I LOVE BT!!!!

Update to my previous rant about the phone line fiasco at the new house:

Somehow or other, my brother managed to find out what the phone number for the line, but that was no help, because there was a bar on outgoing AND incoming calls, and it brought us no nearer to finding out who the line was held by.

Well, I was at work today, and the boss said "I got a message for you last night... Tell Alison to get the bloody phone line at her old house cancelled, because we're moving in there soon, and we can't get our phone sorted out!" (I hadn't cancelled the old one yet, because I didn't want to lose my old number... and it's a pal of the boss who is moving in).

So I decided I would give up... I would just cancel the line at the old house, lose the number, and sort out the new line at a later date.

After work, I phoned BT... and got a really pleasant surprise (once I'd finally got through to customer services) - I spoke to a really nice woman (Margaret, you're a star!), told her I had to cancel the old house line, but that I had wanted to transfer the number, only to be told that I had to get a new line put in the new house - for which they'd charge me £125.... She did a bit of checking on the account, and informed me that whatever the problem with the new house was, it had been sorted, and my old number could be transferred, and no £125 charge... and they would cancel the line at the old house within the next 7 days.

All it's going to cost me is a one or two week overlap on line rental... and I can live with that!

This Week's "Arseholes Of The Week" Award....

... goes to those gits at BT who are messing me about over trying to get my phone number transferred to the new house!

I phoned them before I actually moved and explained that I was moving, and needed to transfer my phone number to the new house, and to get it ready for Broadband as well... at which point they informed me that the previous tenant hadn't notified them that he was leaving, so they'd have to get in contact with him to get his authorisation, and that would take 10 days.

So I explained to them that he'd been evicted, and the house had been empty for at least a month... And they told me to get the council (as landlords) to contact them and explain this, and they would cancel the line. Then, 24 hours later, I could contact them and set up the transfer.

So, I did this... and when I phoned BT later, they told me that the previous tenant had opted out of BT's line rental... so I would have to get in touch with the company that the ex-tenant was with ("Plug in a phone and dial 150, madam... That will connect you through to the company"), and ask them to return the line to BT.

Finally got a shot of a phone last night (my cordless one is in a box somewhere... probably in the attic), and tried dialing 150 this morning... and all I got was "The number has not been recognised".

So I phoned BT again, and they informed me that the line was still active, and was with another provider... but that it wasn't a case of finding out who and getting it handed back over - oh, no... I would have to pay £125 to get a new BT line put in! This despite the fact that there's an active line in the house already!

There's no fucking way I can afford to pay £125 for a phone line - especially one that's there already! And why should I when it's not my fault that the stupid ex-tenant decided to pay his line rental to someone other than BT!?

This is a major pain in the arse, because until I get a phone line, I can't get Sky sorted out, or my Broadband!

So, congratulations British Telecom on winning "Arseholes Of The Week"!