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Big oops..ported number out of AT&T 10 days before contract end

jokerz126

jokerz126

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 26, 2010
310
64
Hi....we decided to switch from att to Verizon, and have 10 days left on the AT&T contract...somehow when my wife set up the new contract on the phone, she set it to port the numbers over immediately upon activation. So our AT&T service is dead because we just realized this upon activating the iPhone 5s. How will att deal with this? Will they charge us an ETF now? How much do you think it will be? Is our AT&T contract immediately terminated upon porting the two numbers out? Anyone else gone through this?

Thanks!
 
homer_doh.png
 
Ouch! Your contract is terminated and you will owe about $100 plus the last months bill. :mad:
 
i know...cryin right now :eek:
what is the $ damage going to be on this "error" ?
any way to beg AT&T and not get screwed? will it be ETF per line?
 
Transferring a number is considered immediate agreement to enact ETF.

You are now liable to pay the ETF fee that correlates with cancellation within the last month of the contract.

----------
jokerz126 said:
i know...cryin right now :eek:
what is the $ damage going to be on this "error" ?
any way to beg AT&T and not get screwed? will it be ETF per line?
Click to expand...

Only the ETF on the line that was transferred.

If multiple numbers were transferred, expect multiple ETF fees.
 
when she signed up with Verizon, she put both our numbers down there (2), so looks like ETF x2? what would the amount be? contract ends on 15th of October so 10 days exactly
 
Call them up, chances are they will waive it since it happened with in the month you were canceling.
 
jokerz126 said:
when she signed up with Verizon, she put both our numbers down there (2), so looks like ETF x2? what would the amount be? contract ends on 15th of October so 10 days exactly
Click to expand...

There might not be any cancellation fees if cancellations take place at the end of the current billing cycle. You at least owe the rest of this month's bill.

Your contract will tell you absolutely everything you need to know. It is not possible for us to calculate the amount without knowing which terms and conditions you agreed to at the moment you entered into the contract.
 
JodyK said:
I think it's prorated so if they charge you anything it shouldn't be very much. Less than $20??
Click to expand...

less than $20? Thats not how it works. ETF is $360 upon activating your new line at the start and it drops by $10 each month. So the OP would have $120 give or take left even if you port your number a couple of days before your end date. Well, since there are 2 lines, it would be $120 x 2 = $240.

you can beg but ATT has zero incentive to give you a break since you're leaving them.
 
hmm...whats "winback"? wont this affect our new Verizon contract?
 
HPLouis said:
Call AT&T and ask them to 'Winback" port you. Then cancel in 10 days.

Henry
Click to expand...

You then may be liable to Verizon depending on how far along to the contract you are. If past the initial 3 days, you will forfeit your activation feel ($36), if after 14 days, you will owe the full $350 ETF per line in addition to the first month's bill.
 
articulatefool said:
You then may be liable to Verizon depending on how far along to the contract you are. If past the initial 3 days, you will forfeit your activation feel ($36), if after 14 days, you will owe the full $350 ETF per line in addition to the first month's bill.
Click to expand...

This is true. Hopefully the OP started with VZ less than 3 days ago. If not, you'll owe them some money. Now you're at the point of "who do I owe less money to?"

Henry
 
hmm...this is DAY 1 of activation on Verizon...we actually WANT to be Verizon customers...leaving ATT because of various poor service reasons...so, we have the iphone 5's here..i guess we would need to return them and get in line for another 2 iphone 5s?
 
jokerz126 said:
Hi....we decided to switch from att to Verizon, and have 10 days left on the AT&T contract...somehow when my wife set up the new contract on the phone, she set it to port the numbers over immediately upon activation. So our AT&T service is dead because we just realized this upon activating the iPhone 5s. How will att deal with this? Will they charge us an ETF now? How much do you think it will be? Is our AT&T contract immediately terminated upon porting the two numbers out? Anyone else gone through this?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I had a similar situation. Almost identical except I had ported to google voice instead of another carrier.

The good news: You have 59 days to port back to AT&T and if you do so the ETF will be waived. Just call 1-800-331-0500.

When you port out the service is canceled immediately. Since you only have 10 days you "may" be able to simple call and get somebody to waive the fee. Although I kind of doubt as the ETF for each device now would be $95 each.

I simple ported back to AT&T from google voice. Got immediately credited and was done with it.

Since you're using Verizon you'd likely need to call them first to explain everything as porting back to AT&T would then cancel your Verizon service.
 
jokerz126 said:
hmm...this is DAY 1 of activation on Verizon...we actually WANT to be Verizon customers...leaving ATT because of various poor service reasons...so, we have the iphone 5's here..i guess we would need to return them and get in line for another 2 iphone 5s?
Click to expand...

Correct.

But call AT&T for **** sakes! You may have an easy out.
 
I made the same mistake, i thought our T-Mobile contract was up in August but it was not. So when the wife and kids switched to Verizon (ported their numbers), i later received the ETF from T-Mobile. It cost us $50 a phone so $150 total.... To say the least it sucked.
 
OneMike said:
I had a similar situation. Almost identical except I had ported to google voice instead of another carrier.

The good news: You have 59 days to port back to AT&T and if you do so the ETF will be waived. Just call 1-800-331-0500.

When you port out the service is canceled immediately. Since you only have 10 days you "may" be able to simple call and get somebody to waive the fee. Although I kind of doubt as the ETF for each device now would be $95 each.

I simple ported back to AT&T from google voice. Got immediately credited and was done with it.

Since you're using Verizon you'd likely need to call them first to explain everything as porting back to AT&T would then cancel your Verizon service.
Click to expand...

You still lost the $20 port fee for Google Voice. Still a much easier loss than an ETF though.
 
From A Buick 8 said:
I made the same mistake, i thought our T-Mobile contract was up in August but it was not. So when the wife and kids switched to Verizon (ported their numbers), i later received the ETF from T-Mobile. It cost us $50 a phone so $150 total.... To say the least it sucked.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately ETF from AT&T is much more. :(
 
just talked to ATT and they are being hard-a**es of course...$190 ETF...so calling Verizon now to see if I can somehow port the numbers back to ATT and get NEW numbers with Verizon UNTIL the 15th or 16th of this month...to take care of the ETF...
 
jokerz126 said:
just talked to ATT and they are being hard-a**es of course...$190 ETF...so calling Verizon now to see if I can somehow port the numbers back to ATT and get NEW numbers with Verizon UNTIL the 15th or 16th of this month...to take care of the ETF...
Click to expand...

Pack up your new phones; you may have to return them.
 
It's $350 for each phone minus $10 for every month you have served of the contract I believe
 
OK...so at least Verizon is being nice...they agreed to credit us the $190 to cover the ATT ETF :)
..liking Verizon so far!
 
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