Virgin to BT landline transfer

[GrahamMMM]

Can someone please lay out the process for transferring a landline number from Virgin to BT in straighforward steps. I have a contract with BT and everything is up and running. The virgin media contract has a couple of weeks to run but I would like to transfer my landline number now rather than wait for the contract to end. The priority is keeping the same number which I have had for many years (since before virgin existed). I am being told different things by both Virgin and BT for how to resolve this and am going back and forward between them like a ping pong ball. I need to know as definitive an answer as possible so I can challenge whatever one of this is responsible for this as it has to be one of them. Thanks in advance. 

[imjolly]

Is your current BT broadband contract broadband only or broadband with phone and you have a digital voice number?

Was the number you are trying to transfer originally a virgin number or was it one you ported to virgin fromBT?

[iniltous]

If you have a working VM service with a phone number you want to keep ( but not with VM ) and a working BT line with a ‘disposable’ number , then I doubt you can simply renumber your BT line with the VM number in one seamless order , the number portability process wasn’t  designed for that 

You may ( even though you already have a BT line ) need to order a new line with BT and indicate that you want to port the VM number ( provided the addresses match ) , obviously this requires 2 BT services and 2 monthly fees….if the original BT line isn’t really required, you could simply cease it , and then order BT with the number port option selected, so you only ever have 1 BT line .

TBH , if the BT line were installed in anticipation of ‘porting’ the number from VM ( and is within a minimum term so not cheap to cancel ) it was never the best way of approaching this issue, if either your existing BT line or should you order a second BT line and DV ( Digital Voice ) is used , that adds a further level of complexity 

[-Richie-]

Number porting should of been done on the provision order to join BT, was there a reason you opted for a new number?
As already mentioned this is not a simple renumber, to port once live is a complex and time consuming process.

[GrahamMMM]

Thanks for the response. When we contacted BT to sign up for the new deal we explicitly said that we wanted to keep our original number. They said this would not be a problem and they would be able to transfer the number no problem when the contract with virgin was terminated. Our virgin contract has a couple of weeks to run so we thought to contact virgin to get it terminated now and we have just ended up in this morass with virgin saying BT need to request something from them and BT saying they cannot do anything until virgin disconnect us. 

[licquorice]

I'll flag your problem to the mods, hopefully they will be able to sort it.

[GrahamMMM]

To summarise what has happened:

We contacted BT to say we wanted to transfer from virgin to them and agreed a new deal for broadband, tv and phone and explicitly said we wanted to transfer our existing phone number. They said this would not be any problem, we signed the contract with BT and they said let us know when you cancel the contract with virgin and we will transfer the number.

We then contacted virgin to cancel the contract and they said fine no problem your contract with us will end in 15 days. We asked for the phone number to be transferred now and to facilitate this for the phone to be disconnected, as BT said the phone number cannot be "open" to do thie and all hell has broken loose.

I cannot see anything unusual about the above, this must be a process that thousands of people go through every year? Why is there not a clear established process for this? It cannot be that difficult! 

I believe the landline is digital voice. We were given an adaptor to plug into the virgin socket a few months ago (it is not plugged into the router).

Thanks again all for your help.

[NeilO]

Hi @GrahamMMM welcome to the community and thanks for posting, there is an established process to port numbers between providers but as @-Richie- explained this needs to be done as part of the provision order. I'm really sorry if you have been advised incorrectly by BT when placing the order with BT as trying to organise the number port after your BT service has already started with us complicates matters.

Was the number you'd like to transfer originally issued by BT or Virgin?

I'll send you a private message so you can get in touch with your details to the moderators and we'll be happy to help.

Thanks

Neil

[GrahamMMM]

Many thanks Neil. We have had the number for over 40 years so originated with BT of course. I will wait to hear from you.

[NeilO]

@GrahamMMM that should work in your favour as the number should revert back to BT when your Virgin line is stopped. I can't make any promises just yet but if you reply to the private message with your details we'll do our best to help.

Thanks
Neil