Wrong information on "BT track my order"

[robartist]

Good morning

I am moving from Virgin to BT for both internet and phone.

But the BT track my order information is wrong. I was told it would update in days. But it hasn't updated in over a week. I've phoned a couple of times.

I DO have a text message from BT confirming my installation date. But the BT track my order is completely different.

I am particularly concerned because we want to keep our landline number and have it moved over to BT. We are old and our friends and family know our number of old - we've had it for 36 years.

Details:

Track my order:

Your broadband will be activated on Thursday 10 October 2019. 

Your Smart Hub will be delivered on Friday 18 October 2019.

Your landline engineer appointment is booked in for Monday 21 October 2019 between 08:00 and 13:00.

But the text message received on my phone from BT says "one of our engineers will arrive on the 10th and install broadband and phone services."

Furthermore, the Smart Hub has already been delivered.

We have told Virgin that we are leaving on the 10th.

Which should I believe? "track my order" or the text message?? It's important to us that the whole thing happens on the 10th October.

Many thanks

Thanks for any help.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@robartist 

Who originally issued your landline number, which provider, as they would be the owner of that number?

[robartist]

Sorry but I have no idea who originally issued my number. It was in 1983.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@robartist wrote:

Sorry but I have no idea who originally issued my number. It was in 1983.

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Were you with BT at that time?

If you were, are you still living at the same address as you were then, as that will depend on whether you can keep your phone number?

[robartist]

Thanks for your worrying reply

Gosh. A long time ago. We aren't sure.

We used to live about a mile away for a few years. Then moved to this house in 1983. We have had the same number since 1983 - sort of, they made it longer by adding a "2" on the front (I think).

But we can't remember if we had the same number in the older house (lived there from about 1978-1983)

Your reply is rather worrying us. Are you saying that if we moved the number from our old house to our existing house in 1983 then we will not be able to keep it if we move from Virgin to BT???

Regarding the telephone company I would guess everyone (or is it most) people were on the same telephone company - was that the older version of BT?

[Keith_Beddoe]

Each physical BT telephone exchange has its own unique number range which cannot be changed.

I am assuming you were with BT originally (1983), so provided your current address is physically connected to the same telephone exchange as your original address, then its normally possible to keep your number.

If you only moved a mile, then its still possible you are connected to the same exchange, it depends on where the boundary is.

If you are now connected to a different exchange, then you would have to accept a new phone number.

If you can remember your old address, then you can check which exchange you were connected to by entering your old address in the broadband availability checker. That will give you the exchange name that you were connected to.

Then repeat the process for your new address, and see if the exchange name is the same.

https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/

Select the option to use the address and not the phone number.

[robartist]

Thanks but that link doesn't work for me.

I can only remember the address but that doesn't allow me to enter an address.

Is there a different link?

Presumably you realise that I do NOT have a BT phone line at the moment.  And haven't for years.

I've been with Virgin for years and have Virgin telephone. 

Thanks

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@robartist wrote:

Thanks but that link doesn't work for me.

I can only remember the address but that doesn't allow me to enter an address.

Is there a different link?

Thanks

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I have edited my post to show the correct link, as a direct link to the address checker does not seem to work. Try again.

If you originally ported your BT number to Virgin, then BT will still own the number, and it will return to them.

If Virgin gave you a new number, then its very unlikely you would be able to port it to BT, as Virgin have their own network and number ranges.

[robartist]

Thanks

Your link doesn't work for me still. It comes up with:

There is no data available for this number. This could be either because it is not a BT line or it is a new BT number that has just been provided. Most new numbers will appear on the checker 24 hours after BT has installed the line.

If this is a new BT number and does not appear after 24 hours then please

So, I did this:

1 used 

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

to find my old postcode

2 I then went to

https://availability.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

and entered my old postcode.

I then used the same link to enter my current postcode

They both came up with the same exchange.

Though in neither case could I enter house number. Just postcode. So, maybe one end of the street has a different exchange to the other. ??

[robartist]

Is there a simple way to just find out who owns the number? That would make sense so probably the answer is 'no' 🙂