Internet reneged

[Scottsanpedro]

I was sent notification from Vodafone that they were sorry to hear I was leaving. I wasn't leaving, so I contacted them and found it someone was trying to take our line.

So we sorted it out on the phone and and the internet continue to work 

Today the internet was disconnected, against my wishes. The other party had taken over the line.

Now I'm told there are no ports left on the exchange and there is nothing that can be done. 

I'm running a small shop and need them internet to run the business.

What can I do?

Thanks Scott

[Effie]

Hey @Scottsanpedro I hope you're doing well. I'm really sorry to hear that this has happened, I can certainly appreciate how frustrating and upsetting this must be. In these cases we would usually look to set you up on a new line but if there is no space, we would need to wait for a spot to open up. The best team to speak to would be the Broadband Sales team as they can run the necessary premise checks.

[Scottsanpedro]

Thanks for your reply.

I must have some rights here. It feels like a hostile take over if the line by someone as I clearly stated, and it's on the record, not to close the line down. But it was still closed down.

Why was it not stopped.

I have escalated it and waiting for a call back. But this is clearly not my fault. Are they expecting me just to say don't worry about it.

I run credit card software to take payments from customers within the shop and also need internet for my other business.

Really quite put back on how easy this can happen.

Scott

[Effie]

You would need to discuss this with the Broadband Complaints team @Scottsanpedro as they will be able to look into why this happened in the first place and what we can do to support you as our customer. We will have a record of the conversations you had with us so it will be recorded that this wasn't your fault.

[Scottsanpedro]

Thanks

[Jayach]

A "hostile" takeover of your line is called slamming, and there are rules against it. Here is what Ofcom have to say:

Phone or broadband switching without consent - Ofcom

Obviously the immediate concern it to keep your businesses running, are you unable to do this on the new provider?

Who is it that have taken over, name and shame would be my motto.

Was this a business line, or were you using a consumer connection? I would expect greater protection on a business one.

Hope you are able to get it resolved, the stress involved would be something you don't need whilst trying to run a successful business.

[Scottsanpedro]

Really appreciate your comments.

Had no idea about this slamming.

I'll update after I've had a chat with the escalation team.

Cheers again

[HappyNomad]

Happened to me with EE except no 'sorry your leaving' letter until after the event.  It was the help desk that initially told me I was disconnected.

EE told me it was a clear and definite case of slamming but couldn't tell me why the normal communication process leading up to disconnection hadn't been followed  - OFCOM told me unequivocally that no third party service provider/s was/were  involved in any way.  

Eventual upshot was EE gave me a new connection, a new telephone number as my number was no longer available and an amount of compensation credited to my account together with (from memory) three months free.

Free month one, they charged the full monthly cost, taking the money from the compensation credit.  More discussions to get that back and shortly thereafter with patience finally exhausted, I switched to Vodafone. 

Trying to sort it all out with EE was hard work.  That was before the BT/EE merger so whether they are better these days…?  Needless to say, at renewal times, they are not on my shortlist (or even my long list) of service providers I might be persuaded to switch to.

[Scottsanpedro]

Thanks for you insight into this too. Seems a total nightmare. Waiting for the manager to call.
Whoever took over my line obviously knew there were no more ports, so def a hostile takeover.
Want to know why procedure wasn't followed and prepared to escalate this up as far as it will go.

Vodafone can't just expect me to take this and not give a solution as its all in their hands.
Really disappointed and already taking up my time in the day to fix. 
They have been good so far with their service, but this is unacceptable.

[Scottsanpedro]

Vodafone manager asked me to contact BT, who are the ones that have taken over the line.
I contact them, and hit the normal wall of 'sorry, data protection' so they cant give me any info or do anything.

So I'm now back in the middle, wasting time today on something not my fault. 

Back on the chat with Vodafone. Lets see where this gets me.

I will continue to post updates here in the hope something gets done.