Three times to get phone number ported but keeps failing

[margmann]

The phone number for my 89 year old mother keeps failing to be ported from Telstra.

The same process keeps occuring - basic trouble-shooting, then a realisation that the port has failed (please read the notes!!!), then transfers to the escalation team, transfer back to the support team. back to trouble shooting, etc, etc.

This has now been attempted THREE times and I have just spent another hour on the phone only to be cut off.

Can someone PLEASE escalate this and get this fixed for her?

To have someone of that age unable to receive phone calls is a serious problem.

[Anonymous]

Hi @margmann , it appears that the porting has been successful as the phone service shows registered on our system. Kindly try to check if the home phone is now working.

[margmann]

Thanks but its now not working for outbound or inbound.

Outbound now gives an engaged sound for every number dialed.

[BasilDV]

Hi @margmann

We'd like to arrange a call from our Accounts team to check on this further as the phone status shows active.

Please send us a PM with your preferred time and best number to be contacted to discuss this further.

BasilDV

[margmann]

@BasilDV @Anonymous 

I did not receive a phone call today as scheduled.

I'm not sure you realise how  stressful and frustrating this knowing that my mother is home alone without a landline at her age and in a Melbourne lockdown.

[margmann · Accepted solution]

@BasilDV @Anonymous 

So the solution was that the porting had to be completed.

This changed the inbound signal from ringing through to Telstra's voicemail to line busy signal. This was the indicator that porting had occured.

The really confusing part was how to get past this.

I assumed that all inbound calls and outbound calls to land lines (unlimited on Bundle M) would work.

But I had to add $10 to the prepaid account for calling to get it to work.

Topping up the prepaid calling account triggerted TPG's system to send a final activation email as well.

Very confusing, even after porting! But got there in the end.

Big thanks to the Community forum team for helping. It is much appreciated.

[GabrielPittman]

I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties you've been experiencing with porting your mother's phone number. I can understand how frustrating it can be to have to go through the same process multiple times and not see any results.
Try looking into services that provide random Australian phone numbers. This could be a potential solution to your problem. You can also try contacting Telstra customer support again and explaining the situation's urgency. Having any relevant documentation or information readily available to expedite the process may also be helpful.