Account canceled without my consent

[emilyriddy]

I received an email from BT saying that I had chosen to leave the service and my Wi-Fi and landline services were to be stopped, and later that day they were. However, I did no such thing and have been happy with my BT service. I phoned customer service as I had no internet access, and my account could not be found. I was told by the person on the phone that I had moved to Vodafone, which I had not. I then had to sign up for a completely new account, as BT had somehow lost all of my details, even though I have been a customer for many years now. I could not simply get reconnected, and chose to sign up for a completely new account as I was offered no alternative, even though this would incur me costs. I was told a new router would be sent out, except I already have one. I do not know why my existing account could not have been simply reconnected. I now not only have to pay, for which I am expecting a refund, but will have no internet or landline phone until the 25th of this month, and was told that my landline number would change. This seems like a very long wait.
I would like your advice on:
- being more immediately reconnected
- refunding all the costs I have had to incur from signing up for a new account
- keeping my phone number
- keeping the discounts I had on my mobile phone, as that is with BT as well

[gg30340]

I have notified the moderators of the forum about your problem. Once they have read this they may be able to help. They will advise you by posting on this thread.

[DanielS]

Hi @emilyriddy,

I am sorry to see that someone placed an order to take over services at your address with another company. When this happens, we normally send you an email, a written letter and a text message, depending on what information we hold on your account for you. On that message, it will say "We're sorry to see you go" and mention to call us if you have any questions. We give a date that we need to be contacted by too.

- being more immediately reconnected - We will need to contact Openreach, our supplier, to see if anything can be done for you
- refunding all the costs I have had to incur from signing up for a new account - That's something that we can look into ourselves
- keeping my phone number - I should hopefully be able to reserve this for you providing it has been released again.
- keeping the discounts I had on my mobile phone, as that is with BT as well - This should mean you have our Halo package. We can sort that out for you.

I'm going to send you a private message with some details that I need before my team is able to pick this up with a few days. We will do everything we can to help you @emilyriddy 

Thanks
DanielS

[Patti1]

I’m currently going through the EXACT issue right now as we speak. I first received an email beginning of the month saying that someone was trying to take over my service, I contacted BT straight away and I was guaranteed that everything was fine.. yet yesterday received an email that my service has been cancelled without my consent and been told that i need to pay a fee of £192.34 for cancelling the service before the end of the contract. As the solely account holder how is this even allowed to happen? BT has a contract with me and with me only, how can a stranger cancel my service without my consent, isn’t that a bridging of contract? And now I’m advised to start a brand new contract and start the process all over again. It’s unbelievable!

[imjolly]

you need to phone CS 03301234150 and see if they can help and stop cancellation.  you can also try billinfs using 'message us' to see if they can help  https://www.bt.com/help/contact-bt/account-and-billing/broadband

someone has applied for broadband  connection and given your phone number/address and BT have no choice but action the takeover but must notify you of the takeover and get your confirmation that it is ok

[Patti1]

Hello Jolly, I have done all of the above and I was suggested to let the process go through and start a new contract. How can someone request that and give my Mobile number ( as I do not have landline) and the process is initiated without BT even consult with me first. What purpose the contract has then? And doesn’t that seems like a scam?! 

[imjolly]

I doubt it is a scam more likely someone has applied to another ISP for broadband and has either given wrongly your address or the ISP has taken the address down wrongly but the ISP will notify BT that they are taking over the line and BT must comply per OFCOM.  however BT will write to you advising someone has applied to take over your line and you are given opportunity to cancel the takeover and say it was not you.

[iniltous]

There is a new Ofcom mandated OTS ( one touch switching ) system in place that doesn’t use the same practices that the GPL ( gaining provider led ) system used on the Openreach network…it’s entirely possible the notification you got saying your line was being moved ( the GPL process ) was cancelled, and the Vodafone customer wanting a ‘line’ ( probably giving your address in error ) when informed that their original order was cancelled , got VF to start the process again using the OTS system…the OTS doesn’t seem to have the same checks and balances against these type of genuine errors , or those with malicious intent .
BT may have done exactly what they were asked to do , you ( and many others ) may think that it’s ridiculous that a transfer can happen without your specific consent, but the regulator has a different view , they want no barriers and if that means sometimes customers get moved against their will , Ofcom considers that a price well worth paying …..

Just out of curiosity , is there anything non standard about your address like it’s a flat, but not in a purpose built apartment block , so has a vague address like ‘ top floor flat ‘ ,  27 made up street , that type of thing or is it a normal regular address , and did an unsolicited package from an ISP get delivered to your address ?