I have a BT landline.
My girlfriend can get a special deal from Orange on broadband: the deal requires her to have a BT landline.
The solution is simple: I sign-over my BT landline to my girlfriend.
I ring up BT and after speaking to several people in India, and repeating my request several times, I finally get through to somebody who can close down my account. I’m told my girlfriend will have to ring up and open a new account under her name. I say “But we can keep our telephone number, yes?” BT say yes.
My girlfriend rings and after speaking to several people in India, and repeating her request several times, she finally gets through to somebody who can open a new account in her name. She explains she needs to take over the existing phone number that was in my name. She asks “We can keep our telephone number, yes?” BT say yes.
My girlfriend contacts Orange and sets up the broadband account… Orange require our BT phone number, which they will be piping the broadband through. My girlfriend gives them our phone number.
A couple of weeks pass.
The wifi router from Orange arrives in the post. I plug it in, follow the set-up instructions, I follow the authentication process… dialling into the Orange computer network. Within 20 minutes I’m online and surfing. Yippeeeee! That was so smoothly executed, I’m delighted.
Nobody can ring us at home. Hmmm. I find that our phone number isn’t working. I find have actually been given a new phone number.
Hmmm.
After two days the Broadband stops working.
I ring Orange. The techy guy wants me to try reinstalling the software… testing the router… blah blah blah… Oh! It must be a problem with my firewall. No, it’s not the router, it’s not my firewall… I’ve already explained this to you at the START OF THE CONVERSATION... BT changed my phone number against our wishes… which means we no longer have the number we registered with you guys. Can you fix it?”
Orange say no. I have to get BT to change my number back to the original number.
Right. Fine. Okay.
I ring BT… after speaking to several people in India, and repeating my request several times, I finally get through to somebody who can swap our number back… but it will take 10 days. WHAT? TEN DAYS? Yes, ten days. “Okay, go for it,” I say.
So I have no broadband and my friends can’t call me on the number they have listed for us.
5 days go by… nothing’s happened.
My girlfriend rings BT… after speaking to several people in India, and repeating her request several times, she finally get through to somebody who tells her the person I spoke to five days ago didn’t raise a request to change the number back. WHAT? She’s told that they can raise a request now, but it will take 10 days. TEN DAYS????!!!!
My girlfriend tells them they can do it in five days, and if it’s not done in five days she’ll be calling them to discuss compensation.
5 days go by… nothing has happened.
My girlfriend rings BT to complain. The BT person argues back… “why do you need to change your number back… can’t you tell your friends your new number?” My girlfriend is flabbergasted. She escalates, speaks to the BT agent’s manager… the BT manager argues back… despite the fact BT have changed our phone number against our wishes…despite the fact BT’s mistake has ruined our broadband for several weeks and prevented us getting calls from friends and family…. BT have no intention of apologising or giving us compensation.
My girlfriend was in tears.. angry and frustrated.
I am disgusted by BT’s lack of customer care and incompetent service. If we didn’t need the BT landline for the broadband I would stay a thousand light years from this vile corporation.
4 days go by and bingo! Our BT number changes back to what it was before this debacle began. Our friends can call us. Yay! I try to connect to Orange broadband. No connection. Nothing. Dead.
I ring Orange… I explain that BT messed up our phone number, and that when I authenticated our broadband account… we were dialling in with a different phone number than the one registered with Orange. The Orange agent wants me to try reinstalling the software… testing the router… blah blah blah… Oh! It must be a problem with my firewall. No, it’s not the router, it’s not my firewall… I’ve already explained this to you at the START OF THE CONVERSATION... BT changed my phone number against our wishes. The broadband was working fine, until YOUR computer system killed the service…obviously because it discovered an inconsistency in phone numbers. I’m getting nowhere with this woman so I tell her to escalate.
So… tonight will be the grand reveal. I’m expecting a phone call from an Orange Techy tonight. 2nd line support…I hope.
Already I’m feeling tense… angry and frustrated, anticipating a useless and pointless conversation with somebody unable to help.
Watch this space.
**EDIT: 29th Aug. The Orange engineer rang me last night. He was polite and apologetic. He didn't ask me to reinstall the software. He didn't try to tell me it was my firewall or that BT were the problem. He said, "I looked at your fault log and it says you called us back on the 4th of August. You're right...we did kill your broadband because your phone had changed. I understand that was BT's fault. Somebody should have spotted this and ordered you a new broadband connection. I can do that now for you... but here's the bad news..."
I interrupted him and finished his sentence, "Let me guess... it will take 10 days to activate this?"
He sounded uncomfortable. "Er, yes. I'm sorry."
I couldn't get angry with him. He'd been quite lovely. I just accepted the fact that both BT and Orange as corporate entities need to seriously sort out their customer service training policy.
Djr