number guard

I am probably the next in a long list of people to write something about this,

Most of us are or have been in the cell phone business, most of us know the regulations for what can or can not be done on a customers account. Number guard is available to customers who wish to protect their number from being inadvertantly ported to another company.

let me make this point on number guard, if someone who has your social, your account number, password or any other prudent information, wants to port your number to another carrier, they can just as easily call up customer care and have this number guard removed. So I ask this? what is the point of number guard?
For Nextel/Sprint to retain the customer as long as possible. When I activated my account 3 years ago number guard was never on my account nor requested, when I ported to another company and expecting the normal time frame of 2 hours and 40 minutes by the port regulations, I waited another 72 hours and still my new phone company could not activate due to a problem on Nextel's side. Called Nextel and mysteriously number guard had been activated on my account without my consent or knowledge.

For those who do not know, when a port has been requested from one company to another, the responding company (the one being ported from) has 2 hours and 40 minutes to port out the number, if after that time frame has come, the number is to automatically be ported out. usually delays mean an unpaid bill, cancelled accounts and so on,
Nextel delays due to it's number guard which "protects it's customers", or mainly nextel themselves by keeping them active longer than wanted. What does that do in the long run? your nextel phone may be active an extra 3 or 4 days till the average consumer figures this out, this generates extra revenue for those extra days which may not seem like much to one consumer, however multiply that couple dollars by the daily port requests and i'm sure your in the tens of thousands of extra revenue in Nextels pockets due to "protection" delays.

I encourage Nextel customers to contact Nextel and find out if number guard is on their accounts. It may not seem like it matters now, until you decide to port out for one reason or another, it will cause a headache at that point. To make matters worse, find out if it is on your account and then ask yourself this question, did you even request it to be put on in the first place?

Another scam by Nextel

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Hmmm, I don't buy that man. I know that when I was doing some adjustments once, a Nextel Rep told me about the number guard and asked if I wanted it added to my account and I just said yes.

But I don't get why it's necessary. How can your number be "ported" to another provider while your account with another provider is active? And someone isn't gonna get a hold of enough of my info to screw with my account. I don't see how it's a big problem with customers numbers being thrown around companies all the time. How can you become all the sudden a customer of Verizon from Nextel due to this "porting"?

It all doesn't make sense. If I want to change providers, I just have to call up and give my proof that I'm the account holder and switch, number guard isn't necessary and I shouldn't have to worry about someone illegally switching my cell phone numbers to another provider, that's what Nextel is for, to honor the account, why would they let someone steal an account away from them?

It's all so weird and confusing and I can't type as fast as I can think about it.

Originally Posted by DJ Mello

Hmmm, I don't buy that man. I know that when I was doing some adjustments once, a Nextel Rep told me about the number guard and asked if I wanted it added to my account and I just said yes.

But I don't get why it's necessary. How can your number be "ported" to another provider while your account with another provider is active? And someone isn't gonna get a hold of enough of my info to screw with my account. I don't see how it's a big problem with customers numbers being thrown around companies all the time. How can you become all the sudden a customer of Verizon from Nextel due to this "porting"?

It all doesn't make sense. If I want to change providers, I just have to call up and give my proof that I'm the account holder and switch, number guard isn't necessary and I shouldn't have to worry about someone illegally switching my cell phone numbers to another provider, that's what Nextel is for, to honor the account, why would they let someone steal an account away from them?

It's all so weird and confusing and I can't type as fast as I can think about it.

Buy it and believe it, I've had three different customer service reps tell me a a completley different story. First rep said i needed to have requested it to be put it on, second rep told me it was never on in the first place, the third rep said it was on but didn't have proof of when it was activated on the account.

I've been a store manager for cell phone companies (corporate stores) going on about 10 years now, i know what i'm talkin about, when I set the account up personally 3 years ago, number guard was never on the phones. Then it mysteriously appears 3 years later when i try to port.

Why anyone would want someone's account is beyond me, however it does happen. Any joe schmoe with your information can call and have number guard removed so what is the point to have it in the first place? all it does is give the person one extra step when porting out a number.

it's a crock if you think about it.

Also when i asked to speak to a supervisor or manager regarding the problems, 3 times i asked and three times i was disconnected. They know they've been caught up and don't want to fess up. One way or another my wife and I deserve a credit for the time we asked it to be removed and the time it wasn't removed. and for whatever reason it was put on to begin with.