Forum Discussion
Porting Number Nightmare
I've been trying to port in a number into my tmobile prepaid account for over a month. Apparently there there is a glitch in T-Mobile's system where my current number is stuck so it never even tries to initiate the port-in process. I've talked to support on the phone multiple times, I've been told it's been escalated to engineering, and then that engineering is still working on it. Now I haven't heard anything in over a week.
Is there anyway to escalate this to someone who can actually fix the issue. This is getting beyond ridiculous.
Just an update: Number finally ported successfully.
Apparently my assigned T-Mobile number was somehow locked in their system. This the system to never even try to contact my old carrier to port in the number.
The lower tiers of support couldn't do anything, as anytime they would try the computer system would give them an error. It got escalated up the chain to the engineering team.
Took a few weeks after I contacted support, but engineering finally fixed the issue so that the computer system could do a proper port, and it only took 1 day to port after that.
Thanks to all of you for the help and advice!
It should not take that long. Without revealing too much information. Are you in a very rural area that potentially isn't covered by T-Mobile's 911 service? Are you in an area where the number block is basically owned by the local company and cannot be ported out? Is your number covered under one of the FCC's restrictions that it can't be ported for a few reasons? A little more info might help a lot in trying to determine why.
My girlfriend's original number we tried to bring to T-Mobile could not be ported in because T-Mobile doesn't offer 911 coverage for that area. Instead, we ported it to Google Voice and she took a new number.
Support just called back again saying that engineering is still working on it. 🙄.
The weird thing is that the company I'm porting from has even seen a request yet. T-Mobile support says they can see a request but that my current number with them is somehow "stuck" and can't be changed.
could also be TMO waiting on whichever carrier you were with to port it over still. usually they end up giving you a temp number if this happens. usually
There are some reasons why a number can not be ported. Is the number coming from a rural area with a limit block? Some land-line numbers are not portable as well.
hitting them up through one of their social media platforms starts you with tier 2 support instead of the call in tier 1 support.
