BT have Changed my Number

[pobat]

My Father Has just passed away and we are in the middle of sorting out paperwork and finances etc. The telephone account was under my dads name, so we had to have the account transferred to my mothers name.

Heres the problem, BT's Policy is that an account cannot be transfered, but must be closed. And a new account must be opened, thus a new phone number is created. Not once did they mention that the number will change, or did they provide me with a new number when i phoned them, nor did they ever mention that the account is now closed and a new account has been opened.

Family members have been complaining that they cannot get through to phone at this difficult time and it is very distressing. I spent This morning having a rant at BT, and they say that they will transfer the old number back in 1 hour. This morning, it still hadn't changed.

What to do???

[buzby]

Only they can control the number, but having been in your situation all they did was change the bill payers name, no change to service or number was requested or forced. I think someone (in India?) has assumed it is a 'new' family and is letting a physical change kick in. I'd complain long and hard.

[pobat]

Thats what i told them. Nobody asked them to cancel the account. When i complained, they stated that the contract was with my dad. Since he is deceased, the contract is now invalid. they do not allow the account to be transferred to anybody, all they do is closed the now "invalid" account and open a New Account under a new name, which means a new number.

[buzby]

Stupid, absolutely stupid. If this is a new policy, it makes sense for everyone to change their billing detaisl to 'Mr & Mrs' to cover such an eventuality. Do ask them when their 'new user' policy was implemented and let me know, assuming you find out.

[pobat]

Originally Posted by buzby

Stupid, absolutely stupid. If this is a new policy, it makes sense for everyone to change their billing detaisl to 'Mr & Mrs' to cover such an eventuality. Do ask them when their 'new user' policy was implemented and let me know, assuming you find out.

Damn Right. There are more pressing priorities at hand instead of having to deal with this crap. Im gonna ring them now. will try to find out as much as i can. Also just noticed a letter from TalkTalk (they control our telephone bills). They changed the account over to my mums name without any problems, but the letter says:

Originally Posted by talktak

We have recieved notification from another telephone supplier that you have requested the cancellation of our phone service from the telephone numbers listed"

seems BT have contacted them as well.

[pobat]

Im on hold with them. They are giving me the run around.

[barracad]

Originally Posted by pobat

all they do is closed the now "invalid" account and open a New Account under a new name, which means a new number.

This is nonsense. Since when has a new name meant a new number is needed? When I moved house I "inherited" the phone number for the previous occupiers who are completely unrelated to me, and I know countless others who have done the same thing.

The number is only usually changed by request, not as a matter of course. I have no idea why they have done this and why they seem unable to explain it properly. I would certainly do as has previously been suggested and find out exactly what their policy is.

[pobat]

What a bunch of asses BT are, 1 Hour has suddenly turned into 24 hours, and they have said that they have always used this policy. but apparently they are trying.

Will get back to you tomorrow with an update.

[buzby]

'Always' as it 'since I've been with BT' which may have been just 3 weeks.

[pobat]

Sorry i was forgot to make a post yesterday, but heres an update.

BT say that they are in the process of changing the number, it should have been done by 6pm yesterday. As of now, it's still not ready.
They have again changed their mind on the timing to 24 - 48 hours. Whats worse is that i cannot dial out or receive incoming calls even to the new number that they have given me.

Ive had a quick read up on the net, and found that they have to close the account and open a new one by law (however all the sources seem to be opinion based). That means that every other account for other utilities (gas, electric etc) must have to follow the same procedures, right?? BT are the only company that does.

Any thoughts???

[buzby]

Them being completely, utterly and completely wrong are a few thoughts for a start. I've read BT's terms and conditions and I see no reference whatsoever that a residential line must be ceased when the original bill payer has died, only if the line is no longer required by other household members. The situation is differend for Partnerships (corporate), Limited Companies and Plc's.... As to the lack of telephone service, this is the time your morther really requires the security of a phone line, I'd enquire about compensation for the period service was removed. You need to make a claim for this when the service is restored on the original number.

[pobat]

It's getting to the point of being ridiculous. They say that a letter should have been sent out advising us of the new number and other bits of information, this should have been sent on the 2nd but hasn't arrived yet, its gonna be 7 days where we haven't been able to receive phone calls, 4 days where we cannot make any phone calls, and they keep changing their mind about how long it takes to transfer a number back. I cant confirm this but it probably took only a few minutes to change our number in the first place.

I believe that they are now just taking the and I have decided to claim compensation on my mothers behalf.

Lets just hope for everybody's sake my phone is working tomorrow.

[mazza1970]

My dad used to live with me until he passed away 4 years ago. The phone, gas & electricity accounts were all in his name, when I contacted BT, they gave me new account number, but I still kept the same telephone number, and the gas & electricity accounts just got transferred to me. The only company I had trouble with was Sky, as that was also in his name, and when they tried to take the payment out of his account, they found that it had been frozen, so they cut the Sky off, obviously, I don't think contacting the companies about what had happened was high on the agenda at that time, but it took about 6 weeks for the Sky account to get transferred to me.

I am sure it will be sorted for you, as all BT really need to do is change the account number and not the telephone number. Good Luck!

[pobat]

iv'e finally found out why they changed the number. 3-4 years ago, we moved from NTL to BT, since NTL own that number it was transferred back them.

[pobat]

BT are now saying that they CANNOT transfer the number back.

Im on hold with them right now trying to get through with their supervisors. The supervisor is gonna wish that they never lived when i get through with them.

[pobat]

good news. Its sorted.


Instead of putting me through to the supervisor, (i think she got a bit guilty), she told a member of the resolution team to retrieve it manually, (just like they did on Friday when i first told them about it).

It took them all of 5 minutes to get it sorted.:ma d:
The muppets!

[buzby]

Let that be a lesson to you.... porting a number is just an accident waiting to happen - whether mobile of landline. Of course, it doesn't explain why they released the number in the first place, but if it was the other way around (BT number ported to NTL) if you were late paying and the removed service, BANG!, the number is restored to BT immediately and you can't get it back.