Vonage/ATT Update
Vonage failed to get anything done last week. So, I finally called ATT this weekend. They have no record of ever having been asked by Vonage to port the number. That's not surprising: Vonage says ATT denies the request because they don't have that account number. But, I've already checked with both parties -- everybody agrees on the account number. So, either vonage is lying that they've asked 3 times for the swap and been denied the swap; or ATT is lying when they say they've never gotten the request.

Today, I got AT&T's port department on the phone to call Vonage. First, I tried to do this yesterday at 4:45pm, but by the time AT&T got their act to make the call, Vonage was closed. That's right, closed.

So, I tried again this morning with AT&T. This time, all AT&T got was Vonage's port department Voice mail. It was 10:00am, and they weren't answering their phones. So we called Vonage Customer service. The way this works is AT&T gets the company on the phone and checks out their story. First, "David" at Vonage said that I had never requested a port. Uh-oh. Then AT&T told them "I have the customer on the other line, and he says he filed with you Jan 13." Then David said, oh, let me look at that record again, yes, here it is. We tried 3 times, and it never worked. But there's nothing I can do for you, you have to talk to our porting department. To which we replied "We tried, and they aren't answering their phone." David said, "let me walk over there and talk to someone." Ten minutes of hold-time later, he came back and said "okay, I'm going to transfer you" and then he cut us off.

AT&T said "Look, sir, we can't get them on the phone, there's nothing more we can do for you."

To me, this smells like Vonage can't do what they advertise they can do. If so, then they are being deceptive and fraudulent.

Here's the worst part: this means that, unless Vonage can come up with the goods, I just have to drop my 626-840-6930 number anyhow. Unless I go to the only other VoIP provider. Which as of 2 weeks ago, is AT&T.

I'm giving up on my old number. I'll cancel my AT&T service, and post my new information.




- posted by Unknown @ 4/06/2004 09:51:00 AM