Retention of landline number Complaint address?

[CarolT13]

Hi,

I'm new to Virgin and have a TV,BB & Landline package. My installation date was delayed a number of times and my previous provider was notified. Full install eventually on 5th Jan 2023. I was adamant that I needed to retain my existing landline number which had been at my home for 50  years plus. On install I was given all the relevant info including confirmation of my landline number. At some point after that date I realised I was getting a lot of "wrong number" calls and discovered that my number had disappeared and I had a new one. After wrongly blaming my previous provider I discovered that Virgin cancelled my old landline number on 6th January and it's currently "spare" with BT. I am fed up of speaking to customer support who tell me they can't get my number back despite it being their fault that it's been changed. How can I make a formal complaint in order to take this to Ofcom. Can anyone help please?

[goslow · Accepted solution]

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@CarolT13 wrote:

Hi,

I'm new to Virgin and have a TV,BB & Landline package. My installation date was delayed a number of times and my previous provider was notified. Full install eventually on 5th Jan 2023. I was adamant that I needed to retain my existing landline number which had been at my home for 50  years plus. On install I was given all the relevant info including confirmation of my landline number. At some point after that date I realised I was getting a lot of "wrong number" calls and discovered that my number had disappeared and I had a new one. After wrongly blaming my previous provider I discovered that Virgin cancelled my old landline number on 6th January and it's currently "spare" with BT. I am fed up of speaking to customer support who tell me they can't get my number back despite it being their fault that it's been changed. How can I make a formal complaint in order to take this to Ofcom. Can anyone help please?

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The loss of long-held phone numbers, while moving to VM, has had a few mentions on here recently.

For the number port to work, the number being moved has to be on a working line/active account and have no pending disconnection requests on it.

If the port fails, and the number is not moved and the original line is closed down, the number goes back to the provider that 'owns' the numbers as part of their number allocation. Once that happens the number sits in a pool of unused numbers waiting to be reallocated by the provider that owns the number.

There have been some (a few/not many) success stories reported on here of 'lost' numbers being recovered but it requires the owner of the number (in your case BT) to make the number available again for VM to port it.

This requires VM and BT to cooperate to make it happen. This is not always successful as it requires the two organisations to interact with each other and both BT and VM are fairly hopeless at dealing with any tasks which fall outside of their standard procedures.

One of the VM forum team will reply here within a few days. They may try to help you or may just tell you the number is lost.

[CarolT13]

Thank you so much for your reply. I know that this might seem trivial but it really is a massive issue for me and has caused a lot of distress. I am in my seventies and my husband died within the past year. He only ever used the landline which had the same number since he was a child ( in the days of a 3 figure number and no dialling code). He was ill for a long time and as a result, all of his contacts used the landline number. I don't have contact details for many and thus I have lost the chance of any interaction with them. All I think about is what David would say and how upset he would be. I have spoken at length with my previous provider who have gone to great lengths to try to help but as they said, it was not their fault. My intention was to make a formal complaint (if I could find out how) and if that did not resolve the issue , then to go to Ofcom as I was advised. At my age I can do without this problem

[goslow]

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@CarolT13 wrote:

Thank you so much for your reply. I know that this might seem trivial but it really is a massive issue for me and has caused a lot of distress. I am in my seventies and my husband died within the past year. He only ever used the landline which had the same number since he was a child ( in the days of a 3 figure number and no dialling code). He was ill for a long time and as a result, all of his contacts used the landline number. I don't have contact details for many and thus I have lost the chance of any interaction with them. All I think about is what David would say and how upset he would be. I have spoken at length with my previous provider who have gone to great lengths to try to help but as they said, it was not their fault. My intention was to make a formal complaint (if I could find out how) and if that did not resolve the issue , then to go to Ofcom as I was advised. At my age I can do without this problem

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Very understandable you would feel that way and I'm sorry to hear about the surrounding circumstances.

If you wait for the VM forum team to reply here, usually within a few days, they will respond to you directly.

[Jodi_S]

Hi CarolT13

A warm welcome and thanks for posting on our community forums. We can only apologise for any distress and inconvenience this issue has caused. We fully understand how imperative it is to get your original landline number ported over from your previous provider BT.

As our valued member @goslow has advised, to do this we would need your line with BT to still be active for this to happen.

I will pop you over a private message to take some details and see if there is anyway we are able to assist you further with this matter.

Please click on the purple envelope to accept the chat.

Kind regards Jodi. 

[goslow]

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@Jodi_S wrote:

Hi CarolT13

<snip>

As our valued member @goslow has advised, to do this we would need your line with BT to still be active for this to happen.

<snip>

Kind regards Jodi. 

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Key point being though that, AIUI, it is VM that needs to engage directly with BT to make the number available again. I can see no way that an individual person could make that happen on a closed BT account.

[CarolT13]

Hi Jodi,

I can no longer pm you but i've tried the number you gave me and they can't speak to me, they only speak to providers. Have you any other number that I can contact to beg for my number back?

Thank you,

Carol

[Jodi_S]

Hi CarolT13

We're very sorry to hear that you did not get any further with this matter. Please can you call BT customer services on 0800800150.

As we advised, once your BT line is reactivated, we can then process your number port request again.

We do apologise that BT did not re-schedule when they were advised by our team, thus resulting in your number not being ported. 

We can only apologise for the distress this issue has caused. 

Please keep us posted.

Kind regards Jodi. 

[goslow]

@CarolT13

Unfortunately you are stuck in the middle or two providers blaming each other for your failed number port. It is like two children squabbling, each blaming the other, rather than one owning up, taking responsibility and making amends to put things right.

I'd suggest that the issue has to be fixed between the two providers (business to business) I can't think of how an individual person/customer could get BT to reactivate a number.

In your situation, VM is responsible for requesting the number from BT. I am making a guess, but it sounds like the delays to your VM installation meant that the BT service had lapsed before VM took control of the number. VM will blame BT, BT will blame VM.

I'd suggest that you complete this OFCOM form regarding your failed number port and lost landline number

https://ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCCTMonitoring

I believe there is a mechanism for OFCOM to get involved with failed number ports but it is expressly aimed at situations where the losing provider (in this case BT) is preventing/obstructing the number port from happening (not really your situation, unfortunately, so very likely will result in nothing happening to help you).

At worst, filling in the form, you will be logging a general complaint to OFCOM about how VM/BT have failed you in this process (which will be for OFCOM's monitoring purposes only and won't result in any kind of investigation). At best it might prompt some kind of OFCOM action (but don't get your hopes up as your case doesn't really fit the circumstances it is intended for).

There have been some past topics on here (now archived and unavailable, unfortunately) where customers have come back to the forum to report a lost number has been reclaimed successfully.

Those topics mentioned it was achieved by means of a 'favour request' from one provider to the other. I don't know the details or the process of how this works, just what was reported previously by customers. Considering what has been stated in the topic though, I would assume this means that VM needs to issue a 'favour request' to BT to make your old number available again so that VM can port it. There would be no particular reason for BT to do this, hence the name, I assume.

Unfortunately the processes for porting numbers are designed to happen automatically, and in huge volumes of numbers, by following strict procedures. Dealing with an individual 'gone-wrong' case requires human intervention and cooperation between suppliers to make it happen. It's generally easier just for the suppliers to say it can't be done.

Yours is a very sorry story of failure between VM and BT. I do hope you manage to make some progress with it and recover your number by some means or other.

[CarolT13]

Hi Jodi,

Ive just spent 15 minutes speaking to BT who said I have to speak to Openreach and they transferred me eventually . I spoke to them and was told that as i'm an end user they can't deal with me but if Virgin ring them on 0800 1412 113 and make the request then they can re activate the line to enable porting if that makes sense to you. They are adamant that it's Virgin who need to call them. I am so sorry to have to bother you again with this. 

Carol