BT home move has left us with no working service

[harryh733]

Hi everyone, I come here hoping to get some answers from anyone who has suffered similar or might know what to do next. I'll try and explain the chaos as best I can. 

Around a month ago I contacted BT to move my existing line and broadband contract from my (then) house to my partners house as she was out of contract. All sounded easy and they even offered me a home hub mini as part of the deal as although I am on a fibre one package the speeds at my partners house are 2mb max and drop multiple times a day so that would keep us connected when it drops. Also explained that the exisiting number at partners house is really important as her work use it as part of an alarm system and emergency service contact, I am told that I can port the existing number immediately on the day of transfer.

Internet on partners account (whilst mine is transferring) drops 100 times in a day so call for engineer, I'm advised at the same time that my order has been cancelled for an unknown reason and that I am actually not entitlted to a hub mini as its not a halo package, OK, I'll have a halo package...oh no can't do that as we don't get fast enough speeds. Not impressed but re order the transfer with a lesser package.

Date of transfer comes and goes and a week later I check my online account and nothing has changed, still on old address and number.... call BT again! This time told order has once again been cancelled by openreach but they don;t know why, so once again they re order the transfer and give me a new date. 

New date comes and we wake up with no internet, really handy as I have 5 online meetings that day booked in and having to work from home really does rely on the internet. Call BT again, this time told that the landline has transfered but broadband package has been cancelled and they don't really understand why. Also landline number can not be ported for at least another 48 hours. Much stress later told nothing they can do for at least 48hrs and even then I will have to re order the transfer which will take another 5 days minimum. I say that I need the internet for work and am told If I purchase a 4G dongle myself then BT will cover costs and data. 

Another few hours later and I decide to call back as I am about to purchase a 4g router and data sim in desperation (cant tether to phone as we live in the middle of nowhere with limited signal) but want to check they will stand to their offer. I now find landline dead and cant call out. I get signal outside on my mobile so call BT from that and am quite rudely told that calling them again won't get any answers and that I need to wait as they can't do anything. Mention the 4G dongle and am told no, they will pay up to £20 only. 

At this point I feel at a loss where to go or what to do. We now have no internet connection and no landline at all. I am having to get internet from outside a friends house and try to complete work from the car. My partner can no longer continue to work on call overnights for her job as the alarm/security company cannot get through to us with the landline. BT have majorly let me down and I don't know my next step, I will call again tomorrow and see what I can do but will still be left with no service for at least 5 days minimum and with the track record of this I imagine it will be automatically cancelled again and I'll be back to sqaure one. 

Any help or advice would be great. I have filed it all as a complaint and it said they would call me today to discuss but obviosuly that never happened. 

Harry (applogies for any tyoping errors, lots to write)

[Keith_Beddoe]

@harryh733 

Welcome to this user forum.

I do not think what you were trying to do, would have been possible, as although your partner was out of contract, there would still be a working service there, so unless the home move was arranged as a working line takeover, the order would have been cancelled.

If a cease was requested by your partner, then that would have taken even longer, and the order would again fail.

Either way, it would not have been possible to avoid a loss of service, and you would not have been able to keep the same number.

I will see if one of the BT moderators can suggest the best way forward.

I do not think this is going to be very quick to sort out now

[harryh733]

Hi Keith. Sorry if it didn't make it clear. My partner did have a working service prior to this. The phone line and her existing number were working along with the broadband until yesterday morning. It was arranged as a working line takeover and she never ceased her service. 

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@harryh733 wrote:

Hi Keith. Sorry if it didn't make it clear. My partner did have a working service prior to this. The phone line and her existing number were working along with the broadband until yesterday morning. It was arranged as a working line takeover and she never ceased her service. 

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As I am just a customer, you will have to see if a BT moderator can help, when they read this thread.

[DanielS]

Hi @harryh733,

I am so sorry to hear about your experience.

I would like to offer you our help. I'll send you a private message.

Thanks

DanielS

[iniltous]

As already stated, what you wanted may not be easy or even possible.....if you have your own ‘account’ at your own address, but presumably still within a minimum term ( and you don’t want to pay ETC ) and you want to move your ‘account’ to another address , where someone is moving out is fairly common, your issue is that there isn’t a person moving out ( although they don't need their service ) but you want to keep ‘their’ number, normally why would anyone want to keep the previous ‘occupants’ number ?, this is a situation that has probably never been considered worth devising a process for , so would require a non standard series of orders to try and get what you want, basically how does your partners number get onto your account without ‘ceasing’ that service first, it’s difficult to see how it can be done seamlessly.

As a Mod has offered to help, it may be possible to ( eventually ) get your partners number allocated to your account at her address, but when put in those terms it’s easy to see why it went wrong, and arguably shouldn’t have been offered , or at least warned of the good chance it would go wrong.

[harryh733]

Thanks for the reply and I'll certainly speak to the mods for some help and assistance. 

Understand that it may not always be what is done but it was offered to me as a solution by BT themselves, it wasn't something I asked for as I called initially to cancel my service and pay the fee to do so. Everything I have ordered and been offered has been by BT themselves and told it would all be easy. 

Number wise if there was a short time to port across the old number would have been acceptable. However that added with auto cancelling of the broadband as well just makes no sense, plus not contacting me to make me aware that it's all gone wrong just isn't acceptable. If it was going to be this complicated they should have never said it would be so simple and easy in the first place. 

All I can hope is that I get some sort of service back soon as trying to make a living from my car is not how I saw my week going.