Porting a cell phone number

[zacatti]

Can your old carrier charge you for porting your existing cell phone number to a new carrier? Does it help to ask the new carrier to cover that cost?

[Andy]

If your contract is not yet fulfilled, then, yes, your old carrier can and will charge you the Early Termination Fee, and No, you will most likely not be able to get this charge covered by your new carrier. If you are out of contrct, there is no charge involved with your old carrier.
Hope this helps,
Andy

[proud2bamerican8]

Originally Posted by zacatti

Can your old carrier charge you for porting your existing cell phone number to a new carrier? Does it help to ask the new carrier to cover that cost?

Some carriers might offer some type of credits for porting your number, it sure doesn't hurt to ask. Sprint has had promos like this at various times, (I know of 2 programs in the past 6 months) but none currently on.

[User999]

Originally Posted by zacatti

Can your old carrier charge you for porting your existing cell phone number to a new carrier? Does it help to ask the new carrier to cover that cost?

Other than your termination fee if breaking a contract, in most cases they do not. They are permitted by the FCC to charge a port out fee but I have not seen it used yet. Many carriers still employe the 30 day notice trick though to get an extra month's service charges out of you.

[cliffr39]

Originally Posted by User999

Other than your termination fee if breaking a contract, in most cases they do not. They are permitted by the FCC to charge a port out fee but I have not seen it used yet. Many carriers still employe the 30 day notice trick though to get an extra month's service charges out of you.

Check out Nextel then, they will charge $25 to take your number to another carrier.

[zacatti]

Does Nextel really charge $25 for porting a number? Is there anyway to contest this since I've been told many carriers don't charge?

Thanks.

[cliffr39]

Originally Posted by zacatti

Does Nextel really charge $25 for porting a number? Is there anyway to contest this since I've been told many carriers don't charge?

Thanks.

Yes I had to pay it. I ported out from Nextel to AT&T. I called the day I was going to port and asked if there were any fees other than my ETF, because I heard rumors about it. The lady said no. My contract did not say anything about a fee to port-out. Their website said nothing. When I did the port I got a $25 fee on my final bill.

[Riverguyd]

Were you able to contest the charge? I heard something about them only charging if you ported a nextel # out. I may have heard wrong

[cliffr39]

Originally Posted by Riverguyd

Were you able to contest the charge? I heard something about them only charging if you ported a nextel # out. I may have heard wrong

re-read my above 2 posts. I was talking about porting out from nextel, they charge $25.

[Riverguyd]

I understand your post. I heard that if you port a number origonally issued by nextel, they charge the fee. If you port a number out that you ported in from another company, there is no charge.

[cliffr39]

Originally Posted by Riverguyd

I understand your post. I heard that if you port a number origonally issued by nextel, they charge the fee. If you port a number out that you ported in from another company, there is no charge.

ahhh, well you know Nextel. They probably will ;-) they are the only carrier I can think of that charges for CID or basic VM (of the large 6 carriers). They even started charging a fee if you change rate plans.

[gaylemike]

Originally Posted by Riverguyd

Were you able to contest the charge? I heard something about them only charging if you ported a nextel # out. I may have heard wrong

An associate of mine decided to port over to Verizon from Nextel. What he told me was that Verizon ported his number, Nextel tried to final bill him the $25 fee. Before he ported he had heard about this fee and was going to port anyway, nevertheless, when he ported the Verizon rep....don't know if he ported over the phone or went into a store....told him that he needed to check his Nextel contract to see the $25 in writing. He said he looked and couldn't find it. So he ask Nextel to supply him in writing where it said $25 to port from Nextel to anyother, they couldn't. He said they called it some other charge, but didn't call it a port charge. He disputed the $25 charge and hasn't paid it to this day. Nextel still has sent him 2 monthly bills for the $25. He sent both bills back telling them show him in writing the charge and he'd pay it. Up until now, nada. Sure seems like Nextel is trying to pull a fast one.

[proud2bamerican8]

Originally Posted by gaylemike

An associate of mine decided to port over to Verizon from Nextel. What he told me was that Verizon ported his number, Nextel tried to final bill him the $25 fee. Before he ported he had heard about this fee and was going to port anyway, nevertheless, when he ported the Verizon rep....don't know if he ported over the phone or went into a store....told him that he needed to check his Nextel contract to see the $25 in writing. He said he looked and couldn't find it. So he ask Nextel to supply him in writing where it said $25 to port from Nextel to anyother, they couldn't. He said they called it some other charge, but didn't call it a port charge. He disputed the $25 charge and hasn't paid it to this day. Nextel still has sent him 2 monthly bills for the $25. He sent both bills back telling them show him in writing the charge and he'd pay it. Up until now, nada. Sure seems like Nextel is trying to pull a fast one.

Bad thing is they can mess up his credit whether they can show it in writing or not.

[z00m]

What can your old carrier do, legally, to delay or mess up the port process..
Anyone with any experiences?

[ZaphodB]

z00m: They are not allowed to disrupt the port process. You could argue that they might be able to manufacture "technical issues", so that either the port gets stuck in limbo, or it takes so long that you just accept the new (theoretically temporary) number from your new carrier. However, they are not allowed to retain the number -- if there are fees involved, they are required to port the number and then bill you; they aren't allowed to wait for you to pay up before they'll release the number.

gaylemike: I strongly, strongly suggest that your associate contact the Public Utilities Commission of Texas (their website is http://www.puc.state.tx.us) and file a wrongful billing complaint. Generally how that works is you file a well-written complaint and you also write the cheque for the 25$ and send both to the ratepayer advocate (or whatever department has charge of this). If they find in your favour, they will destroy the cheque or return it to you. If they find in the carrier's favour, the cheque will be sent to the carrier and cashed.

I can almost guarantee that if it came to a court case, Nextel would trot out the contract and point to something in the fine print about "taxes and non-governmental cost recovery fees and assessments" being required to be paid. That covers port fees, ridiculous as it may seem.

proud2beamerican is right. They will absolutely trash your associate's credit over that lousy 25$, so your associate needs to have ironclad documentation -- requests in writing, with proof of mailing (certified or registered with proof of delivery). There is a sticky post in the General Wireless Discussion forum about the steps to take in due diligence for a dispute with a carrier.

Regardless of the outcome, they are not legally allowed to reverse, revoke or otherwise tinker with the port.

[z00m]

Thanks for the info ZaphodB

[MOTOhooligan]

Originally Posted by ZaphodB

z00m: They are not allowed to disrupt the port process. You could argue that they might be able to manufacture "technical issues", so that either the port gets stuck in limbo, or it takes so long that you just accept the new (theoretically temporary) number from your new carrier. However, they are not allowed to retain the number -- if there are fees involved, they are required to port the number and then bill you; they aren't allowed to wait for you to pay up before they'll release the number.

An account must be active for the MDN (Mobile Directory Number, aka your cell number) to be ported to another provider. Dispite the fact that they cannot wait for you to pay before they port your MDN out to the new provider, if your account were suspended or canceled for non-payment of any amount, you would not be able to port out. Just sort of a small caveat.

[z00m]

that's the catch.. huh. Thanks rancidhooligan