Just moved house, how best to change from BT to O2?

Howdy.

I'm about to sign up to O2 (presently with BT), having just moved house. I'm not sure how to best achieve the transfer, plus there seems to be a problem preventing me from signing up to O2 online (I've posted at the O2 forum about this - I want to do it online to get a cashback deal).

So far we've moved the landline across to the new place, keeping the same phone number. We also got a MAC from BT (last week). However, my wife has been dealing with the transfers, and best I can tell we have not yet explicitly told BT broadband that we have moved address.

When I try to sign up to O2 online, I get an error message. I rang O2 but they didn't know why it was happening. I assume it's something to do with the move.

Does anyone know what's likely to have happened, and better yet, how best to proceed from here? In case it helps, we're out of contract with BT and the local exchange has Be/O2 LLU.

Many thanks
Jeff

you have a working phone line ?

does it come up in the number checker ? - may need a while to show, then an automatic order would work.

I'm not sure a MAC is appropriate.

Basically taking the number from the old line will have caused an ADSL cease on it.

What error message are you getting? As yarwell says, it could just be a case of the BT Openreach (not Retail that you had broadband from) databases getting updated with the new address and line capability.

There is also a frequent problem with the premises address and the credit card/bank account addresses not being the same. See this post.

A MAC is not relevant if moving property.

Thus if signing up online and giving O2 a MAC that will be causing the error as the MAC is relating to the line at the old property.

Thanks for the replies.

In answer to your questions:

"you have a working phone line ?" - Yes, it's been working since we moved the weekend before last. We only moved around the corner, and kept our old number

"does it come up in the number checker ? - may need a while to show, then an automatic order would work." - Yes it comes up on that.

"Basically taking the number from the old line will have caused an ADSL cease on it." - So would BT broadband automatically try to move the broadband account to the new premises? Or is the broadband account in limbo somehow?

"What error message are you getting?" - as follows:

Please Contact Us
[then in a red box]:
----------------
Error
There's something wrong with our system at the moment. We're really sorry - please try again later.
----------------

"As yarwell says, it could just be a case of the BT Openreach (not Retail that you had broadband from) databases getting updated with the new address and line capability." - okay, but how long should that take? It's been 9 or 10 days so far, and it does seem to be working according to the number checker.

"There is also a frequent problem with the premises address and the credit card/bank account addresses not being the same. See this post." - Thanks. However, I haven't actually reached the point of paying yet, so I doubt that's it.

I did note the comment in that post about selecting drop-down boxes with the address, and thought that might be an issue. However. I've now tried every combo I can think of (use drop-down, don't use dropdown, use home address for delivery (I originally was getting it delivered to work), without success).

"A MAC is not relevant if moving property.

Thus if signing up online and giving O2 a MAC that will be causing the error as the MAC is relating to the line at the old property." - I haven't been asked for a MAC yet, so I'm not sure that's the problem (unless O2 somehow notices that there's no broadband connected at the new place, and hence isn't aware of the relationship between our phone account and prior BT broadband - hope that makes sense!)

I just had a thought - I think that maybe the old broadband (and maybe the phoneline) is in my wife's name. Could that be an issue?

Many thanks
Jeff

"So would BT broadband automatically try to move the broadband account to the new premises?"
Maybe, all depends on what you said to them EXACTLY

"I think that maybe the old broadband (and maybe the phoneline) is in my wife's name. Could that be an issue?"
No

New home is just like ordering broadband from brand new for the first time. You may have walked into a contract mess by mistake if you were still in contract for the BT Total service at the old property, or somehow suggested that maybe you wanted BT Total broadband at the new address.

Online checker can take a week or two worst case to update, hence why methods exist to order phone and broadband at the same time, even if off of different companies (but too late for that now).

Onus is on O2 to handle the broadband order, even if it is a checker issue they should be leading on it.

He's hoping to get the online ordering cashback. Sorting it by phone with O2 would cost him £50-£100.

Basically need the full text (minus phone number) from http://www.thinkbroadband.com/btavailability.html

Nothing stopping an ISP taking an order and email address to followup in cases like this, so online should be possible, don't believe I said they had to phone up. Same with the LORN system should be possible online.

For more complex orders, which this may depending on what is going on though, phoning might be the best way to sort it out. Remember the cashback is mainly an incentive to get the easy to process orders through the system, this one sounds like there are possibly a few snags along the way.

" "So would BT broadband automatically try to move the broadband account to the new premises?"
Maybe, all depends on what you said to them EXACTLY"

And there's the problem. I didn't have the discussion, so I don't know exactly what was said. My wife can't remember exactly what was discussed either (although I'll try and get a more complete story when I get home tonight).

The only two things I know she definitely did get across to BT broadband were: what we wanted to achieve (they knew we planned to move because they countered with an offer to match O2's pricing); and that we didn't want them to simply cancel as we knew that would cost us £25-odd in additional charges. This latter point was definitely made to them.

"You may have walked into a contract mess by mistake if you were still in contract for the BT Total service at the old property" - no, we made sure we were out of contract

"or somehow suggested that maybe you wanted BT Total broadband at the new address." - I doubt it, but this is where it gets tricky.

In any event, it sounds like I've missed a window of opportunity for making this easy for myself - eg, by following these instructions: http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/housemove.htm

I suspect the appropriate route now is to contact BT broadband and find out where things are from their point of view (ie, has the broadband been cancelled in view of us moving the landline). If it's been cancelled, I have to figure out whether it's worth arguing about the £25-odd cancellation fee.

However that argument goes, if the BT broadband connection is dead, I need to contact O2 and have them take the steps required to set us up with a fresh broadband installation. If that's the case, I may still be able to do the cashback thing (£75 - going for the "premium" option) once I figure out the situation, but hard to say.

Does that sound reasonable?

"Basically need the full text (minus phone number) from http://www.thinkbroadband.com/btavailability.html"

I'm not sure what's in that link that I should be looking at. I've already done this test and it says broadband is available on this line. Am I missing something?

Incidentally, assuming I wanted to go from BT broadband to O2 broadband (on a BT landline, of course), what would have been the best/cheapest way of achieving it? It seems like changing ISPs when moving would be a natural way of doing things, but it looks like it might actually be more complicated than doing one at a time.

cheers
sj

In my experience of moving home when I had BT-based broadband (A&A), I had to place the order for 'PSTN and Broadband simultaneous provide' in a very specific way. If the original poster didn't do that, then only the PSTN (phone) service will have been moved, I think.