Mobile Number Portability Ins and Outs

[richgood]

Hi,

My contract is finally up and I'm getting my first taste of MNP. What seemed a really simple process is fast turning into a hassle coupled with a burden. I want to port from Vodacom to MTN - I have been to the Vodashop, the MTN shop, Vodacoms call centre and MTNs call centre and have got 4 different stories - seriously!

Here is my situation: I am on a 24 month Vodacom top up contract that ends in October. I want to upgrade to a full contract (better call rates, benefits, etc.) preferably in October and preferably without paying two operators simultaneously. Nothing fits my student needs as well as MTN MyCall100. I phoned Vodacom to cancel my contract with one months notice and to tell them I want to port - they said before cancelling I should contact MTN to get onto their system (I hate it when people talk about their "systems"!) Anyway I went to MTN and was told that to get onto their "system" I had to create a contract with immediate effect - I was even told that when porting it was impossible not to pay double bills for at least 1 month!

Apologies for the long post - but surely someone here has been through this painful process and emerged victorious. A guide - preferable step by step including numbers to call and fees to pay - would be worth its weight in gold and I for one would be willing to pay (buy some beers for) the person who wrote it.

thanks,
Richard

 

[fskmh]

Join the club. I began my porting process to MTN nearly a month ago. The shop I went to say it's now in head office's hands. They also claimed that I wouldn't have to cancel my VC contract but I'm dubious about that. When they actually manage to port my no. I'm going to fax a copy of my ID and written cancellation request just to be sure.

 

[fismail]

I feel your pain boet , been there , done the port from Italk to MTN , had it reversed from MTN back to Italk , done it again after 2 months from Italk back to MTN and then all the billing issues came right.

No-one will give you a clear answer as what the procedures say and what actually gets done when the systems update is another story all together , I'm sure one of the MTN reps will answer you more concisely.

 

[pope24]

Don't do it. I ported 6 months ago and I am still having issues. It took an email to the Autopage CEO to get the techies off their asses and fixing the problem.

 

[dlk001]

Read my problems here. Still not sorted out.

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=85406

 

[richgood]

Defeated by MTN/Vodacom

Well congratulations to Vodacom and MTN -their incompetence has almost made me a Cell C or Virgin Mobile subscriber (Unfortunately I assume they are just as incompetent).

MNP to set us free - rubbish. This big companies have nothing to gain from it and therefore make it almost impossible to do. The guy at Vodacom cancelling dept said he was'nt that clued up with porting, but that there was no porting dept I could contact! And MTN were just as bad - I'm trying to give them guaranteed income for 24 months but they're obviously not interested.

My final solution is : I'll just start a new contract with MTN and go through th hassle of passing out my new number. And I'll downgrade my Vodacom contract to Pay As You Go so I can keep my number for a while to help the transition.

Apologies for such a negative post -did I mention I was livid? If was a little less lazy I would complain to ICASA about this anti-competiveness - alas I am lazy and I unfortunately assume ICASA are some of the most incompetent.

Some advice: don't even consider porting if you are on an existing contract that is about to expire its near impossible. Maybe its not so bad if you are pre-paid but I'm sure they'll also make that difficult somehow.

GOOD LUCK!