Phone Porting Run-around - Help Please

Hello.  I'm hoping someone can assist me with the nightmare that has been getting my U-Verse phone working.  

We had our U-Verse cable, phone, and internet installed on Monday, 7/14.  The appointment was scheduled 14 days prior, on 7/2 (that becomes important in a minute).  So, the tech tried and tried, to no avail, to get our phone working the day of the install.  After talking to his manager, he told me that for some reason the port got "cancelled" but that it should be working by ealy afternoon the next day (7/15) and, if it wasn't, to call the manager.

So, I waited until 3:00 in the afternoon on the 15th, and, when the phone still didn't work, I called the manager.  He said he had paperwork there for me where he had sent over the emails to the port group for "escalation," and that it should be good the next morning.

So, the 16th came and, guess what?  No phone.  I waited until late afternoon and called the manager again.  He said the escalation was in progress and that it should be good the next day (sigh).

So, late afternoon came on the 17th (today), and still no phone.  This time I was unable to get the manager, so I called the customer service number.  They transferred me to their tech number.  The tech instant messaged with the port folks for about 45 minutes, then said she'd call me back.  About 30 minutes later, she did.  She told me the request for the port had been "aborted" and that the error code given indicated that the request did not allow sufficient lead time for the port.  So she changed the "due date" to 7/22, which allows the required 2 business days for AT&T to port the number from Time Warner.  I explained that was unacceptable, but there really seemed to be nothing she could do.  

So now I'm posting here.  I've seen several folks have success with getting help here when all else fails.  My issue with this whole thing is this:  I made my U-Verse install appointment 14 days in advance, well within the "required 2 business days" leadtime.  It's not my fault if someone didn't submit the order in time or whatever happened.  I was told, repeatedly, by the manager that it would be the next day, then the next day, etc., etc.  I really don't want to wait until the 22nd to have my phone activated, and I feel like AT&T should do everything they can to help me out here, since none of this is my doing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Mark