Don't believe everything TalkTalk say about converting to Full Fibre and Digital Voice. It clearly states that when changing to Digital Voice you can keep the same telephone number. Not in my case. I discovered that I had an entirely new number when I plugged my phone into the router. So I contacted TalkTalk and spoke to several people, none of whom knew what to do so just kept passing me onto different people. I was told there was a technical problem with my old number which was why I couldn't have it back. I pointed out it had worked perfectly the week before when still plugged into the copper landline. So next, I was told it had been allocated to another person so I couldn't have it back. I disagreed that was the case as I know they don't reallocated numbers so quickly. While I was on hold for the third time, I plugged my phone back into the copper landline and discovered the line was still active with my old number, so I had two telephone numbers! When they came back onto the line and started trying to give me another excuse, I told them the problem was that they hadn't disconnected the number I'd had for over 24 years from the copper yet, which was actually why my number wasn't on the fibre link. But they couldn't help and suggested I talk to the Full Fibre Management Team and gave me a telephone number to ring. However, the third person I spoke to, told me that as I only had Fibre 65, Digital Voice didn't work with that package, you had to have a minimum of Fibre 150. Of course, that was BS as I pointed out that actually my phone was working via the fibre link, it was just not my number. They couldn't help me. Out of desperation, I wrote to their complaints department and was allocated a complaint number. Emails then started to come in and I had to explain what the problem was and was told it would get sorted soon. A few weeks later I was emailed and told it was all sorted and my old number was now working on the fibre link. However, it was still the new number. So I emailed back to point out it wasn't sorted and was told Ok, we'll escalate this problem higher up the technical chain. Then nothing for a couple of weeks until after over 15 weeks I get a call telling me my old number had definitely been given to someone else so there was nothing they could do about it. I have therefore complained to an independent adjudicator and after 4 more weeks have been given monetary compensation from TalkTalk. I have tried to ring my old number dozens of times over the last 4 weeks since i was told it had been given to someone else, mainly so I could warn them they may get calls for me and to tell them what my new number was. Noe ever answers even though I have rung the number dozens of times at different times of the day. So I don't actually believe my old number has been given to someone else. It is probably just hanging in limbo. I now have to try and remember all the people and companies that have my old number and let them know what my new number is. To top it all, when I log into my TalkTalk account, it states that my old number is active and the new number has been cancelled which is now incorrect. I have tried to get them to correct that but they are even unable to put that right! I can't believe how badly trained the TalkTalk people are. So beware when agreeing to convert to Full Fibre and Digital Voice.
D G Storey
