Business ProfileforGeneral Communications, Inc

I had a landline with GCI. The voicemail only worked once in about 8 years, but I dealt with that. Then my phone quit working. **************** Reps in another country answer the calls. Some of them I couldn't understand. It sounded like they would read out of a manual, telling me all kinds of things that did not pertain to me, like how much it cost to make a payment over the phone. This would go on and on as I told them I didn't care about all that. I just wanted my phone to work. Because of the extreme stress of trying to deal with someone I didn't understand, I decided to switch to ******* switched to ACS, they came out and fixed the phone. ACS told me on two different phone calls that they would cancel my service with GCI. I kept getting emails from GCI, telling me they were going to be charging for my next month. I would respond, saying I didn't have service with them anymore. Almost 2 months after switching to ****** called GCI to make sure my service was cancelled. They said it wasn't, but they would make it official as of the day I called. I just wanted to be rid of them. A few days later my phone quit working again. I called ACS. They said GCI put in an order to be my service provider but they hadn't completed the process. I called GCI. They said they would not have done that, but obviously they did. In order to keep the same phone number (which is on everything I have to have a phone number connected to), I would have to complete the order to sign up with GCI and pay for a month. GCI does not prorate. So, right now, my phone does not work and GCI is holding my phone number hostage until I have signed up with them, which I did, because I need that phone number. And I specifically, officially cancelled with them several days before. They had also been cancelled 2 months before. What will keep them from taking my service back again when I switch back to GCI?! Is it legal to hold a phone number hostage?