The ScooterBlog

The FCC web site on the ability to port your phone number from one service to another indicates that in most cases, you can port your number from wireless to wired. Furthermore, if the web site you visit tells you that your phone number is portable with Vonage, you take them at your word. Then, when they can’t port it and give you the runaround for not doing it, it’s not Vonage’s fault for not complying with both the FCC rules and their own promises. Well, that’s the situation as it stands now.

On January 31st, I bought a basic PC from Micro Center for my fiancee’s parents and signed up to move my 513 phone number to Vonage (I will withhold the number as I do not wish to get personal calls at it. Other blogs or sites interested may contact me at  to get it for validity). I signed up for Vonage, sent in a request to have my number ported, CHOSE T-Mobile as the carrier to use (this will be important later), gave them my number, and even verified on their web site that my number did qualify to be ported to Vonage. In fact, their web state did (and still does) state that I can keep "your current telephone number"

So, I signed the contract, got the PC, set it up, and set up my Vonage phone and waited for the confirmation that my phone would be ported, as it seemed there would be no issues at hand. Then, this afternoon at 3 PM, I got the message that the request to port my number had been cancelled, the reason was as follows:

"The reason we can not transfer your number to Vonage is because Vonage and our partner carriers are unable to transfer wireless numbers in your area to our service at this time."

Sounds rather inconsistent with what Vonage has been promising through their web site, including offering T-Mobile as a phone provider option to port from.

Upon calling them this evening, the word that they said is that they were unable to transfer wireless numbers. When I brought the info to them that their web site said, they said that they could not transfer T-Mobile numbers at all, inconsistent with their web site on two levels.

Upon escaling the call to a supervisor (Employee Number 12167 ... name withheld, as she was cordial), she repeated the same line that they could not transfer wireless numbers. When presented with the FCC mandate on number portability within the same area (and I was porting a 513 number, and my address was consistent with both services), she continued to repeat the same line. Their only out was that they may be able to port the number in the future, and I received the same line as before when I said that the fact she is asking me to keep a $40 a month cell phone to accomodate that they could not port my phone as a hardship and breach of contract, it didn't get anywhere.

I will be calling Vonage back tomorrow and getting more names and employee numbers. They will be posted here. Every bit of information will be linked to this blog post as I am going to fight Vonage to get the number ported or get out of my contract due to misinformation. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

In the course of the entire phone call, I did not get a ticket number that they said I had been assigned. Trust me, I'll be getting one of those too.

Oh, and the virtual number isn't ringing on my phone box. I'll have to get them to troubleshoot that too.