BT DTAF Form?

Sgtshaft

I am going to get the line rental/BroadBand plus package with BT and while lookin at there site, I clicked on livechat and this is a rundown on the conversation.

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Stephen S: Good evening John, how may I help you?
John Doe: Hi I want to get the line rental and 2mb broadband together and I was wondering how long does this take?
Stephen S: 10 business days to process your Broadband Plus order
Stephen S: if you are currently with Eircom
Stephen S: you should call customer care
Stephen S: and request a DTAF form
Stephen S: the number is 1800 923 923
Stephen S: they close in 5 mins - but will be open again in the monring
Stephen S: This form gives us permission to transfer the service from them to us
Stephen S: and means you will avoid the set up fee
John Doe: Thanks for the info will phone 2morrow
Stephen S: I am glad to have been of help. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Stephen S: Have a good evening John.
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Does he mean if I get the DTAF form I will not have to pay the €50 connection fee?
Did anyone else get this DTAF form?
Does getting this DTAF form hurry Eircom or BT up?

Tony H

if you have broadband allready you need a BTAF form , you can do the rest online
however bt have a habit of loosing forms lost two of them with me , so i faxed the third one to a bt supervisor and had him ring me back to confirm that he had it in his hands and i was live 8 or 9 working days after that , my first application was nearly two months before this ,
and yeah you will have to pay a connection fee and if you are unlucky you will have to pay a deposit

Sarsfield

I transferred to BT and used the DTAF form (I did everything on paper, nothing online). Job done in no time with no problems.

I'm pretty sure I didn't have to pay a connection fee. There's no record of one on my Visa statements or my online BT bills.

cgarvey

Sarsfield, can you define "no time"? How much downtime when the switch was made? And how long did the transfer order take, once, say, you sent back in the DTAF form?

Rough times even. Ta.

.cg

Sarsfield

Can't remember exactly. It's all recorded in a thread called "Switching from Eircom to BT" or something like that. I made a post the day I sent off the DTAF and the day I connected to BT (which may have been a couple of days after it was actually available). But I can't search for it at the moment.

Bear in mind I got in ahead of the rush and An Post wasn't taking forever do deliver a letter, so my experience might be different to what would happen today.

kaizersoze

I switched around the same time as Sarsfield and participated in the thread he mentioned. I transfered from UTV to BT using the DTAF form and it took 9 working days from when BT received the DTAF to when I went live with them. No Downtime at all. Logged off UTV and logged onto BT straight away. BT's online ordering is down now so you have to ring them.
A couple of things I learned from the process were:
1. When you ring and request the DTAF, ask for the name of the rep. you're dealing with. When you send it back put their name on the envelope and it will go directly to them. Then you can ring them to confirm that they got it.
2. Don't cancel your existing service until you go live with BT. This may mean that you get caught for another month subscription with them but it's worth it to save on delays and confusion. The DTAF is passed from BT to Eircom and gives Eircom permission to make the switch. This means that your service with your existing provider is finished. It does not cancel your contract with your old provider so you still need to contact them and cancel the contract after the change over. They will require 30 days notice so that's how you may get caught for the extra month.

Having said all that, this was before the current situation with BT as they now seem to have a back log of orders. More than likely this back log is with Eircom as they have to process orders from all the providers. This probably means a longer transfer time for most doing it now. But the beauty of doing it this way is you are still online with your existing provider while the transfer takes place.
I have a copy of the DTAF that they emailed to me (in MS Word). If anyone wants a copy, send me a PM with an email address and I'll send it on. Print it, fill it out and send it in.

Edit: Link to other thread Switching from Eircom to BT
And another one:
Transfer from UTV to BT

cgarvey

Nice one lads,ta.

So the consensus seems to be to allow a month for the transfer, but to expect no downtime (other than the few seconds to logout and back in again) for eircom bitstream transfers. Of course, if the regulator had implemented any decent inter-operator framework (for LLU, WLR, bitstream, number porting), etc it would take < 2 hours.

.cg