We activate and release about 1000 toll free numbers per month to almost every major carrier. It may seem surprising to think that a major phone company would be unwilling or unable to process a transfer request properly but it happens more often than you would believe. You also need to follow up on transfer requests, and can’t assume that just because they got the paperwork that they’re going to put it through properly. The fact that your phone company is rejecting your request internally for an excuse like this is proof of that.

We aren’t as big as any regular phone company, but this is all we do and we have the best documentation in the business. Your Toll Free Birth Certificate™ IS legally the “phone bill” for the purposes of transferring toll free numbers. If you’ve given that to them and they’re giving you a hard time, then the problem isn’t really you or your paperwork, and you can’t necessarily take their response at face value and act as if it were valid, because it’s not valid to refuse to even process a request without their idea of a phone bill.

It seems a little Arrogant to Make Up your own Rules

As the primary resporg administrator for Resporg.com (QZA01), I have the final say over what is allowed and not allowed to be released. I have the records, and no other phone company has access to them. I have been personally trained and certified by the SMS. The SMS does NOT require phone bill copies to transfer 800 numbers. Some companies do request phone bills in order to prevent transfer requests from being rejected. It comes from lazy resporgs that use that in lue of bothering to verify the customer information themselves.

Some phone representatives hear that they should request a phone bill and after that gets repeated a couple times it turns into requiring a phone bill. That’s the purpose of our Toll Free Birth Certificate™. Our Toll Free Birth Certificate™ is designed to provide proof of ownership specifically for transferring numbers and it says in writing that it is a bill for purposes of transferring toll free numbers. So if someone tells you that you that you need a phone bill, give them the Toll Free Birth Certificate™.

We do this All the Time

Like I said earlier, we activate and release about 1000 toll free numbers per month to virtually every phone company. Chances are we’ve released toll free numbers to the company giving you a hard time. Not all of the representatives in a phone company know us but the chances are that the resporg administrator(s) know us, or have at least gotten numbers from us before.

It may sound simple for a phone company representative to say that a transfer request was rejected because it needs a current phone bill. But since that is NOT a requirement to transfer numbers, and we did provide our “phone bill” that is not what’s holding it up. So to let the tail wag the dog isn’t going to solve anything.

The releasing party is required to verify the information to insure that they don’t release your number to a third party. The requesting party has no way to actually verify the information. It’s not hard to make up a fake phone bill from some other phone company and they have no way to verify anything on it, nor do they have any responsibility if something is incorrect. Nobody has access or rights to our customer records without a subpoena. PERIOD.

If a representative says “it was rejected” for that they may be implying that it was rejected by the releasing carrier but we will NEVER reject a request for that, ever. That would mean that they rejected it or delayed it internally. A lot of the times, they say that just to make an excuse for internal delays. There is more about what to do if the phone company says your number was rejected for any other reason here.

It may take Communication, Finesse, some Pushing and Persistence

Why would a major phone company intentionally delay or hold up a transfer request from a customer trying to transfer a number to them to service? I have to tell you that even though I run into this more often than you would ever believe, I really have no clue. It is beyond stupid but it happens.

I try to solve that through communication. I will be happy to talk with the rep that you are dealing with or I can call their resporg department and ask their resporg administrator to contact the representative or their boss and ask them to put the paperwork through. The resporg department is usually impressed with another resporg attempting to help a customer transfer away (because nobody else ever does that) and they usually push it straight through.

You have other Alternatives

The last resort is to make sure that the customer being jerked around knows that they don’t have to use the phone company providing their physical line. A lot of people assume that they have to go with their local phone company. However local phone companies, in addition to being more restrictive and more expensive than many of the more competitive companies seem to give customers more hassles too. There are 6 reasons not to use your local phone company. And one way around these hassles is to just make it easy to use a different company. You can probably tell from my website that I try to help educate people as much as possible, but sometimes if you just can’t get though someone, you just have to go a different way.

I don’t do all of this to give any other phone company a hard time. I only want to help our customers get their service running quickly with the company of their choice. We will release numbers in real time, as long as the new company is really ready for them. We have a chart (which we really need to update) that shows the average transfer speeds for different phone companies.

Don’t let them step on you!

Unfortunately, the bottom line is that sometimes you have to push a representative to get the job done. If they say you need a phone bill, tell them that the Toll Free Birth Certificate™ IS the phone bill and the proof of ownership specifically for transferring numbers. If they won’t accept that, you can ask for their boss, you can send them this post, you can call us with them on the phone, you can ask us to call their resporg department (we have to know which resporg they use if they’re not one) or you can use a different phone company. Unfortunately taking them at their word and doing what they say is usually best way to go in circles and accomplish nothing.