Spot on David. That is what is supposed to happen with Plusnet, except for one thing.

At the point where the user speaks to them he should not give the 14 days notice. Just request an entry on his account of the kind you suggest. There was miscommunication in this case, probably involving a less than competent CS person and perhaps careless wording by the OP. Sorted by the more competent one he later spoke to. The migration notification from the gaining ISP to the losing constitutes the required notice, this being specified in Ofcom GC 22.

Slightly different circumstances when I left Plusnet under GPL migration - I wanted to retain my referral credits. I organised this with Plusnet in just that way and notes to that effect were placed on my account. All went smoothly, the only complication being that somewhere in the process I had to give them a new direct debit authority as it involved them setting up a new (email only but with unchanged username and password) account for me to receive and pay out the credits.

The suggestion here by others of placing the migration order first would not work, assuming an online order with an efficient gaining ISP. The gaining computer system in both my phone line (BT to Pulse8) and FTTC (Plusnet to AAISP) caused me to receive automated emails from the losing providers in far less time than it would have taken to get through to Plusnet on the phone.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Obviously, you have to contact Plusnet to tell them the price rise not acceptable and then try and negotiate a better deal. It's too late to do this after you've placed an order with a new ISP.

It isn't too late. Once you receive the "Sorry you are leaving email" you can easily ring the retentions department any losing ISP and negotiate a good deal. You can cancel the order with the gaining ISP at any time up to a date typically two or three days before the migration date, with no need to give a reason for cancellation.

That two or three days is because after that point it becomes virtually impossible to stop it going through at Openreach. The gaining ISP's email giving the migration date specifies their cancellation cutoff date as well. This doesn't seem to tally with GC22 but I get the impression is accepted by them as there has to be a committed move date at some stage.

I understand your point, when he rang to cancel the call handler should have made it clear this would be a cease and prevent migration.

For all readers and long established users of this forum who should know better.

If cancelled a cease is usually applied to the line and a cost is charged.

If migrating (moving to another ISP) then there is no cease and all should be ok.

Could this situation be avoided if the instruction were routed only through the Gaining ISP?

The Leaving ISP e-mail could include a Code (re-born MAC) to be given by the Customer, to the Gaining ISP, to then be included in the Gaining ISPs normal notifications to the Leaving ISP of the other events about to take place.

That would apparently avoid the present uncertainties etc.

Transfers are gaining provider led, I believe the issue here was that we were asked to cancel the account so we issued the cancellation which sends a cease request (not a transfer).

That's because your letter said

All we ask is that you call us to tell us within 30 days of getting this email and give us 14 days� notice.

Agreed Chris.

Your system appears to have handled correctly, what was asked of it.

I am suggesting what may be a means of avoiding the uncertainty to the customer; by modifying the system to cope better with the customer's intentions; and by implication your e-mails in such situations, to minimise the chances of such disruptions happening.

Given that all ISPs know the implications of a cancel then a simple question when someone rings of "are you cancelling or migrating" would help resolve the issue. It appears PlusNet wish to keep to the letter of what a customer has asked for rather than helping - and as the customer may well consider coming back in future it would seem sensible to be helpful even when someone is leaving.

Agreed that it is another and easy way to deal with it.