"Verizon's marketing ploy worked like this: After a subscriber signed on with another carrier, the company was notified of the cancellation, and was expected to port the number as part of the number portability process.
Instead of just complying with the request, Verizon would start aggressively marketing ex-customers in an effort to win them back with new incentives. It seems like a pretty standard practice, but Verizon also sent out a "jeopardy notice" to the other carrier, and stalled on porting the number by coding it as in "conflict," so the carrier had to resolve the conflict before it could begin servicing the new customer."
But get this - Kevin Martin, Chairman of FCC defends Verizon "Customer retention marketing is a form of aggressive competition that has the potential to benefit consumers through lower prices and expanded service offerings."
Using that logic, airlines should be entitled to lose bags when passengers transfer to another airline and hold them hostage at the gate so they miss the competing flight. And car dealers would be allowed to take away their customer keys till they bought a new car. Hey, that is "customer retention" ...
Fair, aggressive competition is good - so why has the FCC allowed so much consolidation in the last few years?
