Fortunately we do have phone number portability (for now) in the US. But every other part of customer service is generally awful. And yes, it's almost a sport among businesses to create the most deceptive and impenetrable pricing schemes possible.

BTW, I intentionally decided against keeping my old number. I could have kept it, but there are still advantages here to having a number local to the area you live in. Most of all though, getting rid of the previous number was advantageous because I kept getting bill collections robocalls for people I'd never heard of. And even the occasional human agent: "Well, do you know his new number," one live collector asked!