Change dealers, keep phone numbers?

I recently signed up for Cingular service through Bellsouth. After getting the phones, I'm not satisfied with the phone. The one I need is offered but is quite a bit higher with Bellsouth as opposed to some other sites or local dealers. Plus, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of having someone or someplace local I can go to if I have a problem of some sort.

We are still within the 30 day window to cancel service, however it is vital for us to keep our phone numbers. Everyone I have talked to says they can't keep our numbers since we are already Cingular customers.

Is there a way around this...

you should be able to port your number over just go to whatever retailer you want to use and get them to see if your number is portable (which is should be) and then if it is just sign up and that should automatically cancel your contract w/ cingular.

I know Sprint can port numbers from other companies, I don't see any reason why the other companies shouldn't be able to do the same thing.

Yes, OBXVZW21 is right. If you port over to another provider your contract should cancel on its own. Just be sure to ask if the number will be ported before your 30 days is up, because sometimes a number can take a day or two to port over.

i've only seen one port that took 1 day to go throught and thats because cingular was having computer problems. most the time ports go through before the customer leaves my desk.

Well I had one incident where it took almost two days because T-Mobile put the account # under the password, and the password under the account #. Which is why Verizon wouldn't let go of the # until they had it straightened out.

thats the t-mobile salesmans fault, but things happen people get hurried. it got figured out, but verizon was right for not releasing the number.

Right! So what I'm saying is that if the sales rep. tells you that it should be ported in 2 hours, remember that there are many things which can hold up the process.