A telephone company stuffup -who pays what?

[FROSTY:Me]

A not so hypothetical question for you lot to ponder on a wet n windy day.
When I bought this company back in March 2007 I pretty quickly relocated.
The phone number came with us of course. The company has "owned" that phone number for about 20 years. We are with Telecom
In January this year another car dealer moved into our old premises and requested phones connected by another phone company.
One of the numbers issued to them was our main phone line number.
The experts have told us (me and the other caryard) that this is impossible yet he has a bill with the same phone number on it as I have.
VERY FAST the other phone provider has "kindly" given him a new phone number (go figure) But clearly theres a fairly huge muck up been made somewhere.
The issues are 1) the competing yard may have been recieving calls from my customers and as such may have taken tens of thousands of dollars of our sales (and visa versa) 2)the competing yard has spent a lot of money on advertising-sighns/internet/calling cards using that number. -all of this is needing to be replaced.3) Suppliers have been speaking to the wrong people about bills etc.
So should anybody pay anything in comensation and if so who to and how much??

[tommygun]

IMO, the company who made the inital error would be the one paying. Having said that the compensation for loss of income/trade etc would have to be proven to said company and that will be hottly contested IMO.

[MSTRS:Me]

The telco should be responsible for all direct costs associated with their stuff up (ads, signs, cards, etc).
Who has been receiving calls to that number?

[p.dath]

First lets correct a mis-conception. You do not own a phone number. You are mearly given the use of it.

In this case it is clear a mistake - but on the whole, you don't have a leg to stand on.

[FROSTY:Me]

First lets correct a mis-conception. You do not own a phone number. You are mearly given the use of it.

In this case it is clear a mistake - but on the whole, you don't have a leg to stand on.

no misconception which is why the " " was used around the word owned clearly indicating the legal rights to use of a phone number.
Incidently there is a paper trail so the telco concerned can pretend nothing happened -Ie ohh but look -that is the phone number we gave them (pointing to the just issued that day phone number) then be unable to explain 7 months of phone bills to the other number

[Mully]

Legally, I don't know.

Morally, the telco has an obligation to pay for reprinting of stationery for the cock-up they made. Were I the company in question, I'd probably get my lawyer to write a shitty letter.

As for the loss of business, it's impossible to prove, so you'd be whistling for that.

[Squiggles]

So you've both been recieving calls at the same number? What if their advertising made you more sales

[davereid]

First lets correct a mis-conception. You do not own a phone number. You are mearly given the use of it.In this case it is clear a mistake - but on the whole, you don't have a leg to stand on.

You may not "own" it, but like a URL, a leased car, or rented land, it is a business asset that you pay for, and have control of, and for which you pay a fee. No "mere" about it !

A genuine mistake was made in allocating the number to someone else, however, that is their (the Telcos) problem, not yours.

They might blame the company that allocates phone numbers - that is not your concern, if you are successful in establishing a loss and getting reimbursement, it is their problem to get the problem solved by their provider.

As a car dealer, you will be familiar with this concept. YOU sell a car that you had a new coil pack installed on by you local auto electrician. The coil pack fails. You cannot refer your customer to the auto electrician, you are responsible.

No doubt you will discuss it with your electrician, but the customer is not required to.

Your big problem here is not determining the right to operate the phone number, it will be your ability to prove real loss.

[Mom]

Potential loss, perceived loss, frustration, pure angst, time lost attempting to sort it, totally valuless in the eyes of Telecom. Proven losses ( signage, letterhead etc) recoverable. My question. Who was actually getting the calls on the listed number? You or the new yard?

Who was paying the bill? Because as sure as I live and breathe the company that received the bills is the one that should have been getting the calls. You would have transferred the number to your new premises? The bills would have followed you? Did all of a sudden your phone stop ringing? Did 2 companies receive bills for the same line rental and calls made?

I dont think that is possible somehow. One of the companies either stopped getting bills, or never got bills in the first place. Hope you get this sorted FROSTY.

[Paul in NZ]

Assuming the connection with the number in question never stopped ringing..... There is no way the other company could have got your calls. The same numbr cannot be associated with 2 EL's in the same exchange and I doubt you lost any calls... Arguably, if the other company advertised with that number YOU would have got the calls and should compensate them...


The billing system is seperate and different to the network and the number on the bill is irellevent.