topic Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone in SIM cards & Porting

Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

GraftyGirl — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 23:06:00 GMT

This is getting beyond a joke.

1. I ordered a new SIM after losing my phone - it arrives by post.

2. It takes 20 minutes for customer services to activate it.

3. It still doesn't work. After 20 minutes on the phone with tech support, they realise the SIM is faulty and order me an eSIM.

4. I download the eSIM onto my new phone but NEED A TEXT TO ACTIVATE IT. I DON'T HAVE A WORKING PHONE BECAUSE THE SIM ISN'T ACTIVATED!!!!!!!!

I am getting so angry now. The customer service from EE is abysmal. What are you going to do to get me a working phone?

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

GraftyGirl — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 23:13:05 GMT

Your customer service is so abysmal that I want a credit to my account. I spoke to EE last Sunday to notify them that I'd lost my phone and a replacement SIM was sent to me by post. I kept getting a SIM not provisioned message, but when I spoke to someone in customer services on Friday morning, it took her 20 minutes but she said she'd activated it. Today the SIM was still not working so I spoke to someone in tech support who told me the SIM was likely faulty. He issued me with an eSIM which I have just downloaded to my phone BUT I now need a OTC via text!!!!! And the problem is? I DON'T HAVE A WORKING PHONE TO RECEIVE A TEXT BECAUSE THE SIM ISN'T ACTIVATED!!!!

This is beyond a joke now. If you can't provide me with a working phone signal, then I don't see why I should pay you for the time you are not providing a mobile service. What do you propose to do about this?

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

Matt_124 — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:39:17 GMT

You are shouting into the void here I'm afraid, this is a customer discussion forum and not EE Customer Services.

All we can do on here is give advice as fellow users of the service. Posting on this forum is not going to help with your issue as there is no account access available on here.

You would need to submit a complaint here https://ee.co.uk/help/contact-ee/complaint/complaint-form

What I would say, is that if you have a local EE store they can get a replacement SIM for you instantly instead of waiting for dispatch from EE centrally. You would need to bring either a UK Driving Licence or a full passport (book passport) for verification.

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

GraftyGirl — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 05:25:49 GMT

So there is basically no way of interacting with ee other than by phone..... All the more reason for me to change providers.

I don't live anywhere near an ee store unfortunately, but thanks for trying to help.

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

bristolian — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 09:19:51 GMT

@GraftyGirl wrote:

So there is basically no way of interacting with ee other than by phone..... All the more reason for me to change providers.

All the major UK operators have similar contact methods.

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

dghj — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 16:12:29 GMT

Same here (MARCH 2025)

Customer can prove who he is and satisfy EE that he is genuine beyond any doubt.

The problem here is EE's insistence on authenticating a customer by SMS even in the already stressful situation of having a lost / stolen or broken phone. eSIMs were designed to avoid this, yet EE are stuck in the dark ages.

There isn't even an identity theft justification for this anymore. EE need a less archaic system to make SIM replacement by eSIM as slick as it is supposed to be, whilst remaining very secure.

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

dghj — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 16:13:45 GMT

Well shame on all of the networks therefore. Why don't EE take the lead on helping people, rather than you stating that they're no worse than the competition?

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

Christopher_G — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 11:40:49 GMT

Hi @dghj

Welcome to the community.

We take security very seriously at EE. Our eSIM teams are working very hard to make the swapping process as easy as possible, whilst keeping customers safe.

If you're still having problems with your SIM switch, I recommend speaking with our customer support team so they can help get you up and running.

Chris

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

Sstnly2096 — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 10:58:00 GMT

I am having this exact problem! cant sign into icloud on my new phone because EE took the old one straight back i cant authenticate with my mobile number and i also cant get me Esim working because they want to send a text to the number i am trying to activate

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

Peter_W — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 13:10:34 GMT

Good afternoon @Sstnly2096.

Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Community!

If you have a new iPhone you should be able to activate this over WiFi if your don't have a SIM, but in order to activate a replacement you will need to receive a PIN to the existing one.

As this is sadly no longer available, I would recommend heading into one of our retail stores with a passport or UK driving licence, and they can help you get it activated here.

Peter

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

Sstnly2096 — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 14:53:26 GMT

I have just been to the store and they said they cant help me, i asked them to take the phone back and cancel the contract but they cant do that either because im 3 days passed the 14 days

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

Peter_W — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:29:16 GMT

@Sstnly2096 They should definitely be able to help you with the SIM replacement, did you mention this option?

Provided you have the correct photo ID they can activate a physical SIM for you, which should resolve all of your issues around activation, too.

With trade-in offers you have 28 days to return you old handset to us as well, so there's never normally pressure to send this back prior to setting your new handset up.

The only exception would usually be if we're doing a like for like swap on a faulty model.

Peter

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

Sstnly2096 — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:51:18 GMT

I did ask for a new SIM first but they said as I upgraded online they couldn't help, same response when I asked to cancel it all together

Re: Impossible to activate my eSIM without a phone

Peter_W — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 16:23:30 GMT

@Sstnly2096 Upgrading online should have absolutely no basis on whether or not you can get a replacement SIM in branch, provided the account is all up and running as it should be.

I actually visited one myself at the weekend as I needed a new SIM for 5G Standalone, and they sorted this out with no issue despite it also being an online upgrade.

The only other route we could look at here would be contacting our team from another phone and requesting a pre-activated replacement via post, but this would be 2-3 working days.

Peter