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Slammed (Updated)

NEWS STORY
18/09/2018

Until the middle of last month, like many of you, if we had heard the expression 'phone slamming' we would have assumed it referred to the practice of slamming the phone receiver down following a particularly angry exchange... then again in these times of mobiles and handsets it is pretty much a lost art.

These days, 'phone slamming' refers to a practice whereby a phone company will request a phone line from a rival company for one of its own customers.

Quite simply, Company A will contact Company B and say 'we want that phone line for our customer'.

Under Ofcom rules, all Company B has to do is notify its customer that they are about to lose their phone line.

Again, under Ofcom rules, this notification need only be a solitary email, and it will read something along the lines of: "We're sad to hear that you've requested to cancel your Plusnet services, but we've done as you asked and placed your cancellation request."

Now note, we never requested to cancel our services.

Said email might divert to your junk mail, you may see it and dismiss it as spam, you might be on holiday and miss it. Either way, unless you react by the given date you will lose your phone line and with it your internet access.

On August 21 we received such an email from Plusnet in reference to our business line. We immediately contacted Plusnet and made it clear that we were not seeking to cancel our service.

It was then that we were told about 'slamming'.

A follow-up email from Plusnet assured us that the matter was resolved and there was no threat to our service.

Today, our service was withdrawn.

On contacting Plusnet we were informed that though the first cancellation request had been acted upon, a follow-up cancellation was made six days later on the 27 August and that an email had been sent. It was never received.

Just to be clear, a third party - in this case EE - wanted our phone line for one of its own customers and Plusnet was giving it to them. We had no say in the matter.

On contacting Plusnet this morning, they admitted that the line had been "slammed" but that they had done everything by the book. Our insistence that the matter had previously been dealt with, that we never sought to cancel the service and that we are a business whose phoneline is its lifeline was met with the monotone corporate speak you will all be familiar with.

While an email said there would be a "an early termination charge of £352.75 to pay upon cancellation", we were also told that under Ofcom rules we could not be connected again within 14 days.

When we tweeted about this earlier today, Ofcom huffily responded saying that 'phone slamming' is "not allowed". Perhaps not, but it is happening, and has been happening for more than a decade.

The briefest of Googles will reveal that this is not an uncommon practice and is happening to business and residential lines.

At the mercy of Plusnet we now have to wait for reconnection, requests for firm information being met with the usual non-committal and corporate baloney which is followed by the excruciatingly annoying sign off, "no worries".

As a result coverage this weekend will be sparse, and for the first time in 17 years we will not be providing you with the coverage you have grown used to.

However, as I'm sure you'll understand this is totally out-with our control, so please bear with us... and watch out for those emails from your supplier.

As a footnote, though our line and internet has been taken by EE with the help of Plusnet, EE somehow managed to give us a brand new phone number (though no internet) which begs the question, why didn’t they give this number to their customer instead of taking ours?

Ofcom on Slamming here

Subsequent communications from Plusnet

Thursday 13 September 11:07

As per conversation - I have reviewed your order and a USR was required to be sent off to restore the service as a matter of urgency. The phone line restore has been accepted and it is due to be restored by today 13/09/18.

The broadband will need to be expedited the phone line is active. we will review this for you again on Friday 14/09/18.

Friday 14 September 22:40

I have requested a FOC expedite via Openreach and I will get someone to call the fibre help-desk in the morning to see if they can bring the installation date forward.

I am sorry that the line was taken over but we are working hard to get the service running again.

USR update, PSTN is active but Fibre is set to 26th Sept:

Saturday 15 September 08:41

Thank you for your patience regarding this matter.

I have spoke with the FTTC team regarding the Urgent Service Restoration and they have been able to bring the date forward to an AM appointment on the 18th September 2018.

This is the earliest date they are able to perform the installation as additional order is needed to get the service ready in the meantime.

We will continue to monitor the order and update you accordingly regarding this.

Tuesday 18 September 15:51

I have checked the Fibre order and unfortunately this is currently delayed due to an exception which is stopping this progressing. I have therefore raised an escalation into our supplier to request assistance in progressing this order as the team have had to raise a Bridge case that takes 5 working days to complete typically. That said our supplier is saying that the circuit is still 'left in Fibre jumper', therefore the bridge case is to complete the order. I was calling to check if the router on site is picking up Fibre sync or not? If it is then if we can ask that you do a reboot of the router to see if this connects. We will continue to pursue the order to have this marked as completed as soon as possible for you.

Wednesday 19 September

Facing the prospect of this situation not being resolved until 25 September - based on their "5 working days" estimate, I actually wrote to my MP.

I sent my email at 13:42.

At 16:02 I received an email from Plusnet saying they hoped to have the situation resolved by Friday 21 September.

At 16:42 I received an email from my MP's office stating that he had written to Plusnet's chief executive Andy Baker.

At 17:15 We were reconnected.

Make of that what you will.

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READERS COMMENTS

 

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 20/09/2018 9:00

"All of this nonsense is the consequence of the privatised monopoly BT (AKA the GPO).

The sad truth is, that depite all the 'competition', BT\Openreach has something close to a de facto monopoly in non-mobile telecoms & Broadband. Ignore what it says on the Bills, BT\Openreach "owns" most of the infrastructure over which your services are delivered.
Most people in UK are totally dependent on BT\Openreach for landlines, and more importantly Broadband.

Since privatisation BT made huge profits, yet for many years refused to invest in, and implement the infrastructure upgrades needed for proper telephony, let alone Broadband. They eventually (and reluctantly) rolled-out ADSL, which runs over copper, but by that time it had been superseded by fibre.

Fast-forward to today, and instead of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) BT is "investing" in (i.e getting Public money for) a half-way house solution which is cheap & profitable for them, but delivers inferior performance and is unlikely to have the capacity need over the next 5 years, let alone several decades....
As we all switch out of FTA TV & Media, in favour of IPTV, and switch over to 4K streaming this infrastructure will prove completely inadequate, and will require further expensive (and probably slow) upgrading.

On a brighter note. If you are lucky enough to be able to have (expensive) FTTP it's an excellent product, though if my experience is anything to go by, the installation and project management by BT\Openreach is a nightmare!
"

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2. Posted by JogonUK, 19/09/2018 16:44

"Maybe you should ask Plusnet to do the same, you'd like a particular number (Your old one), could they be a dear and get it for you? A sort of wham slam thankyou mam.

On an aside, it seems an altogether bizarre set of circumstnaces, what of the consequentual losses surround a 'slammed' number being....well...slammed?

"

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3. Posted by Editor, 19/09/2018 16:32

"Facing the prospect of this situation not being resolved until 25 September - based on their "5 working days" estimate, I actually wrote to my MP.

I sent my email at 13:42.

At 16:02 I received an email from Plusnet saying they hoped to have the situation resolved by Friday 21 September.

At 16:42 I received an email from my MP's office stating that he had written to Plusnet's chief executive Andy Baker.

At 17:15 We were reconnected.

Make of that what you will."

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4. Posted by Max Noble, 19/09/2018 11:28

"@Lapps - they would have a bigger solicitor..."

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5. Posted by Editor, 19/09/2018 10:42

"@ Lapps,

In all honesty, these people are a law unto themselves and I'm sure if we start threatening there could be more "issues".

So best to resolve everything and then look for 'retribution'.

Thing is, all involved, Plusnet, EE, Orange and even Openreach are all 'linked' to BT"

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6. Posted by Lapps, 19/09/2018 9:11

"Chris
Don’t you have a solicitor?"

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7. Posted by imejl99, 19/09/2018 7:08

"Subsequent communications from Plusnet - it feels quite a lot as Google translate, or I am not as fluent in English as I thought I am..."

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8. Posted by Chris Roper, 19/09/2018 7:03

"@Chris Balfe
"if mobile phone users suddenly found their service and number being given away.........."

That happened to me.
I had had the number for 20 + years, it is the number used for OTP confirmation on all my back accounts and internet services, not to mention being on record with many business and personal acquaintances.

My Service provider (Vodacom an Subsidiary of Vodafone) Gave me a phone upgrade that died on day two.
Rather than replace it they "Sent it to the factory" 2 months later it was returned with the same fault.
To cut a long story short, I had no phone for 5 months, when I got it back and put the sim card in I had no service, only to be advised that as I had made no "revenue generating" calls on that number for 3 months they had relocated it to another customer.

I gave up fighting took a "Prepaid Data" account from my internet ISP, and now use whatsapp voice for calls.

On the bright side, that number did get a lot of SPAM SMS after 20 odd years, so the new user is probably not happy either.

"

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9. Posted by Ric, 19/09/2018 1:37

"So Chris is this why no race report via email? Sorry to hear about this rubbish. It would be amusing if it weren't so bloody painful. It sounds like a script from Yes Minister! Good luck getting it sorted out. "

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10. Posted by stackvideo, 18/09/2018 22:40

"At least you don't have the Australian NBN to deal with. "

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11. Posted by PlayF1, 18/09/2018 22:22

"There is a reason for many things that appear to be simply happenstance.

How quaint that people often immediately begin to make excuses for the system ... it's a crap system, it shouldn't happen, but it was just bad luck.

Bollocks!

Have you considered censoring readers comments?
Most motorsport sites do.
(that was a sick joke BTW - for those that don't get that kind of humour)
:D
"

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12. Posted by Editor, 18/09/2018 22:21 (moderated by an Adminstrator, 18/09/2018 22:21)

"@ francisn

Fact is, if this were to happen on a wider basis, were homes to be deprived of their broadband, thereby impacting their Sky TV, Xbox and all, if mobile phone users suddenly found their service and number being given away, there would be social unrest.

Plusnet and EE are both owned by BT it would appear... so, talking of monopolies..."

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13. Posted by francisn, 18/09/2018 22:08

"I've no doubt if it was the Prime Minister's line it would have been fixed within 30 minutes! They can do it if they really want to. Completely unacceptable."

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14. Posted by Editor, 18/09/2018 22:00 (moderated by an Adminstrator, 18/09/2018 22:21)

"@ Bill Hopgood

We're not making any progress.

We were told it would besolved this (Tuesday) AM... instead this (Tuesday) PM it "typically takes 5 working days" which takes us to next Tuesday."

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15. Posted by Bill Hopgood, 18/09/2018 18:07 (moderated by an Adminstrator, 18/09/2018 22:21)

"What a nightmare.

The good thing is that you have made some progress in getting it sorted out, hopefully this week.

I do in these cases think that the US can teach us a lesson where the litigious nature of their system as I can't imagine "slamming" customers going down well there and the compensation would have to be significant.

I will not criticise New Zealand broadband suppliers again. I will not criticise New Zealand broadband suppliers again. I will not criticise New Zealand broadband suppliers again. I will not criticise New Zealand broadband suppliers again. I will not criticise New Zealand broadband suppliers again. I will not criticise New Zealand broadband suppliers again. I will not criticise New Zealand broadband suppliers again. I will not criticise New Zealand broadband suppliers again.
We have a situation here where a monopoly was setup to manage a nationwide fibre rollout.
Being a monopoly, they have their moments (who else do you go to if service isn't up to scratch) as all ISPs need to go to them.
That being said, to my knowledge "slamming" doesn't happen here which is a good thing as I've got 80 plus locations to manage and it would be a bloody nightmare.

"

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