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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Not willing to port my landline number

Hello everyone. 

I am not sure if anyone in the community or at "NOW" can help me but I have nothing else left to try.

I did raise a complaint with the following with "NOW" but received no actual help or resolve.

The problem is not actually that complex. I will try my best to keep it concise.

On March 20th I ordered online NOW Brlilliant Broadband with landline and calls package this all seemed to go through absolutely fine. (My current provider is Sky).

Without ANY doubt I selected keep my current telephone number as this is VERY important to me as I have a disability that to cut a long story short requires my landline number for various care, safety and NHS direct contact etc. I really dont mean to moan about the disability factor I only mention this to emphasise the imprtance of retaining my landline number which I have for almost 30 years unchanged.

Therefore the problem. The same day as I ordered, I first received an email confirming everything and that included saying my NOW Broadband landline phone number would be my current number. Therefore everything looked great to me.

Later that evening I received another email from "NOW" informing that there had "been a problem with my order" and that I would be allocated a NEW landline number on the changeover day which is April 3rd 2019.

I was stunned by this as I everything I read indicated there should be no problem whatsoever in retaining your landline number when changing broadband provider. I am also aware that Sky and NOW are linked companies so I would think the porting aspect would be simple.

I then made a formal complaint regarding this (by email)  to NOW which after 48 hours I had to chase up, then it was passed from one department to another starting off at NOW TV although i did use the online form.

I should mention I could not (not would not) phone customer service at NOW due to mentioned disability. (Phone use is for my family to use).

I eventually got an email reply which frankly just went around in circles and solved absolutely nothing at all. I do have a reference number for this.

The customer service operative simply did nothing that I can see to attempt to solve the problem.

They could not explain what had happened or why I had to have a new landline number, just stating that I would basically.

The only solution they offered if you can call it that was to, instruct Sky I no longer wished to leave (NOW had cancelled me with them automatically), then cancel my order with NOW, then make a new order with NOW then cancel again with Sky. 

I was at first simply stunned by this as a so called solution as it seemed an utterly ridiculous situation given that I had done nothing wrong at all.

I did ask the customer service advisor if they could do this for me and I gave them full permission to do so and explained I COULD NOT telpehone Sky. They said no I had to do it.

I then spent almost three hours trying to contact Sky on their live chat to start the process requested by NOW but could not get an operative and I had to give up.

I emailed NOW back to explain this and also to inform them I was going into hospital on Monday morning and that I was by now extremely worried that this mess may mean that by the time I was out of hospital this may be after the changeover date and as things were panning out I could be left with no broadband or landline at all as Sky had sent both an email and a prompt letter to confirm i was leaving them. 

I do appreciate that under legislation and the 14 day cooling off period I could have and still could cancel NOW Broadband but having cancelled Sky, I hope you will see my point that I feel I had/have a real risk of having no broadband as explained. With it at the time only hours before going into hospital on Monday morning I made the decision to let the order with NOW Broadband proceed.  I emailed in reply to NOW customer service always replying to the same email as instructed thus using the same reference number and informed them of this and asked at the least could they confirm what the new phone number would be so I could inform my accesability and mobility advisor at the hospital, I also stated it was with the GREATEST reluctance i was having to give up the landline number I have held for 30 years. The brief reply just stated the order would proceed and they did not know what my new number would be as it was not on the system. This is despite me receiving an email from NOW on March 20th starting this whole stressful mess informing me they were giving me a new phone number and the email stating what it was !!

My accesability and mobilty advisor at hospital kindly contacted Ofcom for me who assured her that this was not acceptable practice and that I shoud be able to retain my landline number that I have held for many years and it should simply be "ported" on the day of changeover. She feels that it will be very time consuming for me and health care providers to change to a new number and that there will be a "high risk" of loss of essential contact due to this, but she also agrees in the situation it is difficult to simply cancel everything with NOW as there is a risk of now broadband provision happening as the changeover is next week on April 3rd.

What a horrible stressful situation this has been.

I feel there is no point in emailing NOW again as no actual effort was made to retain my phone number or solve the problem. The only option I was given I could not do as explained.

I got out of hospital this afternoon and this matter has been quite a worry.

The only thing I could think of doing was to try here on the community help in the hope that someone could possibly help me or that someone who works for NOW Broadband would read this and just try and resolve this.

I cannot believe all this should happen just to keep my current landline phone number especially as I have not even changed over yet.

Clearly just allocating a new number is the easier or cheaper option for NOW as a company, yet Ofcom state I should be able to keep my current phone number and that porting should be straightforward as I am within the same network and not changing froma  cable network.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.

Sorry the message is so long. I just wanted to try and explain what is happening correctly.

So very disappointing that this is happening, I am shocked that the lack of help from NOW broadband appears to be so bad. 

 

33 REPLIES 33
Anonymous User
Not applicable

I am having the same problem. changing from sky to Now tv the order has been rejected 3 times and I was told the same to cancel my cancellation with sky and thery would start a new order. This has happened twice so far and now they are saying I cannot keep my landline number why? Surely if you swap broadband providers as recommended to keep getting the best deal, you should not have to keep changing your landline number. I really don't understand the problem.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I am having a nightmare too with my mother's porting from Sky to Now TV.

 

Port was due to happen yesterday and instead phone line is dead, no ring tone and no broadband. When you call my mother's phone number, someone else (connected to Sky) is getting my mother's calls by mistake.

 

Spent 90 minutes on the phone last night and guess what no call back or resolution. Was quoted up to 48 hours which I said was not good enough as my mother now has no phone line or internet.

 

Any suggestions??

Anonymous User
Not applicable
Hi I have given up with now Tv and cancelled the contract gone with
Vodafone. I discovered that sky was going to disconnect but now Tv were not
going to connect as they said it had been rejected but failed to let me
know 3 times. I was lucky and managed to stop the disconnection with sky in
time. As from yesterday a new law came in which states that Internet
company has to pay you compensation for everyday you have no service.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

I have just transferred to NowTV and discovered (without any notification of a new number) that my previous telephone number has been swapped and have been told that this cannot be reversed: NowTV insists that I did not ask to keep my number whereas I am sure that I did (we have had it for 33 years!)…………….

 

i have raised a complaint and they have made a 3 day commitment to respomd: if they do not and do not restore my telephone number, i will be cancelling the agreement and taking legal action to recover the costs (of my time) to notify family, friends and hundreds of other personal & business contacts.

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

same issue - so inconvenient to move to a new landline number after 25 years plus. Only found out when the GP surgery called me today on my mobile to let me know the old landline number was dead. I've just been reading back through the documents I've received from NOWtv - nothing with the new number on any of these - and why would there be?.....we wanted to keep the old one and I'm sure I ticked a box somewhere online to that effect. No help at all from customer service - I paraphrase but "tough luck" summed up their response. I'm pursuing but the feedback on here isn't very encouraging.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

same problem, been a week now without landline since transfer to Now, they appear to be prevaricating, something very odd, still nothing resolved. Keep giving me technical jargon as to the reasons for the delay in porting number.

 

This is for my elderly parents who rely on the landline heavily. If I had known the stress involved I would have never have advised them to move to Now.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

from what I am hearing, they never honour porting requests (presumably because they would have to pay the owning service provider) and do not respond to corresponding complaints.

 

I registered a complaint (by phone) which has not been acknowledged nor responded to after 3 days so I am now going to cancel my agreement (under the 14 day rule) and, unless they restore my previous telephone number, take legal action for their misrepresentation and costs of my time to notify my contacts (both personal & commercial).

Anonymous User
Not applicable

just a quick (& final) update to confirm that I have just cancelled under the 14 day (from activation) rule.

 

I got no response to my complaint by phone on 28/10 and the link to 'online' chat on the website didn't work so today I sent them a webmail advising that I was cancelling unless they restored my number by the end of the 14 day period.

 

I also phoned their 'complaint' number and, after being suggested that perhaps my previous supplier would not give up the number (then why was I not informed?), I was passed to 'retention' to process the cancellation where I was again told that I did not request porting (I did), that the transfer could not be reversed and that the number was now 'lost'.

 

their implication was that there is now no benefit in going to another supplier but for me it is a matter of principle: their action is either deliberate (in order to tie-in to their number?), defective business processes or staff incompetence: whichever the reason, I am not going to commit my communication requirements to an organisation which either mispresents its services or does not have good business practices.

 

the only good news (if they honour their word) is that they offered me a choice of termination date and a partial refund of the first month's payment...…………………..

 

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Finally after 9 days, and umpteen phone calls and lengthy conversations, they have managed to port my parent's telephone number, throughout the process, they kept blaming my previous provider, and then shifted the blame to BT Open Reach, promising me activation each day without  success.

 

I would not go through this again! Do not touch..

 

Perhaps the Company should change their name to 'Later' TV...