Business accounts and consummer accounts have always been handled differently by all carriers.

Well, now they told me that no matter what I do, I can not keep my number and stay with them.. Due to a GLITCH in their system, they are unable to transfer my number.  I was again told by a "manager" that the only way I can keep my number is to switch to another wireless carrier.. I'm sure that's good for sales.....

Thanks OZ for the Truism...  The Sun Also Comes up every morning...  The issue this person is having is trying to Port a number from within ATT...  It sounds like your big problem is the Area code.  Do you currently live in the area code you want to port your number to???  I strongly recomend going to an ATT store in person to handle this.   It is not an easy port for a new CS Rep...

Madclaw

I'm sorry you're having difficulty with this, there are some guidelines around transferring numbers from different markets but we need to make sure you're getting the right answer for your situation. 

 

Will you please send me a private message with your name, account number, phone number and the best time to contact you?




To send a private message, you can either click on the link in this message or click on the little blue envelope in the upper right hand corner, click "compose new message" and type my username in the "Send To" field.

This has been an ATT Florida number since 92 and I am trying to port it to am ATT  Florida account.. I received a phone call back from another "manager" and was told the same thing.  Since my number is a "business" number, they are unable to convert it to a non business number.  They can do it if I switch to another carrier, buy a new phone, use it for a while, return the phone then cancel the contract I signed with the other carrier.  Then, and only then, can I transfer the number back to ATT. If I am going to go thru all of this trouble, I might as well just stay with the new company.. Sprint has that unlimited plan and it's cheaper than ATT anyway. 

 

 I am sure the stockholders of ATT would love to know that their employees are sending their customers to the competition.......

Again, I am very sorry you're having difficulty. Please send me a private message so we can help. 

@jamileh Sorry for this.

@Sflasusie it sounds like your boss (new and old) have a multi market business account, this enables the account to have numbers from different cities through out the USA (not available to consumer accounts), now I do not know how the call went when you called in, but ideally all that has to be done is a transfer of billing responsibility in to your sisters name (assuming she is the account holder of her account) and the issue would be resolved.

by the sounds of it your boss noted the line of service you are using for you to do the transfer of responsibility when in fact it should be your sister noted instead.

It sounds like your number is in the NBI market. Doesn't mean it's a business account, but the NBI market is usually for businesses (although there are A LOT of regular consumer accounts in that market).  Once a number is put in the NBI market, it has to stay in one. The only way to add it to a regular account is to do a relocation on the consumer account to another consumer account within the NBI market. A consumer account in the NBI market can still have  FAN discount. 

 

The only issue is finding a department that will do that relocation to the NBI market. That's the only reason they would ask you to move line into another carrier. When you port back in, it can be ported as a regular consumer phone number and no longer under NBI market. 

It is an NBI account. That is why they are saying I can't keep it. I did receive a phone call saying that they would see what they could do to help me and today we received a call from the Office of the president of ATT and she told me that I could now keep my number. I got ll excited and sent my sister down to the ATT store AGAIN. While she was on her way I received another phone call from Africa (her name) and she told me OOPS!! I made a mistake!!! I did not know it was a business account when I told you you could keep it. ARE YOU KiDDING ME???? The reason i am having all of this trouble is BECAUSE it is a business account!!!!!! The office of the president gave me misleading and incorrect information too!!!! This is the WORST customer service I have ever encountered!!!

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Sflasusie wrote:
It is an NBI account. That is why they are saying I can't keep it. I did receive a phone call saying that they would see what they could do to help me and today we received a call from the Office of the president of ATT and she told me that I could now keep my number. I got ll excited and sent my sister down to the ATT store AGAIN. While she was on her way I received another phone call from Africa (her name) and she told me OOPS!! I made a mistake!!! I did not know it was a business account when I told you you could keep it. ARE YOU KiDDING ME???? The reason i am having all of this trouble is BECAUSE it is a business account!!!!!! The office of the president gave me misleading and incorrect information too!!!! This is the WORST customer service I have ever encountered!!!

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You could probably port your number to Google Voice and port it back in to AT&T to accomplish the same thing that porting the number to another carrier would do.  This has a one-time fee of $20.  I'm not saying that they would do it, but if I chose this option, I would ask AT&T (nicely!) to credit my bill for $20 to cover my expense for maintaining service with them.  I get why the situation is complicated, but it shouldn't be the customer's burden.

 

This all started almost a year ago because I wanted a more economical landline.  Sprint's porting deparment says ATT controls the port date and of course, ATT says Sprint controls the port date-who is being honest?