an actuall letter sent by me to the FCC



Subject: Complaint regarding problems keeping my phone number

I recently tried to switch my land-line phone service to an existing carrier and had difficulties taking my old phone number with me. Now that number portability is supposed to be a reality, I didn't expect the kind of problems I encountered. Please investigate my complaint below so that in the future, consumers like me can be assured that they won't have the kind of problems I experienced when I tried to take my number with me.

Original carrier: SBC
New carrier: Cingular

Details of my experience (e.g. long delay, unexpected charges, etc.):

I have been trying to port my number from my land-line phone to my existing Cingular account since December 11th (one week now) and have been unsuccessful. It has been hell. The problem seems to be with Cingular being ill informed on the port procedure. The first Cingular representative told me "I don't know how to port a number to an existing Cingular account, but I will try anyway" which seemed to screw things up. So far the number switch has not happened yet, and every time I call Cingular customer support I am put on hold for hours sometimes, just to be told that there is an error in the system that needs to clear before a new port request is made. Then they tell me to call back later (I was given a spefific date one time) and make the request again, and when I do, I get put on hold again and then have a different person tell me the same thing. This is getting ridiculous. If I want to port my number the procedure should not have to be this painful.
Sincerely,

Leon Levy
**** * street
Sacramento, CA
95816

via escapeCellHell.org