Vonage is holding my number hostage

Vonage is holding my number hostage
Links: home · search · speed test · login · more ·

Links: Reply New Topic
Forums » Voice Over IP - VOIP » Vonage » Vonage is holding my number hostage

anon @ 6th Oct 05:41AM:
Vonage is holding my number hostage

I was not aware that I would need to port my phone number away from vonage to my new carrier before canceling my vonage service. Now, Vonage is telling me I must open up their account again to get my number back. Is is legal for them to hold onto my number and not release it to my new carrier?
reply

burgerwars @ 6th Oct 09:37AM:
Re: Vonage is holding my number hostage

That's one of the primary rules of porting. Don't cancel the service before the number is ported or you could lose it. Consider yourself lucky that they'll give you back the same number after you cancelled.
reply

PX Eliezer @ 6th Oct 07:03PM:
Re: Vonage is holding my number hostage

How would you think that they would save your number after you cancelled? And why would they?

If you had a date planned for next Saturday with your girlfriend, but you broke up on Tuesday, then of course the date is cancelled.

You should ALWAYS let the NEW company handle the port, BEFORE telling anything to the old company.

This is exactly what the FCC tells people:

»www.fcc.gov/cib/consumerfacts/numbport.html

.
reply

Waldothe3rd @ 7th Oct 04:09PM:
Re: Vonage is holding my number hostage

said by PX Eliezer :

If you had a date planned for next Saturday with your girlfriend, but you broke up on Tuesday, then of course the date is cancelled.

Excellent analogy!
reply

decades @ 8th Oct 12:22PM:
Re: Vonage is holding my number hostage

I had a wonderful cancel experience with vonage. I simply ported my number out and vonage canceled my service, just like that. I was customer of about 4 years. no horror stories here.
reply

garys_2k @ 8th Oct 07:33PM:
Re: Vonage is holding my number hostage

said by decades :

I had a wonderful cancel experience with vonage. I simply ported my number out and vonage canceled my service, just like that. I was customer of about 4 years. no horror stories here.

+1. Ported out, they canceled and I was done with them. I ignored a couple of "come back" emails and calls, that stopped after the second week.
reply

prestonlewis @ 3rd Nov 08:49PM:
Re: Vonage is holding my number hostage

said by jillio :

I was not aware that I would need to port my phone number away from vonage to my new carrier before canceling my vonage service. Now, Vonage is telling me I must open up their account again to get my number back. Is is legal for them to hold onto my number and not release it to my new carrier?

It's the same with any cellular or VOIP company. In order to port your number away from a provider, your bill has to be paid and you have to have the service in your name.

The VOIP/cell provider who you want to get your number has to go through a process to ensure the number to be ported is in your name, etc. Since you closed your account, the number is no longer in your name. Therefore, the number is not portable.
reply

mlayton @ 5th Nov 04:02PM:
Re: Vonage is holding my number hostage

That Vonage agent was 100% incorrect in stating that you would need to re-establish your Vonage account before you could port out your number.

A number with Vonage can be ported out regardless of whether or not the account is active. The only reason for keeping the account active during the number port is to avoid the small chance that the number could be taken by another Vonage customer following the disconnect. But still, that couldn't happen until a good 30 days after disconnection.

People in this thread are correct in stating that during a port from a carrier like AT&T to Vonage, that the AT&T account must remain open upon completion of the transfer; but with Vonage to any other provider, this is not the case. Vonage themselves do not reject number transfers out for any reason.
reply

PX Eliezer @ 5th Nov 09:56PM:
Re: Vonage is holding my number hostage

Being that you report a Holmdel address, are you with Vonage?

Otherwise I cannot believe your statement.

Once you cancel service, the number is no longer "your" number. So how could it be ported out?

This flies in the face of common sense, and of universal practice in the industry.

Why would Vonage be different from every other carrier in this regard?

Sorry, unless you tell me that you are a Vonage insider, I have to believe that the Vonage agent was right to begin with.
reply

mlayton @ 16th Nov 05:23PM:
Re: Vonage is holding my number hostage

Yes, I'm a customer service rep with Vonage(and sorry for the long time to reply). I am simply relaying the info right off our internal knowledge base; the same info I would give to any customer.

It may have something to do with the fact that we work with 3rd party CLECs and the agreements we have with them; although honestly, I am not exactly sure of the hows and whys in our case.

It just strikes me as odd that a Vonage agent would tell the customer to "re-open his Vonage account to complete the number transfer out". I would have escalated a "port out" ticket so we could have the proper people look into this, assuming the customer already contacted his other carrier and is at a dead end.

As for the thread starter...I would recommend calling Vonage again and speaking to another agent, if you haven't done so already.
reply