BT say I'm not switching, TalkTalk and Openreach say I am...

Was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this subject. I put an order in with TalkTalk (TT) for Full Fibre 500 data only. I received an E-Mail a few days later from BT stating that someone is moving into my property and was trying to take over the phone line at my address.

Due to how the E-Mail was written, I telephoned BT as I was a bit confused as 1) I don't have a phone line, 2) They said someone was moving in and 3) I was moving to a data only connection so therefore wouldn't even have a phone number.

The person I spoke to at BT explained that someone had requested to take over the phone line at my address. I explained that I didn't have a phone line as it was a new build with full fibre. He put me on hold for a short while, came back and told me he had cancelled that order since I didn't seem to know what it was.

I was given the date of the FTTP switch from BT to TT as the 19th August. Anyway, nothing happened! I spoke to TT today, and they got in touch with OR who told TT that the stage 1 process took longer than they thought and it was completed today (20th) and that stage 2 (the switchover) will happen on Monday (23rd) and all that's left to do is swap the port.

Both TT and OR are adamant that this switch IS happening on Monday ... I've spoken to BT who have told me that the switch will NOT happen at all since they cancelled it their end.

I don't know how switches work! Can OR still switch me if BT have cancelled it their end? Why would OR complete stage 1 today (whatever that means) if they aren't switching me? I find it strange that 2 companies are saying one thing, and another company is saying another. Given BT's track record of lying to me, I'm far more inclined to believe TT and OR on this matter.

If BT did cancel the order, I find this incredibly unfair given that I rang up with an enquiry about an E-Mail... I never asked them to cancel any transfer, but according to BT since I told them that I didn't know what was happening, they took it as "I didn't place the order" and it is therefore their policy to cancel the order.

As far as I am aware, a phone line consists of a twisted copper pair which is why I enquired about it. If it had have said "Someone is trying to take over your broadband connection" or "Someone is trying to take over your fibre connection" then all would have been fine... What's even more shocking, apparently they get phone calls asking about that E-Mail frequently on full fibre connections so I dread to think how many people have been caught out by a poorly worded E-Mail!!

I currently have BT Full Fibre 100 and a Huawei ONT with only one optical port if that helps anyone.

See what transpires with the service on Monday. Nothing can be done now anyway, as the teams that you need to speak with are M-F bods. Sounds like someone at BT has themselves in a bit of a muddle.

My most recent FTTP migration was pretty pain free. I think there was 10 seconds of downtime.

Edit: That was from Cerberus (BT Wholesale backhaul / Cablelinks) to Talk Talk Business (own backhaul etc.)

Edited by Pheasant (Sat 21-Aug-21 00:26:32)

Did you do this a a migration, or a new provide by TT?

I did it as an active connection takeover. Not really sure what this Stage 1 and 2 thing is that OR are on about, always thought it was a case of just flipping a switch!

I too would have thought the Stage 1 and 2 stuff was for new installations but [shrug]. Who knows.

AIUI on migrations to and from BT Wholesale providers, and between non-BTW (wholesale as some like TT have independent ISPs using their backhaul) providers, there does need to be a shift to do with the different GEA cables at the exchange.

Good luck anyway.

PS: I remember when I was on FTTC with IDNet when I came off O2 LLU ADSL2+, I decided after my minimum term the system was so reliable I didn't need to pay their high prices.

BT Sales and the rep's "manager" both told me I didn't know what I was talking about when I said I didn't need an engineer visit. They insisted I did, and that I was mistaken.

That I could not already have an FTTC connection as "Infinity is only from BT". They really believed the TV adverts, and didn't know there were any other providers of FTTC. We argued for at least 15 minutes.

Plusnet - no problem . Though they took a while to decide how to process it as they hadn't done an FTTC >> FTTC migration before.

We do have to wonder about the quality of the BT Help script-writers.

Talktalk residential automatically book engineers and give you appointment times.
It's like they don't detect an active ONT when your place the order.

If you currently have BT FTTP and you told them the order wasn't placed by you and they cancelled the order, then it won't go ahead.

I don't know why you told them you don't have a phone line, you do.
It's just a fibre optic phone line instead of copper.
BT don't distinguish between the 2.

I migrated from BT FTTP to Talktalk 500Mb data only.
I received the same letter from BT and ignored it.

Edited by j0hn83 (Sat 21-Aug-21 11:04:47)

Little update, my connection dropped out about 5 mins ago and my BT Smart Hub stopped connecting despite the PON light being green on the ONT. Decided to plug my TalkTalk router in and that connected straight away!

Getting 520Mb down and 70Mb up from TalkTalk, so looks like BT were telling porkies!

https://www.speedtest.net/result/11920282177.png

Edit: Just had an E-Mail come through from BT saying that I need to contact them by the 19th so stop the move going ahead (I received this E-Mail at 00:30 on the 23rd!) so obviously something just gone wrong in their system somewhere!

Edited by FTTCIsNotFibre (Mon 23-Aug-21 00:34:08)

Pretty painless I'd say 👍

"BT were telling porkies!"

You were never contracting with BT so they were not telling porkies.