Amazing.

So here I have a phone that was formerly on CN & it had worked fine (for a short while) until their services croaked.

It has the updated app, and the info shown gives the number, account, and shows as 'active'.
(Of course it doesn't work as a phone via CN anymore, but it shows that SOMETHING remains active.)

We wanted to try Textnow here again as they've sent multiple emails poking about great deals and since its been a year after when we tried it before - why not ??

The best deal from them right now is to get a low cost phone which gets fully rebated after a successful port-in from another carrier.
They automatically subscribe new users to their 'Grande' plan for the 1st month - but at 1/2 price.

Last time we tried TN, their cellular had zero coverage around here & they cheerfully refunded that 1st month when asked - so the worst case scenario here is having to pay ~$13 for a month of zero usage & getting a nice wifi-only device out of the deal after cancelling IF there remains zero service here as there was before.

But that all is just the back story for where I'm going with this...

The desired port-out was aimed at keeping my CN number - which RP denied having, but WTH, tried to grab it anyhow, and emailed CN asking for the PIN, their reply:

Sent this info along to TN, who made an effort & then replied:

In my final contact with CN, I asked about this, and was told:

So ultimately I re-submitted a 2nd porting request using details from an idle Freedompop account - easily done from the nice, clear info at their site - and the port went through almost immediately, followed by some good confirmation from TN:

Now its time (once again) to see if TN will get any service & actually work around here...

Regarding CN, my conclusions:
[ol]
[li]As a time-wasting amusement it has no equal;[/li]
[li]As a source for anything truly useful it is a complete failure thus far;[/li]
[li]After enticing folks into it with 'free' services, for their numbers to utterly vanish is a terrific method for making sure users get the most possible exasperation (and nothing else...) out of this.[/li]
[/ol]
Having said all that - from this time onward I will be utterly shocked if the time & efforts I put into getting this hogwash ever bring any value in return....and yes, before I get scolded about this - I agree that there was no cost for CN in actual $$, just LOTS of wasted time & efforts.
$$ can be replaced - whereas time can not be re-claimed.