vB Easy Archive - Strange request from a customer

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Strange request from a customer
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Posted by: MoeDrummer

I just had a customer come in asking to have the same number she currently has from a different market and a different carrier. I checked and the number is in my area, different area code of course, but the same 7 digit number. When called I get the message that it's not a working number, so it's not tied to an account. When I tried to activate the number it wasn't available. Is there any way to find out when the number will be recycled and ready to be used on a new account?

Posted by: BellaDea

usually it's 30-60 days (i believe) but there's no guarantee that you can get it when it's released.

Posted by: blessd24

Its supposed to be 6 months, but with the shortage of numbers i dont know if thats always followed.

Posted by: sevensinz777

for one activation i wouldnt stress it... just say NO you cant get it, cause really its not worth the time to be searching for it

Posted by: jfulen

for one activation i wouldnt stress it... just say NO you cant get it, cause really its not worth the time to be searching for it

I hope you're not a "customer service" rep. From a customer perspective, it is a very valid request especially if the number has been given to a large number of customers.

Posted by: MoeDrummer

I told her I would try. I've even called CC once, with no luck. So if she calls today I'm just going to tell her that we'll have to either forget about it or give her a number close to it. Thanks for the help guys.

Posted by: Perceptions

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoeDrummer

I just had a customer come in asking to have the same number she currently has from a different market and a different carrier. I checked and the number is in my area, different area code of course, but the same 7 digit number. When called I get the message that it's not a working number, so it's not tied to an account. When I tried to activate the number it wasn't available. Is there any way to find out when the number will be recycled and ready to be used on a new account?

Perhaps the number does not beling to Cingular which is why you cannot activate the number.

Posted by: MoeDrummer

that could be also, and I mentioned it to her. The area code and prefix is available, but when searching using POS.COMII it's not available. I was just hoping that someone in customer care could say "pm me the number and I'll see if it's still a cingular number and if I can figure out when it'll be available". It's ok though, no word from her so far. Maybe she'll try back another time and we'll be able to use it.

Posted by: mas90guru

Does this work? Not sure if it will tell you if an inactive is Cingular or not:

http://onlinestorez.cingular.com/ce...ookup/index.jsp

Posted by: PhantomFone

I get that request all the time whenever I do a Relo. As mentioned earlier, its not even worth the headache. If someone's out of market # is THAT important they wouldn't even consider changing, period.

Posted by: Rcadden

Yeah. I always told people I can try to match the last four, but no promises. Granted, there SHOULD be a better system for all the carriers to do this, but there's not. It's just one of those things that customers have to accept. Try to find a better number for her, that usually worked for me. "Oh, sir, I'm sorry that number's not pulling up, but I did manage to find these that are just as easy to remember..." or "this one the last four numbers spell your name. That's easy, huh?" Don't just say no flat out, offer her something in its place.

Posted by: MoeDrummer

I tried that. Even tried giving her a number that was one digit off and she refused. She called this afternoon and said that she was just going to keep her out of state number for another month or so and try again. If it doesn't work then, she'll get whatever she can.

Posted by: Rcadden

haha. cause that's not a pain. stupid customer.

At least no one's previously told her she could keep it with no problems. I had that so many times. "Oh, I called CS and they said I could just change the area code, no problems. Why can't you do that?" (at an agent location).