Easiest way to port a number to Virgin Mobile?

**corrupt81** · 05-11-2012, 04:26 AM

As in the quickest, most painless way to port my number over? When I ported my VM number to T-Mobile it took days because of all the holdups on VM's side. And switching phones on my VM account so I could sell the Triumph proved to be a major headache as my 'dumb' phone (that I bought brand new) wouldn't take in the VM system, leaving me to ship a Triumph already sold and still activated on my account. Extremely frustrating.

Now I'm looking to port one of my two T-Mobile lines back to VM (I left because of the poor 3G data speeds but with unlimited 4G coming I can justify the $35 again) I was thinking of buying the phone at Target or Best Buy then doing their online system to port over ("bring a phone from another carrier") but maybe it might be easier to let Target or Best Buy handle the port?

Anyone have a good experience porting over to VM, and if so, which route did you take?

**vmobi** · 05-11-2012, 05:59 AM

Wirelessly posted (HTC Wildfire S: Opera/9.80 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/6.5.26955/27.1662; U; en) Presto/2.8.119 Version/11.10)

you will need to call customer service.
Repuest the Porting department.
That is the fastest method.

**hchen42** · 05-11-2012, 08:46 AM

Last year (March 2011) when I ported from Tmo to VM, it was rather painless. I called the customer service/activation dept. Within 15 minutes after my call, my TMo stopped working. Within another 15-30 minutes, I received a text from VM reminding me to top up. Once I top up, I was able to call in 15 minutes. All in all, took less than an hour. The CS rep I got was courteous, speak good English, spent about 5 minutes with her.

**QE2** · 05-11-2012, 06:24 PM

You can port your number online during the activation process. That's the easiest way. Just make sure you have the phone number, account number, and PIN/password from T-Mobile.

**agianne** · 05-11-2012, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by corrupt81

When I ported my VM number to T-Mobile it took days because of all the holdups on VM's side.

Said the T-Mo rep!

I'm with vmobi, call VM USA Customer Service and request a porting specialist. The vast majority of port orders flow through quickly and with no problems. However, when a port order does error out, it's usually a behind-the-scenes computer system issue of one kind or another that isn't related to how the order was typed into the system, so it doesn't really matter who puts the order in for you. That being said, I still think calling a VM porting specialist is the best bet.

Generally speaking in telecom, things go right 99% of the time, but when they go wrong they go really wrong and it takes 10 people working over three days to figure out that the hell the problem is and get it fixed. Ports are the worst because the process is kind of kluged together and you can't control the competency of the other company or what B.S. they are telling the customer. It's aggravating for everybody.

**corrupt81** · 05-12-2012, 06:17 PM

Didn't even know there was a VM USA customer service, all my calls automatically went overseas.

On the "Activate" page on Virgin Mobile, one of the options is "I used to be a customer and want to restart my Virgin Mobile service" - does that also give you the option to port?
Probably wishful thinking, but maybe using that option will let me have my old $25 plan back..?