Sorry, You are incorrect, A MAC cannot be issued if there are any open orders in place, ofcom guide says to provide a MAC within 5 working days unless there is a reason why this cannot be done and an open order is one reason, as a MAC cannot be generated by ANY isp if there are open orders. NO isp can generate a MAC when there is a PSTN cease in place on the line, it is NOT possible. Not sure how you can say it is our error, we did not order a PSTN line cease on the line, oh and I dont think you read it correctly, we did not issue an invalid MAC in December, the MAC just expired as the customer did not use it.

It is not the customers fault at all that the PSTN line was ceased, we do not and never did control the phone line, and I doubt they ordered the phone line cease. I even called the customer up on the phone to try to explain what was going on as he seemed to be given different information from both parties, at the time I thought the customer understood.
I am sure there are people here saying we should just swallow the charge, but at what point, one cease charge of 24.74 may only be £24.00 but how about 2 charges, or 10? That would be £240. The gaining phone provider placed a cease on the phone line and this caused a cease.

In reply to a post by vivaciti:

we did not issue an invalid MAC in December

But it was you who said it was:

In reply to a post by vivaciti:

can see that you had requested a MAC, the original MAC was invalid

Or do you need to improve your English?

We would not issue proceedings that quick and neither would we be allowed to, but if we are instructed that someone will not pay any due invoice and then that they will no longer communicate on the matter, we HAVE to then issue notice that the account will be passed over for collections as our customer service can no longer deal with it. If the matter then did go further we would have been told "You never notified the customer of what could happen"

So do you think all companies should just swallow all and any charges they they get?
The issue here is that the new phone provider did not switch their line properly (the phone was never with us) and they placed a cease on it, we did not.

In reply to a post by vivaciti:

A MAC cannot be issued if there are any open orders in place,

But it was your own open order (to upgrade to 21CN); nothing that the customer initiated. Doubt that Ofcom had that in mind!

In reply to a post by vivaciti:

So do you think all companies should just swallow all and any charges they they get?
The issue here is that the new phone provider did not switch their line properly (the phone was never with us) and they placed a cease on it, we did not.

The op did nothing wrong, you did by sending a MAC that was out of date, Orange did by ordering a cease. The cease costs arose for you because of Orange and not because of anything the customer did. If you want to recoup the charge that was made to you chase the people who initiated the charge ORANGE, you are bullying the innocent party in all this.

So do you think it's right the customer should be threatened with sending the boys round for nothing they did?

In reply to a post by Kimi:

The op did nothing wrong, you did by sending a MAC that was out of date, Orange did by ordering a cease.

Orange had no choice but to order a Cease, cuz they had had foisted on them an out-of-date MAC which again stems from Vivaciti.

All Roads lead to Vivacity!

Can Orange place a cease on a land line they do not own? (the landline is/was owned by BT). If so, that sounds like a complete shambles!

Ok, let's take a couple of steps back here and look at this.

As I understand it, a normal migration should be free of charges, right? In fact, under the migration the OP was attempting to do, this was simply a (Landline:BT, Broadband:Vivaciti) switch to (Landline:BT, Broadband:Orange), which should not have required a cease.

The first MAC was issued but was not used. Because of this, during the 30 days the OP had to use that MAC, and automated regrade kicked off on the line to move it from 20CN to 21CN.

The OP then contacted you again for a secondary MAC, which you couldn't provide until the order for the switch to 21CN was completed for the broadband. But according to the OP, you still provided an invalid MAC on the second request (not that this really matters now).

So, the thing that has upset the apple cart with all this is the cease. So, some questions for the OP and everyone else:

1) Why was a cease made on the land line? It should not have been required.
2) Who requested that cease?
3) Which company actually has the power to perform and action the cease?

I am presuming the answers to the above are:

1) Miscommuncation / misunderstanding between landline provider and OP (landline provider = BT, in this case).
2) The OP must have (the only person who can request a cease on a land line is the owner, right? how can Orange request a cease on a BT owned land line?)
3) BT, since that is who has provided the land line.

I still don't think enough information has been provided by the OP to ascertain exactly why this cease occurred. The OP originally says "I was informed by BT that my line would be transferred to Orange on 14.02.12". This suggests to me that the land line was being moved from BT to Orange, meaning, we are talking about a (Landline:BT, Broadband:Vivacity) switch to (Landline:Orange, Broadband:Orange) migration which, quite possibly, does require a cease and re-provide. But as has already been said, Orange use WBC which is BT, so no cease should be needed.

It seems like the cease has occurred in error. Vivaciti are just following the usual paper work to recoup the charge they have received because of this. My advice to the OP is to determine who performed that cease, determine if it was in error, and if so, ask to be compensated accordingly. This will then cover the charge Vivaciti have received, and are subsequently passing onto the OP.

Thoughts please, because to be blunt, I am now equally as confused as the OP.

What you're missing is here

the original MAC was invalid and this was due to a current regrade order on your line to bring it to 21cn (these regrades are automated)

I suspect the regrade order was made by the ISP, given Vivaciti's silence on the matter, which would mean it's obviously the ISP's fault.