Number Porting Gone Wrong

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oomacurious
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Joined:Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:43 am
Number Porting Gone Wrong

Post by oomacurious » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:45 am

It has been 6 weeks since I requested my number to be ported and I spoke with my carrier today who said they don't even have a request from Ooma to port the number (my home business line). I received the confirmation notice 6 weeks ago that it was expected to be completed Jan. 29. Since that date, I have talked to Ooma support at least 10 times and each time I get a different answer. I have spoken to 3 "supervisors" who each said they were following my request closely and that they would call me with the status of my request. I have not heard even once from any of them. Today, I emailed support again and got a response that according to my current carrier, my number was scheduled to port to a different carrier other than Ooma. So I called my carrier again, and guess what? That's right, they don't have a request to port the number to ANY carrier, just as they said before.

Can anyone help? I mean, really... what would it take to get me, my current carrier, and Ooma on the phone at the same time to resolve this? With my current carrier, the support line rings twice and someone picks up to help. It's not like Ooma can't reach them. I sure can.

Frustrated and losing business.

oomacurious
Posts:6
Joined:Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:43 am

Re: Number Porting Gone Wrong

Post by oomacurious » Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:07 am

Update... and I'm doing this in realtime... I called Ooma back and had to insist to speak with a supervisor, who was reluctant to try to resolve the matter with me on the phone. I insisted that she 3-way call my carrier to resolve this immediately, and only then did she agree to do so. Now having said that, she could not initiate the 3-way herself initially, and when she finally did (by hanging up and calling me back from another phone) we were either dropped 3 times, or were not able to hear each other for 20-30 seconds at a time. So it's been 2 hours that I've been on the phone and we are just now on with the other carrier, who tells the Ooma supervisor they don't have a record of a port request. So it would appear we're back to square 1 for the moment while both parties check their logs.

The customer should NEVER have to get involved at this level. And as of yet, there's been no offer of compensation for the the poor customer service I have received through the process. This just in... after being on hold for 5 minutes, I was just dropped.. AGAIN! :x

Groundhound
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Location:Atlanta, GA

Re: Number Porting Gone Wrong

Post by Groundhound » Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:16 am

Pure speculation here, but I wonder if Ooma (being a residential phone service) is trying to communicate to the right department at your current carrier for your business line?

oomacurious
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Joined:Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:43 am

Re: Number Porting Gone Wrong

Post by oomacurious » Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:42 pm

I considered that as well, Greyhound, but was told it makes no difference.

UPDATE: It was complete stand-off on the phone, with my current carrier saying they never received a request and Ooma saying their records showed they did. When asked by my current carrier for the case record number for the order to port, the Ooma supervisor could not provide it. So either someone didn't make a record of it, or Ooma in fact never submitted the port order. The supervisor promised me I would hear from her today with a status of a new port request. I'll be waiting by the phone...

Maybe my case is not the norm. It happens. But what concerns me most is after calling about it for the last couple of weeks and getting the run around, I had to assert myself into the process to get it resolved. And we're still not there yet.

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Mike-o-Matic
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Re: Number Porting Gone Wrong

Post by Mike-o-Matic » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:31 pm

For what it's worth, ultimately, it's the service provider who is losing their existing customer (ie. not ooma) that holds all the cards in a port-out request.

Subsequently those companies often aren't falling over themselves to be helpful. But if your old phone company IS the party at fault, I'd bet eventually they'll come around, because nobody likes FCC complaints filed against them!!

Regardless of who's holding this up, hang in there. It'll get done. Hopefully soon. Good luck!
Customer Since: November 2009.
Number Port: ordered 12/14/09; completed 01/07/10.
Hardware: one Hub, one Scout, one Telo.
Service Level: Annual Premier.

teacup775
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Joined:Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:05 pm

Re: Number Porting Gone Wrong

Post by teacup775 » Mon Feb 15, 2010 10:41 am

Hate to say it but I have had a similar experience. The port didn't complete and I found out because I continued to receive bills from att. I had to call ooma in order to find out why.


The support department seems to lack a robust ticket management system.

amoney
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Re: Number Porting Gone Wrong

Post by amoney » Mon Feb 15, 2010 4:29 pm

What interests me is the comment above where the carrier requested the case record number for the PORT but Ooma could not provide, THAT is very indicative that Ooma dropped the ball, even if they did request the PORT they need to document this information. Given Oomas track record and carriers are so big that in the end they do not care, I would suspect Ooma to be at fault. Yes I am aware how carriers can be sticklers to try to keep accounts and all, but if Ooma has all the proper information AND documentation, carriers do not want to tangle with the FCC. As the saying goes dont give them any excuesses. Ooma needs to run a tight ship which in past has not proven to be so. Perhaps carriers are catching on to this fact that Ooma is disorganized and are pulling out the stops to prevent the PORT to be completed due to lack of information.

That request case number for PORt that Ooma did not have is very interesting.

Anyone else work in the biz can confirm and or elaborate the specific details of the process?
Comcast > Telo > WRT54G

riredale
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Re: Number Porting Gone Wrong

Post by riredale » Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:56 pm

Don't know the intricacies of number porting, but in my case I received no less than 2 emails indicating that the port was to take place on a certain day (today). I ported two numbers and each number was assigned a ticket number of some sort, presumably as a tracking aid. The pots service went down this morning, and 4 hours later the numbers came up on Ooma. Everything is working normally at this point.

So I don't know what went wrong with your particular situation, but everything went right with mine (knock on wood).

ydnar723
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Re: Number Porting Gone Wrong

Post by ydnar723 » Thu Feb 25, 2010 4:27 pm

amoney wrote:What interests me is the comment above where the carrier requested the case record number for the PORT but Ooma could not provide, THAT is very indicative that Ooma dropped the ball, even if they did request the PORT they need to document this information. Given Oomas track record and carriers are so big that in the end they do not care, I would suspect Ooma to be at fault. Yes I am aware how carriers can be sticklers to try to keep accounts and all, but if Ooma has all the proper information AND documentation, carriers do not want to tangle with the FCC. As the saying goes dont give them any excuesses. Ooma needs to run a tight ship which in past has not proven to be so. Perhaps carriers are catching on to this fact that Ooma is disorganized and are pulling out the stops to prevent the PORT to be completed due to lack of information.

That request case number for PORt that Ooma did not have is very interesting.

Anyone else work in the biz can confirm and or elaborate the specific details of the process?

Typically each carrier has a method of tracking theior port out requests. When a carrier asks another carrier for a number a carrier has a specific set of business days to respond or reject the request. Unfortunatley the variation is different among each company but needs to be offered reasonable time. Common turnaround time is a week to two weeks, BUT some carriers, some states such as mine do not have "enforcement". The process among each carrier I should say is an average of 1-2 weeks, it depends on the work the loosing carrier needs to do (some people think everything is the flip of a switch but it really is not) However in this case where Ooma or an underlying carrier sent the request for porting in a number someone should have kept track of the request by any means, emails, databases, etc. Now it is the "gaining carrier" in this case it be Ooma that would ask for a the due date by offering, meaning Ooma would tell a carrier they want a number and would like to port it on March 1 (as an example) the loosing carrier needs to respond or reject the request. Now the gaining carrier should follow up when the deadline is near (least that is how it was practiced in the phone companies I worked for) and ask for an update seeing how they want that number.
In the end when a date is ever decided on (reasons vary why quoted days can be longer) both carriers use a database to release and take the number, when the gaining carrier is ready they port it to their equipment and the loosing carrier will verify the event and remove the number form their equipment to avoid conflicts in calling.
If nobody keeps track at any end for a request to port a number, as you can see from the "short" version of the process, it can be quite easy to drop the ball.

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