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Mobile Pro
On Wed 6/6, I got my new Straight Talk Samsung Galaxy Proclaim.
That afternoon about 2 pm I set up porting my number from Sprint to ST using ST's online form. I copied and pasted the info from my Sprint account page to the ST page.
The port didn't happen.
That night I called ST CS, got a boilerplate "porting can take from 2 to 7 business days."
What about the FCC's requirement that these things take 24 hrs or less?
Anyway, I waited patiently. Thursday night, still no port/activation.
I call Sprint's porting office Thu eve, who says they have received no porting request from ST.
I call ST, who says they will send an email to Sprint and re-request it, and it will take 24 to 48 hours.
Thu night I sent an email to ST's CS email found on their website. 24 hours later I got an auto-reply that they received the email. Since then, no further online contact from ST.
On Friday, I call ST talk again at lunchtime, still no port. Now they say there was some problem with the data I gave them. We reviewed it - the data I gave them is correct.
They say they will re-send the info to Sprint, and ... you guessed it, 24 to 48 hours. I check with Sprint again, and they say no request from ST to port my number has been received.
Today (Sat 9th) I call again, and I'm told that "technical difficulties" are preventing my port.
I ask what they are, and I'm told they are too complicated for me to understand, but it should be done in ... 24 to 48 hours.
This is my 5th lifetime port. It hasn't ever taken longer than an hour before. Sometimes it only took a couple minutes.
I don't have a Facebook account and can't use that to complain publicly. What should I do? Today ends Day 3. Is there anything else I can do? A strategic port of my Sprint number to Google Voice? I wish I'd thought of that first. Any other ideas? Thanks.
I've climbed a cellphone tower
That sounds painful. Sorry this has happened to you.
i am not even sure they work weekends. i think i am porting to GV the first of the month where my number can stay. its possible to be assigned a ST number that has been used by drug dealers or a terrorist or maybe i will get a bunch of collection calls...you never know. but you can change it if ST does not botch it.
Why yes, that is a bag phone
If you can't do Facebook, which is touted around these parts as the most competent and helpful Support from ST, then You need to get the corporate email address or the Miami headquarters phone number. You should be able to find them with a search of this forum. Many people have successfully ported to GV, but there are a couple of caveats I've read. First is that it is very difficult to port out of GV if you ever need to. Can take up to a week, and they literally have no customer support contact for help if you have problems. The other thing would be what phone you plan to use. Android phones have pretty good integration with GV, as you would expect. iPhone not as good. There is a thread on how to set iPhone up using jailbreak and a few utilities, but it's still not as seamless as android. So just a few warnings there. When I went to ST, I just got a new number, and sold my phone, number, and grandfathered plan to a friend of mine. I had a few hiccups in the first couple weeks, but has not been nearly as much of a hassle that I thought it would be to give up my number after having it 10 years. With GV, you can use both the old number and the new one if you choose. Worth reading a bit about in some of the threads here.
I've climbed a cellphone tower
i spent a little time with google this evening.
you unlock your GV number in the account so it can be ported out. ($3 fee if its their number $0 if it was yours)
always start the port monday morning so you have the work week ahead.
notify the carrier you are porting to. use your GV phone number as the account number.
your phone will go dead usually 2-4 days. the carrier will have you call a short code like number to finish the port (this varies) could take up to 2-3 weeks worse case sms to be normal...best case 2-3 days for sms to sync with the carriers.
Last edited by alphamale-b; 06-09-2012 at 11:43 PM. Reason: added
My screen is bigger than yours
If I were you I'd ask to speak to a supervisor (not someone playing supervisor for the day - a real executive in charge of customer service) because (I'd say) that if the matter wasn't settled during the current phone call, I'd be making an official complaint of violation to the FCC as soon as I got off the phone. (And that could result in a $10,000 fine per incident against ST.)
Then, if it weren't settled during the call, or if they hung up on me (I've had them do that), I'd actually make the complaint.
("Settled" would mean that Sprint had received the request and was working on it - as told to me by Sprint.)
Mobile Pro
I'm on the phone with ST right now (they called me). There's lots of clicking and screen checking and "Please sir bear with me; I'm sorry for the inconvenience, please wait a moment while I check your information," but so far, no port, no explanation. I was on the phone with them about 45 minutes. When they decided they were done, they closed the call with "The port should be complete in 24 to 48 hours," the exact same thing they say every time I've talked to them.
They provided me with a case number for the first time. Otherwise this is the same runaround I've had every other time I talked to them. I found Trac Phone's Exec CS number on HFs last night. I'll probably call it in the morning unless miracles have my phone working by then.
Mobile Pro
The CSRs' accent is odd. I was a linguist in the Navy (Arabic and French), and I am accustomed to accents, but I find this one impenetrable at times. They speak very quickly and run words together and don't enunciate clearly. The rhythm and emphasis is sing-song, up-and-down, but not according to English syllable stress rules. Is it Filipino? The odd thing is that I work with Filipinos in my current job nearly daily, and again, don't usually find the accent so difficult to suss out.
Planet Express
All of their customer service centers are in Manilla and Miami.
Questions?? Read the FAQs: The Prepaid FAQ . The Straight Talk FAQ
Disagree with someone? Be Nice!
Report posts that violate the rules by clicking the dark triangle at the bottom, left of the post.
Planet Express
If you continue to have trouble, try emailing ST.CorpResolutionTeam@straighttalk.com, and if that doesn't work, PM me your details and I'll get you in touch with someone who can fix it.
Mobile Pro
I just called 800-876-5753 - Is that the correct Executive CS number?
Got the same runaround I have every other time. The CSR was in the Philippines.
They told me they've re-sent the request to Sprint, and it should take ... 24 to 48 hours.
Today's excuse is that Sprint told ST my phone number is not a Sprint number.
Today is Day 5 if you're counting.
Mobile Pro
... Another call to Sprint. I called their Consumerist.com exec customer service line (703-433-4401). Sprint's CSR said that they have not received a request to port my number, and that they have no interest in holding up a legitimate request. The CSR put a note in my account that I am requesting porting to ST, and she sent a message to their tech support and engineering depts asking them to double check that there are no issues with my number porting. The CSR was clear that they have frequent trouble with ST not sending correct porting requests, or failing to send them at all.
My screen is bigger than yours
take up endeavorOR's offer. there is SARA corp ST lurking some where, where is she when you need her.
Planet Express
At one time, I suspect that that number did go to their executive resolutions team. It probably got so overwhelmed that they started sending the calls to the Phillipines as well. I've never dialed that # and gotten someone who sounded like they were actually in Miami, however, they all claim that they are. Their real Executive CSRs respond to snail mail, BBB complaints, and regulatory (PUC/FCC) complaints.
Have you tried calling the regular customer service # and selecting the option for number port status? Believe it or not, they DO have a special department that handles these things, and that option actually gets to them. I've found that, in contrast to most of their other CSRs, the number port people actually know what they're doing, at least when it comes to ports..
Originally Posted by Chuck-TX
Mobile Pro
Good news everybody! The port got taken care of yesterday (Mon) afternoon. It took a whole lot of doing to get it to happen.
I couldn't believe what the problem was.
First I called Sprint again. They actually combed all their port requests for the past week, and said that my name, account number and phone number was not in a single valid or invalid port request.
A bit later I got a call from Straight Talk.
They asked me if the number I gave them was a Verizon number.
(The phone I purchased from ST is a Verizon phone.)
I said, "No, it's a Sprint number. Are you trying to port my number from Verizon? No wonder the port's not working."
"Sir, please hold on the line for 3 minutes while I check with my supervisor."
And just a couple minutes later - port completed!
Did this 5 day ordeal occur because ST confuses "port from" and "port to?"
Thanks for all your advice and help. I appreciate it. --Chuck
Planet Express
Sounds like you may have made the cardinal sin of initiating the port by calling them. The best way to ensure that things get done right with ST is to do it yourself on the web-site. Even then, there's still a chance that it'll get screwed up.
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