Help and Support

This guide answers the most common questions about Home Phone.

There are separate guides for Billing & call charges and Call features.

General Information

  1. Who are your Home Phone packages available to?
  2. What options are available and how much are they?
  3. What call features are available?
  4. What's the minimum contract period?
  5. Who will I pay my phone bills to?
  6. How much does it cost to make a call?
  7. Can I make Emergency or Operator calls?
  8. I'm already a broadband customer, can I add Home Phone?

Line transfers and installation

  1. I don't have a telephone line, how long will it take to get one and how much will it cost?
  2. If I transfer my line to John Lewis Broadband, will I keep my number?
  3. My line isn't with BT. Can I transfer to your service?
  4. How long does a transfer take and how much does it cost?
  5. Will transferring affect my directory status, line availability or broadband?

If there are problems

  1. How do I report a problem with my line?
  2. Can I get compensation if there's a problem with my phone line?

General Information

1. Who are your Home Phone packages available to?

Our packages are available to all new John Lewis Broadband customers.

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2. What options are available and how much are they?

Line rental is £20.31 per month and you'll need to choose a call plan:

Call plan Cost Are inclusive calls available?
Anytime £6.86 per month All day every day
Evening and Weekend Inclusive Evenings: 7pm-7am Mon-Fri
Weekends: Anytime on Saturday or Sunday
Anytime and International £9.15 per month Anytime local and national calls

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3. What call features are available and how much are they?

See the table below. Some of these are inclusive and others cost a single use or monthly fee to use. For more detail and instructions on how to use them, please see our Call features guide.

Call features Monthly cost Single use cost1 Available in bundle?
1471 Included - No
1471 Call Return - 10.00p (plus the cost of the call if chargeable) No
Voicemail2 - - No
Caller Display - - No
Voicemail Extra £3.00 - No
Reminder Call £3.00 15.00p Yes
Call Waiting £3.00 - Yes
Call Divert £3.00 - Yes
Ring Back £3.00 10.00p Yes
Anonymous Call Reject £4.00 - No
Call Barring - Premium Rates £3.00 - Yes (cannot be bundled with Call barring - Premium Rate and International)
Call Barring - Premium & International £3.00 - Yes (cannot be bundled with Call barring - Premium Rate)
  1. Single use cost doesn't include call charges (where applicable)
  2. Although Voicemail is inclusive, you'll need to add it via the Home Phone control panel before you can use it

Choose 2 or more qualifying call features (as shown above) to create a bundle and save money.

How many features chosen? Monthly cost Monthly saving
1 £3.00 no monthly saving
2 or more £6.00 up to £9

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4. What's the minimum contract period?

Our packages have a 12-month contract.

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5. Who will I pay my phone bills to?

You'll pay us for your line rental and call plan and call costs where applicable.

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6. How much does it cost to make a call?

Our Price Guide and Non-Geographic Call Charges pages have the latest call rates for UK landlines, mobiles and international destinations.

Don't forget that our call plans include calls to UK landlines at certain times. Please see our Billing and call charges guide to find out when these apply and what calls you can make.

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7. Can I make Emergency or Operator calls?

Yes, you can dial 999 or 112 for Emergency calls and 100 for Operator calls (standard BT charges + a 5% admin charge apply to Operator calls).

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8. I'm already a broadband customer, can I add Home Phone?

Yes, you can. Just log into My account and select the 'Product change' link.

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Line transfers and installation

9. I don't have a telephone line, how long will it take to get one and how much will it cost?

To find out, please call our sales team.

Type of installation How long will it take?
Installing a brand new line Depends on engineer appointment times
Starting a stopped phone line Within 2-4 working days

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10. If I transfer my line to John Lewis Broadband, will I keep my number?

Yes, although in some extreme cases this might not be possible. If the number can't be kept, we'll contact you to discuss the options before starting the transfer.

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11. I'm not with BT, can I transfer my line to John Lewis Broadband?

Yes, we can transfer lines in most areas, although we can't provide service to areas served by Kingston Communications (Hull).

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12. How long does a transfer take and how much does it cost?

There's no charge to transfer a phone line from most providers. If you want to transfer from a cable provider then there may be a charge. To find out, please call our sales team.

How long it takes depends on where the line is being transferred from. More time is needed to transfer an LLU or cable service than a phone line that's already with BT. This is because we've got to ask for authorisation to transfer an LLU or cable service back to the BT network, before we send the order for the phone service. Authorisation can take up to 3 days.

Moving from Keeping current number? Time to transfer phone line
BT Yes Within 2 weeks
No
LLU* Yes Within 2-3 weeks
No Within 11 working days
An active cable line Yes Depends on engineer appointment times
No
A cable line that's not active Yes Within 2 weeks
No Within 2-4 working days

*LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) means a non-BT service offered by providers who use their own equipment in a telephone exchange (e.g. TalkTalk).

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13. Will transferring affect my directory status, line availability or broadband?

No, your directory status will stay as it is with your current provider (if you want to change this you'll need to Contact us).

The transfer process is usually seamless, but in some cases your broadband and telephone services can be unavailable for up to half an hour.

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If there are problems

14. How do I report a problem with my line?

If you want to report a problem, please contact Customer support.

Before you do, we recommend reading how to troubleshoot and report a line fault. You might be able to fix the problem yourself.

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15. Can I get compensation if there's a problem with my phone line?

In some cases yes. We can claim compensation on your behalf for problems fixed outside of BT Openreach's Service Level Agreement. We can't guarantee that your claim will be upheld or be held liable for any additional costs which you are charged.

To make a claim, get in touch with us using Contact us. We'll assess your claim and if it's valid, we'll apply to BT Openreach for compensation on your behalf.

We're able to make claims for the any of the issues listed below:

  • Problems arising from transferred services, new services or telephone line conversions
  • Outgoing calls barred and temporary out of service
  • Cease orders - failure to cancel the line on date specified
  • Cancel own orders- failure of our request to cancel a pending order, (i.e. BT don't cancel the order on time)
  • Failure of service - faults with the line (such as noise etc.)
  • Appointments - engineers failing to meet appointments which have been booked
  • Disconnections made in error - BT disconnecting a phone service when they are not entitled to do so

Compensation claims are limited to £180 per customer line per year.

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Got a problem with your phone?

Report a problem with your service. It's faster by text.

Service Status

For full details of our current issues or any maintenance work that could be affecting your service please visit our Service Status site.

Can't find what you're looking for?

If we've not been able to address your query through a support article please contact Customer support for further assistance.

For your information

John Lewis Broadband is provided by Plusnet plc.

John Lewis Broadband is a trading name of John Lewis plc, but the services are provided by Plusnet and the contract for these services is between you and Plusnet plc.

Broadband and Fibre Broadband

To sign up to one of John Lewis Broadband's services, you will also have to sign up to John Lewis Broadband Phone, both on a 12-month contract. John Lewis Broadband Phone includes the Evening and Weekend† call plan as standard. You can choose to take one of our other call plans at an additional monthly charge.

*Broadband speed is described as 'average download speed of 10Mb' and 'average upload speed of 1Mb' as it is based on speed available to at least 50% of customers at peak time (8-10pm). Your actual speed will be dependent on your location, phone line, home wiring, wifi connection and time of day. Find out why speeds vary. Check your speed and products available at your location at www.johnlewisbroadband.com.

*Fibre broadband speed is described as'average download speed of 36Mb' and 'average upload speed of 9Mb' on Fibre and 'average download speed of 66Mb' and 'average upload speed of 18Mb' on Fibre Extra as it is based on speed available to at least 50% of customers at peak time (8-10pm). Your actual speed will be dependent on your location, phone line, home wiring, wifi connection and time of day. Find out why speeds vary. Check your speed and products available at your location at www.johnlewisbroadband.com.

Our broadband contracts: You must sign-up to a 12-month contract for one of the broadband services (John Lewis Broadband Unlimited, Fibre or Fibre Extra) and John Lewis Broadband Phone. If you choose to end either or both services within the minimum period, you will have to pay an early termination charge by way of compensation for ending your service(s) early. This charge depends on your monthly price and the length of time remaining in your minimum term. How we calculate these charges is set out in the Price Guide.

Phone

To sign up to the John Lewis Broadband Phone service, you will also have to sign up to one of the broadband services (John Lewis Broadband Unlimited, Fibre or Fibre Extra), both on a 12-month contract. If you choose to end either or both services within the minimum period, you will have to pay an early termination charge by way of compensation for ending your service(s) early. This charge depends on your monthly price and the length of time remaining in your minimum term. How we calculate these charges is set out in the Price Guide.

John Lewis Broadband Phone includes the Evening and Weekend† call plan as standard. You can choose to take one of the other call plans at an additional monthly charge. If you need a new phone line installing at your property, there is a £49.99 installation charge (excluding external construction charges). Details on the available call plans are set out below:-

†Call Plans

Evening and Weekend calls: Means calls to UK landlines beginning with 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 made Monday-Friday 19:00-07:00 and anytime Saturday or Sunday (except calls to indirect access numbers (which include calling cards), dial-up Internet access and calls longer than 60 minutes). Calls must be started and finished within these times to be inclusive (non-chargeable) and any call that lasts more than 60 minutes will be chargeable. A fair usage limit of 150 calls or 1000 minutes a month (whichever is reached first) applies to calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers. (if you exceed this limit, we have the right to charge you for further calls made, suspend and/or terminate your service in accordance with our terms and conditions). Our Evening and Weekend call plan is included as standard when you take John Lewis Broadband Phone.

Anytime calls: Means calls to UK landlines beginning with 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 at anytime (except calls to indirect access numbers (which include calling cards), dial-up Internet access and calls longer than 60 minutes). Anytime also includes a 25% discount on calls to the top 35 international destinations. A fair usage limit of 150 calls or 1000 minutes a month (whichever is reached first) applies to calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers. (if you exceed this limit, we have the right to charge you for further calls made, suspend and/or terminate your service in accordance with our terms and conditions). Our Anytime call plan costs £6.86 a month.

Anytime and International: Means calls to UK landlines beginning with 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870 at anytime (except calls to indirect access numbers (which includes calling cards), dial-up Internet access and calls longer than 60 minutes). Hang up and re-dial before 60 minutes (local) and you won't be charged. Anytime and International also provides 300 inclusive minutes per month to the top 35 international destinations and a 25% discount on any further calls made to those 35 destinations over this amount within the month. Hang up and re-dial before 30 minutes on international calls, whilst in your inclusive minutes, and you won't be charged. A fair usage limit of 150 calls or 1000 minutes a month (whichever is reached first) applies to calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers. (if you exceed this limit, we have the right to charge you for further calls made, suspend and/or terminate your service in accordance with our terms and conditions). Our Anytime and International call plan costs £9.15 a month.

Mobile Bolt-on: Unlimited calls to UK mobile and 070 personal numbering services, hang up and re-dial before 60 minutes and you won't be charged. Mobile Bolt-on is available only to Anytime and Anytime and International call plan customers. A fair usage limit of 150 calls or 1000 minutes (whichever is reached first) a month applies to calls to 070 personal numbering services. If you exceed this limit, we have the right to charge you for further calls made, suspend and/or terminate your service in accordance with our terms and conditions. A Mobile Bolt-on costs £5.00 a month.

Service calls outside of your inclusive minutes: The charge for calls to service numbers beginning 084, 087, 09 and 118 consists of a 9.58p per minute access charge from John Lewis Broadband, plus a service charge set by the company you called. For all John Lewis Broadband Phone pricing, please see our Price Guide.