Living a life without the internet might seem like an alien concept for the majority of us but for me it has become a very frustrating reality, after I discovered my address didn’t exist.
I recently moved house and like a lot of people, I was keen to set up broadband quickly. But after just one phone call; I hit a brick wall.
I’m an o2 customer and wanted to give its broadband a try. But after a few minutes on the phone to a sales advisor it transpired that my new address wasn’t listed on its database.
“Can’t you add it” I asked? “No, I’m afraid you’ll have to get in touch with the Royal Mail,” was the response.
So I called Royal Mail, because apparently the responsibility rests with it to keep the national PAF (Postcode Address File) up to date so that companies, like o2, can access addresses for the millions of homes in the UK.
But it’s not that simple. I had to email the Royal Mail ‘address team’ to explain my situation, after which they said they would ‘investigate’.
To put it into context; I live in a basement flat. It’s not a new build but it’s a new conversion in an old building. The rest of the building goes by ‘Number 17’, as does my flat. The only difference being that my flat has a different front door – so our post is delivered separately, so we’re seen as a separate address when it comes to things like broadband and gas and electricity.
A week after contacting Royal Mail, I received confirmation they had completed the investigation and we now had a new name ‘Basement Flat’ and would be registered on their PAF system within 48 hours.
So, I promptly called o2 back and said we were now registered and please could I have broadband. But it was still a resounding ‘no’ because this change could take up to 6 weeks to filter down to their address system! And the same applies for some other broadband providers I tried.
So for the time being I am still without broadband and no doubt in a similar, frustrating, situation to many people in new builds or new conversions who find that they simply don’t exist.
Have you had a similar problem? Let me know via Twitter @confusedlois or email me at lois.avery@confused.com
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