PhonePower has hidden fees for GV transfer

[bnwitt]

I just thought I would let everyone who is considering moving their Google Voice numbers over to PhonePower know that you will be surprised with a hidden fee when you contact billing to get your GV # ported over.  No where on the sales pitch page courting Obihai users do they say anything about a # change fee.  The page says:
Q: Can I simply port my Google Voice phone number to PhonePower?

Yes, however you must initialize the service with a new number. We can switch your number after activation.

Oh and yes they can, for a $15 dollar fee per number that they call a "number change fee".  All of a sudden that great 1 year service deal just got a little less great.  Now I'm stuck with two numbers I didn't put a lot of thinking into choosing on my OBi202 unless I want to spend $30 to get my two GV #s ported over.  This is a very deceptive and dishonest practice.  I will be reporting them to the BBB and FBI for this deception.

[Johnny]

As far as porting GV numbers to another provider, at the moment Voip.ms and Future-nine are offering free ports.

Probably gonna be a couple bucks more a month, but well worth it in my opinion.

Report PP to the BBB and FBI?  

A little drastic, don't you think?

[AlanB]

Well it's not truly hidden as the Terms of Service clearly state: Any requests for a change in telephone number are subject to a fifteen dollar ($15.00) change fee.

However, I do fully agree that it's not necessarily intuitive that porting a number means this fee applies. Thanks for pointing it out to everyone.

[Michael_Reeder]

$15 is reasonable.  I do wish however that PP would make this more obvious in their listings of cost and porting procedure upfront.  When outlining a procedure for new customers, outline the WHOLE procedure.

While we are on the topic of porting, don't forget that Google Voice itself requires a $3 unlocking fee.  That, and you have to know how to unlock your GV phone number for the port -- this is easily found in their online help, but is not as far as I can find available from any of the regular options within the GV account.  You also have to set-up a Google Wallet for the account that your GV is under.  For me, this was highly annoying as I set-up Google accounts and special email addresses utilized ONLY for Google Voice.  So now I have to create (and later delete) special Google Wallet accounts with my credit card info in them just so I can pay these one-time $3 fees.  Grrr.

https://support.google.com/voice/answer/1316844?hl=en
www.google.com/voice/unlock

Perhaps the idea of unlocking first is obvious to VoIP veterans and folks used to moving URL domains from one hosting provider to another -- but it will not be obvious to newbies.

I'm tempted to say that $15 +$3 = $18, but I think I'll avoid math for now given my recent posts.   

-- Michael

[AlanB]

FYI. GV does not charge the $3 unlocking fee if you ported your number into GV.

[SteveInWA]

RE: fees, these service providers are already charging extremely low-profit prices for service.  Their CLECs (the phone carriers who provide numbers and porting services to these SIP service providers) charge them fees to port numbers, as it does require manual labor.  Now, you can complain about it not being listed in 24-point bold font, but it's a legitimate, industry-wide practice.  It used to be more like $35, so BFD.

RE:  the $3 unlock fee.  That procedure is in place to protect you, the GV user, from a sleazy practice known as "slamming" whereby carriers can port your number away without your permission.  The requirement to have you make a credit card purchase is mainly to prove your identity and take positive action to port the number, and the fee probably also covers some expense Google incurs with it's carriers, just as the SIP providers do.  Again, BFD.

The service providers aren't making a profit on this; they're just recovering a legitimate cost.

[Michael_Reeder]

RE: fees, these service providers are already charging extremely low-profit prices for service.  Their CLECs (the phone carriers who provide numbers and porting services to these SIP service providers) charge them fees to port numbers, as it does require manual labor.  Now, you can complain about it not being listed in 24-point bold font, but it's a legitimate, industry-wide practice.  It used to be more like $35, so BFD.

RE:  the $3 unlock fee.  That procedure is in place to protect you, the GV user, from a sleazy practice known as "slamming" whereby carriers can port your number away without your permission.  The requirement to have you make a credit card purchase is mainly to prove your identity and take positive action to port the number, and the fee probably also covers some expense Google incurs with it's carriers, just as the SIP providers do.  Again, BFD.

The service providers aren't making a profit on this; they're just recovering a legitimate cost.

Steve -- I largely agree with you (except I'd like to see some font on these practices).  But, yeah -- the difference between totally free, a one-time $3 charge, or even a one-time $15 charge is no BFD.  We have it pretty sweet regardless.

-- Michael

[PeteMoss]

While not exactly the same situation, when I switched to PP from GV, I specified the new phone number be spoofed in the CID with the GV number. A month later I decided that I wanted the PP number CID un-spoofed. I was expecting a charge for that but there was none.

[Pepi]

Can't buy a good case of beer for 15  bucks