Phonepower...no more $35/yr plan?
LTN1:
That was what I understood when I considered signing up with PhonePower last year.
Just out of interests, I am on a chat with a PhonePower rep by the name of Matthew S. asking a basic question of whether we get a temporary number until we can port. Though it took him 5 minutes to answer, he said that you get a temporary number regardless if you port or don't port. Of course, if you don't port, you keep that number...which isn't really temporary anymore.
My guess is that you got bamboozled by the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
SteveInWA:
Number porting involves the service provider interacting with their underlying CLEC (licensed/regulated telephone carrier), and with NPAC to perform the work necessary to move over the number. These companies aren't charities; they're businesses with fixed costs. The porting fees aren't meant to be a significant revenue stream, and there's no intent to be deceptive about the fee; they're simply cost-recovery fees. I've seen some carriers charge as much as $35 to port in a land line number. Google charges $20 to do this, and I can tell you that it is a headache for them, when users don't submit the exact identifying data that the losing carrier expects to see to release the number. This is a "good thing", as it is designed to limit "slamming", or unauthorized porting.
Sometimes, some service providers make a business decision to not charge users to perform a port, as a marketing inducement to get the user's ongoing business. Other SPs may try to compete on the lowest monthly cost, and so they keep service add/change fees separate. This is the same approach taken by the "big four" mobile phone carriers, who, in a competitive slug-fest, will port in your number for free, pay off your contract, give you a phone, and give you an hour with a hooker (well, maybe not that, but you never know what John Legere will say next).
There is a small community of Angry White Men over on DSLReports who love to whine incessantly about this company or that company who is being evil by not disclosing something, or charging for something that they think ought to be free. None of these AWM have likely ever run a successful, profitable, legitmate business. People who obsess over this stuff are welcome to join their discussions if desired.
brianSC:
Wow Steve, (Hero Member and Beta Tester!) I'm not angry or white here, just sharing my experience so others know what to expect ::)
So, to follow up, I did receive a full refund, no questions asked, along with a polite email from customer service. In an email communication from the General Manager of Phone Power, he did mention that due to constraints that the Obitalk portal put on their ordering process, every new customer initially takes a new number, at least temporarily. He did mention that to port a number without paying the fee, I could call the customer service dept, and that they were not supposed to charge the port-in fee to Obitalk customers. Like I said, $15 is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but really, how hard would it be to mention that cost to potential new customers? And of course anyone with common sense knows that companies are not in business to lose money or become a charity. And, I did willingly pay a one-time Google port-in fee a few years ago. But to their credit, they told me ahead of time what it would cost, so I knew what my startup cost would be to try out Google Voice.
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