The Post Office Phone Service Review

Good Points
Cheaper line rental than BT
Freephone customer services
UK based call centre

Bad Points
20+ minutes to get through to Customer Services
Can not switch to them if your number doesn't originate with BT

General Comments
I applied for a Post Office home phone line on the 24th of February 2006, and I received my welcome letter in early March, stating that they would contact me again with the dates for the transfer, which may take up to 14 days. A direct debit was set up with my bank, but by 20th March I had still heard nothing, so I phoned them to ask what was going on. They said that they were still waiting for a date from BT. On 29th April I received a letter stating that they were unable to transfer my number due to one of the following reasons:



The number was supplied incorrectly

The number is either with cable or Kingston Communications

The number is connected to a BT lite user tariff



None of which were applicable, so I phoned them back again, taking a further 20 minutes to get through, to be told that because my number originated with NTL (we transferred the number from NTL to BT about 2 years ago) their system wouldn't recognise it as a BT number. The only way to switch to them was to change our number, which we are not prepared to do, so I had to cancel the application.



Nowhere in the literature does it mention that the number must be of BT origin. Surely they should have more up-to date systems that tell them what telephone provider the number is currently with in this day and age where people change their service providers regularly?