Switching away from VM

[bikeman]

I want to leave VM - fed up with the increasingly uncompetitive pricing and their attitude.

Only thing is BT want to charge me £125 to reinstall their phone line.

Tiscali offer a good deal and say I can switch for free but they insist I will have to change my phone number.

As the number was originally ported from BT to VM, do I really have to go back to BT on a 12 month contract and a £125 install charge just to keep my phone number? Surely it can be ported again?

[lostandconfused]

AFAIK you can go across to BT on a 3 month contract, but the installation charge would still apply, Ive heard if there isnt any cabling needed then its a reduced installation charge. Someone should be along to confirm it though.

[David F]

I read somewhere if you get a tone its a simple task all they may need to do is check the quality of the line. This is what happened when I had bt back for a while.Ive still got a tone on my BT line and it was disconncted 2 years ago

[bikeman]

My main concern is understanding if I have been misinformed byTiscali that I can't port my BT number (now used with VM)

[harmitage]

You need a BT phone line to get Tiscali anyway so if BT say they can port then I don't understand why Tiscali are saying different

[NO ONE]

Originally Posted by bikeman

I want to leave VM - fed up with the increasingly uncompetitive pricing and their attitude.

Only thing is BT want to charge me £125 to reinstall their phone line.

Tiscali offer a good deal and say I can switch for free but they insist I will have to change my phone number.

As the number was originally ported from BT to VM, do I really have to go back to BT on a 12 month contract and a £125 install charge just to keep my phone number? Surely it can be ported again?

i had to pay that i kept my old Ntl Nuber but it is a nightmare good luck withe it ps Bt and Vm as bad as eche othe next you Hoping to Sky takl ul as was Sky bb but i got swtay with Bt for a year i dot if other cgages invold

[bikeman]

Originally Posted by harmitage

You need a BT phone line to get Tiscali anyway so if BT say they can port then I don't understand why Tiscali are saying different

Tiscali are happy to provide the service ie they take care of the cost of ceasing VM and reconnecting the BT line. They just say I have to have a new number. I think I have been misinformed since the number will revert back to BT's range when I cancel VM and so should be able to be ported from BT to Tiscali.

It's probably just a senario that hasn't been allowed for in the 'proceedure'.

I might try ringing them again - probably get a different answer from a different person.

[harmitage]

It definitely says on their website "BT line required". so I'm assuming it can be done - probably just more hassle for them. When you phone tell them that you're only interested if you can keep your number, you might be suprised how quickly they find out that it can be done after all!!

[dave_dph]

Originally Posted by bikeman

I want to leave VM - fed up with the increasingly uncompetitive pricing and their attitude.

Only thing is BT want to charge me £125 to reinstall their phone line.

Tiscali offer a good deal and say I can switch for free but they insist I will have to change my phone number.

As the number was originally ported from BT to VM, do I really have to go back to BT on a 12 month contract and a £125 install charge just to keep my phone number? Surely it can be ported again?

How long has the number been off BT? Plug a phone into the BT socket, if there is a dial tone present then reconnection is free.

I'm not sure if the offer is still on, but if you have to pay for BT to reconnect the line they were offering half price installation as long as you agreed to an 18 months contract and some terms regarding minimum chargable calls per month. Might be worth checking out. If you do go to BT you should be able to choose who to use for calls, many cheap options available from a BT line.

[bikeman]

Tiscali take care of reconnecting the bt line at their cost. They also cover ongoing line rental.
Disconnect from BT 5 years ago - no tone on line for a long time.

---------- Post added at 09:18 ---------- Previous post was at 09:18 ----------

Originally Posted by harmitage

It definitely says on their website "BT line required". so I'm assuming it can be done - probably just more hassle for them. When you phone tell them that you're only interested if you can keep your number, you might be suprised how quickly they find out that it can be done after all!!

good idea - i will try that approach.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

AFAIK you can go across to BT on a 3 month contract, but the installation charge would still apply, Ive heard if there isnt any cabling needed then its a reduced installation charge. Someone should be along to confirm it though.

BT don't do 3 month contracts anymore. Now minimum 12 months like everyone else

[apskunky]

that is true. Bt now has 12 month contracts.

You should be able to keep your number also provided you havent moved far etc. They just need to send an order to VM to request the number.

[m419]

Tiscali is 10 times worse than Virgin Media, I know its cheap and they now offer TV,but you get what you pay for.

With Virgin Media you get:

Superfast Cable Broadband
Digital TV with unlimited usage of on demand incl music
Wider range of telephone plans
UK based call centres 95% of the time
Larger bills

With Tiscali:

Unreliable sometimes slow broadband with many outages
Digital TV with constant blanking and freezing picture
3 Telephone plans
Indian based call centres 90% of the time
Muddled up bills

With SKY:

Too many channels with loads of crap on
Hidden charges
No on Demand such as catch up tv and music on demand
Fewer movies on demand
0870 customer service number
Slow ADSL broadband

So wats it gonna be?

---------- Post added at 01:09 ---------- Previous post was at 01:06 ----------

Also only BT allocated numbers can be used with companies other than BT.