Vodafone says my dad’s phone number has DISAPPEARED in digital landline switch: CRANE ON THE CASE
My elderly parents who are 81 and 77 live in a remote Norfolk village.
Following the phone lines in the area being switched over from copper wire to digital, their phone number of 52 years has stopped receiving incoming calls.
I’m told this is called an ‘orphan number’.
This happened in August and their phone company Vodafone has still not told us what went wrong. I’ve spent hours on the phone to Vodafone and my parents have checked all of their phone and internet equipment.
Vodafone now says they must now accept a new phone number.
This has really worried them because they rely on the phone for doctor and hospital appointments, and they are scared they will lose contact with relatives and friends. Is there anything that can be done? L.H, Norfolk
Lifeline: Plenty of older people, and those in rural areas, still rely on landline phones
Helen Crane, This is Money’s consumer champion, replies: Can a phone number really just disappear into thin air?
I have never heard of a case like this before – but suddenly being cut off from a phone number you have had for more than half a century is certainly a big upheaval.
While landlines are much less common than they used to be, you told me it is your parents’ primary means of communication.
They do have a mobile phone, but it’s hard to reach them on it because of patchy reception in their rural village.
The digital landline programme is phone networks’ plan to switch the entire country from the current landline phone system, which utilises connects our homes using a vast network of copper wires, to a new system which runs via the internet.
It is sometimes called digital voice, as that is the name that major provider BT has given its switchover scheme. Whoever your provider, it is supposed to be completed by 2027.
It has been controversial because it means anyone who wants to continue to use their phone needs an internet connection, and there are also worries about what happens in a power cut. It can also cause havoc with emergency medical alarms.
Phone companies are required to make provisions for those who don’t currently have broadband, and to ensure there are back-ups in a blackout.
Virgin Media was recently fined for failings relating to telecare alarm customers in the digital switch.
Your parents’ turn to be switched over came in August last year. As soon as the line was installed, your dad said the phone stopped working for nine days.
They received about £50 of compensation for this initial outage under Ofcom rules, but sadly that was just the beginning.
The ability to make outgoing calls returned, but incoming calls never did. They were left without this service for a total of nearly four months.
What is galling is that they have continued to pay £50.69 per month to Vodafone throughout all this – though that also includes their broadband connection, which is thankfully still working.
You stepped in to help, spending nearly 12 hours on the phone to Vodafone trying to resolve the issue – including while away on holiday.
Frustratingly, each time you called you had to go through the same basic equipment checks, despite having established that this was not a fault with the hardware.
In desperation your dad even bought a new phone and was sent a new internet router, but this did absolutely nothing.
You were eventually told that your parents’ long-standing number had been ‘lost’ and that they had no choice but to accept a new one.
This seemed strange, though, as they could still make calls – and these showed up on the recipients’ phones as being from the same, old number that they always had. A real case of crossed wires.
When you protested, Vodafone advised your parents to switch to a different provider. That looks to me like an attempt to wash its hands of the problem.
Your dad wisely refused. Doing so wouldn’t get their phone number back, and by leaving Vodafone they might be left with limited recourse if the problem still couldn’t be fixed.
He also escalated the matter to Cisas, the dispute resolution service for the telecommunications industry.
Then, you contacted me and I contacted Vodafone’s parent company, Vodafone Three, to find out whether your parents and their long-standing landline number would really have to part ways.
Round in circles: You said that each time you contacted Vodafone, you had to go through the same laborious checks to see if your parents’ phone equipment was working – which it was
I wasn’t sure I would be able to get them to fix the line – if it’s broken, it’s broken. However, I hoped I’d be able to at least get some compensation for the massive inconvenience this had caused.
So I was delighted a week later when you told me Vodafone had managed to fully restore your parents’ access to their phone.
When you asked what went wrong, it said the number had become ‘lost’ in the process of porting it from the analogue service to the digital one. However, it had now been able to track it through the stages of that process and work out at which point it had been lost, then recover it.
I’m not an engineer, so I’m not sure I fully understand what that means – but I’m glad the company stepped up its service and stopped phoning it in.
‘It sounded to me like it always has been possible to recover but it depended on how much time they were willing in invest into its recovery,’ you told me. ‘Luckily we didn’t give up.’
A Vodafone Three spokesman said: ‘We are sorry that our customer has had problems with their landline service and can now confirm that the issue has been resolved.
‘The customer has been offered additional compensation and a refund.’
Vodafone paid £374 in compensation for the delayed start of the new phone service.
This represents the £6.24 per day that phone companies must pay under Ofcom rules, up to a 60-day cap.
Consumers should know that, if an existing broadband or phone line stops working, the supplier must pay £9.98 per day after the first two days.
Your digital landline installation counted as a new service, so Vodafone could get away with paying you the lower rate.
Vodafone also agreed to repay the £202 your parents had paid in phone and internet bills while the phone had not been working – a total of £576.
In even better news, you recently contacted me to tell me that the Cisas dispute resolution organisation has just responded to you.
It said Vodafone had agreed to pay the day rate of compensation for the full period of no service, over and above the 60-day cap. That means your parents will receive a further £324, so a total of £900.
Many industries have a disputes organisation, and this shows it’s well worth lodging a claim with them or with the relevant ombudsman service.
Your persistence has been rewarded, and I’m glad your parents had you fighting their corner.
Unfortunately, I worry that not all older people who come unstuck with the digital landline switch will be so lucky.
