This topic

Virgin to BT landline transfer

GrahamMMM — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 21:11:25 GMT

Can someone please lay out the process for transferring a landline number from Virgin to BT in straighforward steps. I have a contract with BT and everything is up and running. The virgin media contract has a couple of weeks to run but I would like to transfer my landline number now rather than wait for the contract to end. The priority is keeping the same number which I have had for many years (since before virgin existed). I am being told different things by both Virgin and BT for how to resolve this and am going back and forward between them like a ping pong ball. I need to know as definitive an answer as possible so I can challenge whatever one of this is responsible for this as it has to be one of them. Thanks in advance.

Re: Virgin to BT landline transfer

imjolly — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 21:19:52 GMT

Is your current BT broadband contract broadband only or broadband with phone and you have a digital voice number?

Was the number you are trying to transfer originally a virgin number or was it one you ported to virgin fromBT?

Re: Virgin to BT landline transfer

iniltous — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 06:07:47 GMT

If you have a working VM service with a phone number you want to keep ( but not with VM ) and a working BT line with a ‘disposable’ number , then I doubt you can simply renumber your BT line with the VM number in one seamless order , the number portability process wasn’t designed for that

You may ( even though you already have a BT line ) need to order a new line with BT and indicate that you want to port the VM number ( provided the addresses match ) , obviously this requires 2 BT services and 2 monthly fees….if the original BT line isn’t really required, you could simply cease it , and then order BT with the number port option selected, so you only ever have 1 BT line .

TBH , if the BT line were installed in anticipation of ‘porting’ the number from VM ( and is within a minimum term so not cheap to cancel ) it was never the best way of approaching this issue, if either your existing BT line or should you order a second BT line and DV ( Digital Voice ) is used , that adds a further level of complexity

Re: Virgin to BT landline transfer

-Richie- — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 07:09:16 GMT

Number porting should of been done on the provision order to join BT, was there a reason you opted for a new number?
As already mentioned this is not a simple renumber, to port once live is a complex and time consuming process.

Re: Virgin to BT landline transfer

GrahamMMM — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 07:33:31 GMT

Thanks for the response. When we contacted BT to sign up for the new deal we explicitly said that we wanted to keep our original number. They said this would not be a problem and they would be able to transfer the number no problem when the contract with virgin was terminated. Our virgin contract has a couple of weeks to run so we thought to contact virgin to get it terminated now and we have just ended up in this morass with virgin saying BT need to request something from them and BT saying they cannot do anything until virgin disconnect us.

Re: Virgin to BT landline transfer

licquorice — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 07:39:59 GMT

I'll flag your problem to the mods, hopefully they will be able to sort it.

Re: Virgin to BT landline transfer

GrahamMMM — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 07:52:06 GMT

To summarise what has happened:

We contacted BT to say we wanted to transfer from virgin to them and agreed a new deal for broadband, tv and phone and explicitly said we wanted to transfer our existing phone number. They said this would not be any problem, we signed the contract with BT and they said let us know when you cancel the contract with virgin and we will transfer the number.

We then contacted virgin to cancel the contract and they said fine no problem your contract with us will end in 15 days. We asked for the phone number to be transferred now and to facilitate this for the phone to be disconnected, as BT said the phone number cannot be "open" to do thie and all hell has broken loose.

I cannot see anything unusual about the above, this must be a process that thousands of people go through every year? Why is there not a clear established process for this? It cannot be that difficult!

I believe the landline is digital voice. We were given an adaptor to plug into the virgin socket a few months ago (it is not plugged into the router).

Thanks again all for your help.

Re: Virgin to BT landline transfer

NeilO — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 09:00:21 GMT

Hi @GrahamMMM welcome to the community and thanks for posting, there is an established process to port numbers between providers but as @-Richie- explained this needs to be done as part of the provision order. I'm really sorry if you have been advised incorrectly by BT when placing the order with BT as trying to organise the number port after your BT service has already started with us complicates matters.

Was the number you'd like to transfer originally issued by BT or Virgin?

I'll send you a private message so you can get in touch with your details to the moderators and we'll be happy to help.

Thanks

Neil

Re: Virgin to BT landline transfer

GrahamMMM — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 09:25:51 GMT

Many thanks Neil. We have had the number for over 40 years so originated with BT of course. I will wait to hear from you.

@GrahamMMM that should work in your favour as the number...

NeilO — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 10:09:05 GMT

@GrahamMMM that should work in your favour as the number should revert back to BT when your Virgin line is stopped. I can't make any promises just yet but if you reply to the private message with your details we'll do our best to help.

Thanks
Neil

Re: @GrahamMMM that should work in your favour as the number...

slackgarry — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 12:59:34 GMT

Great information here. Thanks.

I'm about to go the same way from Virgin to BT. My number was with BT before moving to Virgin 20 years ago.

So What is the correct process in order to do the Number Port.

Thanks

Re: @GrahamMMM that should work in your favour as the number...

GrahamMMM — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 12:27:24 GMT

Hi Garry

Unfortunately I still do not know the correct process to transfer from Virgin to BT retaining the existing landline number. It seems we were incorrectly advised by BT to set up the new contract with BT prior to transferring our landline number from Virgin, but as we are now having to mange this situation we find ourselves in I do not have an understanding of the correct process.

We are now in contact with a BT community moderator so I am hopeful this will be resolved successfully, but that is all I can really say at this time.

Sorry cannot be more help.

Graham

Re: @GrahamMMM that should work in your favour as the number...

iniltous — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 14:36:58 GMT

If you have multiple services with Virgin ( TV , phone , broadband ) only the phone service is affected by asking BT ( or anyone else ) to provide a ‘line’ and arrange to port the number from the old provider, obviously it’s possible the BT customer service rep has given incorrect information, or it could be they were referring only to the TV/broadband when they said for you to contact VM to get those services stopped.

The process is , you only contact the new company ( BT in this case ) , they arrange a new Openreach based service , and send a request to VM that your existing number is ported ( or returned ) to BT , you don’t contact the old company at all about this , if you do it messes things up.

However that’s if it’s just the phone service, if you have multiple services and want all VM products to cease , and don’t contact VM about the TV or broadband , you could find that the phone number is ported to the new Openreach based service , but the VM TV and VM broadband continue to work and obviously they continue to bill you for those services, and when you realise you still have VM TV/ broadband, you cancel them , but you would be paying for both providers for a period.

If you do call VM , you would have to ensure they realise you are only serving notice for TV and broadband, and that BT will be serving notice for the phone , as part of asking for the number to be ported.

Part of the problem, is up until recently you couldn’t have broadband on an Openreach line without a phone service, but Virgin have always had separate services, you could have just a phone , just broadband or both but they are separate accounts , if you were moving to BT from Talk Talk ( for example ) porting the number would cease TT phone and TT broadband, so you wouldn’t need to speak to TT at all .