quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
Well here it is Sundays night and still no phone service. After almost 9 hours on the phone with customer service over 3 days, all they keep telling me is I am caught in between some sort of transition from my old account to my new account.

So we went out and bought a Tracfone from the Best Buy near our house. Activation was easy and it even gave me a local area code, by the way thanks Paten for the heads up on them. Cost was very reasonable for a basic Samsung smart phone with an unlimited talk and text plan and 2Gb of data for 30 days.

So now all I can do is wait, but at least I have a phone for the month.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Glad you got some service. We live in the sticks & have no cell service within 10 miles of us, so a monthly plan with any of the big carriers would be a waste of money. We need a land line, but also need cell phones for when we go away.

We've been using Tracfone for at least 15 years. The $20 for 60 minute/90 day plan suits us fine, because we're not on our phones alot. You can add minutes/text/data anytime you want, and there's unlimited carryover. I think I read somewhere that tracfone uses the major networks Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobil, etc. So you pretty much have service wherever their coverage is.

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:
Little late now but if the phone still worked on wifi you could use google voice when within wifi range. It allows you to call and text with a new number. Obviously it doesn't help if you're not in an area with wifi.

Thanks, we did think of that but we figured it would be easier to buy a temporary phone in case this lasted much longer.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
Boost is (or was) very expensive for what you get. I used them for 10 years and was generally happy with the service. But they flat out refuse to unlock phones (or did) and that was a turn off, plus their cost was too expensive comparatively.

First, are you over age 55? Mint, Verizon, T-Mobile, and and others offer cheaper unlimited plans for age 55 and up.

If you have comcast xfinity internet or TV, you can get xfinity mobile plans for cheap. Uses verizon towers, so very good. My unlimited plan is $45 and the two kids cell phones (minimal use) adds $10 to the bill, so $55 for three phones. If you use limited data, you can get a cell plan for $15 per month.

T Mobil was a rockstar during the last hurricane, while Verizon shit the bed. My next cell plan might be T Mobil.

https://www.verizon.com/plans/55plus/

https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-...enior-discount-plans

https://www.att.com/plans/unli...lus-senior-discount/

Thanks for the info.
The thing is we have been very happy with them up to this point.
The monthly price for what we were getting I thought was very good.

I am over 55 and have been looking at new plans and have seen some deals however if they get my account fixed at their end, witch is where the problem is at we would keep them.
We have been with them for over 10 years and this is the first time anything like this has happened.

We left ATT because of shitty coverage where we live . Went to Verizon . Much better . Looked at Consumer Cellular recently to save big bucks but the girl told us they use ATT towers . Nope .

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
Well here it is Sundays night and still no phone service. After almost 9 hours on the phone with customer service over 3 days, all they keep telling me is I am caught in between some sort of transition from my old account to my new account.

OMG that's awful.

Thankfully my wife phone works and we are together all weekend.

It does almost give you a helpless kind of feeling because we have become so dependent on them. We gave up our home phone a few years ago because no one ever called it except scammers and telemarketers. I may be looking at a home phone again.

All day Friday if I had to talk to my wife it was through emails so if I needed to call anyone she could do it.

Today I am having a damaged windshield on my car replaced and called the glass company first thing in the morning to give the tech my temporary number so he can call if he need to get in the gate of our development.

The biggest pain will come if they can't fix it,I loose the number I have had for 20 years then have to call every person/business that needs new new number.

Keeping my fingers crossed they can fix it.

quote:

Originally posted by Paten:
I'm glad you found what you needed.

Next time you talk to a customer service rep, ask how long you have to be without phone service before they recognize there is a problem and someone has to get off their ass and do something? At the very least they should be adjusting your bill so they aren't charging you for the days you've been without service.

We have talked to their level three tech support and several supervisors. They keep telling us to give them time it has been forwarded to the migration team and several tickets have been written. I think this is a bigger problem than just me.

According to what it looks like I have two accounts one active and one in active and I am stuck in the middle. At one point a customer service rep said my account was canceled because of non payment however it is paid full and nothing is due till the end of the month.
Also we are on auto pay so we can see our credit card on the account, it shows we are paid in full, that we owe them no money.
We have also take several screen shots of this in case it goes away for some reason.

By the time this is done, at all I am asking for as much as I can get based on the fact I had to get a temporary phone with a plan and all the time we have spent on the phone with them, we are keeping track.

Once again thanks on the info about the Tracfone

quote:

The biggest pain will come if they can't fix it,I loose the number I have had for 20 years then have to call every person/business that needs new new number.

I have never had any problem transferring my number to a new service.
What makes you think you would have to get a new number?

quote:

Originally posted by Ironbutt:

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
Well here it is Sundays night and still no phone service. After almost 9 hours on the phone with customer service over 3 days, all they keep telling me is I am caught in between some sort of transition from my old account to my new account.

So we went out and bought a Tracfone from the Best Buy near our house. Activation was easy and it even gave me a local area code, by the way thanks Paten for the heads up on them. Cost was very reasonable for a basic Samsung smart phone with an unlimited talk and text plan and 2Gb of data for 30 days.

So now all I can do is wait, but at least I have a phone for the month.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Glad you got some service. We live in the sticks & have no cell service within 10 miles of us, so a monthly plan with any of the big carriers would be a waste of money. We need a land line, but also need cell phones for when we go away.

We've been using Tracfone for at least 15 years. The $20 for 60 minute/90 day plan suits us fine, because we're not on our phones alot. You can add minutes/text/data anytime you want, and there's unlimited carryover. I think I read somewhere that tracfone uses the major networks Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobil, etc. So you pretty much have service wherever their coverage is.

Thanks.
It sounds dumb but it feels good having a phone again. It is amazing how much we depend on them.
So far the Tracfone is working out good for what I need it for and it was not that expensive.
It is also same manufacture as my old phone so not to much to get used to.
Hopefully they fix my old service soon.

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
We left ATT because of shitty coverage where we live . Went to Verizon . Much better . Looked at Consumer Cellular recently to save big bucks but the girl told us they use ATT towers . Nope .

We had ATT for years and never had any problems. The only reason we switched was because the company we have now offered a better plan for the money at the time.

At the time we started with ATT I worked for that big entertainment/ theme park company in central Florida and the deal for us was I think 25% off the regular plan cost.

I am just hopping they can fix the problem and I get my service back.

quote:

The biggest pain will come if they can't fix it,I loose the number I have had for 20 years then have to call every person/business that needs new new number.

YOu should not lose the number, you can change service to any new provider and port your old number out of the old service.

You should be able to get TracPhone to move the phone number, or, if you decide to go to another service ,Mint, Boost, etc, just tell them to Port your old number, it's simple, no cost and your current carrier cannot stop it from happening.

If you are Happy with Trac Phone, port it, tell the old carrier you are leaving, they will either fix it ASAP, or just call Trac and get it done.

quote:

Originally posted by gjgalligan:

quote:

The biggest pain will come if they can't fix it,I loose the number I have had for 20 years then have to call every person/business that needs new new number.

I have never had any problem transferring my number to a new service.
What makes you think you would have to get a new number?

I have been told because my number is in limbo (in between accounts) or possibly my account has been canceled because of the transition I may not be able to get that number.

I was told by several customer service reps and supervisors I would not loose it however I won't know till this is either fixed or I am told their is nothing they can do.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

With everything that has happened I will say the customer service people/supervisors have been great to deal with. I know it's something they can't fix at their end is my guess but they have been trying their best to find a way to help us.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

The biggest pain will come if they can't fix it,I loose the number I have had for 20 years then have to call every person/business that needs new new number.

YOu should not lose the number, you can change service to any new provider and port your old number out of the old service.

You should be able to get TracPhone to move the phone number, or, if you decide to go to another service ,Mint, Boost, etc, just tell them to Port your old number, it's simple, no cost and your current carrier cannot stop it from happening.

If you are Happy with Trac Phone, port it, tell the old carrier you are leaving, they will either fix it ASAP, or just call Trac and get it done.

Thanks for the info.

We were also told by a person that works in one of the big retailers that does this for a living we may have lost my phone number depending on what the situation is.

We are going to call later today to see if there is any new news. Other than this problem we have been very happy with them and if possible would like to keep them. In the over 10 years we have been with them we have never had problems like this so I am hopping it is just an unusual situation.

I may go to the Boost store today, the one we were at on Friday night. I would ask what would happen if I sign up for a new plan with them, I need a new phone anyway, buy one and see if I can just have them transfer the number from my old plan with them to a new plan with them.

We saw a plan when we were there on Friday that looks better than the one we have with them now but the sales person said to wait till closer to our billing date otherwise he would have to charge us some sort of fee. For now I have a temporary phone and hopefully they can fix the problem.

I think quite a few of us think something smells fishy. It makes since if they were bought out and are switching to new systems that they are transferring data to, but understand this is 100% on them. Your account isn’t a physical item that you didn’t perform maintenance on so it broke down, they’ve dropped the ball in a big way, whether they lost data to corruption or incompetence and just aren’t telling you. You didn’t cancel your account, it just stopped working when THEY starting doing maintenance. Even if you had accidentally cancelled your account, phone numbers usually aren’t released back into the number pool for 90 days. Service being interrupted for going on 3 or 4 days is absolutely unacceptable. Let them know you are contemplating moving elsewhere.

The FCC legally lets you keep your number to port to another service should you choose, even in the event of non-payment/overdue. So the idea you may lose your number as if it slipped down the drain is ridiculous. Again whatever is going on and they are either not being honest about or not clearly defining is on them. I’m not at all telling you to leave them if you like the (even though this is troubling) just hold their feet to the fire. Demand your number. When you go to the store, ask them to port it to a new phone since you were already looking. When narrowing down your selection to a couple phones, ask if you can get it unlocked. If the answer is no, think about buying an unlocked phone online and bring it to the store to put on your account with your old number.

Good luck and let us know how they resolve this and the reason they end up giving.

71 Truck
Any update?

quote:

Originally posted by gjgalligan:
71 Truck
Any update?

Sorry I was hoping to have some better news but as of now it is not looking good. It has been the same info from customer service all week. They keep telling me to give them another 48 hours and it should be fixed but nothing has changed.

My wife and I are still working on it, I may have a better update later today. I have a feeling it's not what I am hoping for.

Well it looks like game over with Boost.
After 11 days with no phone service, over 15 hours on the phone with customer service, talking to several managers who promised I would not loose my number(it looks like I have)and give them another 24 to 48 hours to fix this, three trips to the Boost store, it looks like we are done.
I have no faith they will fix this.
Time to move on.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Just a few tips when changing carriers. Choose a new company before closing the boost account. See what the new company can do (if anything) about still attempting to port the number. Explain to them that the number was yours for 20+ years until two fridays ago when they started futzing with the account. It may be truly lost, but let a competitor see if there is anything they can do about it.

From a different article on the subject, “When all else fails, file a complaint with the FCC. You can file a complaint online at https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/ , and/or call them at 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322).”

quote:

Originally posted by swampdog:
Just a few tips when changing carriers. Choose a new company before closing the boost account. See what the new company can do (if anything) about still attempting to port the number. Explain to them that the number was yours for 20+ years until two fridays ago when they started futzing with the account. It may be truly lost, but let a competitor see if there is anything they can do about it.

From a different article on the subject, “When all else fails, file a complaint with the FCC. You can file a complaint online at https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/ , and/or call them at 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322).”

Thanks for the info.
I have not given up completely, it is just as I get farther from when this first happened I am losing faith I will get my phone service back.
Customer service has been very nice to deal with. They are very apologetic and are doing the best they can I just think no one knows how to fix it.
I just keep my old phone on hoping it all of a sudden starts ringing.

To 71 TRUCK........ several years ago told ATT to go pound sand after 35(?) years as a customer... Decieded to leave due to the way we were treated after losing EVERYTHING in a major flood event (41inches flood water in house).. Charged $80.oo to put house phone number on vacation while rebuilding... At the end of that year they wanted another $80.oo to continue if we wanted to save the number... Went internet connect house phone but ATT was playing games for 3 weeks (yes 3 weeks) with all kinds of excusses about what was taking so long to port the number.. Finally a customer service tech gave me a BLACK UNDER THE TABLE phone number and within 2 hours after calling that number the house phone number was ported over..... Wish I still had that number so that maybe you could get some help.......good luck....I know that these things can be very frustrating............................. drill sgt.

quote:

Originally posted by drill sgt:
To 71 TRUCK........ several years ago told ATT to go pound sand after 35(?) years as a customer... Decieded to leave due to the way we were treated after losing EVERYTHING in a major flood event (41inches flood water in house).. Charged $80.oo to put house phone number on vacation while rebuilding... At the end of that year they wanted another $80.oo to continue if we wanted to save the number... Went internet connect house phone but ATT was playing games for 3 weeks (yes 3 weeks) with all kinds of excusses about what was taking so long to port the number.. Finally a customer service tech gave me a BLACK UNDER THE TABLE phone number and within 2 hours after calling that number the house phone number was ported over..... Wish I still had that number so that maybe you could get some help.......good luck....I know that these things can be very frustrating............................. drill sgt.

Thank You, I am still holding out some hope they can resolve the issue.