WARNING! Broken Number Porting System

[kenobi]

Hello,

The automated number porting system simply does not work. 

I activated my public mobile SIM today, but porting failed with the following message:

"We are experiencing difficulties in processing this request. Please contact Public Mobile for additional assistance. "

I attempted three times, but I believe i was getting a different error message earlier. 

I have my Rogers service still activated, have my bill in front of me. Provided all the information they asked, but still failed. Why not fixing this problem or implement instant "Chat" service to help out those frustrated users like myself. 

Unless I can start using my Rogers number, I am simply wasting my $ with Public Mobile. I'm sure lots of users have faced or will face this issue as the promotion seems to be HOT at the moment. Not that I didn't expect this porting nightmare with a company like Public Mobile, but I am surprised that there is no other way than emailing them and posting a note here. 

[srlawren]

@Anaregina22 you've revived a thread from 2016.  In future use, probably better to start a new one.

To address your issue, please learn here how to contact the moderator team via private message:  https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Knowledge-Base/How-to-Get-Help/ta-p/251745

[Anaregina22]

#moderator my account has been build but my number has not been correctly corded over from freedom

[bgunning]

I would like to point out that I successfully ported my number from Fido (Rogers owns it) last night. I set up the port during the activation/payment process, then waited a little over 4 hours for stuff to work. 

I did this without talking or otherwise communicating with Fido; the automated process clearly worked for me, although I had to keep my fingers crossed for a while.

[Mary_M]

Hey everyone,

We just wanted to let you know that you will all be answered to! I understand there is a delay - as you may know already - but we must treat the messages in order from oldest to last. As long as a message was sent to one of the moderators (including myself), someone will get back to you!

Thank you,

Mary

[schwingpumper]

well i will say this , if i could get a refund i would ask for it immediately ,  this is no way to run a business ,

if this is a sister company to telus ,its absolutely a  bust.

all i can say is buyer beware , if you need your phone active subscribe with a reputable company !!!!

I am angry !!!!  im going  to try to get back on with telus and save myself some grief , the extra money is worth it !

[aruschpler]

I"m in the same boat, but haven't been waiting as long.  Haven't heard back from anyone at PM who can help.  I've pm'd one of the people here and tried via twitter, but haven't gotten a response.  I get the "
We are experiencing difficulties in processing this request. Please contact Public Mobile for additional assistance." message when trying to port.

Who can I contact who will actually respond?

[schwingpumper]

please help ported my phone # last friday , i havent herd from anyone , sent numerous private messages to mods , no return mail.  what can i do , i need this phone for business , its causing me alot of greif , thanks Don

Im feeling like this great deal isnt so great .

[schwingpumper]

thanks i wont try again

[stonechucker]

Do not attempt to change your number if you are in the middle of a port.  A successful number change may well lose your desired port number.

[magimug]

Well thank you for being the brave one then...too bad it didn`t work...it would of solved a lot of problems and wait times

[schwingpumper]

tried it , didnt work..

 had the same result prossesing this number

[magimug]

I don`t even know if it would work...we need a brave soul to try it...it might gum up the sytem even more or it might be a fix that we don`t have to wait for the mods to respond...just wondering out loud if anyone has tried it here

[schwingpumper]

I havent , do you think i should try this ?

[magimug]

Has anyone with an accessible account but having porting issues tried the option of changing their number and then re-porting the number that is giving them issues? 

[schwingpumper]

i am  having porting issues also ,  my phone activated and worked with the number asociated with my sim card ,  but after i tried to port my old number from telus  it didnt work !! 

im still waiting for a message back from PM  , this started on the 11 th at 12 noon ..

im hoping to hear back soon  🙂

[Korth]

@srlawren - I understand what you're saying.  I've never seen taxes charged by PM on my account.  I've seen taxes charged to a friend's PM account when activating, the $120 plan actually cost around $135, but I can't login to her account to see the billing - I can't confirm if tax was charged to her credit card, it could have just been a (corrected) webpage error, taxes might or might not apply when her plan renews.

[computergeek541]

---

@Korth wrote:

@srlawren - lol I only had to go through it four times to learn that.

The number porting protocol can be delayed (by refusing to acknowledge receipt of requests sent by other carriers) but it cannot (legally) be refused or prevented.  I believe Rogers circumvents this by simply terminating service before the deadline - screw their disloyal customers and let them blame their new carriers.

---

Maybe, Rogers does mess around; maybe they don't.  Either way, the key point being that I and srlawen are trying to point out is that a termination date should not have been set ahead of time.  There just isn't any reason to do that. The porting process automatically takes care of that.  

Even had Rogers not cancelled early, I believe there still would have a problem because of the future-dated cancellation request.  That can effectively block a port out request.

 In the case of Bell, they have a code that sets a phone line to "customer wants to port out" status. This was an old code that was formerly used so that a customer could give 30 days notice, but while maintaining the ability to port out.  Even on a Bell, a future dated cancellation request (without the use of that special code) would mess with a porting request.  But at the end of the 30 days, service would continue as normal if the customer ended up staying.

With Rogers, they didn't have a "customer wants to port" code.  Thus, a pending cancellation would sometimes effectively end up being the same as an inactive phone number (which you can't port).

Requiring customers to give 30 days of notice has now been banned.  Don't take what I'm saying as blaming you; that is not my intention.  I just want others reading this to know not to put a cancellation request in.  Doing that will likely result in problems and frustration.

[Korth]

@stonechucker - my answer is already in this recent Is there tax on the bill? thread.

[srlawren]

@Korth I have the same question as @stonechucker.  When you buy the voucher, you are charged tax on top of that by the voucher vendor.

So if you bought say a $100 voucher, you would be charged $100+tax by the vendor, and $100 credit would end up in your PM account once you redeem the voucher.  However, only the payments are taxed, so if you had $100 in your account and your plan cost $100+tax, you have enough in your account already to cover the plan.  

[stonechucker]

@Korth, please explain the unexpected taxes not being covered by the vouchers?

this is impossible.  If you use vouchers, you must get vouchers totalling the plan cost, and when you pay for the, applicable taxes are charged immediately.  There are no exceptions to this, unless you are a person who qualifies for tax exemption status.

[Korth]

@srlawren - lol I only had to go through it four times to learn that.

The number porting protocol can be delayed (by refusing to acknowledge receipt of requests sent by other carriers) but it cannot (legally) be refused or prevented.  I believe Rogers circumvents this by simply terminating service before the deadline - screw their disloyal customers and let them blame their new carriers.

[srlawren]

@Korth that process would have been much smoother and likely would not have required any intervention had your friend not talked to Rogers at all.  You should almost never do this.  The account will be closed automatically at the end of the port request.  

[Korth]

@computergeek541

The most recent example: one of my friends was with Rogers Wireless for about five years, her Rogers account always fully paid up, the device she'd bought from Rogers was fully paid off and unlocked (with codes purchased on ebay, after Rogers agreed to provide an unlock but refused to accept payment and cancelled the process - twice), her new Public Mobile SIM card and account (with enough prepaid funds for her plan) were all ready to go, she desperately wanted to keep her existing phone number.

Rogers reluctantly agreed in mid-July to terminate service and close her account on the day following her last billing cycle, Aug08.  She called a few times to confirm the date.  Her last bill (mailed but also seen online) had "Contract term ended by client, last day of service will be August 8, 2016" written on it.

We activated her PM plan on Jul31 and requested the Number Port, expecting it to take a few days to process - she wasn't concerned about paying for the overlap as a guarantee that she'd keep her number (plus her new PM plan gave her a lot more and cost half as much as her old Rogers plan, which would easily start saving her money after the first month).

Rogers terminated service on midnight on Aug01.  They claimed they received no requests about a Number Port, perhaps because (unsurprisingly) their servers happened to be down that morning.  And they claimed that the cutoff date was written on their screens as Aug01, we should disregard what was written on the bill they'd mailed (the same as the bill which was still online, lol), and the four people we spoke with said there was no record about Aug08 being verbally stated several times before. So no phone service and a whole lot of distress about the uncertain status of the number.

@Shazia_K responded somewhat prompty, within a couple hours of my request for help she'd successfully ported the number, corrected a minor payment issue (Prepaid Vouchers were enough for the plan but not enough to cover unexpected taxes, lol), and set up a free "10-day Pass" Talk&Text plan to get basic phone service up and running.  (My friend's prepaid plan kicked in 10 days later without issue).

I'm confident the Number Port would have been botched without PM's intervention.  With PM staff I've been part of the same story with the same results three times (helping three different friends come over from Rogers, sudden early termination by Rogers).  Without PM staff I've been involved in the same story again but with a failed Number Port (helping a friend who is now firmly convinced that the screwup is somehow all PM's fault, not Rogers).

[computergeek541]

---

@Korth wrote:

and this was truly fortunate in the two instances when Rogers suddenly terminated service (and relinquished the number) nearly a week before the agreed-upon termination date.

---

Sorry to hear there were so many problems getting your Rogers numbers ported over.  However, I am curious about your above commment about Rogers terminatng service before the agreed-upon termination date. If you gave Rogers a date to terminate service, that sounds to me as if you had placed a request with to cancel.  That is not supposed to be done.  If an account is set to be cancelled (even in the future), that itself can prevent a phone number from being ported out.

[Korth]

I've experienced three difficult number ports from Rogers Wireless to Public Mobile and another from Fido (which is owned by Rogers).  Assistance of PM staff was required to complete all four of these number ports.  The port process was stalled and delayed every time - the person in charge of this isn't available right now, sorry I can't login to your account on our internal pages right now, oh that's funny I see a note but no changes were implemented because we needed your authorization, that's not Accounting that's Technical please hold while I transfer you, Hello this is Accounting and I don't see any payment made for a cellphone unlock so please hold again while I transfer you to Technical, sorry I have no records of these three conversations you claim you had with Rogers support staff so could you please start all over again, and while you're on the phone can I offer you a new contract?

Maybe Rogers keeps dropping the ball, maybe they have internal miscommunication, maybe they actually do suffer from constantly inconvenient technical issues with all their internal pages and databases.  Or maybe their support staff are locked into useless scripts which offer no escape to customers stuck on the Rogers network.  Whatever the reasons, my experience was that they make the process take anywhere from three weeks to three months, and the more often you call them the more frustrated you'll get.

But I've also experienced two problem-free number ports from Virgin, another problem-free number port from Bell, another problem-free number port from Koodo.  Utterly problem-free.  Pay them their 50 bucks, if needed, to unlock the device.  Pick a date to terminate the account, activate a Public Mobile account a few days or a week beforehand (just in case there's any unforeseen problems or delays), request a Number Port, and everything automagically turns out peachy.

I required the intervention of PM staff each time I ported from Rogers (and Fido).  Three times they got the ball rolling for me with a gentle kickstart: they activated a (free!) $10/10-day Talk&Text plan just to get the phone hooked up to their network - and this was truly fortunate in the two instances when Rogers suddenly terminated service (and relinquished the number) nearly a week before the agreed-upon termination date.

So I'm inclined to think Rogers is either criminally incompetent or criminally unethical.  And I'm thankful to have received such excellent support from Public Mobile's people.

The Number Porting System works perfectly fine on the Public Mobile side.

The Number Porting System is indeed broken (I think quite deliberately) on the Rogers side.

[SRS]

I have ported 6 numbers since the promo started.  Only 1 required a mod's assistance.  Have patients, your phone number should work on your old provider until the port is completed.  Tag your message and send the mods your details (sim, number, old account number and pin).  Many have mentioned that assistance is available through the Public Mobile facebook and twitter page.

[Elvina]

I ported in my number from Bell without any mod intervention, and it took only half an hour to complete. All the things are worked fine, i had no problem with phones, text messages, data, voice mail. I was with Bell prepaid.

[majsiddiqui]

Did the automated port in service worked for anyone without moderator intervention?

I need to port a number from Fido but I'm concerned that I'll need to depend on the moderator to successfully complete the request.

[srlawren]

@kenobi I'm glad it worked for you 🙂  Welcome to Public Mobile!