Transferring phone number to another carrier

[sireanita]

Hello,

I got a better deal with another company and want to cancel my public mobile plan to transfer my number to this carrier. They say that they can't do anything until Public mobile "releases" my number, but of course, there's no way to reach PM. Please someone help!

[imm1304]

Hi @sireanita!

Its the accepted norm that the new company you are signing up with will process your number port request.  The Public Mobile account number, as it appears in selfserve, has been used along with the voicemail PIN to transfer out of PM in the past without any issues.  

Please try @Luddite's suggestion and ask Videotron to attempt the port using your name and your PM voicemail PIN.  

Aslo, since we are now trying things, how about entering your account number as the last 10 digits if videotron is asking for 10 digits.  This way your number will start with 0000 followed by the 6 remaining digits.  

[Mary_M]

@sireanita Videotron will need your account number that starts with 1 followed by 7 zeros, they should be aware of this. If the wrong account # is entered, as mentioned, the port will fail. 

Mary

[Luddite]

@sireanita PM account numbers begin with 1 followed by 7 0s then 6 more digits. If Videotron tries to port your number with any other version the port will fail because the PM system will not recognize it.

Perehaps, try your 4 digit voicemail password instead of the account number.

[sireanita]

Hi Mary,

The company is Videotron and I talked to several agents and none of them is able to do the change. The last agent said that the account number provided to him doesn't work, because they need an account number that starts with 0000 and my account number starts with 1. Any ideas about this issue?

Thank you so much!

[Mary_M]

Hello @sireanita

Sorry to hear that you will be leaving us.

Porting out is actually quite easy - all you have to do is request a port with the other service provider and provide them with your PM account #. Unfortunately, we cannot release your number because this will require us to deactivate your account - and you won't be able to port out.

If that company runs on the same platform as us, surely their helpdesk can take care of the port, or number change between account. May I ask which company you will be moving to ? This will help me better understand which process we must go through.

Thank you,

Mary

[sireanita]

Hi srlawren,

Maybe it was the wrong option.

It's funny, I did noticed that my name was wrong with Videotron and we corrected it, but it's still working. As for the account number, the guy from Videotron that the right PM number should start with 0000 (10 digits in total), but my number start with 1 and is longer (14 digits). Would you know anything about that?

Thanks a lot!

[srlawren]

Hi @sireanita,

Are you sure you saw an option to transfer your number out?  I'm 99.9% sure no such feature exists in the Public Mobile self-serve system.  If you saw this in the Change Phone Number area of self-serve, that's actually to port your number INTO PM, not out of.  So that's why that request would fail.

EDIT:  to be sure of this, I just signed into self serve, went to Change Phone Number, punched in my own PM phone number, and clicked the Check Eligibility button.  Within seconds, it told me "We are experiencing difficulties in processing this request. Please contact Public Mobile for additional assistance.", just as you said.  

In terms of porting your number to Videotron, if they are submitting the request with your name exactly as it appears in your PM Self Serve account (near the top of the pages, where it says "Signed in as <your name> | Balance $0.00 | Logout" and your account number (which shows up right under the line with your name), then the request should go through.  They should not even need to provide your IMEI, that's an optional bit of info that may or may not match up to what's on record at PM.  

[Luddite]

You are in the right place! 

Just need some patience until the moderators are on deck. They can certainly sort out this end of the transfer for you.

Check back tomorrow now and then.

[sireanita]

Thank you Oracle. The problem is that this is the account number I've been giving to Videotron agents and it's not working. I also found an option in my account to transfer the number to another carrier and it shows an error: "We are experiencing difficulties in processing this request. Please contact Pm for additional assistance". Except that I don't know who to contact....

[Luddite]

@sireanita Sorry didn't notice that you are paid up to Aug 31.

If you log into your self serve account you will see the correct account number to the upper right on the summary page. That will be enough for you to have Videotron port your number.

[sireanita]

Thank you so much JaK! I'll wait for their replies.

[JaK]

Normally this is all handled by the receiving carrier. It could be that maybe you have some of the info messed up a bit? Anyway, one of the moderators may be able to help out, @Shazia_K @Mary_M

[Luddite]

@sireanita Is your PM account suspended, or can you still make calls with the PM sim installed? You account MUST be active for transfer. 

[sireanita]

They say that the IMEI number or my account number are not working with the new carrier (Videotron). Is there anything to do about this? Because my plan finishes on Aug 31st and it's paid in full. Really appreciate your help!

[sireanita]

Thank you JaK,

the problem is that the new carrier says to contact PM because they can not do it. Am I dealing with incompetent agents?

Obviously, deals come and go, but it becomes scary to go with PM because there's absolutely no way to contact them.

[JaK]

Hi @sireanita, sorry to see you go.

As long as you are on an active plan with PM, you should be able to initiate the port request with your new carrier and they should handle the whole thing, you should not need to call PM at all, the release should happen automatically as part of the port.

Good luck with your new carrier.