After more than five decades with the same phone number, Frances “Sugar” Shankman lost her number when Comcast mistakenly disconnected her line.” When Frances tried to get the number back, Comcast issued her a new one.

“This is ridiculous,” Shankman said. “I moved to Highland Park in 1952. I’ve had the same number since then.”

Since the account was in her late husband’s name, Shankman had to produce a death certificate, but by then it was too late. Comcast had put her number into the pool for new customers and wouldn’t give it back.

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” Upset, Shankman canceled her service with Comcast and switched to AT&T on Nov. 16.

Her new phone company vowed to give her the old number, but only after Comcast released it, which under FCC rules must be done within 30 days.”

Finally, she wrote the Chicago Tribune who managed to get her number back through AT&T. Comcast has since apologized to Mrs. Shankman, and denied the Trib had anything to do with solving the problem.

” “We apologize for the inconvenience this caused Ms. Shankman,” Amores said. “Once we learned of her situation, we took immediate action to resolve it.”

People get attached to their phone numbers. You don’t want to mess with that. —MEGHANN MARCO

Phone customer gets lost in number game [Chicago Tribune]

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