Porting Problems

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Hi Guys,

I'm a happy Pearl user with TMO, and thought it would be smart to update my Fiance's phone and bring her to TMO from sprint. We live in Los Angeles, now, but she's originally from Oahu, Hawaii, and has been able to keep the same 808 number for years, which is why this caught us off guard.

Anyways, the service rep ported her number, the phone dials out fine, but now when any non-TMO phone calls her (from a landline or wireless), it gets a message saying the subscriber is no longer in service. Fun. After a few hours with TMO customer service, a technician told her it was a problem with her SIM card from Hawaii being different than the SIM card in LA, and that she'd have to lose her 10 year old cell number from Hawaii for an LA number, followed by a "I hope we don't lose you as a customer". Oh, if she wants, she can fly to Hawaii to get a new Sim card from TMO there.
Not Cool.

Sprint had no problem porting and selling her a new phone 2 years ago, in Los Angeles, with her Hawaii number, with no SIM card issues.

It's important to her to keep her phone number that she's had since high school so that she can keep up with her extended network of friends, family, and clients in Hawaii (she travels there numerous times a year).

My question is, has anyone had this type of issue before? How can we fix this problem? FYI. Her old phone was a Sanyo and her new one is a Samsung t609.

Thanks guys!
 
You may want to check with another T-Mo rep and act like you have not called before. Different reps have different levels of knowledge. The SIM card may not be an issue and the first rep simply gave you the "form" generic answer or did not know what he or she was talking about.

I have numerous examples where the above technique worked, but I won't go into it.

Call their tech support too, they may be able to answer technical answers about the SIM care/Hawaii.

I can't imagine why the SIM card would be an issue. One can buy new cards for $5 on eBay and all those do is get the phone to operate with the particular carrier.

Maybe the numbers cannot be transferred from there inasmuch as transferring numbers from one carrier to another assumes one is remaining in the same calling area.

But, can you get a T-Mo plan for her, in Hawaii and use it in the continental U.S. without extra charge, e.g., a nationwide plan?
 
I agree with San Fran. The only reason she would have to get a different L.A. number, is if they don't service the "808" aread code in Hawaii. Meaning if T-mobile doesn't have service in that area code, they can't get you a number from there. It happens in the U.S. also...
 
if its just the sim card that is the problem, they can give her a new sim card with the same number, i've screwed up my sim card in the past and they gave me a brand new sim card with my same number, and i had my original number ported over from verizon....
 
Thanks guys. It's a very annoying thing to deal with. It was actually a tech support person that told her that. She's going to Hawaii in 2 weeks, so she can deal with it there I suppose at a T-Mobile store in Oahu if we can't resolve it tonight at a local dealer. I personally can't believe it's a SIM issue either, sounds more like the tech didn't want to deal with it.

It's a little weird - we can't find a SIM card on her old Sanyo Sprint phone, which leads me to believe it's either embedded in the phone, or it doesn't have one. The SIM card in her phone now is a new one.

Anyways, I'll let you know the results tonight.

Thanks guys!
 
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