Vonage LNP Facts

Posts: 50 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 04, 2005 Posts: 50

[VONTAGEGAL COMMENT - Nor do I want to be a confirmed Vonage employee !!!!!! ]

#1) Dont ask me for help. I just can't. The way the callcenter works makes it impossible.
#2) If you have a QUESTION I will gladly TRY TO answer it to the best of my ability but I can't help with your specific account.
#3) NO PRIVATE MESSAGES WILL BE ANSWERED - post in this thread.

Take my word .... or don't ....... these are some facts:

There is NOTHING the FCC (or any regulatory agency) can do to get your number transferred. The number portability law of 2003 is for CELLPHONES (which by the ways states that a number MUST be transferred but not how long it is supposed to take).

Cell phone to cellphone or landline to landline is TOTALLY different then a landline to Voip transfer. Those are done automatically and electronically where a Vonage transfer is basically a manual process with 3 different organizations involved.

A "pending" or "temporary" transfer date is meaningless. Not to say it won't happen around that day. It is a date created by Vonage which is usually a month from your "transfer to carrier" date or resubmission date. Any rep who gives that date doesn't have a clue as to what they are talking about. They also misread some of the spreadsheets. On CERTAIN spreadsheets If the transfer date is written in RED it is a "pending" date, if it's in BLACK it's a FOC (firm) date. They are probably new and don't know a FOC from crock.

Asking for a supervisor is a waste of time. You need to get to a knowledgeable rep who can tell you the truth (and not just what you want to hear). All a supervisor will do is talk sweetly to you and do the same thing a rep will do in the end. Create a ticket. If it's PAST 30 days (20 bus) and you speak to a rep, make sure he has created a ticket.

The reposnses you get from a ticket are CANNED (obviously). Sometimes even the wrong canned message gets sent. However if you get a response they (usually) are acting on your transfer.

Don't waste your time trying to port a cellphone #. ESPECIALLY T-MOBILE. The cell carrier will reject you over and over (first they want your SSN, then they want your account password ... and it goes on and on).

DO CHECK YOUR WEB ACCOUNT and make sure it says "transfer sent to carrier" ~48 hrs AFTER you fax your paperwork. Don't wait 2 months then blame Vonage when your transfer never started because your paperwork hasn't arrived (see next).

MANY FAXES GET GRUNGED. JUST BECAUSE YOU SENT IT DOESN'T MEAN IT WAS RECEIVED or received clearly.

If your phone bill goes to a PO BOX fugetaboutit! You need a SERVICE ADDRESS on your bill.

If you can't read the "rules" and send incorrect information, DON'T BLAME Vonage.

If it has taken more then 6 weeks call in and make sure the rep creates a ticket for you and has it resubmitted.

Some number just won't port for many reasons .... like your number has been ported 3 other times and it isn't owned by your current carrier.

Some companies will NOT port your number to us (like ATT Callvantage, some Comcast and other small telcos. THEY DON'T HAVE TO!

Calling your carrier is a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME. When they say "we didn't receive the paperwork" they don't have a CLUE. You would have to speak to their number portability dept which is just about impossible. The people you call on the phone do not know.

Carriers DO make it difficult. How many people do you think they want to hire to GIVE AWAY business ?? Do you think they are going to hire & pay 100 people to port out numbers? NO! They will hire one or 2 little old ladies to work on it between 1PM and 1:10PM. The WILL hire 10,00 people to GET YOU IN but not give you away.

Vonage is hiring probably 60-100 people PER WEEK which is both good and bad for obvious reasons.

Best time to call is 11PM-1AM (eastern) weekdays.

We know your frustrated, but taking out on the reps (even the lousy ones) isn't going to help.

[VONTAGEGAL COMMENT - Nor do I want to be a confirmed Vonage employee !!!!!! ]

Posts: 40 · Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 10:34 pm Post subject:

It's been close to 30 business days and I've been given one of those meaninglees tentative dates of April 7th. My biggest concern is not continuing to pay for both my Verizon service and Vonage. I definitely prefer to have my number ported, but not at he expense of paying double phone bills for months. If I decided I wanted to keep my temp Vonage number as my permanent number and jus cancel my verizon service would that be hard to do and how would I go about it from the Vonage side?

Posts: 50 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 04, 2005 Posts: 50

[VonTageGal note: I am NOT a confirmed Vonage employee and never claim to be! Wink

]

Not a problem. Just call and tell them you want to cancel your transfer. If you can't get through right away just cancel your Verizon service. HOWEVER, just because you got a temp/pending date doesn't necessarily mean it's not going to happen at all or within a couple days, weeks, months of that date. If you haven't even reached 30 days yet I'd still give it a couple more weeks. We, I mean they, will give you a 1 month service credit when you hit 1 month wait. Ya gotta have a LITTLE patience.

[VonTageGal note: I am NOT a confirmed Vonage employee - and never claim to be! Wink

]

thebeav wrote:

It's been close to 30 business days and I've been given one of those meaninglees tentative dates of April 7th. My biggest concern is not continuing to pay for both my Verizon service and Vonage. I definitely prefer to have my number ported, but not at he expense of paying double phone bills for months. If I decided I wanted to keep my temp Vonage number as my permanent number and jus cancel my verizon service would that be hard to do and how would I go about it from the Vonage side?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 04, 2005 Posts: 3

any idea what i can do now tah my landline has been disconnected. verizon disconnect my last wed said that the number was released on march 22. Vonage says they have not gotten info. so not getting any incoming calls since did not give temp number out just wanted to let poeple keep calling the same number

Posts: 50 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 04, 2005 Posts: 50

Get an order number FROM VERIZON that was sent to them for the disconnect. If they can't supply an order number they ain't telling the truth. If they are supply Vonage with that number as soon as possible and make sure the rep creates a service ticket in Tier 3 for an "incomplete port." That type of problem can (usually) be resolved quickly.

fierfek wrote:

any idea what i can do now tah my landline has been disconnected. verizon disconnect my last wed said that the number was released on march 22. Vonage says they have not gotten info. so not getting any incoming calls since did not give temp number out just wanted to let poeple keep calling the same number

Posts: 26 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 05, 2005 Posts: 26

Well, this makes things sound pretty hopeless for some of us. Vonage made no mention of this kind of difficulty ("at least 20 business days" is not "you may never get your old number transferred because your provider doesn't have to do it if they don't want to"). I never take my anger out on a rep because I used to work at a call center during the early days of our local cable broadband service, and I got reamed by many callers for things I could do nothing about. However, I will not recommend Vonage to anyone no matter how pleased I am with the service or even if my number gets ported tomorrow (after over 3 months) because they mislead about the ease of the number transfer process.

Word of mouth is a very effective selling tool, especially when you're someone that everyone you know looks to for advice about buying into new technology. I'm going to call again today, and if my number isn't ported by next month, I'm just going to have to bail on Vonage.

Posts: 50 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 04, 2005 Posts: 50

It's not hopeless, but there are obviously problems. We can't control it if a carrier doesn't want to give-back a number. There is no law saying they must. If there is one, please correct me. I have seen a number of Comcast requests rejected by Comcast because they won't port the number out. Same for ATT CallVantage. Doesn't mean it won't happen. the major carriers are GENERALLY not a problem (other then time delays at times). Once again, all you read here are the horror stories. For every horror story posted there are probably 10,000 then went through smoothly. You don't read about the ports that are completed in 10-15 days. That is the one downside of these types of forums. Mostly all you read is the bad stuff. It is easy .... except for the occasional glitch which unfortunately is affecting you.

Gotta go to work.

jrstinkfish wrote:

Well, this makes things sound pretty hopeless for some of us. Vonage made no mention of this kind of difficulty ("at least 20 business days" is not "you may never get your old number transferred because your provider doesn't have to do it if they don't want to"). I never take my anger out on a rep because I used to work at a call center during the early days of our local cable broadband service, and I got reamed by many callers for things I could do nothing about. However, I will not recommend Vonage to anyone no matter how pleased I am with the service or even if my number gets ported tomorrow (after over 3 months) because they mislead about the ease of the number transfer process.

Word of mouth is a very effective selling tool, especially when you're someone that everyone you know looks to for advice about buying into new technology. I'm going to call again today, and if my number isn't ported by next month, I'm just going to have to bail on Vonage.

Posts: 40 · Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 10:40 am Post subject:

VonTageGal wrote:

We can't control it if a carrier doesn't want to give-back a number. There is no law saying they must. If there is one, please correct me.

Actually I think there is a law:

A little history

Way back in July of 1996, before cell phone ringers sounded more like Top 40 radio, the FCC issued an order requiring local and cell phone service providers to offer number portability.

The rule forced providers to allow customers to switch carriers without losing their phone numbers. With regard to wireless carriers, the ruling included only the country's top 100 cities.

The FCC rule addressed an omission in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which excluded wireless carriers from the portability requirement.

The FCC established a three-year timetable for compliance, with a June 30, 1999, deadline. After a series of extension requests and grants, the compliance deadline eventually slid back to late 2002.

In July of 2002, wireless providers received another 12-month extension — until Nov. 24, 2003.

Posts: 26 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 05, 2005 Posts: 26

"For every horror story posted there are probably 10,000 then went through smoothly."

No offense, but I find that hard to believe. A small percentage of Vonage customers even know about this forum. Of course, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but judging by what I read here, with the full understanding that it represents a small sample of Vonage custoemrs, I still have to believe that the problem is more widespread than what you say.

Mine isn't a horror story just yet, not compared to some I've read here -- and if it comes to being a horror story, I will just cancel the service and spread the word that if you want to keep your number, Vonage is not the way to go because they've handled the whole process with incompetence. I understand it's not entirely in their hands, but you can only shrug your shoulders so many times and blame someone else before you lose credibility.

To put it simply, if I had known that my number would not be transferred after 3 months, or that there was even the possibility of it taking over 3 months, I would never have signed up. I've had this number for 10 years, and it's just not worth the hassle to save $20 a month and have to tell everyone I've ever given my number to in the past decade what my new number is when I shouldn't have to.

Posts: 35 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Apr 13, 2005 Posts: 35

I just started the process of transferring my landline from SBC CT. I then found this forum. The problem is I am moving in 17 days. What happens if the number isn't transferred by then?

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