line slammed

[steveio62]

Hi all ;

i hope someone on here can give me some advice on a recent issue.

i recently had my landline slammed by another service provider ( Monday this week). I have spent hours on the phone talking to different people at bt  but i am no clearer as to what is going to be done about this.

I had NO notification from BT that another service provider was taking over my line.. the line /internet just went dead and i later received a text from BT stating that 'some' of my services would be lost. Over the course of this week i have managed to get in touch with Ross at Doncaster who is in the process of expiditing the issue i have.I have been advised that the earliest reconnection will be late March.

I am due to get some feedback of OFCOM later this week as to what network and were the order was placed from once they have been in touch with openreach, at present it all points to malicious intent from what i have put together from various operatives at BT.

A precentage of my business dealings depend on this landline as you can be aware of... i have been advised that i may not be able to get my number back , this is a major issue as i have had this number for many years and losing this will incur a lot of hassle as stated above.

Ive got internet back online again thanks to being sent a mini hub., but i am struggling to get i touch with anyone from BT who can explain to me why i was not informed of a new provider taking over my line.

Anyone on here who can point me in the right direction.. quickly ?

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@steveio62 wrote:

A percentage of my business dealings depend on this landline as you can be aware of... i have been advised that i may not be able to get my number back , this is a major issue as i have had this number for many years and losing this will incur a lot of hassle as stated above.

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@steveio62 

Are you a BT Business user?

[steveio62]

no,residential, most of my business dealings are done mobile nowdays but i still need the landline 

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@steveio62 wrote:

no,residential, most of my business dealings are done mobile nowdays but i still need the landline 

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Just checking, as BT Business have a different forum.

Late March does seem a long time to get service back. If you had been informed, then you would have 10 days to stop the line takeover.

If it was a FTTC connection, then is possible the delay may be due to the fact that the cabinet is full, even so, it does seem a long time.

This is only a customer to customer help forum, and I doubt any of the BT moderators would be able to help, as you already have someone looking at it.

I assume your landline phone number has now been ceased, so its going to be difficult to get it back now.

[iniltous]

Is it definitely ‘slamming’ ?, as the ‘sorry to see you leave’ letter is an automated process , the common system all providers use generates the notification that a working line is involved, and obviously it’s in the losing providers interest to notify the soon to be ‘ex’ customer if it’s a case it’s a of slamming , as the option to cancel the transfer is highlighted in the letter.

With slamming ( or genuine migrations )  the line wouldn’t just go dead , you would get the new providers service delivered where the old providers service was, many genuinely slammed don’t notice until the initial bill from the new provider , or final bill from the losing provider turns up…..dialtone from company X sounds exactly the same as dialtone from company Y, and if the slamming request retained or ported the number then incoming calls are not affected either.

It sounds to me that you were not technically slammed , so no ‘sorry to see you leave’ letter would be sent….that’s not to say something has occurred that affected your service, it probably wasn’t slamming though…( slamming is where a new provider transfers you their company, without your consent ) , typically they call someone to get them to switch, and the punter says ‘let me think about it ‘ , the provider submits the request anyway, even though they never got an agreement.

If you lost service , as you suspect , by someone acting with malicious intent ,perhaps they simply called BT and asked for your service to cease, they would presumably have been able to answer security questions and have info like the account number etc to do this.

[steveio62]

From what i have been told from BT it is slamming.

i received a message from BT  after the service was cut stating that 'some' of my services were being lost, done away with , terminated.. whatever. The line is still active but unable to make calls on it or receive calls .

The only way i have of contacting Bt is by  private message on twitter, i cant get past the automated service as, obviously, i dont have a number to put in to verify the account anymore.

Latest correspondence is i need to get in touch with the retentions team.... anyone know the number for that department by any chance ?

also, ive had an email from BT stating that the y are charging me x amount for early cancellation of my contract , i havent cancelled anything, i was two months into a new deal with them when they cut me off.

Something very fishy about this whole matter... has anyone else experienced anything like this ?

[iniltous]

Being  asked for early termination fees isn’t surprising, if the account , either legitimately or not, was terminated whilst inside a minimum term , and no doubt will be addressed when service is finally properly restored and a customer service rep with the necessary authority can waive fees, apply credits etc.

Irrespective of what it’s being called ( it’s not slamming in my opinion ) if your line is now ‘stopped’ , has it a soft dialtone ?, in this case ,  no calls can be made apart from emergency calls ,  but calls to customer service can normally also be made , have you tried calling 150 ( BT Customer Service number ) , the  idea is someone moves in to somewhere with a stopped line , they can call customer service ( on 150 ) and  they can ask for the line to be made fully active , or 17070 to obtain the stopped number now on the ‘line’ ?

[-Richie-]

If the line was taken over and a new number issued, ask BT to refer you to the PBIS team (Priority Back In Service) and you'll have the line back in a few days, if the number was transferred to another provider, PBIS won't work as the switch was a transfer.

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@steveio62wrote:

also, ive had an email from BT stating that the y are charging me x amount for early cancellation of my contract , i havent cancelled anything, i was two months into a new deal with them when they cut me off.

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Provided you sign backup to the same services at the same cost that were lost, BT would refund this once you're outside the cooling off period (14 days) of the new service being restored.

[steveio62 · Accepted solution]

Another few hours on the phone, this time spoke to someone on the retentions team. The strange thing is they have no record of an application by, in this case, sky, to take over the line, hence no automated email ' sorry you are leaving us' . Sky ,it appears , have just taken over the line. How strange ! I cant get my old number back yet as sky dont have it, openreach have it, its sitting in a pot ready to be 'taken' back when my new service goes live ....in early March !

No one seems to know how this takeover has occured, ive not had any dealings with Sky, Ive certainly not cancelled my account with BT; I was only two months into a new one, ive been with Bt for 30 odd years!. I'd like to think someone has made a mistake somewhere along the line here but its all pointing to malicious intent on someones part. Anyone who has experienced this sort of thing will know the hassle  it can cause, then add on the factor of your landline number connected to your business and you can treble that hassle factor.

Or maybe Gremlins in systems do really exist. Anyhow, i think i have it sorted, l will have spent a month losing potential customers due to them not being able to  contact me on a landline, spent many hours on the phone to BT getting nowhere, apart from today, good job its all 0800 numbers.

Ive been told it only takes one wrong (accidental) digit on your house number when a new package is ordered for this to occur, frightening to say the least.