I completely fail to understand, as I've said somewhere on the forums before, why Ofcom didn't just make a MAC-similar process for transferring line rental as well and make both also necessary for LLU to/from transfers.

Everything sorted!

This new method is insane.

Ukonline were able to generate MAC codes whilst on the phone requesting it, they also e-mailed it too, Be there where quite quick too BT retail for one reason or other would appear to be dragging their heels

That would would of required them to use some common sense, Ofcom being a government quango don't know what common sense actually is

I'm with you on this. It's the digital age and they are selling digital products. All these processes should be instant. If they blame the systems then they need to change or get out of business. Sometimes you would think we are living in 1950 not 2015. And don't get me started on Banks and processing payments and deposits!

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

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

The ISP just logged into the eCo website using their BT Wholesale supplied credentials and requested the MAC for the customer's connection, fully automated and instantaneous. I'm pretty sure there were no phones or emails involved.

Seeing as I cannot prove you wrong, but know the conclusion you reach is, I shall have to give up. There is no easy way to solve this, and we agree it is not at all relevant to the current thread.

Well we both know that they had websites and web browsers in the year 2000, so it's not inconceivable that the BT Wholesale MAC generation process was fully web-based (and therefore instantaneous) from day one.

But yeah, happy to leave it there.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

Well we both know that they had websites and web browsers in the year 2000, so it's not inconceivable that the BT Wholesale MAC generation process was fully web-based (and therefore instantaneous) from day one.

Yup, when the process first came out, we just logged into eCo and generated a MAC, done within seconds. A few months later, we then live integrated via API as we became more familiar and likewise generated instantly (I can't quite recall if the API method was available at launch though...it has been years).

Much like Sky, you can upgrade online but downgrade takes an age on the phone.

Sainsburys Energy have an online portal, but for change of bank details, nooooooo!

Update. I phoned bt today after ordering MAC on the 18th, they claimed to have sent it by email but nothing received here.
They then tried to get me to stay by offering a reduced cost package which I refused and then said that they would have to start the MAC process again which would take a further 7 days. I became angry and said I was complaining to OFCOM about them stalling the move process.
Lo and behold I got my MAC over the phone and it has been accepted by my new provider.
They even had the nerve to say they hoped I was leaving bt with a good experience behind me and I should consider going back to them - NEVER.