topic Re: Sim Card Stopped Working in SIM cards & Porting

Sim Card Stopped Working

SyedImran — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 06:30:51 GMT

I have recently upgraded my phone to 14 pro max, while transferring data accidentally clicked on Esim, now it is been two days without service, I been to two EE stores but no one can solve the problem contacted customer service twice same answer, technical team same reply.

they cannot issue a replacement card because the E sim was order which is supposed to be activated with 24 hours and until now not active.

I am out of my business from last two days , when I called customer service the answer is shop can replace the sim they are misguiding you and EE store don’t have such system to delete the Esim and issue a new SIM card

can anyone help to resolve this issue.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

Chris_B — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 07:59:37 GMT

@SyedImran Have you looked at your old device because a text would have been sent to your device that has the physical sim in it to authorise the eSim request.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

SyedImran — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 10:10:34 GMT

My Sim is not working at all so how could I receive a text on my old phone , anyways I am going to EE shop again today .

customer service has told me over the phone that my E sim is activated last night but still not have network signals on my new 14 pro, I will go to the shop today to get a replacement sim , until yesterday they cannot issue replacement because the E sim wasn’t active and now because it is active in the system will see what they can do for me.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

Maliq1982 — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 19:20:11 GMT

Did You try to call to them to replace your sim to new one? Or you can ask to reset your old sim by their system. Call to the EE-center.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

David_Mc — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 21:59:25 GMT

Hi Sydeimran

I don't think that EE can fix this. WE had the same issue on 6th November and are still no further.

Three visits to the EE shop at on average an hour each.

Two customer service calls and three Tech Support calls, all hours long. Raised to level 2, raised as single device issue - all no futher on. Several (three) new activated sims sent out and several requests to wait 24 hours, all the same "No Service" We are now heading for two months. The error is in the code that performs the activation, something like "CVSimActError" or "CVSimStatus=U" The error code will have been sent to the developers whoever they are and they won't be able to identify where the code is failing to run, because the fault is in the particular account, in other words - the code works if the account is correct. The account shows an error in AddOns so I have asked for a Network Refresh, which was done, no benefit, and asked to remove any add-ons and edit the address to see if the account can be 'fixed' so far no progress.

I suspect that other customers will have the same problem. The best hope is that some developer is assigned to fix the issue. If I manage to get lucky I will post again.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

SyedImran — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 22:18:39 GMT

Today is the 6th day and I am still out of my business, I have been to Ashton Ee store today and they spoke with customer service, luckily managed to get one physical sim out from the store but as per EE this sim will take between 12 to 24 hours to get activated.

until now no service on my phone. 😢 don’t know what will happen tomorrow……

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

David_Mc — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 22:36:18 GMT

You can see my earlier note on Syedimran's call. The phones and the sims all work. The activation code doesn't work if an eSIM has been ordered by the owner. The EE shops and the Customer Service/Tech Support people are very switched on and helpful but can't resolve this issue. When they try the activation fails with some error - from memory its something like "CVSimActError" or "CVSimStatus=U". Error in the code can only be traced by the (code) developers but the code could have been written years ago, and might be in a state where ( the owners of the code) no-one really knows how it works. It will be millions of lines long and will just fail to run unless all the right account conditions are met, Something like an upgrade to the code to allow for eSIM's might cause problems like this. If the code was working fine before eSIM's came along, and the code was modified to allow for eSIM's - any condition that was unexected - for example I heard that Apple had changed the phone owner setup with a "yes/no eSIM " question during activation, rather than as an optional extra, which at a guess, is the cause of the problem - i.e if you select Yes for an eSIM you're going down the rabbit hole - So might not be fixable. Without maligning EE, companies often buy in code and rely upon third party support. Years later it takes substantial effort and cost to replace outdated systems - but more so - the risk of losing all services by upgrading is high - high risk and is probably only done when there's no other choice. No Chief Exec wants to lose his entire service for obvious reasons. At a guess this type of call will be stacking up numerically - and responsibility will be passed around like a hot potato, or just sit on a growing queue with a failed SLA. If these issues are all recent then the numbers of similar issues will grow rapidly, and either EE or Apple will need to make changes. Usually this means a project and this takes a lot of time, or more hopefully, some developer will be assigned to trace the issue - the more faults the more chance of finding a common fault - and the code will be patched. Hope that EE will want to comment on this. They won't be able to give timescales but it would be nice to know if a fix was underway or not. It would save phone owners a lot of wasted time in shops, waiting for physical sims - and on the telephone.

These are my personal opinions, all guesswork and speculation apart from what I've seen in the shops and discussed with Tech Support - hopefully not maligning EE or Apple! Feel free to correct or contradict. I can only see a solution where the eSIM request is either fulfilled, or deleted, or the code is patched.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

David_Mc — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 22:50:21 GMT

My guess is that you will have no service tomorrow so take whatever action you need to maintain your business and customers. The reason is that the 12-24 hours activation is 'said to be' an anti-fraud measure to make sure that no lost phone calls come in between the order for a new phone or something along those lines. I've heard that Tech Support can override the 12 hour gap by referring to Level 2 support. When they do this, in my experience - the override happens but the activation code fails. So the phone shows no service because the sim is not active. I'm hoping that a fix will be found - but my bet is that it won't be found short term - and i'm trying myself and if anything works will let you know. Dropped all my thoughts into the chat below. See what EE say tomorrow. I'm interested to know if all these calls pressed the eSIM request.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

Maliq1982 — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 10:02:52 GMT

I agree with that 100 percent.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

David_Mc — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 12:01:31 GMT

Spoke to Tech Support this morning (Thursday 22nd December)

The error code in my case is

ccSimActRulesFailedInUpdateMode

I don't know the exact syntax as I've just taken this over the phone. Different systems may show this error message in different ways. So it might look something like ccSimStatus="U" (guess)

So the activation problem is most likely the pending eSIM. I'm trying to revert to the original plan to remove any related "updates" (address or plan or add-ons ). If its purely about the eSIM then some way of removing that update is needed - either move fully to eSIM. I'll ask EE why they can't do this. Or, find out why the eSIM request doesn't result in a move to eSIM - why continue with a physical SIM? Anyone who has been able to delete the eSIM record, please let me know in the chat.

I've asked EE for the call reference number raised as a result of my call. If this is forthcoming then we need to track this through to a code patch, if there is no front-end tweak that fixes the problem.

I'm making a separate note of the Available SIM data, the EMEI, EMEI2and ICCID codes to try track what's happening but please don't publish SIM data on this chat as this is personal data and I don't think that EE would be very happy - so no need to do so.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

David_Mc — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 12:08:16 GMT

Looking at the eSIM activation process, it states that to use carrier activation, both phones need ios16.

The stuck process could be here where the eSIM request is inactive and blocks the physical sim.

Might be worth raising with Apple or checking on their forums.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

David_Mc — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 14:15:28 GMT

From the web, it's interesting to see that new SIM Registration Rules came into force on 12th December 2022. These new regs are an attempt to link photo ID to any SIM registration. Make of that what you will but it's the law. More guesswork, but changes in regulations usually mean code changes, so it's possible that some code change introduced prior to EE meeting the new regs, has introduced this error, clashing with the inadvertent eSIM request. Doesn't change anything but ideally this 'new?' fault would be fed back to the project. I'm only thinking that eSIm's have been around a reasonable time and if this fault is new then there won't be too many cases, but case numbers will grow.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

SyedImran — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 16:48:11 GMT

It is been 8 days I am out of my business moving like a rolling stone from customer service to technical and than to EE store.

no one is been able to activate my sim , not even any help from business sales Manager.

really disappointed, very bad customer service they cannot even resolve their own fault in the system.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

XRaySpeX — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 16:59:54 GMT

Before you do so lodge a formal complaint with EE & give them a chance to put things right. Courts like to see you've taken positive steps to mitigate your losses before coming to them.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

David_Mc — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 08:18:23 GMT

Hi Syedimran

The next step for us is to try open an account with another suppler - say Vodaphone and see if the number can be ported across. This should not depend upon SIM Activation code running, so should work. It will only fail if the current status of the phone number is stopping the EE Account system from working correctly. The EE Account shows errors in My EE.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

David_Mc — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 08:19:07 GMT

When I say Us, I mean my personal account with EE as we have the same problem as you.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

Christopher_G — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 08:21:50 GMT

Hi @David_Mc

I know you've discussed this with our Technical Support team from your previous posts. I would recommend continuing to do so and open a complaint with them, if you haven't already.

Hopefully they can help you get sorted.

Chris

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

Maliq1982 — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 15:58:50 GMT

Good for all of us, gays!!!

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

David_Mc — Sun, 25 Dec 2022 15:58:00 GMT

I raised a complaint several weeks back, making sure that I expressed the call as a complaint to make sure it was registered on your complaints procedure. Nothing happened. No acknowledgment that a complaint had been raised. That in itself is a breach of the complaints procedure.

The complaint won't fix anything. What I'm wanting from EE is to enquire whether there is a project dealing with the SIM Registration Act, and whether this is a fault introduced by a code change. If so, the project need to know in order to patch the code.

Alternatively. EE being the experts, you need to state whether the phone number can be ported to another telecomms suppliers. Pointless to stick to business practices trying to keep a customer, if the customer can't use their phone. You have to be big enough to say whether there's a fix or not, and from my experience to date, there isn't - let the customer move. In any event, if EE don't help then I will try it myself in the new year.

Re: Sim Card Stopped Working

Leanne_T — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 07:55:10 GMT

Hi @David_Mc

Thanks for coming back to us.

This is not something we are aware of, to get this looked into further please get back in touch with our technical support team. They can check the complaint and see if there is an update on this for you.

Leanne.