Trouble with Porting New Number

[DHNewEra]

I recently brought my spouse over to my Verizon account, but he wanted to keep his same phone number from AT&T. We got the transfer pin from AT&T and now when I check the status of the transfer for his number on Verizon, it says all he needs to do is turn his new phone off and back on and the transfer should be complete. It does NOT say ‘complete’ yet. His old service at AT&T was his family’s plan, so his dad owns the account. His number is still active on AT&T because I read that you want it to still be active until the transfer is complete so I asked his dad not to cancel my husband’s phone line yet.

The issue is he can receive texts, make calls, and receive FaceTime calls on his new phone (iPhone 15 ProMax) but if I try to call him, it sends the call to voicemail because it’s going to his old phone (iPhone 11 Pro Max from AT&T). It’s been 3 days since we began the porting process and he can do everything except receive calls on his new phone. His old phone has been completely reset, and powered OFF for 3 days. This morning, we turned his old phone back on to see if it was still signed in on the Apple ID or anything. It was not. He signed back into the Apple ID on the old phone so that he could see if any settings were still on/preventing the complete transfer. I tried calling his number when both phones were on, and both phones rang. He turned off his old phone again, and when I tried calling his number, I was sent to voicemail. So all regular calls are going to the old phone it seems. He can get FaceTime calls and texts on his new phone, as well as actually make regular calls himself.

We’ve tried where you go to the Settings-Phone-Calls on other devices-OFF. But he doesn’t have that option on either of his phones. He did have one called ‘Calls Forwarding’ or something along those lines. And anything we tried with that did not work. 

We have powered the new phone on and off many times. We have tried completely resetting both phones. Whenever we call the Verizon Porting support/Verizon support in general, no one knows what’s wrong. I’m aware when I check the porting status that it does not say it’s complete yet. It says that to complete it, we need to shut off the new phone, wait a few seconds, and turn it back on again. Which we’ve done many times and still no forward progress.

We are planning to go to Verizon tomorrow, but I’ve read that they are just going to call the Porting support number as well so I’m not super hopeful. Anyone else experience this? Where your new phone can do everything except receive calls- unless both the new and old phones are on? Any advice on how to fix it?

Thank you

[vzw_customer_support]

Hey there, DHNewEra, I'm sorry to hear your spouse is running into an issue with porting his number over to Verizon. We certainly want to make this process as smooth as possible. So we can better assist, we will be reaching out via Private Message.

-Lauren

[SynthpopAddict · Accepted solution]

@DHNewEra, I'm willing to bet the problem is because your husband's line was managed by his father under an AT&T family plan.  Technically, your husband doesn't have the rights to port his number out because it belongs to a different account, and so now the port won't finish and is stuck in limbo.  You would need to contact either your father-in-law and have him work with AT&T to de-link your husband's number from the family account, or try contacting AT&T yourself to see if they can un-link the number.  Once the number has been removed from the AT&T family account, the port should go through.

When a port is "in progress", incoming calls will continue to go through the old carrier (and be sent to voicemail since the old carrier technically has given up the number so the calls don't quite "work").  Texts, internet usage, and outbound calls will function through the new carrier.  When the port finalizes, you should get a text confirmation saying the port is completed, and then everything goes through the new carrier.  It's not due to a new phone being in use.  Hope that helps.

[DHNewEra]

Thank you. The port status now says complete which is what I was waiting on to have his dad disconnect my husbands phone from AT&T. Even though it says complete, it still isn’t working. Is it a good idea to go ahead and have the AT&T disconnected anyway? I suppose that’s why it’s not fully working like intended. I’m just nervous to have the old service disconnected from the phone because it sounds like such a pain in case that wasn’t the issue. I read somewhere that once the port says completed, it’ll automatically cancel the service from AT&T. I’m not sure if that’s true or not. But I do appreciate your help! 

[SynthpopAddict]

Yes, you must have the AT&T service disconnected or the Verizon service will never work properly.  Once the number is fully ported to Verizon, the AT&T service will be disconnected.