and can I call. I phone on Monday 24th and ask for the engineer. Its 23.48pm on the Tues now and still no word when this engineer is coming out. By now I am meant to have broadband but can't access it as its linked to the phone line I have no access to.
I called Tiscali myself last week to confirm Plusnet had told them I was leaving as we were told by Plusnet they would deal with the transfer over. Plusnet also recommended we take a new phone number as it would be "easier". I have had to put a cancellation in with Tiscali myself as they confirm they have heard nothing from Plusnet.
So today I get a phone call on my old Tiscali number asking me to pay the £11.99 for the phone line I don't have access to. I call back and speak to 2 men who tell me "you have an active service". Yes, on your system it shows active however the issue is its not active in my home. Long story short I have paid the bill just so I don't have to speak to these people again. Darren told me today they need the BT engineer to confirm the phone is not ringing in my home. I suggested he phone the number and see that no one answers then call my old number and my husband would answer but no, he can't do that. He basically insunated that we were lying. That has really p*ssed me off. Why would I waste my time, energy and phone bill calling to report something!!!
Either way we are now going into the 13th day and no where near getting it sorted. It should never have taken this long. Even Tiscali/Talk Talk sorted out a problem with the line within 4 days, BT engineer out and sorted!
I have been told I need to pay £59 to cancel this contract, a contract for a service I have had no use of. I await my BT engineer coming out, he can confirm I have no line and then I can cancel the contract. If they fix the issue I will stay but it will be for 12months only then moving on.
Very, very disappointed so far.

[#2]

This sounds pretty awful

I'm not in the office tomorrow, but I'm confident one of our guys will pick this up for you.

[#3]

that is grim.  allthough you've had a rotten time, sunshine, if you hang in there, it will get resolved and you may get a gratis compensation in reparation for the amount of grief you've suffered.
i've witnessed myriad horror stories, always laid at plus.net's door and not always entirely their fault.  true, their customer services personnel need geeing up more than somewhat, but have a heart for what their teachers must be going through.  first some daft bat thought outsourcing to south africa was a noble enterprise enabling more poor people there to earn a crust and when that didn't fly, home they brought the service, requiring the hiring of the most suitable of a bunch of people who may, or may not, have been out of work all their lives.  these they have to instruct in the niceties of relating to customers though many of them have not learned even rudimentary civility and have never been encouraged to show some savvy.
as well as that, the infrastructure is changing as plus.net upgrades to new hardware, the software to control it and the trasnsfer of connexions thereto.  some are unlucky enough to land with the least competent and you've done the eminently sensible thing of coming here to bleat a bit.  being privy to the resolution of some of these horror stories is encouraging.  unlike many firms, plus.net are willing to accept that they fubar bigtime and set about putting it right.  i hope your connexion is established satisfactorily in short order.

[#4]

And sorry to say but most of the problems are with TalkTalk, they have been severely censored by OFCOM for just this sort of problem, holding on to the line, not stopping billing.
Ii your existing line is on LLU, that is an extra problem, where it needs new equipment at the exchange.  In THEORY you should keep your old number but TT have been known to close and delete the number before switch  They are a terrible company to do business with

[#5]

Hi all, thanks for the replies!
I'm sure when this is all sorted I will calm down and all will be fine however at this time I feel as though I am banging my head against a brick wall.  I must say the Support guys have been really helpful (the twice I have spoken to them) but the guys on the billing/cancellation line have not been. I was quite happy to sit this out until my calls yesterday.
I was very suprised when I shopped around for new suppliers I was told I did not have a compatible line. I had no idea Talk Talk had "taken over" my line. Sky and O2 told me I would need to pay for a new line. I chose Plusnet as they said everything was fine with the line. We took the new number so we could move more quickly but sadly this has not happened.
As of today I have now have no phone line or broadband as Talk Talk have finally cancelled the services. I hoped when I picked up the phone this morning the new Plusnet would be in use but sadly not. Hopefully the BT engineer will be out this week and we can get this moving.
I am quite angry that I have been forced to pay for a service I have as yet been able to use. However I have paid and will try claim back costs when I have use of the services.
Have a nice day everyone 

[#6]

Hi Sunshine123,
I'm appalled to see how long this is taking to resolve, I'm going to take ownership of your issue and see what I can do to hurry things along.

Quote

I cancel my DD as I am not wanting to pay for a phone line I am not getting to use

Please don't take this as a criticism as it's intended as friendly advice but you don't need to do this. I can understand why you did though. Cancelling a direct debit means more effort for yourself as you have to then re-instate a new one (and possibly card details if you want to pay sooner than the 7 days it takes to activate a new direct debit), then contact us to make payment. In the event of faults like this one occurring we do always ensure that our customers are credited for the time they have been unable to pay for their service, usually we give the option of this being done as a discount to future subscription payments or as a refund.
I'm going to pick over the details of this now and will be in touch soon with an update.
Adam

[#7]

FYI we're booking an engineer now for the soonest possible appointment, I'll be in touch by phone to confirm soon.

[#8]

but he hasnt got a phone

[#9]

Quote

but he hasnt got a phone

Thanks pierre_pierre, we ask all of our customers for mobile numbers at signup in case of scenarios like this.

[#10]

Adam thanks for taking ownership of this. BT called me today and they sounded as confused as plusnet. They were of the impression I'd had an engineer out as I've paid line rental. the engineer is out tomorrow and I hope this is rectified by end of week. I am now stuck using internet on my mobile which is not ideal.Fingers crossed for a fix!

[#11]

No problem,
I'll be keeping a close eye on things today. Will you be free to take a call from me in the afternoon say around 2PM?
Adam

[#12]

Hi Adam
The BT engineer has been and solved the problem. Plusnet generated a new phone line for me but it was never connected to my house or in fact anywhere. He said it was just sitting there. He has now connected it to our house and it is working.
I would now like a refund for the line rental I have paid from the 14th Jan to the 26th Jan. That is the time period I had no use of my phone. I also have had no use of the interent but that is for a shorter period.
Thank you so much for your help. Its a shame this took nearly 2 weeks to solve. A BT engineer should have been sent out way back.
However I should be up and running tonight and look forward to using my plusnet services!
Anne 

[#13]

Hi there,
I'd like to apologise for the length of time this has taken to resolve. A post mortem will be done from here to see where the failings did lie.
However, I'm really glad to hear that this is resolved, just let me know if you have any more issues. A refund and an e-mail will be on the way shortly.
Adam
EDIT: FYI we'd need to you re-add payment details before we can refund you.