Moving to BT Fibre

[locknut]

@licquorice I absolutely appreciate the current situation, but I do find the absence of any open orders on broadbandchecker more than a bit concerning. Any reassurance that this is entirely normal would be helpful.

[locknut]

Thanks @iniltous for your detailed reply.

Yes, I am going from ADSL to FTTC. BT confirmed a firm changeover date by text the day after order. I have just checked the BTWholesale broadbandchecker again, and there are still no open orders showing, 7 days to activation. As you say though, something must have been processed to trigger the correct contact from TT.

If I was convinced that everything would go through okay, I'm definitely inclined to let things take their course and argue the billing / notice toss with Eclipse afterwards, I don't want to upset the process. It's just the total absence of open orders showing on the checker that's a bit concerning.

What's the chances that this is a checker problem, rather than the actual process? Is it normally accurate?

[iniltous]

Are you keeping the same phone number ?, if so the only real physical work is likely to be in the FTTC cabinet, generally the EN ( the part of the exchange that delivers your dialtone ) won’t change, the connection from it, to the ADSL In port and ADSL Out port to the MDF remains as it is now ( the ADSL jumpering is left in situ and recorded as LIJ , left in jumpers ) the orders are in the main nothing more that administrative, a stop order for company A and start order for company B, a linked request for connection in the VDSL cab may not involve BTw as such .
I think I would consider calling BT to check , in the unlikely event that Eclipse , instead of responding to the BTw message that the host line was altering by saying ‘sorry to see you leave’ they arbitrarily indicated that the order is to be cancelled ( which is what happens in a slamming case, you get the ‘sorry’ comms, and call and say If never asked for this) , so a mechanism does exist for them to cancel, that could also explain why no orders exist on the Btw checker, if they were cancelled by Eclipse.
Hopefully that won’t be the case and everthing is on track but if it has been messed up by Eclipse at least you can get the ball rolling again

[locknut]

Thanks again for the reply, much appreciated.

Yes, I'm keeping the same number - and the same one I had with BT 20 years ago.

I do hope Eclipse haven't thrown a spanner in the works. According to the BT order tracker, everything is still go, so I don't know.

I understand that telephone CS is very busy at the moment, that's one of the reasons I've held off contacting them. Would chat be able to help with this, do you think?

[iniltous]

AFAIK, ‘chat’ should be able to access the same info as a CSR who answers calls.
It wouldn’t have occurred to me to check the BTw site for open orders, so if I were in your shoes I would have assumed everything was progressing OK , based on the TT response, possibly in blissful ignorance.
Just to satisfy your curiosity , checking with BT may be worthwhile, or even with Eclipse.
Because the process for SMPF isn’t discussed that widely, Eclipse could argue that you needed to give them notice yourself , and the ‘gaining provider led’ process that stipulates you don’t need to contact the old provider , is only for MPF , although that would seem against the spirit of the process.
I have changed my own mind, with regard to your issue, from thinking ‘No need to worry’ to ‘Perhaps it’s has gone wrong’ , certainly enough reason to do what is normally best avoided, and contact them and check.

[locknut]

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@iniltouswrote:
It wouldn’t have occurred to me to check the BTw site for open orders, so if I were in your shoes I would have assumed everything was progressing OK , based on the TT response, possibly in blissful ignorance.
Just to satisfy your curiosity , checking with BT may be worthwhile, or even with Eclipse.

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I don't think many retail customers would know about the BTw site, but I've found it useful in the past.

I had another "Goodbye" letter from TT in the post this morning, so they must still think it's going ahead.

I've resisted contacting Eclipse, for fear they could cause further problems. SMPF or not, I don't believe I should need to contact them - they should be notified of the switch by OR, the same as TT. I'll give BT chat a try, see if they can tell me anything.

I did ask if a mod here might be able to help earlier, given that the message on the home page tells you to come here first, but I was more or less told that I shouldn't be wasting their time.

[locknut]

I managed to get through on chat, they brought up the order details and although were very reassuring, they didn't address the points about the lack of contact from Eclipse, or the BTw checker. They did say that there was absolutely no problem  with the order and that it will definitely go through as planned.

I don't know how deeply they actually looked into it, but they only volunteered the VOL order number I already had.

After all this, I'm going to be pretty fed up if it goes wrong next Wednesday.

[iniltous]

I think the BT Rep probably did all they could as far as checking, when you consider this process that Ofcom imposed, it never ceases to amaze me that most of the time it works....in your case 5 company’s involved , if you include BTw, and Openreach, 1 point of contact, and the possibility that either of the 2 company’s losing you as a customer can cancel the entire thing, by using a process designed to safeguard you against being moved against your will.....hopefully things will be OK ( BT would presumably have spotted if their order had been cancelled by others ) , so the ‘only’ issue may be if Eclipse continue to bill you, and given they haven’t acknowledged your leaving ,that could be the case, but If that happens, it should be resolvable after the event....anyway good luck

[locknut]

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@iniltouswrote:

hopefully things will be OK ( BT would presumably have spotted if their order had been cancelled by others ) , so the ‘only’ issue may be if Eclipse continue to bill you, and given they haven’t acknowledged your leaving ,that could be the case, but If that happens, it should be resolvable after the event....anyway good luck

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You would think that BT would be notified if the broadband order was cancelled.

The billing issues with Eclipse I can deal with, I would sooner sort that out that the whole thing fail.

All fingers crossed, anyway 😉

[locknut]

Chatting to a few members over on TBB forum, it's clear from their experiences that you don't always see open orders on the BTw checker.

I'm much more confident about all this now, and hopefully my next post on here will be on Wednesday confirming everything is working. 😎