telewest / vonage problem

[paulpaddison]

Hi all years and years back i had telewest tv broadband and phone but due to special offers from sky i went to them for the tv.
stayed with telewest for phone and broadband.
BUT when phone line prices and call charges slowly went up i chose vonage to run my phone my phone services with a new number.
( voip router runs off broadband modem )
allw as great for months even when the broadband goes off the caller to my number gets a message saying the line is out of order. problem is few months back telewest gave out the same phone number that i have on vonage and had since november last year. so now if im on holiday or broadband dies there is a very angry lady somwear on a telewest line that swears at my callers. i have contacted vonage about this and they are doing there best to help. contacted telewest and they dont reply for months on end.
is there anything els i can do about this ?

[brundles]

Where did the number you use originate from? Most of the VOIP companies have been unable/unwilling to get TW to handover numbers. Some have an agreement on number portability with BT but TW/NTL have never been involved AFAIK.

The behaviour you describe is odd to say the least - it sounds more like Vonage forwarding the call when you're not available than TW using the same number.

Do you find people calling you from different networks (e.g. BT, Orange, Vodafone, etc) getting you or the other woman?

[paulpaddison]

i originaly had a phone number for self employment ( appliance repairs )
and when i left self employment i also left that number that telewest supplied to me. when i went to vonage www.vonage.co.uk i had a choice of numbers and just picked an easy one to remember only intending to use it for personal use to give to friends and family. many people phone it from orange and o2 and bt and telewest networks. i even tested my vonage number when the broadband had died from my o2 mobile and couldent connect not even to the ansering service. but when i try recently i get some swearing lady ? as i had the number since last year i do not want to go through all the trouble of number changing again. i was told by mrs swearing lady that she was given the number on telewest and to phone them to sort it out.

[brundles]

If people can contact you on your Vonage number from a range of networks, and they only get a ranting TW customer when your number is unavailable then I'm pretty certain it's Vonage at fault. The incoming call would have been routed to them and they are then forwarding it on as you're not available.

In terms of workarounds, can you configure any type of unavailable/not reachable call forwarding (either to voicemail or another number) with the Vonage service?

If the number was being routed to TW instead of Vonage when you're not available then the implication would be that you get all of her calls when your Vonage phone is activated and she gets all of your calls when it's not (as she does). Has she actually spoken her number to you to confirm it?

[paulpaddison]

brundles you are a star
i studied the vonage configuration page on the internet to see about call diversion and basicly it was diverting to my old telewest phone number that i got rid of shortly after getting vonage. so who ever owns my old telewest number now has been getting all my calls diverted to them when my broadband has been off
i think i shall go hide now incase that angry lady comes looking for mee
and i had better not mention about that number she has is plasterd on a big add in the yellow pages too. due to me having to leave self employment and going to work for telewest as an installer ( better money ) thanks again for your help. both vonage and telewest staff couldent understand what was going on. thanks again brundles