Somebody wants to take over your phone line

[zilli60]

I also received this text (two days running) and an email, saying that 'somebody' wants to take over my line.

When I called 0800-500288 I was apparently speaking to someone in a department called 'Value Loyalty'.  I was told that the only way that the line takeover could be prevented from happening is if I take out a new 24 month contract with BT.  (My existing contract with BT does not expire for another 9 months.)

When I asked why BT cannot guarantee the security of my line under the terms of my existing contract, their representative could not answer this question.  He just kept repeating that the only way my line would be secure is under a new  2 year contract.

After I repeatedly demanded to know why BT couldn't guarantee the security of my line, the person put me through to 'Connections'.  This department confirmed that the request to take over my line had been cancelled and I had nothing to worry about.  (Perhaps as a result of my phone call to the same number the day before.)

If I was indeed speaking to BT in the first instance, it astonishes me that this underhand practice, to get customers to take out new contracts, is going on.

[Keith_Beddoe]

I have moved your post to this new thread, so you can get advice from forum members.

[iniltous]

It’s not clear what your complaint is , are you alleging that there was no attempt to take over your line , and it was simply  an attempt to get you to call , where you would be pressured into a new contract ? , the only way  to prove or disprove that would be to ignore the warning about the takeover, and the complication that would arise if ( as is almost certainly the case ) that an attempt was made to takeover your line , most likely by someone giving your address in error to their ISP .

The timescale seems odd , your post suggests you called and the takeover was cancelled, you then ( for some reason ) called again and then was pressured into an unnecessary contract extension, you complained and were put through to another department who confirmed the takeover attempt was cancelled, ( you yourself suspect as a result of the call you made the day before ) …..so why did you call again , if you had already called and the unwanted takeover was already cancelled, or you coincidentally called the number that’s used to cancel unwanted takeovers on another matter , and then received notification.

If you called again  because you received the same text twice , what did you say ( that you hadn’t already said the day before )  , wouldn’t the conversation be something like  ‘ I called yesterday to cancel an unwanted takeover , then I received a second text , can you confirm the takeover has been cancelled’ .

FWIW , if another ISP raised an order to takeover your line , and you ( getting an automatic notification ) call your current ISP to say it’s a mistake, it’s the other ISP order that is cancelled,  that has no bearing on your contractual situation, it’s like the other ISP order never happened in the first place .