Waiting since February 2005

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 08, 2005 Posts: 5

January 8, 2005 Awaiting Letter of Authorization
February 27, 2005 Letter of Authorization (LOA) Received
February 27, 2005 Transfer Sent to Carrier

I've been attempting to port my telephone number to Vonage since February 2005. Vonage refuses to provide a transfer date or provide me with any details regarding my status. They claim it's in the hands of a "third party company" that apparently is not run by any humans ***at all*** since there is "absolutely no way" that neither I nor anyone at Vonage can call them on the phone. I have offered to personally deliver the Transfer Request to Nevada Telephone since they claim to have never received anything regarding the number porting, but Vonages' "hands are tied" regarding the situation.

However, on approximately June 16, 2005, my local service provider, Nevada Telephone, *did* in fact have the Order in my file. Quite conveniently, the order magically disappeared and there is "absolutely no records of any contact from any company involved with Vonage" according to numerous Nevada Telephone representatives.

On July 8, 2005, I was actually advised by a Vonage Local Number Porting Representative that I might just want to cancel my service since "it looks like we can't get it done for you." He promised to elevate my request to "a human's desk at the porting company", that I "would not be charged for Vonage service AT ALL until the number was ported", and that I "would have a definite date that the transfer would happen within two weeks."

On August 8, 2005, my credit card on file with Vonage was charged $27.24 for one month's service. I called Customer Service about the charges and was informed by Vonage Rep "Komal" that the previous representative did not enter any of that information or the promises he made, that he was not authorized to make any of those promises, and that there was no update involving my number porting request.

She advised that I should just keep calling back every couple of days until the number transfers.

As of 8/24/2005, I have paid a total of $58.98 for Vonage service that has been basically useless to me because of their inability to port my number.

Meanwhile, a coworker recently had his number ported from Sprint in four days.

How nice. He didn't even have a cable modem until two weeks ago.

I'm tired of the runaround. I'm tired of the "do nothing" people at Vonage and Nevada Telephone who constantly blame the other company.

FCC complaint is already filed.

If I don't hear something by next Monday, I'm going to get the consumer reporter of "Contact 13" involved. They just love doing stories like this where two companies blame each other while holding a customer hostage.

I'm sure having my trials and tribulations broadcast to over 1.5 million people would just make for some wonderful press for Vonage and Nevada Telephone.

How many thousands of potential customers would that turn away? Let's see...at $14.99 per month, if just half of one percent of 200,000 viewers that might see their evening news were interested in Vonage, then choose not to sign up since Vonage can't seem to get my number ported in six stinking months that would be $2,248,500 out of Vonage's pocket.

...and that's probably a conservative estimate of their news viewership.

Can anyone at Vonage actually get this done, please?

grumpily,

Jason

Posts: 80 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jun 24, 2005 Posts: 80

Wow...simply wow....

I'm not sure to answer this wonderful post, I should drink the morning coffee but let me explain a few things.....

Vonage is not regulated by the FCC.......So in other words your phone company does NOT have to give Vonage the number.

Vonage does work with third party carriers to transfer the number since it is a FCC regulation that your phone must port the phone number over to the third party company. I'm not sure what third party company is handling your transfer cause I don't have that info in front of me. But rest assured they update a spreedsheet daily that Vonage Reps do have access too. If nothing is listed in there a ticket is sent to get a status from the third party company. I'm pretty sure you probably have serveral tickets in and I'm not sure why no one has given you an answer....

You filed for you transfer in Feburary...You are most likely going through the manual LoA system which I might add has its flaws. The eLoA process is much faster and very little human hands touch it. I might suggest to cancel the current transfer then re-apply using the eLoA process.

I hope the infomation here is helpful...but the I found the rest your post humorous about getting the news involved.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 08, 2005 Posts: 5

It's funny.

The folks at "Contact 13" (and the threat of a company being made to look like it's run by morons or crooks by having the story told twice a night on the daily news) sure do get things done when all other avenues have failed. Issues that have literally taken months to go nowhere end up being resolved in a matter of days.

There's nothing like the threat of negative publicity to get a fire lit.

As for whether or not Vonage is regulated by the FCC, while they may not be truly "regulated" like regular phone companies Vonage most certainly does have to answer to them in some way.

The recent E-911 bit proves that. If they start getting enough complaints, perhaps something else will get done.

Posts: 80 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jun 24, 2005 Posts: 80

E-911 and Phone Taps are the only things required by the FCC for Vonage. E-911 is top priority for Vonage at the moment.

Contact 13 just sounds like a crook company....

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 08, 2005 Posts: 5

a "crook company"?

Apparently you missed the words "consumer reporter". I figured it would be obvious that a "reporter" who broadcasts to over a million and a half people would be with a TV station, but here's the link to spell it out specifically.

http://www.ktnv.com/contact13/

Contact 13 is the consumer advocacy, problem solving department of the southern Nevada ABC affliate station.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 08, 2005 Posts: 5

September 20, 2005

Number finally ports to Vonage sometime in the morning.

How did I find out about this? At 9:30pm, I've been out sick most of the day due to a stay in the emergency room and I ask my daughter why she called on my cellphone instead of the home phone.

She didn't. She called the home phone, but since I had earlier disconnected the TA it rolled over to my cellphone.

Vonage didn't notify me whatsoever...not a phonecall (which I'd been promised numerous times)...not even an email.

Nice work, Team Vonage.

When you DO finally get around to doing the job you should have done seven full months ago, don't bother to tell anyone that you're doing it.

It's a good thing that no one was at the emergency room trying to call home to update the family on the status of someone who's sick.

Oh wait...there was someone doing just that and wondering why no one was answering the phone.

I guess it's all my fault for being on morphine and a more powerful painkiller and not immediately thinking "Hey, I guess Vonage might have ported our number."

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 19, 2005 Posts: 4

You're lucky.. i still have not had any luck.. i hope BNR78 is right about the eLOA being less inept(i sincerely do not believe in this point):

Updated Date: Number Transfer Progress History: Required Action
February 9, 2005 Awaiting Letter of Authorization
February 10, 2005 Letter of Authorization (LOA) Received
February 10, 2005 Transfer Sent to Carrier
September 22, 2005 Carrier Approved Transfer
October 27, 2005 LNP Transfer Cancelled

_______________________________________________

Updated Date: Number Transfer Progress History: Required Action
October 27, 2005 Awaiting Letter of Authorization
October 28, 2005 Letter of Authorization (LOA) Received
October 28, 2005 Transfer Sent to Carrier

After speaking to a CSR on a daily basis, I was finally told it would be better to cancel and apply via eLOA which I have done. The CSRs are extremely friendly and courteous, but they just are not empowered to do a single thing except generate escalated tickets.
To add salt to my frustration, a friend of mine just joined about a month or so ago, and his number has already been ported. We use the same local carrier, Bellsouth, his transfer flies through at break neck pace, while mine seems to get slower by the day.
I would like to say that so far, calling out with vonage is great and we have not had any problems with the network or hardware(yes i know i just gave myself the kiss of death) and the CSRs are nice. It is just level if ineptitude of the process that is incredulous. Could anyone explain to me why Vonage can not call their third party who handles the actual transfer and ask them whats up? From what I am told by CSRs and Supervisors, the only way that they can contact them is via email. Wow!! Talk about communication barrier.

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 06, 2005 Posts: 19

I've been waiting since January 2005. My transfer was finally rejected in October and I restarted with the eLOA process. Here's keeping my fingers crossed Twisted Evil

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 06, 2005 Posts: 19

I waited a total of 16 months for my LNP transfer to go through. I submitted my LOA on 1/8/2005 and cancelled service on 4/30/2006. Finally I signed up with Packet8 and the transfer was completed in 7 days.

Posts: 21 · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:08 pm Post subject:

Dude, I am in the same boat, how to I get this eLOA thing going?