Postcode not recognised

[SJW1]

My husband has been trying since the beginning of July, to switch his elderly mother’s phone from Sky to BT. He keeps being told that her postcode is not recognised. Prior to 2 years with Sky, my mother-in-Law was with BT for over 30years with exactly the same postcode. 

My husband has contacted Sky as instructed by someone from a BT call centre yet still we are told that her postcode is not recognised.  Twice now she has ‘almost ‘ been connected but failed because according to BT her postcode is incorrect. This is absolutely ridiculous, my mother-in-law who is almost 90 & relies on her phone stands to be without a phone line because BT are adamant that her postcode is incorrect. It isn’t.

The only other option BT have offered is to give my mother-in-law a new phone number. Seriously? Offering an 89 year old a new phone number after 35+ years of having the same phone number. That’s not a reasonable or acceptable solution.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Sky need to raise an ORDI request to Openreach to get the Openreach database updated. Only her current provider can do that.

If the number is owned by BT, and she is still living at the same address, then it's normally possible to get the number back, once her services are with BT Retail. A temporary number has to be issued first.

[SJW1]

Have done that already & still no joy

[SJW1]

Just received a message to say that once again BT have cancelled the order which leaves my mother-in-Law stuck

[imjolly]

as @Keith_Beddoe posted it is up to SKY to raise the ORDI request with openreach  there have been other similar posts and you may find assistance if you try the SKY forum as from memory there are posts and assistance there

[Keith_Beddoe]

Is her postcode correct on the Royal Mail Postcode Database?

https://www.royalmail.com/find-a-postcode

Was the correct postcode selected from the list, when the BT online order was placed, as sometimes there can be more that one address shown?

I assume she is living at exactly the same address when BT first issued her number, is that correct?

[SJW1]

At exactly the same address. Have just spent 57mins on the phone to Sky & everything is DEFINITELY in order at their end. I’ve spoken to 5 different departments & each one has checked things. Final dept was the Order Recovery Dept & they again said everything was correct with postcode & address !

[Keith_Beddoe]

Based on what you have said,  am going to suggest a way forward with this.

First you need to place an order with BT Retail, and accept the new number to start with.

Once the service is active with BT Retail, and her original number has been released by Sky, and has returned to BT Retail, then its possible that one of the moderators of this forum, who are BT Employees, can manually request a renumber back to her original number.

Renumbering is only possible if the number exists on the local telephone exchange that she is connected to. This would normally be the case unless there has been a major network re-arrangement since she moved from BT to Sky.

This can happen when very small local exchanges are closed, and lines are migrated to another nearby exchange. She must also be living at the same address, as each exchange has it own unique range of numbers which cannot be changed.

If its only been two years, then I would not have expected there to be much change, as most exchange closures took place quite a few years ago.

[SJW1]

She cannot cope with having a new number, even if it is only for a couple of weeks. She’s 89 & had the same number since the 1970s. She wears an emergency pendant which relies on her phone also she’ under different doctors & they need to be able to contact her. Changing her number temporarily would cause far too much angst & confusion 

[Keith_Beddoe]

Then the only option left is to stay with Sky, as a change to any other provider is going to result in her number being returned to BT, if they own her number.

A renumber normally only takes a couple of days, not weeks, as it's a simple software change. If advance notice is given, and the number is reserved, then it can happen very quickly provided it's done manually.