Landline not receiving incoming calls

[#1]

Hi,  I am currently in the process of transferring my broadband from Shell to Plusnet,  This morning i got an email saying the transfer had been cancelled because Plusnet are unable to retain our phone number and if we want the order to go ahead we will have to change numbers.

Up until a few days ago my Phoneline was working fine now we can't receive incoming calls, but can dial out and broadband is still working fine. 

I called Plusnet and they said our landline is registered at the wrong address with openreach, i can't understand this because we have had the same number for years without any problems, and all billing and correspondence with our previous supplier comes to this address.

Reading through the forums it seems it might be an issue with the port across but when i eventually get through to customer services i get told different things. Can anyone help

Thank You

[#2]

Hi Tommy,

I am genuinely sorry to see what has happened here. I don't believe that your line's registered at the wrong address. I think the adviser you'd spoken with may have thought this, because there's no active line showing at your address. 

From what I can see your property is served by a fibre priority exchange, so there is what's known as a "stop sell" on copper products, which means Openreach aren't taking any further orders for a phone line or non-full fibre broadband.

Ideally when we placed your order with our suppliers, this should have rejected in the first instance, but because it didn't reject, I very much suspect that the linked cease order went through and triggered your previous provider to stop the line. 

I've tried to re-instate your phone line with a view to ask our suppliers to reactivate your phone number, but my order instantly rejected with the error "PSTN is not currently available in the exchange area specified" which I again suspect is what should have happened when we initially placed the order rather than being sat in a delayed state.

Sadly there's nothing I can do to get your number back I'm afraid. I can see you've raised a complaint online Here and one of my colleagues from our complaints team will get in touch shortly within 5 working days. 

In the meantime, the only way we'd be able to provide you with broadband is if you sign up to full fibre (FTTP, Fibre To The Premises) so if you'd like to go ahead, I'd recommend calling our Customer Options Team on 0800 013 2632. Alternatively if you can private message me your phone number, I can arrange for someone to ring you back. 

Once again, I am really sorry for this but let me know if you have any further queries. 

[#3]

This is an 83 year olds phone number that he needs and is registered with the Hospital, so you are telling me his number is lost forever. Nobody can get through to him now and he is not prepared to pay full fibre prices.  Terrible treatment to just cut off his phone number without notice! Who can i complain to?

[#4]

Hi Tommy,

I totally get that and if there was more that I could do, I would absolutely do it. One of my colleagues will be picking up your complaint shortly as per the ticket you've raised which I've referred to in my previous response.

All I can suggest is that some people have had success in asking a VoIP (Voice over IP) provider to activate a ceased number, so you could try going down that path as we can't provide a physical line to activate it on sadly. 

[#5]

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@Tommy34 wrote:

This is an 83 year olds phone number that he needs and is registered with the Hospital, so you are telling me his number is lost forever. Nobody can get through to him now and he is not prepared to pay full fibre prices.  Terrible treatment to just cut off his phone number without notice! Who can i complain to?

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@Tommy34 

Is this 83 year old in receipt of (or entitled to claim) any means tested benefits, in particular Pension Credit - Guarantee Credit?

If so, BT do a Digital Voice phone only service for £10 per month, or if Internet is also required there are two options costing £15 and  £20 per month.

These prices are for services over full fibre (and include call plans), and although I don't know for sure, it may* be possible for BT to retrieve the number.

See these links;

Home Essentials from BT (pdf)

https://www.bt.com/broadband/home-essentials

EDIT:  * Possibly only if the number was originally from the BT range.

[#6]

Thank you for that but unfortunately he doesn't receive any Benefits or pension credit and he is not entitled to it.

[#7]

@Tommy34 

You said in your OP that the line still has dial tone and you can make outgoing calls, so I'm just wondering whether a different number has been allocated to the line.

You could check this by calling 17070 * and listening to the number which is read out.

EDIT: *possibly only for Openreach lines. 

[#8]

Yes the line still has a dial tone, and have still got broadband working from previous supplier. It also reads out the correct number when i dial 17070

When someone calls, it says the number you have dialled is currently not receiving incoming calls.

[#9]

Hiya @Tommy34, I am really sorry to hear of the issues faced with the service. I can see a case handler was since assigned to you complaint and have chatted further about the issues with them. 

[#10]

Why are you now messaging me about installing a new line and sending an engineer out.  I spoke to your customer service who agreed my order had been cancelled and they would refund my initial payment, as  you can't provide copper service to this address only fttp, You sent me an email stating this. 

[#11]

Hiya, I am really sorry for the confusion here, it looks like the order ticket was still open and the agent not aware of the steps already agreed. I have now closed that ticket to prevent further confusion.