Broadband company does not recongise me as a customer

I have BB but my current BB provider doesn't have any record of me as a customer.
I moved house 3 years ago and that is when they claim to have disconnected my BB. Although I moved house my telephone number remained the same, and I remember telling them about my move.
My BB provider also provides me with telephone calls so i assumed that bills i received inc BB and phone calls but when I phoned them up a few months ago they were clear that the BB was disconnected and they don't consider me a BB customer and are only providing me telephone calls.
They claim that another company is providing my BB. However, I have phoned up the company (Virgin) who provided BB to the family who lived at my current address prior to my move and they confirmed they aren't providing BB.

I have spent weeks phoning people, speaking to managers but they still refuse to recongise me as a BB customer and claim that my line is active by mistake through an exchange.

I don't know what else to do now, they are refusing to accept me as a BB customer. i am worried that if the recongise their error they will claim they didnt have a valid contract with me and will charge me per MB or gig. I have offered to pay for all the months i have used BB at the rate of the contract which was in place 3 years ago but they have refused this offer.

what could i do?

Order through a different ISP ?

Other ISP want a MAC code which i cannot get as my current BB does not think its providing me with any BB.

My main concern is that they do accept their error and agree i am receiving BB from them but then charge me per gig used which will cause problems.

Is there any independent body i could speak to about this? i would ideally like to get resolved asap

Ofcom ?

If you PM me your IP address I an establish which ISP is actually providing the broadband. As I understand your post, your old one and Virgin both deny doing so.

In reply to a post by pan01:

they will claim they didn't have a valid contract with me and will charge me per MB or gig.

They can't do that. They would have no contractual right to entitle them to charge you. They couldn't have their cake & eat it!

As long as he has denial emails. Phone conversations could be difficult.

To find out which ISP is supplying you, put your extenal IP in here: http://whois.domaintools.com/

Eh? I don't follow you! Either they do deny by any medium or, If they don't deny, then OP has a valid 3 year-old contract that specifies the charges he is to pay.

And anyway, it was just a postulate on part of OP on what might happen.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Mon 09-Jun-14 21:55:40)

You only need a MAC if you already have service. As you don't have any Broadband (or so you are told) you should be able to start as a new customer. Ask the ISP to start you afresh.

The problem is the supplying ISP's tag will be on the line. So only an LLU order would work.

Could you just confirm the previous service at the premises was Virgin ADSL please, not Virgin cable.

Will it?

If the ISP is denying the connection then can you be sure that BT have it tagged too?


It is worth a try.

As two of us have said, the first step really is to establish the owner of the WAN IP address. That's assuming it isn't a VM cable connection anyway.

The ISP is memory serves that works with no authentication details, which would be easily traceable at the ISP end would be TalkTalk or Sky

My money is on this being a TalkTalk connection or one of its wholesaler customers hence the confusion. Stories like this were not uncommon with Tiscali in years gone by

I did once manage to end up with a free a/c from BT. The challenge then was to get them to issue a MAC

I used the standard BT a/c details in my router to establish the connection. I only found out about the move when I restarted my router and it would not connect to my previous ISP Talk Talk (ex Tiscali & Pipex).

Hi

The previous service at my current address was Virgin ADSL. I have spoken to virgin and they have confirmed they arent providing my broadband.

My previous BB provider was Talk Talk and I've checked online and my IP addresss belongs to Talk Talk as well, so i don't know why they are still not accepting me.

You could take screen shots of the one telling you your IP address and the one telling you the ownership of the IP address, and let them have both?

Do you actually use the landline for phone calls?

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 14-Jun-14 13:36:30)

In reply to a post by pan01:

I have BB but my current BB provider doesn't have any record of me as a customer.
I moved house 3 years ago and that is when they claim to have disconnected my BB. Although I moved house my telephone number remained the same, and I remember telling them about my move.
My BB provider also provides me with telephone calls so i assumed that bills i received inc BB and phone calls but when I phoned them up a few months ago they were clear that the BB was disconnected and they don't consider me a BB customer and are only providing me telephone calls.
They claim that another company is providing my BB. However, I have phoned up the company (Virgin) who provided BB to the family who lived at my current address prior to my move and they confirmed they aren't providing BB.

I have spent weeks phoning people, speaking to managers but they still refuse to recongise me as a BB customer and claim that my line is active by mistake through an exchange.

I don't know what else to do now, they are refusing to accept me as a BB customer. i am worried that if the recongise their error they will claim they didnt have a valid contract with me and will charge me per MB or gig. I have offered to pay for all the months i have used BB at the rate of the contract which was in place 3 years ago but they have refused this offer.

what could i do?

A few things;


What does your bill say? Are you paying for BB?

Who's pool does your IP belong too? (Use Whois)

As for them charging you per MB or GB, they can't. If they are saying that you don't have a contract with them for BB then it's just that. They can't magic one out of thin air. You have no contractual obligation to pay anything to them with regards to BB so don't worry about it.

In reply to a post by chris6273:

As for them charging you per MB or GB, they can't. If they are saying that you don't have a contract with them for BB then it's just that. They can't magic one out of thin air. You have no contractual obligation to pay anything to them with regards to BB so don't worry about it.

The following stuff probably doesn't apply because the OP has made decent efforts to rectify the situation. However I'll ask it anyway.

Where does the law stand on using a service one is not paying for? Sure, a company supplying broadband without charging for it is in error, but perhaps a customer knowingly using said service without paying could also be said to be in error.

So basically, is there any onus on a non-customer not to use a service they aren't paying for?

Edited by Oliver341 (Thu 19-Jun-14 12:21:39)

Robbery?

If they didn't recognize you as a customer best bet is to change your BB provider. It will be beneficial for you. It will give you a chance to find cheaper contract and better services as well.

He claims to have established he is on a TT service, with TT line rental. As he was with TT at his previous address it is fair to assume he is happy with them.

Quite how one obtains a cheaper service than TT I don't know, particularly if the broadband is free.

As for

...change your BB provider. It will be beneficial for you. It will give you a chance to find cheaper contract and better services as well.

you cannot possibly know that as you know nothing about his prices or services at the moment. Except we can assume he does not have access to broadband support.

A very strange post from one in the telecoms business, if you don't mind my saying so.

A precursor to SPAM!

Yes. My final paragraph intentionally has dual meaning.

I might not have been so verbose ... why write four paragraphs when one word would do?

The poor advice did need pointing out to the poster. If it had been good I don't think it would have mattered. As per good advice given by several ISPs on these forums.