Migration messed up by BT?

I recently decided to switch ISPs. I am on a small exchange (Mottram) and this means there are no unbundled providers. ADSL2+ is not available for that exchange.

I was informed by my new ISP (IDNet) that the switch would occur by Friday 1st October 6.00pm. Until at least 2.00pm I was able to log onto my old ISP (Pipex if that matters).

I have a Belkin combined modem/router, and two of its leds are marked with a telephone and a globe respectively. As I understand it the telephone led shows the availability of a line, while the globe led lights up when a successful connection with the ISP has been negotiated.

When at 5.30 I still could not connect with anything I phoned IDNet's customer support to raise a potential fault. I talked to somebody who said they could not detect a fault on my line. We also talked about the set-up values I had entered. I was then advised to plug my router into the main socket to see whether this would improve things, which it didn't. I was told that a fault would be raised with BT. The led indicating the availability of an ADSL line has been dark ever since.

When nothing had changed by Monday evening I rang customer support again only to be told that the matter was still with BT. I was advised to try to do what I could to rule out any equipment failure. I took my router over to the neighbours and plugged it into their phone line - after a few seconds the line led lit up. I conclude that my router is unlikely to be at fault. I have additionally arranged to borrow a spare router from a colleague today which I'll try once I get back home.

Prior to my switching my modem/router worked reliably for a few years. Attaining a working connection has not been a problem, nor was reliability the issue that made me switch away from Pipex.

Is it a sensible assumption to make that BT have somehow messed up my migration? If so, does anybody have any idea how long they'll likely take to resolve it? I assume there isn't anything else I can do?

Not having internet access at home is a pretty big problem for me for a number of reasons. I've been dragging my feet over changing ISPs precisely because I was worried about losing connectivity for a time. I'm glad that at least I didn't do it during a period when having access would have been vital.

In reply to a post by redkite123:

Is it a sensible assumption to make that BT have somehow messed up my migration?

Oh yes. They screwed up my Dad's so badly that at one point he was left without even voice service over night.

If so, does anybody have any idea how long they'll likely take to resolve it?

It took nearly three weeks in my Dad's case

I assume there isn't anything else I can do?

Post to their forum here. With look BT_Care will respond. They seemed very good in my Dad's case - at least insofar as keeping us informed and chasing it up. Unfortunately the screw-up seems to have been BTw which is a different company.

Alas at present fault rates are high.

Fairly safe to assume its an exchange based issue, though a small chance Pipex messed up (presume they gave you a MAC?) and maybe issued a cease order for their service.

Pipex have indeed issued me with a MAC that I passed on to my new provider. (Their first email they sent me failed to contain the actual code, but they've left phone messages and sent me two letters with it since.)

They were surprisingly keen to keep me as a customer (offering to halve the previous fee and giving me a couple of months free) but I wasn't prepared to sign up for another year with them.

Knowing that this being messed up is not exactly unusual doesn't exactly make me feel better, but at least it indicates that there's nothing particularly weird with my case.

If I still don't see a sign of improvement by Friday I'll suggest to my new ISP that maybe they should try to get BT to get a move one, or at least provide some kind of update.

Bad luck Redkite, I hope this gets sorted soon, these snags are so frustrating.

Interesting that Pipex wanted to keep you as a customer. In my case, and other posters in similar threads, Pipex showed no interest whatever, even cutting off BB when the customer wanted to stay.

Strange indeed are the workings of some companies.

If the install date was confirmed, sounds like there was not a cease present and the new order should then prevent Pipex being able to place a cease.

Sounds awfully like a realm problem though.

Matt

A realm issue should still mean they get ADSL sync, i.e. downstream and upstream connection speed, attenuation data etc from the modem.

But the subsequent authentication will fail.

So does the modem see any form of ADSL line. To lose sync on an IPStream to IPStream migration is very unlucky.

Ah ha. I mis-read the OPs post and got a little confused about the LED indication status.

Apologies.

Matt

It seems that my blaming BT was somewhat premature.

Yesterday I was able to borrow a spare modem/router from a colleague, and that router turns out to be able to achieve ADSL synch on my new line, and I was able to configure it to log onto my new ISP's network.

I am still puzzled by the fact that my own existing router never had a problem before migration, and can still achieve ADSL synch on my neighbour's phone line.

But if I have to buy a new router to get it all to work then so be it.

I'm certainly relieved that it seems I can make it work.