Windstream Communications review: porting of number 21

I am having the same problem porting out a number from Windstream as well. The only problem is we are in the process of closing on our house and so I am now at risk of losing the number. It has been b.s. games with them pretending the home address doesn't match etc etc. I am going to call the NC attorney general's office to find out what options are left.

I have ported numbers between different companies in the past and this is the first time I have had issues. It is a shame that Windstream chooses to conduct business this way and hopefully the issue will get more attention. I for one will never use Windstream again for communication products.

They are obviously becoming too big too quickly.

Windstream has recently lost the battle to keep it hard for you to port your number. You can look at the website:

https://prodnet.www.neca.org/publicationsdocs/wwpdf/51210windstream.pdf

to see the arguments between them and the FCC. Hope that helps...

Ha ha ha what a sincere response. Windstream is habitually lying to customers about their account information and/or changing it after the fact. They have gotten to the point they admit they are not authorized to honestly answer customers' inquiries about their account information and in some cases simply hanging up. Pathetic. Maybe if they didn't gouge customers and allow ports to occur they wouldn't be losing customers in absolute droves. There are many legal complaints about these practices, and Windstream simply does a two-step and misrepresents the facts as a 'security' concern. They are rearranging chairs on the Titanic.

It is 2012 and Windstream is still behaving the same way with phone number porting. I have a business line in an office that I was closing, and wanted my number remote call-forwarded. They told me that they could not remote call forward to a cell phone. Then I said I would port the number to a cell phone. That was more than two months ago and I am still waiting. Now the people who promised to call me back and help me at Windstream are refusing to answer their phones or to call me back. I have been told the number is not mine, that the number has been ported (to some unknown place) and all kinds of silly stories, and I am frustrated and angry.

Windstream put one obstacle after another to prevent porting of my telephone number. They even went so far as disconnecting my phone. It took me hours on the phone to get it reconnected the next day. Then they rejected the porting stating it wasn't an active number. Then they assigned a new account # and PIN # (I never had a PIN # before) that they suddenly required, but they didn't have the new numbers available for a week. Then Windstream rejected porting because they needed the Pass CAPP code.
In a conference call with Windstream and Charter, they were told that 4 years ago the FCC had told them to stop requiring the Pass Capp code, so they decided they didn't need it, but needed a PON code. After everything was supposedly straightened out, a week later they rejected porting my number again saying the telephone number was not found. Both Charter & Windstream performed a test call on the number to prove to themselves that the number is indeed active. I'm paying Windstream for it. Then they said they had no request from Charter to port the number. I asked how they could come up with rejection excuses if they had no record of porting requests.
I still don't have this solved and don't know if I will. I've filed complaints with the FCC and the BBB and will file with Attorney General and the State Utilities Commission. I've been a customer of Windstream for almost 30 years and am really disgusted with this level of service.

(Secret) Answer - The problem when porting a number with Windstream is that your address information has to match the address that Windstream has for you on file for you EXACTLY. YOU MUST USE THE 9 DIGIT ZIP CODE that is listed with them on your statement. If you don't use your 9 digit ZIp Code it will never transfer no matter how many time you call their support dept. If you already have a transfer attempt started, cancel it and resubmit.
That is their little trick to keep you paying. By the way...the comments about their support from donnahc333 is accurate.

I tried for 3 weeks to get my number ported from Windstream to Charter. They kept telling me it was cleared up and they would not block the porting but they did. Once I cancelled, I was informed by a customer service rep that I would receive a pro-rated final bill. I did not receive any final bill but one Urgent Notice that I owed an amount $50 over my monthly charge. I wrote them (because once you cancel you can't access online) and asked for a final itemized, pro-rated bill. Their answer--send me to collection. I called them (you have to push "0" 50 times to get through to a real person, who, when questioned about over billing me, HUNG UP on me. I have filed a complaint with the BBB, FCC, and the Public Service Commission. If I don't pay in 30 days this collection will be on my credit record.

I have been trying to port my Windstream residential number to a cell phone carrier. After two weeks I feel frustrated. Now that I've read the posts on this thread I feel absolutely deflated... I feel it's going to be next-to-impossible to wrestle this number away from Windstream. My mobile provider has initiated at least 3 or 4 requests to port the number. Each request has been declined for various reasons. Windstream apparently requires the company requesting the port to send the request via email (wci.scsc.lspac@windstream.com). Even though emails have been sent, Windstream denies receiving them. I will post back here if/when the port ever completes.

Thanks to wytech... I will try the (secret) solution you provided.

We have been trying to port our number from Windstream to Jive withjout success. We are a small electric utility and our customers are having issues reporting outages to us. Our numbers have been rejected 3 time in the last 2 months and each time the reason was because the numbers were inactive. Well let me tell you that just yesterday I spoke with a Windsteam Rep. and the numbers we requested to port are active as I thought.
All I can say is, we as a electric utility, owe our customers an explanation for the lack of cooperation demonstrated by Windstream. We have had our main number for 60+ years and because Windsteram was the only game in town they pretty much had a monopoly on telephony services in our area. The provider we are switching to cannot provide tone to us according to ILEC and CLEC regulations. We built a new facility fewer than 5 miles from our old location. I have sent many emails, and spoke with CRS on the phone to resolve this issue without success.
This story gets even more bizarre in the fact that they are forcing us to pay them another months fees to keep callers coming to our main number.
According to Windstream to answer more than 1 call at time it would be necessary to setup routes at a rate of 20.00 per month per route.
Because we need to answer as many calls as we can during weather and natural events, ie outages, i wsa left with no choice but to setup 10 routes.
So it seems to me that indeed Windstream is holding our numbers HOSTAGE based on their actions of the last 2 months. Again our customers who have been on our system know our number by heart and its would be a disservice to change the number in which they report power outages.
We are considering releasing this information to the public so they can understand our situation and if good news travels at the speed of sound than bad news will travel at the speed of light! we may be forced to change our main number and if so, we will make sure the public knows exactly what the problem was or is! I will post more as this progresses to share with others with similar issues. I suppose the next step will be to contaft the FCC in regards to our problem.

Any updates people? I just started to get the run around. Callcentric.com showed on their website that they could port the number but they came back and stated that they don't have an ICA agreement with Windstream.

Yeah, after 29 years with Windstream and their predecessors, I tried for two months last summer to port. Their customer service people said that the porting people only spoke with the receiving company, so they refused to talk to me. The alleged reason was that something wasn't right in the request, which was made three times. Windstream are THIEVES. They are LAWBREAKERS. I am going to try again. They got 6 months extra expenses out of me. I'm going to try and try, and then call the local paper and TV stations, and even bring a camera with me to the local office.

Yes, I have been with Windstream for over 30 years and have been trying to port my business numbers since Sept 2015. They change addresses,
pin numbers and even my name. You are not allowed to talk to anyone at the Porting dept. Hech, even Windstream customer service supervisors cannot get through. I have filed a complaint with the FCC and now will go through the Utilities commission and the attorney general in North Carolina.
This is just frustrating. If you are considering Windstream DON'T

My company has been working on try to port three phone numbers away from Windstream to a VoIP carrier since Nov, 2015. Similar to those that have posted here, the experience has been a nightmare, and as of this writing, we have not yet succeeded.

When the process began, Windstream was simply issuing rejections based on the service address that the winning carrier submitted not matching their records for our account. The new carrier finally encouraged us to obtain a copy of our Customer Service Record to see how the address was listed in Windstream's system. They had a "town" that doesn't exist, rather than the actual name of the town in the service address.

With that problem solved, we hoped to move beyond the rejections. However, Windstream began issuing rejections claiming that the name in the request was not an authorized user on the account. We don't know the rationale behind that bald faced lie, as multiple names that are authorized to make changes to the account were rejected.

Finally, we got word from our new carrier that they seemed to have gotten past the rejections with a name, and the port status had changed to "processing." Three weeks later, it remained on "processing." The new carrier contacted us with the PON number, and we called Windstream to inquire about that specific PON number.

Customer service looked it up, claimed that it was submitted over two weeks later than the new carrier actually submitted it, claimed that the completion date was set (the date had already passed), but that the request was cancelled by the new carrier.

We have started the complaint process with the FCC. We are considering moving on to the PA PUC, the BBB, and local representation.

Windstream is holding our three business lines hostage, in our opinion. They refuse to allow you to speak with anyone in their porting group, claiming that group will only talk to other carriers. Our new carrier tells us that Windstream does not return their phone calls.

I've explained to Windstream customer service that if they would provide similar services at similar cost, they wouldn't need to lie to their customers and backhandedly violate the laws that are meant to keep them accountable to consumers.

We continue to fight this battle. I have nothing good to say about Windstream Communications. It is my sincere hope that they continue to lose customers in droves and that they are bought out by a company with integrity.

Avoid ever beginning a relationship with Windstream. And if you are already in one, and you see an out... exit promptly.

We have been having increasing issues with our WINDSTREAM DSL. We have made numerous calls to them. The wi-fi capabilities of their system are nil, so we had to buy a very costly router to get wi-fi elsewhere in the house. Then we had to ask (nicely) if Windstream would turn off the wi-fi on the modem we rent from them. OK, done. The internet still cuts out off and on all day long. Many more calls have been made with no changes.

Now, we set up a new plan with TWC - yes, I know they are the enemy, but there are only so many ways to do this when we allow monopolies. We decided that because of the current state of customer service at Windstream we would get the full package. Personally, I would just drop the landline, but I only get one vote.

We have set up several appointments with TWC to have the new system put in. Windstream blocked the porting of the phone number which required we cancel the first appointment. We set up a second appointment. All systems go. We were assured that the number was released for porting. Monday morning, the technician arrived - he only had part of the work order so could not do what was needed. This error was Time Warner's. We are now in a level 3 tier of customer complaints with TWC. We were given a nice discount for our troubles. A new appointment was set up for Wednesday - tomorrow. Today, I get a call that Windstream will not release the number. Back to square one. I did some research and found out that Windstream has been refusing to port numbers for YEARS. They have been ordered by FCC to release numbers, but still do not.

Now, we have to wait until Monday to get this done. Windstream will not let us talk to anyone who will help. We only get, I'm sorry, over and over again and the excuse that "We are not the porting department so we cannot help you." Ask to speak to the porting department and here is what we get, "We don't have that number." They cannot be called. Spread the word Windstream is a bunch of crooks.

Wow, I feel sick! I been getting the run around for a month now. First windstream said spectrum failed to put ave. after my street name, two weeks later they said my name was spelled incorrectly, now just received my third rejection because they said I had a 2nd active line which is totaly false.
I would ask for your thoughts however it looks like I have a long way to go considering all I have just read.

the government is such useless trash. they can seize your rights, but will never fight for you to even keep your own phone number. i don’t fault windstream, they’re just participating in a government facilitated blackmail scheme. the government is so completely incapable of even such simple and obvious fixes. “democracy” is a failure everywhere we look! anyway, windstream won’t let us port. so goodbye old number. it’s all we can do. it feels good to also be rid of their sky-high and very often down dsl “service”.

I just completed it. Transfer your service to your cable provider, wait 1 month and then port over to VOIP. Apparently my cable service provider has more clout to force the porting than I did.

Windstream did not port my landline in 2017 when I moved. I was given the same run around as others in this thread. We canceled and didn’t set up a land line, now only use mobiles. Fast forward to 2020 and I couldn’t be happier, don’t miss the land line and have saved 4 figures. Windstream is a company to avoid at all costs even moving to another location if they are the only provider which is what we did. FCC and NCDOJ did not help with our complaints because Windstream lied repeatedly.

Windstream is profiting from using their VERY SLOW and VERY DIFFICULT PROCESS of using email as the only way to request the portability of their customer's existing telephone numbers. This slow process for portability and frequent rejections to the new carrier keeps their existing customers from leaving their service without paying an additional financial penalty, because you have to keep your existing service provider account OPEN in order for the portability of your number to take place to the new service provider. Windstream has put roadblocks in place to make this process VERY VERY SLOW and DIFFICULT, all the while, they profit from their billing to their existing customer for their POOR service and rejection of portability for lots of really poor reasons. The rejecting of portability requests from the new carrier is designed to prolong the time you MUST STAY with Windstream and thus you have the financial burden of two (2) service providers until the portability of your existing telephone number to the new carrier takes place. For most service providers, portability of numbers usually takes minutes, or sometimes hours, but for Windstream this can take a month or more. This process needs to change and should be illegal. SHAME ON YOU WINDSTREAM.

yes, i have been trying to get ported over 60 days and cant get any help . can someone please help?