Phone Cancellation Error - Bereavement

[#1]

My father in law has passed away and I rang plusnet to cancel his broadband as my Mother in law didn’t want it anymore.
This was done but as I didn’t realise they had to phone with them too this has gone also.
This has left my 84 yr old mil with no method of communication whatsoever. No one seems to be able to reconnect the old landline for her despite being willing to have any package.
What do I do?
I simply cannot leave her with no way of contacting people at this awful time.
Any help much appreciated

[#2]

Firstly sorry for your loss. Very few providers these days sell phone without broadband, it is usually sold as a package. The only exception that I am aware of is BT retail, who are obliged by OFCOM to provide a service to people like your MIL.

Now that the service has been ceased the only option is to place an order to get the service reconnected. The number will probably also need recovering, and you may have a temporary number before getting the original number back.

I would suggest sending a private message to @Gandalf as he may know how to resolve this quickly as I would imagine it could well take some time (possibly 10 days)

[#3]

@Saralexi As @flanzm has said the only phone-only provider is BT, but I have PM'd one of the Help Team to try and get some early traction on this, although I can't make any guarantees.

[#4]

Thank you for the reply.
I am happy to sign up for a basic broadband package and phone if this would get the job done for her.
Just so desperate to get it sorted.

[#5]

Thank you for the reply and help given. It is so appreciated.
I am happy to sign up for a basic broadband package and phone if this would get the job done for her.
Just so desperate to get it sorted.

[#6]

Bit late in the day to get a reply from the Help Team tonight, but you may be lucky, otherwise I suspect it will be picked up in the morning.

[#7]

I have phoneline only from Pulse8, lower rental than BT/PN and inexpensive calls.  It might be worth looking into.  Since there is no service on the line there should be no need for a delay to prevent slamming.

[#8]

Superuser escalation

This topic has been escalated by one of the Superusers.

.

[#9]

@Saralexi 

Sorry to hear of your family's loss and the unfortunate consequence of cancelling the broadband service.

It is somewhat disappointing that the consequential loss of the phone line was not made abundantly clear to you at the time.  What is worse is that there is a real possibility of the phone line number now also being irretrievably lost.

BT Openreach / Ofcom are somewhat prissy over private persons retaining an existing number when taking over a non-business phone line.  Plusnet has special provisions to in the case of bereavement which allows a family member to take over an account entirely as is and change the named person on the account (with some restrictions).

Such options might be lost entirely now ... along with the number.

There is a slim chance that this can be reversed or recovered.  I would recommend IMMEDIATELY contacting COTS who are  a specialist team and will have more experience dealing with bereavement accounts.  That approach might be quicker than waiting for one of the forum staff to respond ... who might be obliged to offer the same advice.

Contact Customer Options Team (aka COTS)

COTs is the place to go to if you want to find out anything to do with your contract in respect of leaving, renewing or simply enquiring about early termination charges (ETCs). They have their own number and tend to answer quicker than the general customer service number.

Direct dial numbers

• 0800 013 2632(from within the UK)
• +44 330 123 9197 (from abroad)
• Available...
  • 8am - 8pm Monday to Friday
  • 9am - 7pm Saturday
  • 9am - 6pm Sunday

[#10]

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@flanzm wrote:
I would suggest sending a private message to @Gandalf as he may know how to resolve this quickly as I would imagine it could well take some time (possibly 10 days)

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Gandalf is taking rest time!

[#11]

Hi @Saralexi

I'm sorry for your loss. Appreciate it's a difficult time and I'll do what I can to help. 

If you can sign up a new account with us online from Here then private message me the username & previous landline number, I'll escalate with our suppliers number porting team to try to get it back for you. 

Let me know if you've got any further queries or concerns though.