Usual OR & BT screw up.

Been with Plusnet for a few years and noticed a good deal with BT and their infinity 2 product.

Signed up and all was going smoothly until a few days before i was due to be swapped over.

Suddenly get an email from Plusnet saying "we are glad you are staying with us"

[censored]???

So, phoned Plusnet and they told me BT had cancelled the order. With that, i called BT and was told that the landline and broadband order had fallen out of snyc and i would have to re-order.

So, i said fine and they did.

I then get a call from BT connections dept saying there was a problem with my address etc and they could only transfer the phone line on the new date, and the BB would then be activated 3-4 days after. One of the reasons i was given was that the connection with other providers is shared with 3 users, but BT had one connection per user??

I said that was no good as I work from home and need BB every day, and i certainly couldn't go for 3-4 days, and even then, there was no guarantee that it would be connected.

I asked if they would cancel the order and i would just stay put and I was given a phone number, which turned out to be retentions. I explained everything to that operator and said that i needed to speak to connections!!!!

SO, another conversation with them and they were basically saying that they could not place the order for my broadband until the day after the phone was connected as there were capacity issues at the exchange. REALLY???? Is this how its done??

I mean with all the technology in place, they are still not capable of just swapping the line over??

The best i was offered as a gesture of goodwill to keep me connected whilst this was sorted was a £30 contribution towards the cost of a 4G dongle and that would only just cover the cost of it without any data usage!!

[censored] off BT and [censored] off OR.

And people say Plusnet are bad, and i have never had an issue with them really.

Nothing changes. Shower of [censored].

AT least i have a nice shiney new Smart Hub that i can flog as they had already sent that.

Muppets

Edited by Alucidnation (Fri 08-Sep-17 21:08:21)

Only word that makes sense is 'capacity'

When you check your line at https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/adsl.htm?s... does it talk about a waiting list?

If so then that is why the order failed, and best to back out and wait until the waiting list issue has gone away, trying to force things now is likely to land you back on ADSL2+

The line swap is done by Openreach and to keep the work equivalent to all providers there is some odd rule where there needs to be a spare port available, i.e. stops providers who are with BT Wholesale gaining an advantage.

Hi Andrew,

No waiting list at all that i can see.

Nothing in the small print at the bottom either.

Also, do you know what they mean about 3 users sharing a line with other providers, but BT customers get their own exclusive line?

I did ask the operator but they didnt seem to think it mattered.

Or is that to do with OR?

Edited by Alucidnation (Fri 08-Sep-17 21:33:28)

Users sharing a line! Total rubbish, what were they trying to tell you?

That was one of the reasons for the delay after the phone was connected.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Only word that makes sense is 'capacity'

When you check your line at https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/adsl.htm?s... does it talk about a waiting list?

If so then that is why the order failed, and best to back out and wait until the waiting list issue has gone away, trying to force things now is likely to land you back on ADSL2+

The line swap is done by Openreach and to keep the work equivalent to all providers there is some odd rule where there needs to be a spare port available, i.e. stops providers who are with BT Wholesale gaining an advantage.

Andrew, that�s really interesting. Do you know any more about that rule you mention in your last sentence. Due to FTTC being more of a virtual thing with port allocation I always thought that if you switched from (for example) Sky FTTC to BT FTTC it�s all done virtually, and your line stays on the same port. I assume it must be or else Openreach would be constantly moving lines from one port to another, and I�ve never done that other than for a fault.

Are you saying for the switch to go through there has to be a spare port available at the cabinet? I know the ports are virtual to an extent as when a lift and shift is required you�re just told what port to move the line to and then 15 minutes later that port becomes active with that subscriber�s account.

It's long been debated and no one has been able to give a concrete answer.

What I do know, is that if a cabinet is at capacity, someone with service is unable to migrate to a new supplier. When the gaining ISP tries to order, the product isn't available, due to OR showing the cabinet as being full.

Edited by deleted (Sat 09-Sep-17 21:37:12)

The port definitely isn't changed during an ISP switch, you're absolutely right with that.
I think that assumption has just been made at some point, as there's no way to switch ISP when a cabinet is at capacity.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

The line swap is done by Openreach and to keep the work equivalent to all providers there is some odd rule where there needs to be a spare port available, i.e. stops providers who are with BT Wholesale gaining an advantage.

Must say I've always wondered why there had to be a spare port, even though it isn't used.
In what way would that give BTW providers an advantage though?