SIM stopped working - please help?

[Konvex]

Hi everyone!

Please can someone help me. Here's the situation:

I have two EE sims under the same account. My main number is what I use in my router for my internet, my secondary number is what I use as my mobile phone. I have had both for six months with no issues.

Today, when I tried to connect to the net with my router, there's no connection. After trying all the usual things, I eventually swapped my sims and it connects no problem with my secondary number (hence how I am able to be online typing this 🙂 )

When I put my primary number in my phone, there is no connection. So, there must be an issue with this primary number.

What can I do to get this fixed? It's like EE has blocked this primary number for some reason? Why would they do that?

Thanks for any help!

[Leanne_T]

Hi there @Konvex

Thanks for coming here. 

If the SIM card has stopped working, this may have developed a fault. To get this looked into please call us on 150 or 0800 079 8586 and the team will be happy to help 🙂

Leanne.

[Konvex]

Hi there @Leanne_T , thanks for your reply 🙂

I called there and like you say, it was suggested that a replacement SIM might be needed. As this will take many days to arrive due to the postal strikes, I'm just wondering, is there anything else that it could be or that I could try before I order the replacement? I'm guessing that as soon as a replacement is ordered, it cancels the current one, so there would be no chance of getting it working once I commit to the replacement?

Many thanks!

[Leanne_T · Accepted solution]

Hi @Konvex

If the SIM is not working in any other device and there are no issues with your account this would need a replacement SIM. You can pop into an EE Store for the replacement if easier, you will need to take photo ID. 

Leanne,

[Konvex]

Hi @Leanne_T 

How about if I order the replacement SIM via the account settings page - there seems to be the provision to order a replacement that way? It took like an hour on hold to get through before, and then ages to try and explain the situation to an agent, so maybe I can order the new SIM online via the account page?

Thanks!

[Leanne_T]

It would need a PIN code to order which would not be received by the SIM card, you would need to call or visit a store @Konvex

Leanne.

[Konvex]

@Leanne_T  Thanks very much for the information and for your help. Have a great day! 🙂

[Leanne_T]

No problem @Konvex

Hope you get sorted soon 🙂

Leanne.

[XRaySpeX]

Are these SIMS respectively on contract or PAYG? A PAYG SIM could well go into hibernation after 6 months of non-chargeable use. If that were the case just getting a replacement SIM would not take it out of hibernation.

[Konvex]

@XRaySpeXHiya 🙂

Nope, they are not PAYG, they are on a contract. I spoke to a nice guy on the phone support today and he tried lots of things, like resetting the SIM in some way, etc, but nothing worked. He's sending out a replacement SIM in case this one is damaged, but I'm not sure that will be the solution.

It's a strange thing - the SIM is "seen" by both the router and when I put in a phone. It shows bars on the network. But, there's nothing I can do to get it to actually "connect" in a way where I can use it to call, or transfer data - it just says "connection failed" when I check the settings of the router, and when it's in the phone, there's a small mark on the signal strength indicator to obviously show it's not connected properly.

When I test the router and my phone with my secondary SIM, they work perfectly, so it has to be something to do with either the primary SIM card physically, or something has gone wrong with my number.

It's worked perfectly for about half a year in my router, then this morning it just had this issue out of the blue. Have you heard of anything similar to this happening before?