I wind up with a new cell phone, a BlackBerry Q10 (this will be my fourth BlackBerry–I like them–not interested in another brand).
I wind up with a new carrier, AT&T. I"m currently with Sprint and have been with them for about 16 years. In my new house, I’m in roaming in my own living room, plus at work I’m in a Sprint Dead Zone. I have internet through AT&T at home, so I want to switch to AT&T.
I keep the same phone number.
Complications:
The physical phone is “out of stock” on the AT&T web site as well as out of stock at all the stores in the city where I live. I think they just sent them all back to the electronics warehouse next to where Indy’s Ark wound up.
However, the Q10 is available with AT&T on amazon. I’m fine with a 2-year contract and the phone is $49, just as it would be through the AT&T website if it were “in stock.”
What is the appropriate sequence of events to ensure that I achieve my three objectives, especially keeping the same phone number?
At what point do I call Sprint and tell them it’s been nice, but it’s all over between us (you can keep the silver and that stuffed panda we got at Disney World.) If I cancel Sprint by making a phone call on my current phone, then does it become inactive? How do I call AT&T to activate? Or should I call Sprint and cancel and then physically take the phone I got from amazon to an AT&T store and have them activate it in person? Or get on the AT&T website and do a “chat window” thing with one of their reps. I don’t have a land line anymore, so if my phone is deactivated, I don’t have a phone to call from (or possibly a pot to pee in.)
I get hung up on details like this. Please take me by the hand and lead me out of this labyrinth. Thank you.
If you are getting it from Amazon with a 2-year contract, wouldn’t you just activate it and port the number with them? At least that’s what I get from the fact that they are offering the contract.
What does “port the number” mean? Pretend you’re talking to a two-year old. If it means, transfer the phone number to a new AT&T wireless account, then yeah, I guess that’s what happens.
Do I have to contact Sprint at any point? After all these years, I’m not on any contract with them.
Yes, port the number means transferring it to the new phone. You should not have to contact Sprint at any point in the process as they will get the picture when AT&T contacts them (or whatever they do) to port the number. You will probably get a final bill from Sprint though.
You will probably get many, many solicitations from Sprint after you switch though.
After you transfer the number, you will need to personally contact Sprint to cancel your account there. Don’t just assume that ATT has it handled. You will probably still owe Sprint some money and you’ll need to settle that.
My advice would be to wait until after thanksgiving for the big holiday sales to kick in. Then go to a local ATT store and ask them what kind of deal you can get on their current Blackberry line. Take the print out from Amazon to show them what you have in mind (and to remind them that you can always go elsewhere).
I have ported my number a few times and have never had to contact the carrier I was leaving. In fact, it is recommended you do not contact your old carrier and let the new carrier handle everything for you. When the number is activated with your new carrier, the contract with your former carrier is automatically terminated. My new carrier handled all the details and each time my account with my former carrier was canceled. It is true your carrier will send you a bill for your final month of service.
This is an official warning for you. I know you’ve had notes before, including THIS one that I just issued right now in another thread.
You just can’t talk that way to other posters on here outside of the BBQ Pit. If you want to be insulting to others, you make a topic there. Do not make posts like this again, DingoelGringo.
You get the same as AT&T service from straighttalk, and I mean the EXACT SAME TOWERS for $45/mo and NO CONTRACT, instead of whatever AT&T would charge you.
At NO point do you contact Sprint to cancel your service, if you do you can screw up the number porting. Your service will automatically be cancelled once sprint gets the port request, you can check that it is cancelled once your new phone is up and working with your number.
My suggestion would be to call AT&T on their 800 number and ask any questions you have before you start anything. They might be able to tell you any pitfalls you might run up against. I would do this part anonymously. They don’t need your details to just answer general questions. If you tell them details, they might create an account for you that you don’t want.
Disclaimer: I’ve never ported over a number. I tried calling a company when I was ready to do that, but after talking with them, I decided to take another route.
Straight Talk’s unlimited plan is pretty generous, too. For $45 you get 3 GB of high speed data, 3G and 4G speeds. After you hit 3 GB, they throttle you back to EDGE (2G) speeds, but they don’t cut off your data or charge you for going over. Most other providers only give you 1 or 2 GB at best.
Oh, boy. Then this is not the time to cancel your Sprint service and go to AT&T. Sprint will hit you with an early termination fee of up to $350 for advanced devices. And I’m sure the BlackBerry is an advanced device.
T-mobile will pay early termination charges. It doesn’t look like they have a Q10 but you can find Crackberries for them. Yeah, I know not it’s not the equipment desired in #1, but (probably) better service than #2.
Another thought (& I don’t know if it’ll work or not) - will Sprint let you out of early term fee since they’re not providing adequate coverage in your area? Hell, I once had AT&T pay for my new phone at Verizon in lieu of dropping an arbitration claim against them over service related issues. Read your contract.
I just did the same thing from 20 years Sprint customer to new AT&T customer because of moving into a dead zone, and while still under contract to Sprint.
The process is simple: Go to the AT&T store & they will get you a device and transfer your old Sprint number to it while you wait. It’ll take 30-60 minutes total in the store.
Then a couple days later call Sprint. They’ll know you switched to AT&T and will say you now owe them $200 or whatever for the cancelled contract. Tell them about the dead zone and ask for them to waive the cancellation fee. The person at the call center can’t, but they will promise to send your account to somebody who will review & perhaps waive. After 3 or 4 weeks they’ll get back to you, probably waiving little or none of the cancellation fee.
So then you pay the fee and consider it just one last good-bye kiss.
At least that’s what I did. For 3 phones’ worth of fees.
The good news is that my AT&T service was cheaper enough than the Sprint service had been that even after paying the cancellation fees I was money ahead versus waiting a few months for my contracts to run out.
