Moving from BT to O2 - problems

I am about to move into a rented house with two friends of mine. They are currently with BT Broadband (in the name of my friend who currently lives there). The house I am currently living in has O2 broadband (in my name) and we would like to transfer this over to the new house.

I initially got my friend to request the MAC from BT in order that O2 could transfer the account with minimal interference to the service. I was then told by O2 that this would not be possible as the MAC was specific to the current account holder (my friend) and therefore they would not be able to transfer the account (as it's in my name).

The person I spoke to at O2 suggested that I had two options:

1) Get my friend to sign up for an O2 account and then use the MAC to transfer the service to it. This is not desirable for a number of reasons, but essentially I would like the broadband to be in my name.

2) Get BT to cancel the service on the line and then install O2 as the provider from scratch. This initially seemed a fairly hassle-free solution, although I soon found out that it would take quite a long time to happen and also that we would have to pay a £25 cancellation fee (this strikes me as being ridiculous, but that's another issue).

I would like to know if I have either misunderstood anything to do with the process, and whether there is a (relatively) easy solution to my problem.

The ideal outcome of all of this is that I will be with O2 broadband and have incurred little disruption to the service and not paid any additional fees. (I hope I'm not living in false hope in wanting this...!)

Many thanks for any assistance,

Oliver

(I've posted this in both the O2 and BT forums as I was not sure which was most relevant - apologies if I've made a mistake)

In reply to a post by neonstarfish:

I am about to move into a rented house with two friends of mine. They are currently with BT Broadband (in the name of my friend who currently lives there). The house I am currently living in has O2 broadband (in my name) and we would like to transfer this over to the new house.

I initially got my friend to request the MAC from BT in order that O2 could transfer the account with minimal interference to the service. I was then told by O2 that this would not be possible as the MAC was specific to the current account holder (my friend) and therefore they would not be able to transfer the account (as it's in my name).

The person I spoke to at O2 suggested that I had two options:

1) Get my friend to sign up for an O2 account and then use the MAC to transfer the service to it. This is not desirable for a number of reasons, but essentially I would like the broadband to be in my name.

2) Get BT to cancel the service on the line and then install O2 as the provider from scratch. This initially seemed a fairly hassle-free solution, although I soon found out that it would take quite a long time to happen and also that we would have to pay a £25 cancellation fee (this strikes me as being ridiculous, but that's another issue).

I would like to know if I have either misunderstood anything to do with the process, and whether there is a (relatively) easy solution to my problem.

The ideal outcome of all of this is that I will be with O2 broadband and have incurred little disruption to the service and not paid any additional fees. (I hope I'm not living in false hope in wanting this...!)

Many thanks for any assistance,

Oliver

(I've posted this in both the O2 and BT forums as I was not sure which was most relevant - apologies if I've made a mistake)

I cant think of any simple way to do it because of the 2 accounts being in different names. Most companies representatives and computer systems will start crying about that early on.

The simplest option is to get the mac from BT and then have them sign up for the o2 service.

If it must be in your name for whatever reasons you have then cease the BT service and start over.

You could call BT and see if its possible to change the name on the account for broadband. It might be linked to the phone line however. Not sure what the score is with that.

I get the feeling this going to go down as a cross post... but anyhow...

As far as I can see the only way your going to achieve this is to get them to either change the name on the BT Broadband to your own and then migrate to O2, or migrate to O2 and then get the name on the account changed to yours.

If this isn't possible then the only option you have is to cancel the BT Broadband, pay the fee and sign up under your name with O2.

Edited by deleted (Fri 10-Jul-09 21:32:24)

I'd be surprised if Openreach cross check account names as part of a MAC transfer, but that may be the case .
I'd suggest the OP try:
1) Get the BT Broadband account holder to obtain a MAC from BT .
2) Give the MAC to the OP and they submit the MAC online with their details.
3) Wait and see what happens.
4) If succesfull , the OP can then cancel their o2 service.

Just to save wasted effort, the ground has been well covered in the other thread and I believe an O2 staff member is looking into what can be done.

The problem is that the O2 house move service cannot accept the MAC from the BT Broadband connection at a different address in order to place an order for transfer on that line.

If the O2 person can arrange things that is obviously the ideal solution.

If not, the OP has to choose between a BT Broadband Cease followed by a house move by O2, costing him a BT Cease charge of £25, or cancelling his existing O2 account at a cost of £50, and opening a new one at the new address, using the MAC, with a new 12-month minimum term. (Edit - but with 2 months free).

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 10-Jul-09 23:41:31)