I work in a large association office. I have imputed over 75 leagues in the last 2 or 3 weeks. And we're almost half way done. And here's why you get a different number.....
1. you didn't fill out the card completely with your existing ID number
2. You moved out of the association you established your ID in and did not give that ID to your new association.
3. you used a nick name instead of your birth name or name given on a previous card.
Our association does not have the numbers for every bowler across the country. We cannot cross referance any name vs number other then what you yourself can do on bowl.com. And anyone that has done that has seen the limitations of bowl.com' s searching ability. And frankley we don't have time to look up every body's ID number via the internet, that is not on the card. The program (WinLabs) that the bowling industry uses automatically goes to the best option when you type in a name. Otherwise, everything has to match. Your name, address, birth date and phone. We have many John Smiths in our data base. If you don't give us more clues on which John Smith you are we give you a new number.
Now, what we can do is merge your identities. If you come up with your original ID it is possible to merge the two IDs and come up with whatever number you prefer. But if you have moved out of an association, there's no way that your achievements in that association get transfered over to the new association's data base. Because we do not have access to those data bases in other associations and states.
Erin