Virgin Media Community

[waterhouse675]

Our new line for broadband and home phone with Virgin Media was activated on the 10th of August and it's been a nightmare trying to get an answer as to why our old number hasn't been brought across from our old provider.

We've had our landline number for nearly 20 years (through 4 different phone providers) so made sure when we spoke to Virgin Media upon joining in June that our number could be kept, we were told yes it could. We had cancelled our account with NowTV a few days before that and no-one there asked us if we needed to keep our phone number and this seems to be the start of our problems. 

I have been told by customer service staff this evening that the port request was refused by NowTV at some point probably before we even had our account activated on the 10th August. Also that it was our responsibility to make sure our line stayed active by asking for this when we cancelled. I know nothing about how porting works so how were we supposed to know this if we weren't asked? We were told by Virgin that we could keep our number when signing up, we took what they said as being true. We expected that the two companies would speak to each other and resolve this.

Two weeks and 4 phone calls over the past two weeks and we have been told we apparently can't have our number back. Each time we called we were told someone would get back to us within 48 hours and each time it's gone past that deadline and no-one calls, so we chase it up with another call again. We've been told different things by different people we have spoken to and have even been given a number that didn't exist, this was so we could chase it up with the porting team ourselves, in itself a strange request of a customer. I can't even begin to count the hours we've spent on the phone to Virgin's helpline.

The final straw this evening was being on hold for 1.5 hours and then hung up on whilst I was in mid sentence making a complaint. I just can't believe the treatment from such a large company as this.

We have now phoned up this evening to cancel our account, after being told that we would have to contact NowTV and sort this out ourselves. I don't think Virgin seems to understand or even care the hassle this has caused us. 

Does anyone know how we can resolve this and get our number back?

[jb66]

The reason you have lost your number is you cancelled your NOW TV before Virgin was installed, this means your number has gone into oblivion and can no longer be used.  The correct way to transfer providers is to keep your number active and then the winning ISP requests the active number from the loosing provider.

There is a slim chance NOW TV could reactivate your NOW TV line and give you your number but i think its a slim chance

[waterhouse675]

Hello, thanks for your reply, Sorry for the confusion, I think that part in my original post is just badly written I’m afraid. There was a cross over period with our Virgin line being connected before our NOWTV was cancelled so we had both accounts active at the same time.

[DJ_Shadow1966]

Hello

According to the Ofcom rules on porting the number must be active with no cancellation order for the line, this is why your previous provider has refused the port the account/line was in the process of being cancelled.

Regards Mike

[waterhouse675]

We’ve solved this issue ourselves by switching to a new provider who was willing to request the number from BT so thankfully we don’t have to deal with Virgin Media any longer.

[vlain]

Thanks for sharing your experience. My installation only just completed yesterday and I am exactly on the same boat as you! I hope I do not have to cancel Virgin too! As you I was expecting Virgin Media would handle the porting of my existing number but upon installation completion yesterday the engineer says that it had not been requested and I need to speak to customer service. Upon speaking to customer service I was directed to speak to the porting team. Why should I need to speak to different departments in Virgin Media, surely departments within Virgin need to speak to each other! I was expecting the porting to be seamless. I have also experienced customer service hanging up on me mid sentence and not bothering to call back! I now have 2 x providers in my house for broadband and phone line! This is ridiculous and first impressions of Virgin from ordering to installation is bot good!!!

[John_GS]

Hi vlain,

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community.

My apologies for the number port issue. Is the number still active with your former provider?

Kind regards,

[vlain]

Hi John

Yes my phoneline is still active with current provider. So I have effectively got 2 x phone lines and 2 x broadband service live now!

Regards

vlain

[naboo]

Well that is probably good news that they are both active

Virgin should still be able to port the number across but it could be a minimum of 10 days

It sucks that it seems that even though you requested at sign up that the process was not put in place

Information is very vague  when you sign up on exactly what needs to be done and how the Process works, it is just "yes you can bring your number across" without going into the exact specifics on what needs to be done and the time frame expected for a successful port. Even when you have to do the digging yourself I had several different versions of what the process entails and all of them were not correct

I can attest to the shocking customer service I have had whilst waiting for installation, with delay in install date less than 24 hours notice, resulting in me losing a days pay as I had to book day off work

Promises of phone calls back which never materialised and the off shore call centres are basically useless with either duff information, blatant lies and just cutting you off when they feel like it

The only joy I have had with results is posting on these forums and staff members looking in then helping by private message

The only thing that has gone smoothly is my mate and my £50 referral going through within a couple of days of me being connected, although that was not really a bonus for me as i lost a days wages due to Virgin cancelling my initial install date with less than 24 hours notice, and they did not compensate me for that

[John_GS]

Hi vlain

Thanks for coming back to me. 

I'll PM you now to help further.

Kind regards,