Voicemail now working!
I was in my initial 14-day trial period with TMO and was contemplating cancelling, but I think I'll stick with them for the 1yr contract and see how things go.

Definitely better pricing than VZW, but there's only so much service people who use their phones for business will trade away for lower prices.

Looks like enough people are experiencing this problem that TMO is now flagging this as a known issue (i.e., CCR will no longer bother passing you to Tech as there is no point in doing so). They are working on it, but no estimated time to resolution.

While the VZW releasing issue may be a problem in some cases, I have been told in no uncertain terms that the voicemail outage I am experiencing is affecting many TMO customers who (a) have recently ported their numbers over from another carrier and (b) live in an area where TMO is switching over to their new voicemail system.

The 1hr+ hold on the most recent call was just to try to reach a CCR, not even a manager.

I'm not sure where the reps are from that your speaking to but as far as porting numbers it could be up to one month to get all of your services working properly, through no fault of t-mobile, verizon may have an issue with releasing you so you will only get partial service for the time being. You being on hold could be a result of them trying to resolve this issue asap (which I'm sure their doing anyway) and also trying to find a floor walker (manager or similar person) is not always an easy thing to do, most of the time you should only be on hold for a max of 60 sec before someone comes back to you, even if it's just to let you know that their "trying" to do everything in their power to help you out. So you have a lagitamit complaint there, but most manager in any call center, not just t-mobile, do not like to get on the phone with customers, not because they don't lilke you just they are obligated to help you until they solve your problem or transfer you to someone who can (which the reps are as well) , but a manager can't be tied up for 15 min with one customer while 20 other reps are waiting so what your getting is the "quick fix" which isn't a bad thing it's just a waiting game and for people like you and I that use our phones for business and are not patient people it can seem like an eternity. The only advise I can really give is give it time, and can assure you that they are trying to do everything in their power to get your service (completely) working. Good luck!!

Below is an email I have sent to TMO:

"I am a new T-Mobile (TMO) customer (cell # xxx-xxx-xxxx) and ported my VZW number to my TMO phone late Friday (7/8/05). Since then I have made 3 calls regarding the lack of a voicemail account. On the first call on Saturday (7/9/05), I was told that it normally takes 24 hours for voicemail to become active after number porting.

On Sunday (7/10/05), after discussing/testing the issue with Customer Care Rep (CCR) (2nd call), I got dropped while being transferred to Tech. I called back (3rd call), and spent over 1 hour speaking with CCR, then Tech, then Advanced Tech. Finally Advanced Tech said my trouble ticket #yyyyyy would be passed to Engineering, and that they would call me back with a resolution - I clarified this, i.e., I would not have to call back to chase up on this, they would call me back.

It is now Monday night (7/11/05), and I have received no call or email from TMO, and NO VOICEMAIL! I use my cellphone for business, and have never had a problem with VZW. Not having voicemail renders TMO's service virtually useless to me. More appalling is the complete lack of responsiveness from TMO.

I am now on my 4th call and have not yet reached a CCR, despite having been on hold for 65 minutes!!!

Please escalate this to the most senior manager possible. I am posting this issue and hopefully very rapidly forthcoming resolution on the web."

I will repost with updates and, hopefully, with a quick resolution.