Date John Lewis Broadband closing finally?

[#1]

Is anyone able to find out when John Lewis Broadband is going to close peoples telephone accounts? My 90 year old aunt thinks she has been told early next year, but is not sure how she knows this.

(I know this isn't John Lewis support but if you call John Lewis Broadband you get Plus.net support who just say yes you have to migrate away but they are too lowly to know the exact final date)

I have spent the last five months arguing with openreach and being led a merry dance, who have put a fibre only rule on her adsl line. So she can't migrate away from John Lewis to another adsl provider. But she can only get fttp if she pays openreach thousands of pound and rips up her drive as they feel the existing overhead route is not up to code. Its a mess. I think we have got them to let her continue with an adsl provider, but it may take them time to change the database back. And she's starting to worry they will cut off her telephone number before its sorted out and while I don't expect anyone to sort out the mess it would be nice to know if I need to start panicking and chasing people faster.

Thanks

[#2]

@zxcvbnm 

Can the post a screen image of the results from the following, including the narrative. Remember to hide your aunt's details.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

This will help others to provide advice.

Where FTTP is not available then there are options as to internet provision. Very few ADSL suppliers remain. However, with the stop sell on copper products your aunt will lose her PSTN phone line and would need to go to VOIP.

Brian

Edit : Meant to add there have been news articles this week about the need to protect vunerable people from the PSTN closure.

[#3]

Thank you BMC. I really just mentioned the problem to explain why we were six months late in leaving after being told John Lewis was closing. 

I was faintly hoping someone from Plus.net might see this and have inside knowledge of when John Lewis customers have to leave by. Then I would know if I could leave it till after Christmas or if I really needed to panic. That is the main thing I was after. 

Openreach now saw they may have restored her ability to migrate adsl by the 22nd, but they  have been saying that for a while...

If you are really curious her official listing is below. But it doesn't really reflect that she has active working adsl now and the fttp is only available with a large financial outlay and construction work. Which is a shame because it is cheaper than the remaining adsl providers... Interestingly adsl is the one product that still comes with a telephone package from plus.net

[#4]

If you are really curious her official listing is below. But it doesn't really reflect that she has active working adsl now and the fttp is only available with a large financial outlay and construction work.

@zxcvbnm yes , it doesnt consider what is currently active , rather only what is 'available to order' and again doesnt cover any ECCs (Excess Construction Costs) for FTTP. 

TBH until Openreach modify their database to override the default and show ADSL as available (as they have said they will?) then any ISP is going to struggle to be able to place any order.

First thing I would do is make sure your aunt is registered as a vulnerable customer with John Lewis.

As you say in your first post , strictly speaking this forum is not for John Lewis customers despite JL being serviced by Plusnet.

I'm aware that there is a JL migration team at Plusnet. I can't promise this will work but I will try escalating this to the PN social team in the hope that they can get the migration team to liase with Openreach to see what can be done.

[#5]

@zxcvbnm 

Thanks for the information. @MisterW has escalated the problem to support so hopefully someone can give you a path to move forward.

From memory I believe OR will accept an ADSL order (or its digital equivelant) under certain circumstances but it has to be done manually. As stated, make sure your aunt is registered as vunerable - this means they must do something to keep her online.

I think you need to start looking at VOIP to give you an idea of what's required when the time comes. There are many providers out there but A&A seem to offer good deals. As important, they have good FAQ pages.

https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/

Brian

[#6]

Hi @zxcvbnm 

Whilst I can't fully help with your aunt being a John Lewis customer if you can PM me her details I can pass this onto the relevant team to see what we can do

[#7]

Thank you very much for your help. I may have panicked too early and it might have sort of resolved itself (fingers crossed).

I drove to my aunts yesterday, where she did indeed have a John Lewis letter suggesting they were closing down early next year. So we called them up together so she could authorize me to speak, and then after dancing around the catch 22 a bit they consulted a manager and came back with the idea that there is actually no date yet for John Lewis ending so we should probably just carry on indefinitely... So perhaps the letter was just trying to be a little pushy. They swear they would give good notice if they were really closing things.

Then today openreach called and finally turned her line back to adsl so we can now migrate. 

Thank you for the ideas. I'm not sure if she is officially a vulnerable customer, though I listed all her vulnerabilities on the web form. With openreach we ran into the problem that even if disabled in other ways you are not considered vulnerable unless you are housebound and as my aunt can still walk she didn't count, doesn't get a blue badge either. But certainly something to investigate with future isps.

VOIP, yes I should probably be braver. But trying to use a voip adapter over a 4g mobile broadband service did not strike me as the safe reliable option. Perhaps I should try harder.

Openreach did indeed make the argument that they had not really trapped my Aunt as she could get an exception for adsl. But it's not clear how you would ever get an exception without already being with an isp. John Lewis is hardly going to ask for one as they want us gone. If you call BT they just say the computer says no and thats that, there is no obvious way to get through to someone to make a custom request for a new customer migration. Possibly if we had signed up to FTTP with BT with a full number migration then when we refused the ECC charges they might have let us get an exception to join adsl. Or they might have closed our account and lost our number in the process, it was a scary idea. 

So on to our exciting prize of another 24 months contract for 8mb adsl. But in fairness it works and the telephone will keep working and I'm not sure my aunt really notices. 

So sorry for kicking up a fuss. Thank you for the ideas. 

[#8]

Glad to hear that's sorted now @zxcvbnm 

With regards to the exceptions we can request these in some circumstances but it's a manual job rather than one that can be done automatically

[#9]

@zxcvbnm 

Good to hear you've got your short term worries answered. It's also a good move getting yourself listed as an authorised person going forward.

However, this doesn't change the fact that John Lewis is closing and the PTSN will be switched off so your aunt will need to migrate to another ISP at some point and use VOIP in the reasonable near future. I would suggest you start planning for this now.

I suspect there are few ISP's who will offer ADSL now and most would probably be with VOIP. @MatthewWheeler  might confirm if PN would offer a service but this would be internet only I think.

I suspect BT might be the easiest option as they will offer both internet and VOIP - though not the cheapest .

I've listed a couple of links about ADSL going forward. I have it in the back of my mind that OR are developing another product for ADSL lines for when Exchanges start closing with the PSTN switchoff but I can't find any link at the moment.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/11/openreach-launch-all-ip-solution-for-uk-adsl-broadband...

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/11/openreach-prep-alternative-uk-analogue-style-phone-pro...

Brian