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Porting landline number from Sky to Virgin Media

M-N_M
Joining in

I joined Virgin Media (VM) in late September 2020 on assurance I would be able to keep my old landline telephone number (my family have had this number for over 20 years). It is very important to my family (especially my elderly mother) to keep this number as it is the only way many friends and family in Bangladesh can contact us.

VM initially had informed me my number was to be ported over from Sky on 12th October 2020. I found this had not happened so called VM on 13th October 2020. VM informed me it had been rescheduled for 15th October 2020 and assured me would be transferred on this date. *Taking VM on its word, I allowed the cooling off period to lapse and thought I did not have to worry about it.

Just over a week later, my mother mentioned she had noticed the phone had still not transferred so I called VM (on 24th October, then 27th and 28th October 2020). The VM staff were trying to be helpful but passed me around quite a few departments and ultimately said they were unsure why porting had not been completed. They said it might be Sky is refusing to release the number, or more likely VM staff had not filled in paperwork correctly. One VM staff mentioned it would now be a priority and trying to schedule for 2nd November 2020. Later VM staff said now scheduled for 12th November 2020.     

On calling Sky, they said they were not stopping VM from porting number (nor could they). They confirmed they had received VM’s ‘unsolicited cease’ request on 28th September 2020. They also confirmed VM likely tried porting over number on 15th October 2020 but failed. They suspected this is because VM had not completed forms correctly. Note: as mentioned to VM staff on phone, https://www.syntec.co.uk/who-owns-my-number/ tells me my number is owned by Vodaphone Ltd (C&W) rather than BT, so could be the error VM are making on form.

VM staff said I needed to keep Sky line active (otherwise I would lose my old number). I mentioned to VM staff that I was unable to afford the extra expense of keeping Sky line active (out of contract charge is £43 per month) and pay for VM package out of my annual budget. I asked if I could freeze my VM package (i.e. not use, and so have to pay for, any VM services until porting issue resolved). The VM staff said this would not be possible and I would have to pay a cancellation fee (about £200) if did not continue to pay as contract as now over cooling off period. As I desperately want to keep my old phone number, I am in a frustrating Catch 22 situation. In addition, I have so far spent (mostly in waiting time) around 7 hours on the phone to VM and 2 hours to Sky trying to get this resolved.

Really hoping someone can help to find out 'why did the previous porting attempt failed?', 'what will VM be doing differently on next attempt to solve this?', and 'why there is such a long delay till able to port?'. Thank you.     

43 REPLIES 43

Hi M-N_M,

 

Our apologies for the engineer being booked when not required. 

 

Have you received the call back from the team concerning the port in? If so what did they advise?

 

^Martin

No, have not received call back 

Okay, what I will do is private message you so I can get some details and look to see if we can get this resolved for you. 

 

^Martin


@Martin_N wrote:

Okay, I am having this investigated. You should be contacted at some point today to be discuss this further. 

 

Please do keep me posted. 

 

^Martin


 

From yesterday's last PM message to me (quoted above), I waited all day but no one contacted me ☹️ 

 

Usually receive a response on this forum from VM Team member quite quickly but 5pm now and still have no reply to my post sent this morning 😞

Hi @M-N_M  will drop my colleague a quick note.  I'm confident he's on top of this.

Regards


Lee_R

Okay, thank you 

Waited another day... now ten days not able to receive calls. Could Virgin Media redirect our landline calls to a mobile while waiting for this to be fixed? ...Has been negatively affecting my elderly mother's mental well being not receiving calls from her family and friends in Bangladesh (that can only contact via our landline number) 😞

 

Now 2 weeks not able to receive calls. Also told Virgin Media not going to redirect landline calls to a mobile for us (was not given a reason why). As mentioned, has been negatively affecting my elderly mother's mental well being not receiving calls from her family and friends in Bangladesh (that can only contact via our landline number). Disappointed taking so long and no alternative arrangement or compensation has been offered 😞  

 

 

Hollie_B
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hi there @M-N_M

 

Thanks for your reply. I'm sorry to hear you're unhappy. I have checked and this is still ongoing. The team have been working in the background to try and get this sorted for you ASAP. 

 

Thanks for your continued patience, we'll have this port issue sorted soon. 

 

Thanks, 

 

 

Hollie - Forum Team


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