Expensive Lesson Learned

[kidsndog]

On May 25, I completed the procedure to port four telephone numbers over from Zoomer Wireless to Public Mobile. I called Zoomer on May 27th to let them know that the numbers were being ported out and find out what the total of my final bill would be with them.

By May 27, the phones (my kids') with the new sim cards inserted, were all displaying that they were connected to the Public Mobile network. The phones were working, the kids could call me and their friends, and everything seemed to be in order. 

Three weeks later (today), I received an invoice from Zoomer Wireless for an amount higher than I had been quoted. When I called Zoomer to find out why, they told me that I still had four active accounts with them. I explained that was not possible, as the phones were now ported to Public Mobile. The service rep told me that they had told Public Mobile when the ports were initially attempted that they were unsuccessful. 

I had no way of knowing this. The phones' displays showed PUBLIC MOBILE. Phone calls are made, and text are sent and received. It is not a leap of faith to assume that meant the ports were successful!

I have ported phone numbers from other companies several times over the past 17 years, and this is the first time I have had a phone be a not go through with the port and a) the company not tell me, and,  b) the phone stil be active on the old network yet be connected to the new network, display its name, use the new sim card, and be a regular active phone. 

This is an extremely frustrating and expensive lesson for Public Mobile to teach me.

[computergeek541]

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@kidsndog wrote:

The problem was that the phones belong to my kids and I keep them locked up: they can only use them for one hour a day after homework is done. Secondly, for some bizarre reason, they were able to call and text me on their phones. Thankfully, everything is resolved now. From what I have researched, it is a rare occurance that the phones semi-worked when they were showing the Public Mobile network but belonging to Zoomer.

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As for Zoomer telling what your amount due would be on your final invoice, there's no way that they could do that to the exact amount until after your number was transfered over to Public Mobile. The final date of service at Zoomer is dependent on when the transfer completes.  In addition, Zoomer would also have to bill you for any over charges that might have occured since your last bill.

This situation isn't actually isn't bizare or rare. That is how the number porting process works.  The very instant your request the number port, your transfered phone number will show up on a receiving caller's call display information.  This is how is works for everyone.  

The rare part is that your number didn't get transfered over.  That can happen for various reasons, but the most common being that the account number that was provided to Zoomer didn't match their records.  What I will say is that Public Mobile should have contacted your by phone, e-mail, or text message to tell you that the port failed. As for Zoomer continuing to charge you, that's to be expected, since as far as they are concerned, they were still providing you with service (which they were).  

In these types of cases, the carriers involved will sometimes provide a refund. In Zoomer's case, your argument would be that the service was never used after a certain date.  Any such refund would be at that goodwill of Zoomer, in the hopes that think that you might some day come back.  As for the Public Mobile side of things, the moderators have sometimes reset the date of your plan start date so that you end up paying only from the time that everything was working (on the basis you couldn't receive any phone calls).  It wouldn't hurt to ask.  The worst that could happen would be to receive an answer of "no". 

I'm happy that things at least got sorted out. 

[srlawren]

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@kidsndog wrote:

The problem was that the phones belong to my kids and I keep them locked up: they can only use them for one hour a day after homework is done. Secondly, for some bizarre reason, they were able to call and text me on their phones. Thankfully, everything is resolved now. From what I have researched, it is a rare occurance that the phones semi-worked when they were showing the Public Mobile network but belonging to Zoomer.

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@kidsndog FYI it's actually totally normal for the phone to show Public Mobile, and for outbound calls and texts to show the ported number.  What usually does not work if the port is either still in progress or has failed, is incoming calls and texts to the ported number.  Usually those will end up being routed back to the original SIM (Zoomer ones in your case) rather than the PM SIM until the port is completed successfully.  So if you were able to text them back on their ported Zoomer numbers and the texts reached them on their PM SIM cards, that is indeed a rare occurrence!  

[kidsndog]

The problem was that the phones belong to my kids and I keep them locked up: they can only use them for one hour a day after homework is done. Secondly, for some bizarre reason, they were able to call and text me on their phones. Thankfully, everything is resolved now. From what I have researched, it is a rare occurance that the phones semi-worked when they were showing the Public Mobile network but belonging to Zoomer.

[will13am]

@kidsndog, sorry to hear of your porting problem.  Surely you would have found out the porting was unsuccessful when you tried receiving calls and text.  Those would have gone to your Zoomer service until the port was completed.  I have done a lot of ports over the years as well.  When I think the port is complete, I text and call myself to make sure there isn't any latent issues.