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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
Hi Sdlonyer

Wrt messages, I referred my complaint to the ombudsman (cedr-modria) who rejected it on the basis that I couldn’t prove that I selected porting in my order: they refused to consider the evidence from this forum............................

The only way forward that I can see is to find a solicitor who would take a group action on a no win no fee basis.........................
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Thanks for reply ; Ringing my old number showed that it was still not connected to anyone, and Now closed down my open help case. 

 

After a lengthy chat with Talktalk sales team, they agreed that if I went back to them they would be able to reinstate our original number ; I cancelled the Now order under the distance-selling 'window', and am scheduled to return to TT on 28/04 - hopefully with our original number. 

 

After this I was contacted by a senior person in the Now c/s dept. (I had attempted to get some action by e-mailing the CEO of Sky group) - we had an amiable discussion, and I was able to point out the large number of disgruntled posts on both this and MSE forums regarding lost numbers after raising web-orders ; they agreed to look into this for both their own and future customers' benefit. 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I too have this problem. A number we have had since 1964.

 

What have you done since your message ?

 

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable
I moved to Virgin but would you believe it, they lost my number. Took 19
days for them to find & reinstate it. OFCOM say all providers must offer to
port but it seems like they all ignore it.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

 I fully sympathise with you. I am in exactly the same situation and currently writing to Ofcom.

I transferred not only my broadband and phone but that of an elderly relative who has many hospital appointments.I have had the same messages.

I suggest that you get in touch with bt 0 establish that your phone number is still available. Then phone nowtv and arrange them to cancel your account and set up another in your old phone number. I cannot guarantee that this will work as now tv said that the chance of my old number still being available was very small. I ask Would BT give my old number to a third person! - I think not it would surely breach GDPR.

The whole business is unacceptable but we should continue to hassle nowtv until THEY can accept a transfer ofa phone  number from another provider. In each case the provider i changed from was talk talk. I have now no phone number with Talk talk and a new number with nowtv -I NEED my old number back!! 

I had exactly the same problem in early 2020.  I cancelled a new subscription to SKY as they said they could not port my landline (which I have had for 32 years) but not realising the NOWTV was part of the same company and having ticked that I wanted to keep my landline and spoken to someone (as this was a make or break issue) and been assured I could keep my landline, I moved over to NOW TV and after a few weeks realised I was no longer getting calls and that my number was defunct.  I phoned and asked what was the problem and the person I spoke to said that my old number was gone and not retrievable. She could not give any account of why this was not very clearly stated in writing and by the operative I spoke to at the time I was contemplating the switch.  I consider this misselling.  

Added to which I now find the NOW TV service to be very poor - internet keeps dropping and poorer signal than my previous providers so all round nightmare

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I have just experienced the same problem and have had my original landline since 1963.  It is tied to many medical details such as pacemaker monitor, etc.

 

They seem to have changed the online order process to not even include if you would like to keep your original or request a new number.  It simply states "great you can keep your number" or words to that effect and if you would like it directory or ex-directory.

 

I was fobbed off twice with the excuse that I did not request my original number to be ported, knowing full well there was no option not to have it ported!

 

I will be pursuing this until successful or decent compensation paid!!!

Anonymous User
Not applicable

My wife and I ordered a new NowTV Broadband service for my mother-in-law a week ago at what seemed like a good deal of £18 per month including unlimited calls for the 1st 12 months and a £70 cashback offer from the TopCashback website. We were switching from TalkTalk as they had put up their prices significantly at the end of her current contract and they wouldn't offer her a deal as competitive as the NowTV offer (as a pensioner she has a very low income so we try to save her money wherever possible).

 

My mother-in-law has dementia so I specifically ticked the box to keep her existing TalkTalk number, which she has held for many years and which all her family, friends, doctors and carers use - we did not want to change this for obvious reasons!

 

Two days after placing the order we emailed NowTV a copy of our Power of Attorney documents so that we could manage her account on her behalf.

 

Four days after placing the order we received an email confirming the go-live date but stating the service would be issued with a new number - good job I read the email carefully - many people would easily miss this and not realise they had a new number until after the service had gone live.

 

I immediately called NowTV (after hunting for ages to find a number to ring them - as no number is given in any of their emails or the website). They said they couldn't talk to me as they had not yet processed the Power of Attorney form we'd sent. They asked us to try again in 1-2 days. I left it 3 days to give them ample time, but when I called them earlier today they still had not processed the Power of Attorney form so still could not speak to me! They said they would expedite it and asked me to call back tomorrow. However, within an hour my wife received a text saying the form had now been processed so we could discuss my mother-in-law's account over the phone. This was already raising suspicion NowTV's customer service is terrible...

 

Anyway, I called them again and this time got through to a customer representative who said that there was a "temporary problem" (this thread is well over a year old - so that's a lie) with their online ordering system, caused by BT OpenReach, and that the only way to keep the old number is for NowTV to cancel the original order and place a new order over the phone.

 

I explained this would mean my mother-in-law would lose out on the £70 new customer cashback offer from the Topcashback site. The agent said there was nothing she could do about 3rd party cashback sites.

 

This smells very fishy to me! I think NowTV are enticing customers with cheap deals and cashback offers and telling them they can keep their number, but because they have to pay BT OpenReach to port the numbers and perhaps switch some cables over at the exchange, they are deliberately issuing new phone numbers in the hope most customers will just accept it (and if customers don't spot this in the confirmation email, by the time the switch is made, it will be too late to do anything about it).  If this is what is actually happening it would amount to a deliberate deception and obviously violates trading standards rules.  

 

Anyway I told NowTV to just cancel the order as I cannot run the risk of losing her number. As it happens TalkTalk had written to my mother after the switch process started offering a similar deal to the NowTV one if my mother-in-law stayed with them (why couldn't TalkTalk just have offered that in the first place and saved us all this hassle? There's no reward for customer loyalty in this business. Anyway that's a different topic).

 

It seems far too many people are having a similar experience with NowTV and this needs reporting to OFCOM / Watchdog as it sounds like a scam to me.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I’ve just signed up for nowtv and at the very last minute I was told I couldn’t keep my old phone number.  I’m on the last stage, having not yet agreed to payment, and have decided against having anything to do with them. There seems to be a lot of unsatisfied customers having the same problem 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

EXACTLY the same circumstances as my own. My elderly mother has also seen her Talk Talk broadband charges go through the roof following the end of the 12-month contract. Seeing the £80 cashback offer on topcashback.com I applied for Now TV's brilliant broadband offer and selected to keep her number but got the message this would mot be possible. Because the deal was so good (effectively £11 p/m WITH included calls) I went ahead with the order. Then I got a call saying it WOULD be possible to keep the number but they would have to cancel the order and I wold have to place another over the phone. Obviously this would mean no cashback 😞 Apparently they cannot correct the online ordering problem due to COVID-19!! Judging by the length of time this has been going on that's a big, fat lie. Think I'll be staying away from NOW Broadband!!!