House Move - Broadband Transferred...Then Cut Off!

[#1]

Here is a tale of Christmas woe with a question at the end, I hope someone can help...

We notified Plusnet on 3rd December that we would be moving house on 17th December.  We were told that the transfer of our broadband account would be simple as the new property was already being supplied by Plusnet. We were also told that 2 weeks was plenty of notice for the transfer to happen seamlessly.  We were instructed to take our router with us and connect it once we moved in.

Moving day arrived.  We moved our router, plugged it in and...it worked!  Happy household.  My wife was able to work from home, the kids were able to play games and watch whatever it is they watch online.

Then three days later, on the 20th December our supply stopped and the router light turned orange.  I phoned Plusnet and when I gave the address details, I was told that there was a different name on the account - the name of the previous occupant.  So it seems we had been accessing the internet via a different account through our router. That account had now been closed and so the provision of service to our property had also ceased. The transfer we had been assured of on 3rd December had not happened. In fact, no action seemed to have been taken at all.

Looking back through the Question Tickets for our house move, I can see that there was a note stating there would be a delay until 29th December.  I had missed this as I'd been busy preparing for the house move so hadn't seen the email.  The customer service person I spoke to was very apologetic when I spoke to them on 20th December, but couldn't really explain why this delay had occurred. I was told we need an engineer to visit to reconnect the broadband.  I'm no technical expert but, to me, the switching over of provision from one Plusnet account to another is a software issue rather than a hardware issue requiring an engineer?

I phoned Customer Services again today seeking clarification but was told the Provisions Team are not available on Sunday.  I can't clarify the reasons for the delay, nor complain about the delay.  Meanwhile I have a very frustrated household, and a steadily draining amount of data on my mobile phone.

So can anyone else on this forum shed any light?  Why is it seemingly simple to switch OFF provision, but not switch it back ON?

Thanks for reading.

[#2]

@Anchorman  Welcome to the forum.

This is probably an Openreach issue that comes with another potential problem that will doubly frustrate you.

When they checked the service Plusnet will have found that there was a working service and would have agreed a date to take over the line. However it sounds like rather then let this happen the previous occupiers have called their ISP and ceased the service. Hopefully not, but if this has happened then Plusnet will not be allowed to restart the service for, I think, 10 days after the line is ceased due to anti slamming regulations.

[#3]

So frustrating...we gave Plusnet plenty of notice, so this shouldn't be an issue...but it is.

Thanks for your reply.

[#4]

@Anchorman 

As I've tried to explain, this was probably caused by the previous property owners and Openreach, not Plusnet, who have no control or influence over the Openreach management platform or Ofcom anti slamming requirements..

.

[#5]

Hello @Anchorman

Thanks for getting in touch and I'm really sorry to see what has gone on here. I don't think anyone is really to blame, it's just unfortunate, and is a common issue we have when it comes to House Moves, I'd imagine all providers have similar issues.

what must be understood throughout the house move process is that the orders we place for you are subject to both Openreach engineer availability, as well as the current occupant. In your case, the current occupant - also a Plusnet customer, told us to cease their line on 20/12/2021, why would they want to pay for a service they're not using? So it seems logical.

More often than not, if a line is ceased while there's a "provide" order on there, the "provide" order will also be cancelled, as the status of the line has changed. This hasn't happened in your case though, thankfully, and your orders are still committed to complete on Wednesday. I can assure you that when the orders were placed, we did request to have you up and running on 17/12/2021, however with the status of the line changing, plus engineer availability, it's been pushed back 12 days.