5 days for a MAC they can give it instantly?

I asked BT for my MAC on the 18th and was told 5 days, I have migrated from other isp's in the past and have been given it instantly. If BT think this will make me consider them in the future they are sadly mistaken.

In reference to ask.ofcom.org.uk/help/internet-service/MAC:

Under Ofcom regulations, where a consumer or small business (with 10 or less employees) wishes to change broadband provider, a MAC must be issued within 5 working days of the request.

I know but what I am trying to say is that why make me wait 5 days when the support person who took my call had the ability to have the MAC in front of his face while he was talking to me and trying to get me to stay. Just because they have 5 days doesn't mean they should take 5 days, they are just being total *****.

I'm sure Ofcom set it at 5 working days for a reason.

Yes, they did. Before the auto-requests from Openreach were available online .

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Yes, they did. Before the auto-requests from Openreach were available online .

Hasn't eCo always offered that? I doubt BT Wholesale ever had people sitting in an office manually processing migrations all day.

It's the retailers that need it, and you could be right re Openreach and BTW. But plenty of ISPs a few years ago certainly didn't have it available in their systems. They had to request it one way or another.

Ofcom presumably never changed the 5 days because it wasn't worth it.

At O2 and IDNet I don't think it ever went near a person, as I expect you know in the first case.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

It's the retailers that need it, and you could be right re Openreach and BTW. But plenty of ISPs a few years ago certainly didn't have it available in their systems. They had to request it one way or another.

Hmm, would be interesting to hear from Xilo, Aquiss or IDnet or someone familiar with the history of the eCo system. I imagine automatic MAC generation was available from day one, and the only reason Ofcom brought in legislation was because some retailers were dragging their heels, not because BT Wholesale had no systems in place to generate a MAC instantaneously, but because the retailers were being slow or incompetent for reasons internal to their own company.

That's to some extent what I was trying to say. Part of it almost word for word what you quote.

Many retailers had to contact BTW manually, phone/email/whatever, because they didn't have a computerised MAC request/return service.

Going to be slower soon, since the new NoT has a dead space of ten days during which time the account holder gets sent a letter and has time to say NO I DID NOT ORDER A MIGRATION