AT&T Wireless - ported number to Verizon Wireless - unexpected early termination fee from AT&T Wireless

AT&T Wireless - ported number to Verizon Wireless - unexpected early termination fee from AT&T Wireless

Cell Phone porting - early termination fees

Watch out for the early termination fees when it comes to porting your phone number to another carrier. I just switched from AT&T Wireless to Verizon Wireless and got burned. I had the date of the contract term off and missed it by 11 days, but I received no warning of any kind. Verizon was more than happy to take

care of the entire process of switching my number.

When the time came, Verizon contacted me for the account information and told me there would be a 48 hour hold on the porting while AT&T confirmed that my number was eligible to be ported. My understanding of this was that during this time I would be informed if I still had obligations to AT&T Wireless.

Verizon claims that, had I been porting in the other direction, they would have contacted me before allowing my number to be ported and explained that I still had an active agreement (and tried to convince me not to leave their network). AT&T feels no need for such customer service and they were more than happy to just let my number go and collect their $150. I've seen it before, I'll say it again - stay away from AT&T Wireless - I don't know if Cingular will be any better once they acquire them, but we can only hope. David C

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