Apple Watch series 6 - unable to add data as EE account not eligible

[matteofadda]

Hi everyone!

I joined EE as a new customer almost a month ago and since then I have not been able to set a mobile plan on my watch.

I have a monthly plan with iPhone 12 Pro Max  and I own a watch series 6 (bought directly from Apple). I seeked assistance via webchat at first to set up my watch line. They advised it would take 4 hours, then to reset and re-pair watch and phone and that’s where all the trouble started.

After these 4 hours nothing happened, webchat told me to wait 24 hours and so I did.

I then called 150 and spoke to several people in Tech which did not know what to do, one of them suggested to restart the plan from scratch since a webchat operator could not just ‘drag n drop’ a plan on a non-EE watch directly.

They cancelled my watch line, everything deleted and they advised me on what to do and how to set up a mobile plan myself.

However on the mobile data page of my watch a weird message  keeps appearing:

Your EE account is not eligible to enable mobile data on your Apple Watch. Contact EE at 150 for more information.

Several hours of phone conversation with the phone team, tech 1 and tech 2  have brought nowhere. Finally tech 2 told me that this was a ‘known issue’ and the deadline for this problem to be sorted would be 10 days (it might have come forward and tech 2 advised to keep trying pairing the watch if I wanted!)

I had to open a formal complaint etc, today I received an update from the complaint office since Tech 2 have disappeared and nobody phone called (I also have a separate issue with WiFi calls on other devices too that had to be escalated and has not been solved either) and the complaint office informed me that the timeframe has been extended and there is no set date when this problem will be resolved.

I am utterly disgusted by the level of inconsistency between officers working in the Tech department since everyone I have spoken to has told me different things furthermore I don’t know what to do and i am genuinely loosing the confidence that this problem will be solved.

I had a look at this forum and I saw many people have similar problems but nobody had them recently - I really need this matter sorted as quickly as possible or I won’t have any other choice than leaving EE for good…

Any advice anyone?

[aladdin]

this is mad, i’m in the exact same boat as you guys. i upgraded a few weeks ago (from an XR to the 12) and my watch no longer has a data plan with my new phone. whereas it worked perfectly with the old one

when i go on the watch app it says my account is not eligible to enable mobile data. which is nonsense. tried speaking to a guy but he had no idea what the problem was

has been 2 weeks and no fix. shambolic but i’m glad im not alone tbh 

[JCDuch]

Same here.
In my first month of a rolling contract, I’ve spoken to several tech guys about this known issue, wasn’t a known issue when I came on board 🤔, all gone quiet now from EE, a complaint was raised and subsequently closed BY EE!!! I’ll give it a week or so then if no sign of sorting I’ll move to O2 or Vodafone and mention it on social media. 

[Kurt101]

Has anyone had any updates on this. 

[GavinThain]

I spoke to EE today. The tech support person I spoke to said this is being looked at as high priority defect and is classified as a P2.

This is realistically as high as can be expected, as a P1 would be something like multiple masts not working impacting thousands.

I genuinely believe this will be resolved soon, and you can ensure you are on the distribution list to be contacted once a resolution has been found.

They also explained this issue appears to be caused by a conflict with Wi-Fi calling being enabled on some new user accounts. The issue appears to manifest either in users not being able to turn on Wi-Fi calling or turn on data plans for Apple Watch Series 6.

I think we have to continue to be patient.

Sent from my iPhone

[MSV-10]

@GavinThain 

Following all meant with respect

Quote:

I spoke to EE today. The tech support person I spoke to said this is being looked at as high priority defect and is classified as a P2.

This is realistically as high as can be expected, as a P1 would be something like multiple masts not working impacting thousands.

I genuinely believe this will be resolved soon, and you can ensure you are on the distribution list to be contacted once a resolution has been found.

They also explained this issue appears to be caused by a conflict with Wi-Fi calling being enabled on some new user accounts. The issue appears to manifest either in users not being able to turn on Wi-Fi calling or turn on data plans for Apple Watch Series 6.

I think we have to continue to be patient.

End quote:

That's just a miss mash of bits pedalled out to all over the last 2 or three weeks.

It's still not what all will be told dependent which person you talk to.

Still tech level 2 (a) will tell you that what tech level 2 (b) told you is incorrect.

EE have displayed nothing but an inept approach with this continually recurring issue that they have repeated over and over since the first Apple watch 3 going back over 4 years.

[MSV-10]

@matteofadda @GavinThain @Kurt101 @JCDuch @aladdin @Leanne_T 

Todays Update: 

On Saturday following my 2nd conversation with David a call was arranged for 9:15 today (Wednesday)

So I made sure I arranged my day to receive the call.

9:15 come and went.

At 9:53 I had a text from David.

Saying he was still awaiting a further update and could he arrange a call for Friday! So I arrange my day again and hope?

He requested I email him a suitable time.

I have sent David three emails so far with ZERO response to any of them??

So that would be pointless?

So the emails are either:

Not getting through?

Going in spam? obviously not as it is the first place a technically minded person would look.

They are being replied to but going into spam? See above I am technically minded.

Or they are being ignored.

EE are the biggest misfortune I have had in as long as I can remember!

I assume this needs to go to customer complaints as in post 34 here that I have already referenced. https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Archived-Posts/Unable-to-set-up-Apple-Watch-Mobile-Data/td-p/743323/pa...

Post 34:

The frustrating part is actually how easy it is to get this fixed. Eventually mine was sorted, and it was the same resolution that @nuonknight had.

My issue went all the way to Level 3, who didn't achieve anything. In the end I had a call from Danny at Customer Complaints. When I explained the issue, and the resolution that @nuonknight had he couldn't understand why it wouldn't work in my case.

The resolution is for EE to set-up the data plan manually on their side. They will need you to provide the EID and IMEI of the watch. This can be found by opening the Apple Watch app on your iPhone. Select General -> About. Scroll down and you'll find both. Give that information to EE. They'll set-up the plan, ask you to wait 20/30 minutes and then reset the watch. When you reset it may ask you if you want to keep the data plan, you respond that you DO wish to keep it. When you set-up the watch again (you can restore from a backup) go through the data plan set-up and it'll straight away pick up your data plan and activate.

It was a really simple solution, and one that was proposed by Level 2 on Christmas Eve, I really don't know why it didn't happen, as I wasted weeks trying to get hold of Level 3.

If you don't get any joy with Level 2 support, escalate to customer complaints. I'll PM you the full name of the person that helped me. 

Hope this helps you...

[matteofadda]

Can someone from EE advise on the above reply by @MSV-10 ?

Can we give this a go and see if it works?

Thank you

[MSV-10]

@matteofadda 

"Can someone from EE advise on the above reply by @MSV-10 ?

Can we give this a go and see if it works?

Thank you"

You will be told either:

Yes it has and it made no difference

There is no point yet

Wifi calling isn't working so no point

et etc

Wifi calling now working, which we were all told was the issue.

One tech person will tell you they only need the EID (as mine did) well this one anyway, gave everything to another nearly two weeks ago who then vanished.

According to the links I posted to set up the data plan manually they need both the EID and IMEI numbers.

Then you have to have faith that it actually gets done! I say that as so many of the tech guys are as fed up with this as we are.

HOWEVER they are being paid to peddle this out as opposed to being the poor customer getting no where and paying not being paid!

[D22]

I gave them the EID and the IMEI number and was still told it cant be done, wasn't told wifi calling was part if the issue and this is now working again for me too

whats worse is not being kept in the loop with whats happening, EE must know who is affected and they should be able to keep everyone informed on progress

i have made a complaint and yet to eben have that acknowledge other than the auto response email

come on EE give us an update at least  

[Leanne_T]

Hi @D22 @matteofadda 

I've sent you a private message for some extra details. 

Leanne.