Number Porting Charges (Hit by an excessive charge)

[notdodgy]

As my volt bundle includes unlimited landline calls I decided to port my landline across.

The process has started however I have just received an invoice for £60 (£50 + Vat).

The existing provider did not charge line rental, just call charges at 1p a minute / 10p Mobile.

Has anyone else been hit by number porting charges?

Is this a charge that Virgin can help with?

[Steven_L]

Hey @notdodgy,

Welcome to the community and thanks for taking the time to post your issue on the forums.

There should be no charge for porting your number over to us, the invoice that you mention, has that come from Virgin Media or the current provider of your landline?

Regards,

Steven_L

[notdodgy]

Hello. 

The charge is from my existing provider - Voicehost.co.uk.

I went looking for it and found it in the list of charges - number export £50 +vat.

I think it is a blatent attempt to dissuade customers moving away!

It's hypocritical in that there are no charges to move numbers to them.

I am going to report it to ofcom. 

[Steven_L]

Thanks for coming back to us @notdodgy, I'm sorry but we wouldn't be able to help with this as the charges are from your former provider, if we had put any charges on your account. Ofcom states the following - " Some providers require a minimum service period or contract term before you can switch. If you want to change provider earlier than that then you may have to pay early termination charges. " Are you still in the minimum contract term with that provider?

You can find more information about the porting process here.

Regards,

Steven_L

[notdodgy]

Thanks for the reply.

There was no minimum term involved.  This is simply a punitive charge to stop people leaving. 
It is an anticompetitive practice which I have reported to Ofcom.

I will contact them to ask if they can explain / justify the charge.

[Steven_L · Accepted solution]

Thanks for coming back to us @notdodgy, please keep us updated with what happens and I will check from this side to see if there is anything that we can do to report this from our side too as this is completely against Ofcom rules and as you say is punishing you for moving providers. 

Regards,

Steven_L

[notdodgy]

I have emailed voicehost asking them to explain / justify the charge in the context of the OFCOM guidance.
This morning I have a reminder to pay, 16 hours after the invoice was sent!!!

The other option is to cancel the number porting and have asked them to confirm this would result in the invoice being cancelled.
It would cost very little to forward calls and nothing to leave a number changed message?

Watch this space. 

I obtained the number when I managed a team programming telephone exchanges - moving customers from old exchanges to the ones which they are now phasing out. I was able to get a nice number by talking to a colleague in the number allocations team. 

[Kain_W]

Many thanks for the responses regarding this matter notdodgy, 

Apologies for the issues faced regarding this, to clarify have you received a response off the provider as of yet?

Regards,

[notdodgy]

Can someone please contact me as I need to cancel number porting in order to avoid a £60 charge.

I have set up call diversion on the old number and can replace that later on with a number changed message.

Hopefully after Ofcom has dealt with the complaint I can request the porting again.

[Kain_W]

No worries, 

I'll send you a PM so we can get this sorted for you.

You'll find the message within the purple envelope icon.

Regards,