Allocated existing number from different exchange on move-in, nothing working

[hiatusuk]

Hi there,

We signed up for Infinity fibre broadband + phone (having already sacked and got refund from TalkTalk) in the flat we just moved into. We were then allocated an 01903 landline number (Littlehampton/Worthing), despite being in an 01273 area (Brighton/Hove), but I didn't flag this up at first because, well, I'm not the expert, and I believe it's a neighbouring exchange. I assumed everything would be OK...

Roll on broadband activation date, nothing working. We had no interest in using the landline, but on phoning "our own" number, we got an old woman in Littlehampton. She's now racked up a phone bill at our expense.

After a number of marathon Chat sessions, faults, complaints, etc., an Openreach engineer was sent to our place. He called in advance to say that he was in Littlehampton and, "oh, you're in Hove, aren't you? The address doesn't match." He was quite clear that the number needed reallocating, etc., but none of his inforrmation seems to have been logged / passed-on.

Basically nobody at BT seems to have the slightest idea what the problem is, or how it can be fixed. All they can offer is to send more engineers round, or do pointless line checks on the old woman's line. Nobody seems to understand the problem of the number / exchange.

Any idea how I can get this sorted - or at the very least talk to someone who actually understands phones (!) ?

Thanks!

[hiatusuk]

Interestingly, looking at the phone bill of the old woman who actually has "our" number, all three calls she made (an hour and a half in total) have been to TalkTalk customer service. So perhaps she has exactly the same problem as we do?

[Devon_Dave]

hi. I have asked a moderator to assist on this one

[DavidM]

Hi hiatusuk and welcome.

We'll need to take a closer look at this for sure. Please send over the details, including the address and order reference. You'll get the contact details in my profile.

Cheers

David

[hiatusuk]

Thanks very much for looking into this.

I've submitted the info you asked for, David, and have been given enquiry reference number: *****-*****

Andrew

[hiatusuk]

Not sure if anything's been discovered yet, but I was given another engineer visit for this Thursday 23rd, and I can't see the point of continuing with it.

I suspect precisely the same thing will happen as last time:

1. We'll wait in for a few hours...

2. Openreach engineer from 01903 area picks up the job, calls us to check our address (15 miles away or so)
3. Engineer says he cannot do anything in 01273 area, advises us to get onto BT / Sales, get number changed, promises to write this up.
4. Incident gets recorded as "engineer was not granted access"
5. Complaints dept call to check we got our visit: they are clueless about the problem, fob us off with another visit next week.

Until something's been learned about the problem, should I just cancel the appointment now?

[john46]

Just let the forum mods deal from now on

[hiatusuk]

OK, thanks, I'll cancel the appointment.

[hiatusuk]

Finally all sorted now, thanks all for your help!

[hiatusuk]

Unfortunately I spoke too soon. Our routing still seems to be wrong, as even though we now have an 01273 number (though not the one I was told I would get!), and have a seemingly working broadband, it transpires that our connection is actually being fulfilled by TalkTalk. This is my "domain not found" page:

Also I'm getting a puny "Down Rate=7616Kbps"., not even close to the headline 38 Mbps.

It seems to be a dupe of: https://community.bt.com/t5/ADSL-Copper-Broadband-Speed/My-BT-broadband-has-changed-to-TalkTalk/td-p... and/or https://community.bt.com/t5/Other-Broadband-Discussions/IP-Address-has-changed-to-Talk-Talk/td-p/951...

This is with a BT Home Hub 5, with broadband username "bthomehub@btbroadband.com". BT Wi-fi Status is "Not active on your BT Home Hub".