Stories of November 24, 2003 : WLNP Day

tomorrow is the big day, wow i'm glad i like my numbers the way they are and don't need to swicth carriers at this point, well i do need to get rid of my Att contract but that's a different story. good luck fellas.

 

I Did It!

Today at 9am I went to the Verizon store to switch my service from AT&T. So far everything seems successful. I can make outgoing calls, and incoming are still going to my old phone. They said it would be about two hours, but of course nobody has had their phone for that long yet, so I guess we'll find out. I was the fourth person at that store to switch, and apparently the second one that was successful. The lady who handled my transaction was very pleased at how easy the system was to use. Hopefully it will go as smoothly for everyone else. The whole thing took the same amount of time or even less than it would signing up for new service. So far I'm very pleased! I'll report back if I encounter any glitches.

 

If I check my landline for eligibility online, I get the following results:

Nextel and AT&TWS --- Yes

Cingular --- Number NOTt eligible for porting

Verizon & T-Mobile --- Can't find anywhere to check online

 

The first number I ported for a customer went through seemlessly. i already posted elsewhere on WA about it. but, yeah, it went through with no issues. so far so good.

 

Just wanted to update, my port has completed successfully (ATT --> Verizon). I'm now receiving calls on my new phone, can access voicemail and everything. Seems like it works! Hope everyone else is so lucky.

 

In that case it is time to update your profile dude.

 

LOL. Thanks, I was about to do that & forgot!

 

So far so good. I love Sprint! All my port customers today came from there! I was afraid they would not be ready to port, but it seems that they are. I had a brain fart on the port screen remembering what some of those acronyms are (such as CBR: Can Be Reached at).

All in all it was pretty painless. The port process doesn't take a lot of time. It takes more time to explain the process to the customer than to actually do it. Some of them are very shaky about it.

Also talked to the guys at RadioShack. Seems all they are doing is porting Sprint to Verizon as well. Seems no port customers care one little bit about what time Nights begin at.

 

Is radioshack actually initiating the porting????I kind of assumed that they would do what TMO and Sprint retailers are doing and activate the phones, with a new number if necessary, and then let care do the porting...i guess its just the in store activation thing...

 

Radio Shack reps have access to the same activation system used by the phone reps, we used to do them all the time in store without ever having to talk to phone care.

 

Ugh....I ported my number on 11/24 and it hasn't been easy. I ported a number from AT&T to Sprint and attempted to get a Treo 600 activated. I was first in line and it still took HOURS to initiate. It's been over 13 hours and the transfer still has not gone through. I actually couldn't sleep last night because I wondered if I made the right choice. When I called Sprint customer service they said that it can take up to FIVE DAYS! Yikes.

I'm going back to BestBuy this afternoon (11/25) to see what's up. Folks at BestBuy were really nice BTW. Seems that Sprint customer service was the problem. The girl helping me at the store kept getting disconnected by Sprint.

 

there's no reason it should take 5 days. thats insane. it might take a full 24 hours, but not 5 days. also, why sprint?

 

HOLY $^$%&#!! FIVE DAYS!! It only takes TWO to port a landline! My ports have been going through in just under 2 HOURS! You switched to sprint just to get that phone Howard Stern uses, huh?

 

Sprint's porting software crashed yesterday in the morning. By the late afternoon it was fixed and transfers were supposedly going through just fine. I would advise Kitsune to contact Sprint, they may have to resubmit the port request. There was a front page article in the Columbus newspaper detailing the computer issues Sprint had yesterday, as they interviewed a woman that had to wait about 5-6 hours for her Verizon number to successful switch over to Sprint. I have heard that Cingular was a big mess yesterday as well.

The manager of a Sprint Express store told me today that they did 7 ports and had about 15 inquiries yesterday. I am not sure if that is a high or low number...but that's what this one location did anyway.

 

Here in MI I have been having problems with porting. I did one yesterday that still has not gone through and was told up to 48 hours for it to be done.

 

In Utah, through the indirect channels, it was about 8 to 1 in vs. out for verizon yesterday at about 3. I'd say verizon was cleaning up quite well (at least in Utah.)

 

This all sounds like election results streaming in.. like who will come out on top after the dust settles!??!?

 

Thanks for the messages. I feel like I'm not alone in celluar Hades. I love my cellphone and cellular technology. It's such a huge part of my life.

Kranium - I left AT&T because their TDMA service in Los Angeles got really bad and their GSM coverage is reportedly worse. AT&T TDMA works fine in San Francisco where I live, but I need a phone that works well in both regions. I've been told that Verizon and Sprint are the best bets for what I'm looking for. So, it's mostly a regional coverage thing for me. The Treo 600 had something to do with it too and AT&T's GSM version was not an option for me.

Delta 3144 - Oh great. Howard has one. Now I REALLY feel like a dork. LOL! Naw, I got it 'cause I'm a girl who loves technology. I also work in a field where being (and appearing to be) techo savvy is a plus. If Verizon carried the Treo I'd probably have gone with them. However, if Sprint turns out to be a poor performer in the coverage and/or the customer service areas, I have no qualms about porting over to Verizon. I love the Treo but not enough to suffer bad service for it. We're as free as a butterflies to port where we please. Yay!

AnthroMatt - Thanks for the scoop on Sprint's software crashing. Maybe that was the problem. I started the porting process around 4:00PM, waited around until 6:00PM, came back to the store at 9:00PM and was told it was just completed. I don't think it was BestBuy's fault. The store clerk helping me did her best and was very nice.

So that's it. I'm going to go in this afternoon and see what else they can do for me. I'm hoping that if it takes 5 days to finally port and become operational that it won't eat into my 15-day trial period. That would suck. :-x

Thanks again. I'll keep ya'll posted!

 

Just an update Kitsune...if you read Delta3144's post in this forum, ATT software is having issues and it is taking them 3 days minimum to port numbers to other carriers. I have a feeling that is the problem that is affecting your port.

 

first failed port.... customer came to me from tmobile. tmobile hasnt properly updated their number list in our area

 

Not in a top 100 MSA, but checked eligibility on a landline (Qwest) and came back denied, tried the tiny, next to non-existant landline competitor of Mcleod, and it came back as a go. I'm wondering if it's worth the try.



Right now the only guarantees with porting are T-Mobile and Verizon. Everyone else is up in the air (Conflicting reports on sprint and nextel)

 

I just had to do my first port for a customer today. i wasn't even expecting to have to do very many, since my county is not in the top 100 MSAs, however, since we are just outside of the Charlotte, NC MSA, we can port customers who come to us and wish to move their numbers in the affected areas. Only 2-3 of our total month activations with Alltel are exchanges other than our own local one, so I was kind of pleasantly surprised when I got this lady who wanted to port from Cingular to Alltel. The overall porting process wasn't so bad. In fact, I've had worse problems completing normal activations. I had to spend a while on the phone with Alltel to get everything done though, whereas normally I wouldn't have had to make any phone calls. The customer was able to make outgoing calls when she left, and I haven't heard back from her yet. Guess I'll find out tommorow.

 

Well, here are the stories (so far) of a Sprint customer service Specialist. I got my first port call not long after signing on to the system, I ported 3 numbers from AT&T to Sprint, everything went pretty well, the port was scheduled to be completed later that night. I had a few other porting requests on Monday, all were porting from AT&T, Cingular, or T-Mobile. I talked to some other specialists who said they had ported in numbers from Nextel and Verizon. By the end of the night we were looking at a 5 day completion schedule, but no one that I talked to seemed to be upset by the wait. On Tuesday, I only had a couple of porting requests, one was porting in from a small carrier I'd never heard of, and there were several people calling to check on the status of their ports. I had a few people that called threatening to port their numbers if we couldn't "do something for them", but by far there were more calls to port in. All the people in management seemed pretty happy on Tuesday, scuttlebutt is that Verizon and Sprint have gained more than they lost, but no official word on anything yet. This same scuttlebutt is saying that AT&T, Cingular, and T-Mobile have been the big losers so far, and that the volume of porting requests overall was far, far less than expected. I will be glad when we find out something more official than scuttlebutt. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out, but it definitely seems that so far, the reality has not lived up to the hype. The sky didn't fall, the sun still came up this morning, and life goes on!

 

Do you work for Sprint rebguy1?

Please know that I'm not saying anything about you personally but I find it extremely hard to believe that TMO, Cingular and AT&T are the biggest losers while Sprint is ranked as a winner because of WLNP??

Sorry, as a former Sprint customer I have nothing but horror stories from service to billing, it was ridiculous. I'm sure the Sprint execs had to come up with a strategy to keep up employee morale like saying they are at the top with Verizon I guess the Sprint hierarchy must think it's a good tactic but it will have very bad after effects, particularly when the official results come in.

That's just my two cents

 

Well...it's been three days and still no signs of life on my Sprint Treo. I was told that it could take five to FOURTEEN days for the port to complete. The rediculous now has the potential to become obsurd. I'll keep ya'll posted.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

 

Kitsune...your situation sounds uniquely bad (compared to others posted here anyway). I'm just curious what people from Sprint or AT&T have told you as to why your port is taking so long. Fourteen days is unacceptable.

 

Apparently the ESN number on my Treo was incorrectly entered by the store clerk at BestBuy, so my phone could not be properly activated. When that issue was finally straightened out, it still didn't resolve things.

I was on the phone with Sprint Customer Service for HOURS over the past two days. Still, they offer no explanation for why the port is taking so long. Bad cellular karma I guess...

I haven't been able to receive calls for FOUR days now. My AT&T phone can still send calls. However, when I call my cell number it says that the Sprint PCS customer is temporarily unavailable. Nice. I wonder how many calls I've missed because of this.

Words of advice to those itching to port: consider waiting a month or two. Clearly carriers still have some bugs to work out with the porting process.

When my port is complete I'll post again in case anyone is wondering how long it finally took. For now, the saga continues...

 

The scoop now is that my phone is useless until the port is totally complete. Until then, Sprint can't make any changes to correct the ESN number problem.

More words of advice: be sure the person activating your phone knows what they're doing.

AND if you're phone doesn't seem to be able to dail out after a few days after porting, have customer service check and make sure that the ESN number matches what they have on record.

It also doesn't hurt to make sure that the ESN number on the box matches the one on the phone.

Sprint's CS next move is to call my former carrier and ask them when the port will finally be complete. Sprints CS guy said that the expected wait times with AT&T CS range from 45 min - 1 hour. Wow!!! Lots of time to play solitare.

 

According to T-Mobile, AT&T is unable to process port requests for GSM customers right now because of the problems with their system.

I made my initial request to port my number from AT&T to T-Mobile at noon on Monday. It is now 4:30 on Sunday and there is still no ETA.

In the meantime, I have to continue paying AT&T for service. I can't cancel my service or I lose the number. Doesn't strike me as a fair business practice.