Hi, I have just had a very frustrating experience, I just feel I need to let everyone in the community know so you are aware.
The problem:
- Have your existing eSIM which is installed on device A (iPhone 14 Pro Max, iOS) change to another device B (Galaxy Fold 3, Android).
The situation:
- Having the eSIM working in my Fold 3 for a year or so, I managed to lose my phone at Frankfurt airport security. At this point the EE eSIM was installed in that device. (mid June 2023).
- Then once in UK I purchased a new iPhone 14 Pro Max directly from Apple so unlocked. And I thouhgt, "let's install my eSIM". And so I did, and it was working fine until Monday 10th July 2023 when suddenly I realised I was not able to receive any SMS verification texts from banks or website logins! So frustrating, next thing is sending SMS internationally stopped working too! Just to note, I have no restrictions at all on my account, none of the number I tried were on my "blocked contacts" and signal strength was max so this was a "permanent" issue happening even in different locations (home in zone 3 (south west London) and central London. So after 1h with EE support chat and my "complaint" escalated to "TIER 2" team, they suggested "why don't you try to change your sim to another device?", a very innocent and usually easy thing to do, right? Not with eSIM, with eSIM you can't just "change it", you just can't. You need to re-download it in the new device but, and this is crucial, do not remove or uninstall the eSIM from the device you are switching from! Or your eSIM will brick and you will be unable to download on any device and have to go to a store! So Frustrating
- So in this process of switching, there is a web page from EE where you download the "replacement eSIM" (essentially a QR code you need to scan on the "destination" device). The process seems simple but what happened to me is: after downloading the eSIM in the "destination" device, when I went back to the iPhone, unlocked it and surprise surprise the page where the QR is was not loading correctly! So I was not able to tick the box to "confirm" the eSIM has been successfully downoaded... Since that point in time, my eSIM was then "in limbo" so I was unable to download my esim on any device and it also stopped working on the original device that had it! So there I was left without service whatsoever! Then, if I call 150 they say you need to wait "2-3 days" for a "paper eSIM".... So I decided to go to an EE store next day.
At the EE store
- The staff at the store tended to my request in a very patient and helpful way, so I am grateful for that. After verifying my ID, they issued a physical SIM and then tried to convert to eSIM but the system crashed while doing so! Utterly unbelievable, to be honest... So they offered me to just have a physical SIM card for now, I accepted that and so now I have a physical SIM card and all the banking SMS verifications arrive normally and everything is working again.
On the phone with customer service
- Today I called 150 to speak about my complaint how all the above went, they took note and offered a compensation (50% off my bill, since I was left without service). I really hope the enginering team in charge of the eSIM tech takes note and makes the relevant changes to the user experience flow. At the moment, good luck changing devices when you have an eSIM, you are going to need it.
For reference sake, here's the EE complaint number I was given after asking chat support yesterday (TIER 2 team), in case it's helpful: xxxxxxxx
Feel better after explaining here 🙂
-- EE customer since 2016 and counting, keep it up!
[Mod edit: Please do not post private information on the public board. Thanks!]
Living the EE life
