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Phone lines...
May. 1st, 2002 02:39 pmThis should be a laugh.
The current house has three analogue phone lines (paid for by me) and a Kilostream (paid for by work). One of the lines is provided by BT, the other two by NTL.
The new house is having a small PBX connected to an ISDN line, plus a separate analogue line for ADSL. It currently has just ONE analogue line. I want MSN (Multiple Subscriber Numbering) on the ISDN line, so I can have three or four incoming numbers. I'd like to take the old numbers with me.
General recommendation on uk.telecom is to go for Business Highway as the ISDN solution, as this gives us two separate analogue phone lines that still work should the power fail to the PBX.
Easy, right?
Wrong.
Can't take the analogue numbers with us, for a start, because it's a different exchange at that end of Peterborough. Brilliant.
Ok, so... Cancel the NTL lines. No problem, apart from spending the best part of half an hour on hold.
Getting Business Highway as a residential customer is a pain. I call Business Sales, and explain what I have now, and what I want. Apparently it is possible, but guess what: according to the sales droid in question, you get listed in the business section of the phone book. Thanks, but, er, no.
Ok. Lets do this in stages, rather than as one. Cancel the BT line at the old house. The salesperson claims it's not a BT number. That's funny. I have here a BT bill and a BT customer number... She takes my number and promises to call back. Ten minutes so far, and silence...
In the meantime, we call Residential sales... uhoh. We get one with no clue. On hold. Ah - because my main line was NTL, I get to talk to someone different. Here we go again. 10 minutes on the phone to an assistant who it's clear from the first minute's chat I won't have ANY chance of doing more than the basics with, but at least we are taking over ONE analogue line at the new place on May 9th. It's a start.
Now, we figure out how to get a new line in for some form of ISDN. But first., it's now half an hour, and no-one's called me back about cancelling. Get someone different, who finds the number straighaway, and cancels it. Sorted.
Next.
Phone residential ISDN sales. Get Christian. Christian ... has a clue. In fact, Christian possesses more clue than everyone in BT I have spoken to up until now put together, by a factor of about 10. I explain what I'm trying to do. He understands. He finds the order for the analogue line. He deletes it because it's wrong. He reorders it properly. He explains residential ISDN tariffs, sorts me out the correct one, arranges an order. He refuses to let the BT system charge me £20 per MSN, because it's free with a new installation. He *calls* *me* *back* as promised when he's sorted that out, and gets me an order reference.
I wonder if it'll all work out properly.
The current house has three analogue phone lines (paid for by me) and a Kilostream (paid for by work). One of the lines is provided by BT, the other two by NTL.
The new house is having a small PBX connected to an ISDN line, plus a separate analogue line for ADSL. It currently has just ONE analogue line. I want MSN (Multiple Subscriber Numbering) on the ISDN line, so I can have three or four incoming numbers. I'd like to take the old numbers with me.
General recommendation on uk.telecom is to go for Business Highway as the ISDN solution, as this gives us two separate analogue phone lines that still work should the power fail to the PBX.
Easy, right?
Wrong.
Can't take the analogue numbers with us, for a start, because it's a different exchange at that end of Peterborough. Brilliant.
Ok, so... Cancel the NTL lines. No problem, apart from spending the best part of half an hour on hold.
Getting Business Highway as a residential customer is a pain. I call Business Sales, and explain what I have now, and what I want. Apparently it is possible, but guess what: according to the sales droid in question, you get listed in the business section of the phone book. Thanks, but, er, no.
Ok. Lets do this in stages, rather than as one. Cancel the BT line at the old house. The salesperson claims it's not a BT number. That's funny. I have here a BT bill and a BT customer number... She takes my number and promises to call back. Ten minutes so far, and silence...
In the meantime, we call Residential sales... uhoh. We get one with no clue. On hold. Ah - because my main line was NTL, I get to talk to someone different. Here we go again. 10 minutes on the phone to an assistant who it's clear from the first minute's chat I won't have ANY chance of doing more than the basics with, but at least we are taking over ONE analogue line at the new place on May 9th. It's a start.
Now, we figure out how to get a new line in for some form of ISDN. But first., it's now half an hour, and no-one's called me back about cancelling. Get someone different, who finds the number straighaway, and cancels it. Sorted.
Next.
Phone residential ISDN sales. Get Christian. Christian ... has a clue. In fact, Christian possesses more clue than everyone in BT I have spoken to up until now put together, by a factor of about 10. I explain what I'm trying to do. He understands. He finds the order for the analogue line. He deletes it because it's wrong. He reorders it properly. He explains residential ISDN tariffs, sorts me out the correct one, arranges an order. He refuses to let the BT system charge me £20 per MSN, because it's free with a new installation. He *calls* *me* *back* as promised when he's sorted that out, and gets me an order reference.
I wonder if it'll all work out properly.
