Porting landline from BT

[stevieH1]

Please can a mod help me with the below request as after 3 hours and 4 calls to some place far away i have got nowhere.

I ordered Virgin Phone, BB and TV on 22nd December and it is being installed this Friday, 13th.

I requested, during the initial application, that my Landline be ported from BT.

Unfortunately i have heard nothing since and my BT contract ceases on 27th Jan. I tried calling BT who said they had no record of a port in their system and suggested i contacted Virgin after installation? I assume it is too late then and i will have a different number? I tried 3 further calls to Virgin overseas, the last person seemed to want to fill a form in which took nearly an hour but i then got cut off. Not sure what she filled in but i have no confidence that the port is going to happen or when?

Please can a mod PM me so i can get this sorted. It is important that i keep this number as it is linked to several important things.

Thanks.

[Tom_W1]

Hi @stevieH1 thanks for your post although I'm sorry to hear of your concerns regarding the landline port.

Can you please advise if you had scheduled your disconnection with BT, before processing with the order with us or the other way around?

Can you please come back here and clarify if possible, which order this was and the dates of this.

Many thanks

[stevieH1]

Hi Tom - I ordered the Virgin services (including the port) on the 22nd December and cancelled the BT services on the 29th December.

The BT services effectively end on 27th January, 30 days after cancelling.

I believed that i had left enough time for the port to go ahead and if not then i still had time to sort it before disconnection. Hence my query now while i still hopefully have time to get it sorted.

[Tom_W1]

Hi @stevieH1 thanks for your reply - all understood and that's generally the correct order to do it for a successful port.

Did you, inform BT at the time of disconnection request that you wanted to port the number to us?

Many thanks

[stevieH1]

Hi Tom - No, i believed that Virgin would do that when requesting the port. The number is still in use so i don't understand what difference it would make if i requested it there and then or waited for Virgin to process it. BT still can't do anything until Virgin request the port and the line is still open anyway. Unless i need to advise BT that some time in the future a port request will come from Virgin??? Bit baffled......

This whole porting process seems a lot more complicated than it needs to be. Apologies if i am being stupid here but there really should be clearer instructions from Virgin when requested the port. You sign up and request your port and that's it, you assume it is going to happen. I suppose you should never assume.

Please can you let me know what i need to do.

Thanks.

[Tom_W1]

Hi @stevieH1 thanks for your reply.

So what has happened here, is that (presumably, please correct me if I'm wrong) you have scheduled the disconnect of all services with your old provider, including your landline (even if it's not taken place yet).

In order for a port to successfully go through, there can't be any form of disconnect, even a future/pending one on the line.

What you'll need to do, is contact your old provider and cancel the disconnection on the landline only.

Once the port is complete, the landline will disconnect automatically with the old provider - this sometimes can mean you're paying for landline only for a little while longer with your old provider, if there's any delays with the port but this is the only way to ensure it's poted over successfully.

I hope this helps.

Many thanks

[stevieH1]

Hi Tom - OK, I have cancelled the BT disconnect so you can now arrange the port. BT asked that you allow 24 hours for their system to update. They also said that their services will cease as soon as the port is sorted and i don't need to do anything else. I will miss getting through to an English call centre in 2 minutes and speaking to someone helpful. In future i will just flag my issues on here as it's a much better service from you guys than 'Virgin overseas'.

Please can i be notified that this has happened? I think my biggest gripe with this is that nobody would ever have told me the port had failed if i hadn't chased it.

Also worth noting to others - don't cancel your existing service until the port is complete even if you have to pay twice for a month. BT told me that the services cancel automatically when the number is ported.

Many Thanks, Steve

[Tom_W1]

Hi @stevieH1 thanks for your reply and confirmation of this.

I'm going to send you a PM so I can re-submit the port request for you, and keep in contact with you during this process.

It's crucial to note that the port part of the process is mainly with the old provider, we only try to take the number but if the old provider put a disconnect on this, then that's the reason why it failed as previously explained - your provider should have informed you of this, before you placed the disconnection with them.

Please allow me to send you a PM so I can look into this further for you.
Kindly expect the PM from me to arrive shortly and respond directly when you can!

Many thanks

[stevieH1]

Hi Tom, I have PM'd you but the below info may be useful for others.

The guy came today but couldn't do the install. Apparently one side of my house has cladding which they can't drill through and it would have left me with 30m of wiring going round my house would have looked bad and resulted in a vastly reduced signal. He has gone away and i am left in limbo.

Back to Sky, cap in hand, forced to accept any offer they have! The pre-install team have been 3 times to sort out the cabling and box outside but nobody mentioned anything about the drilling problem. Not sure what i do now, i assume that everything will just be cancelled or do i have to inform somebody? Complete shambles......

[Zach_R]

Hi @stevieH1,

Thank you for your post and for providing an update on the situation. If this is something that you've been discussing with my colleague via private message then please send a response to them there (if you haven't done so already) and they'll be able to provide further assistance from there.

Thanks,