I activated my phone (an unlocked GS3) on Net10 then a week later ported my old phone number to it. In that process they said they had to mail me a new SIM card so the one I had just bought/activated was deactivated and my old number was also cancelled.
When I called to complain about being left with no phone over Christmas they reactivated the store-bought phone number.
Now...2 weeks later my wife wants to get on board so I bought her an unlocked GS3 and put the deactivated SIM card in it to see if I could get to their apps instead of AT&T's store and was surprised to find that the phone number is still active. When I called to activate/port the new line they told me the SIM card number I read them didn't exist.
SO now I'm wondering how this is, and how long it will work? I tried to get it set right but Net10 is adamant I need to buy yet another SIM card. It's kinda hard to take this seriously when I have a working phone that makes calls and gets full data.
Interested in how this turned out...
guy48065 said:
I activated my phone (an unlocked GS3) on Net10 then a week later ported my old phone number to it. In that process they said they had to mail me a new SIM card so the one I had just bought/activated was deactivated and my old number was also cancelled.
When I called to complain about being left with no phone over Christmas they reactivated the store-bought phone number.
Now...2 weeks later my wife wants to get on board so I bought her an unlocked GS3 and put the deactivated SIM card in it to see if I could get to their apps instead of AT&T's store and was surprised to find that the phone number is still active. When I called to activate/port the new line they told me the SIM card number I read them didn't exist.
SO now I'm wondering how this is, and how long it will work? I tried to get it set right but Net10 is adamant I need to buy yet another SIM card. It's kinda hard to take this seriously when I have a working phone that makes calls and gets full data.
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i'd just milk the cow til it ran out, lol just use the AT&T until it finally deactivates service....if it ever does
guy48065 said:
I activated my phone (an unlocked GS3) on Net10 then a week later ported my old phone number to it. In that process they said they had to mail me a new SIM card so the one I had just bought/activated was deactivated and my old number was also cancelled.
When I called to complain about being left with no phone over Christmas they reactivated the store-bought phone number.
Now...2 weeks later my wife wants to get on board so I bought her an unlocked GS3 and put the deactivated SIM card in it to see if I could get to their apps instead of AT&T's store and was surprised to find that the phone number is still active. When I called to activate/port the new line they told me the SIM card number I read them didn't exist.
SO now I'm wondering how this is, and how long it will work? I tried to get it set right but Net10 is adamant I need to buy yet another SIM card. It's kinda hard to take this seriously when I have a working phone that makes calls and gets full data.
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Click to collapse
Tracfone (Parent company of Net10) always seems to make a mess out of the simplest things. In your case, it was to your benefit. You already tired to make things right, so I say use the SIM until it gets deactivated. I'd assume you'll get a month out of the SIM. As they can't find the SIM number in their database, I'm sure you wouldn't be able to continue using that SIM once it does become derivative.
Must have gotten flagged right away...it was dead in two days :-/
Related
As the title hints at, I am planning to buy the tbolt from amazonwireless via my family line that has an upgrade then switching it to the primary line. I read that I don't want to activate the sim card to this side line because it will be stuck with that phone number.
Anyone know the step by step directions once I get the phone? I don't want to screw myself with the sim, but I also don't want to void my contract with amazon by not properly activating the phone to the line that had the upgrade.
I don't know if this will help you. I purchased the TB on a new line to avoid paying full retail. The rep(one of the few that knows a few things) set me up with a new line then switched my new number to my current phone(htc Incredible) and the old number to the new Phone(HTC Thunderbolt) was some issue with the sim card but it all worked out., The great thing is I will have an upgrade in a few 6-7 months and have the option of getting this phone for my wife.
Call vzw first and have them move the upgrade to the line that will have the tb. Do that before heading to the store and you should be fine.
Sent from my DROID PRO using XDA App
kjjb0204 said:
Call vzw first and have them move the upgrade to the line that will have the tb. Do that before heading to the store and you should be fine.
Sent from my DROID PRO using XDA App
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+1 that's exactly what I did, when at the store I had them move the upgrade to the line I wanted, worked without a hitch.
added new line like described above. Went to move my number to TB the next day and found out it is a little tricky due to sim card. Basically had to go to VZW store and get new sim card. no biggie.
i also did the old swaparoo...the bestbuy guy was a bit uninformed and told me to call it in, which obvioualy didnt work. went into the store and after trying 4 zsim cards he got me all squared away
sent from my personal space using my thunderbolt
This is how I got mine. I had an upgrade on my primary line, but I wanted to use the TB on a different phone number on my account. I told them this on the phone, and when my TB arrived in the mail, I went to activate it, but couldn't because they screwed up and sent me a SIM card assigned to my primary #.
I called customer service back, and the guy told me they CANNOT switch the SIM card to a different number once it's activated, and I would have to get a completely new SIM card.
So I went in to a Verizon store to try and get one from them rather than waiting for a new one in the mail. The person there said they actually COULD switch a SIM card to a different number. He changed it in the computer, and my phone works perfectly now on the correct line.
So... if they tell you they CAN'T switch a SIM card to a different phone number, they're either lying, or they're not supposed to do it. But I assure you, it can be done, my phone is proof of that.
Sounds like I should just call vzw and explain the whole situation before I get the phone.
From what I was told, amazon says I must activate the phone on the line that I used the upgrade on. Then do a swap to fulfill the obligation to the purchase of the phone.
My upgrade ain't until the 29th, so I got some time.
With AT&T you can simply throw a sim card in and away you go with any phone you want. What do you do on AT&T namely if you have an iPhone and TBolt?
You wont be able to do it without going through Verizon to have your TB Sim card reset everytime you want to use your TB after using your iPhone.
Normally you just have to do a simple ESN swap (can do online). Unfortunately with the Thunderbolt and it's LTE SIM, things might be more complicated. I'd check with a Verizon rep to see what would be involved.
Sadly its a complete pain in the butt. One of the guys I work with had to deactivate it and reactivate it a couple of days later. The guy in the store couldn't figure out how to do it, and it took him about 3 hours on the phone with various techs to finally get it working. They ended up having to swap out the SIM card in the store.
Not sure if its the process that is tough, or if they just don't know what they are doing. Either way, I wouldn't recommend it if you can avoid it. If you really need to do it, it is possible, but its not as simple as just swapping out a SIM card like on AT&T.
Once there are more phones utilizing LTE wouldn't you just be able to swap out your sim card and put it in any LTE phone?
dirtyfingers said:
Once there are more phones utilizing LTE wouldn't you just be able to swap out your sim card and put it in any LTE phone?
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Click to collapse
Yes, this is correct. I can go buy the Droid Charge, and put in the SIM from my Thunderbolt, and I'll be good to go.
Thats pretty sweet, I wish I had the cash to drop on some more LTE phones when they come out.
WilliamStern said:
Yes, this is correct. I can go buy the Droid Charge, and put in the SIM from my Thunderbolt, and I'll be good to go.
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Are you sure about that? I thought we were still using CDMA for calls and there is no voice over 4G/LTE on VZW just yet.
WilliamStern said:
Yes, this is correct. I can go buy the Droid Charge, and put in the SIM from my Thunderbolt, and I'll be good to go.
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Click to collapse
Pretty sure this is wrong.
When setting up my phone the rep had to set up the sim card and phone separately.
Razorz is right, we still utilize cdma for voice, so it may be possible to get data on a new phone but no voice?
A rep told me you could, never tried I don't have another Verizon phone to swap it out with. Also ATT charges activation when you swap sims "if the sim is in a different phone for a lengthy time". Also ATT will add a data plan to your account if the phone you put it in requires one.
the id number for the sim card and the ESN for the phone both must be in the verizon system associated with your phone number or the device will not work.
stuckhere4ever said:
Sadly its a complete pain in the butt. One of the guys I work with had to deactivate it and reactivate it a couple of days later. The guy in the store couldn't figure out how to do it, and it took him about 3 hours on the phone with various techs to finally get it working. They ended up having to swap out the SIM card in the store.
Not sure if its the process that is tough, or if they just don't know what they are doing. Either way, I wouldn't recommend it if you can avoid it. If you really need to do it, it is possible, but its not as simple as just swapping out a SIM card like on AT&T.
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Click to collapse
they didn't know what they were doing.
When I had data problems with my TB, I switched to my INC via the activate phone link on the "my account" web page. An hour later when I tried to return to the TB, I got a prompt for the phone's IMEI, then prompted for the SIM card's number.. It error-ed. After calling CS, the rep couldn't help, got TS on the line, they manually entered the SIM number to make it work...
So it appears switching away from the TB deactivated the SIM, to switch back, VZW's TS had to re-add or re-activate the SIM.
And as thetwiztidfreak said, they did need BOTH the IMEI and SIM numbers to re-activate the TB.
thetwiztidfreak said:
the id number for the sim card and the ESN for the phone both must be in the verizon system associated with your phone number or the device will not work.
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Click to collapse
Correct but when you put the registered SIM in another LTE device it registers that handsets IMEI with your account. You can infact do a SIM swap with LTE, since your phone number is tied to the SIM putting the sim in another device effectively activates the phone on your account.
I should know, it's my job ;-)
It works the same way as GSM, but going from an LTE phone to a CDMA phone is a bit different, the SIM gets decactivated and becomes useless and if you want to switch back you need to go the a Verizon store for them to sell you out a new SIM for $0(some times old SIMs can be reactivated however there may b e issues with this). It's a PITA so I don't reccomend switching back and forth between CDMA and LTE devices unless you absolutely HAVE to.
chaoscentral said:
Correct but when you put the registered SIM in another LTE device it registers that handsets IMEI with your account. You can infact do a SIM swap with LTE, since your phone number is tied to the SIM putting the sim in another device effectively activates the phone on your account.
I should know, it's my job ;-)
It works the same way as GSM, but going from an LTE phone to a CDMA phone is a bit different, the SIM gets decactivated and becomes useless and if you want to switch back you need to go the a Verizon store for them to sell you out a new SIM for $0(some times old SIMs can be reactivated however there may b e issues with this). It's a PITA so I don't reccomend switching back and forth between CDMA and LTE devices unless you absolutely HAVE to.
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I can confirm that it is a royal pain in the ass to go to the vzw store to get a new sim...
I just got a replacement for my tbolt. I had 5 days to return the "defective" one. I bounced the SIM card back and forth between the two phones a dozen times trying to see which one got better 3G/4G reception. The rep told me to decide which one works better and send the other phone back. It didn't matter.
i have been on the phone on and off with them for well over 8 hours today!!! here's the deal... i tried to use the tmobile sim. cut the card perfectly and the phone didnt recognize the card. obvious, i damaged the card. i already activated that tmobile sim card and i ported my old at&t phone number. so... i pop in the mini sim at&t card for straight talk in the phone... i sit on the phone forever trying to talk to technical support(im actually on the phone now with these idiots)... i finally speak to someone and they activate the sim card. tell me to wait 10 minutes then cut the phone off and then on. this occurred about 2 hours ago. the phone recognizes the sim but it says no service. what do i do? im sick to death of waiting online. this phone i have is the international one x. i had no problems with at&t pay as you go. anybody have these kinds of problems? please help before i chop all my fingers and feed them to my oscar
So...... what even happened ?
You originally wanted to activate with T-Mobile, yes ? But then you broke the SIM card and are trying to activate on Straight Talk ?
How did you activate the T-Mobile SIM and port the number when it wasn't even in the phone ?
You should consider using Google Voice and porting your number there so you don't have to worry about changing numbers on the actual phone again.
Otherwise, this sounds like an issue that only their customer service is going to be able to resolve. Porting a number can take a while, and it's possible there are complications if you just did it two times in a row. I don't know if the phone's supposed to use an assigned number before that or if you just have to wait.
Did you check your account on-line to see if it shows you as activated or whatever ?
Hey Guys!!!
I wish there was a quicker way to get all this out so let's get started:
A few weeks ago, I bought a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 from a coworker. When she gave me the phone, she left the sim card in the phone. So I made a test call. Forgetting that sim cards store info about the plan and such other important info, I trashed her sim card and went to a corporate Verizon store for my own sim card. I couldn't use my sim card because my other phone is an iPhone 5 that has a nano sim card and I didn't have a sim card adapter. As soon as the Verizon representative put the sim card in and started up the phone the activation screen popped up and started to activate, finally realizing the activation was taking extremely longer than normal the vzw rep told me to let it continue to activate while you go home, if it doesn't work try again. So I did what I was told, needless to say the phone would never activate. So I called customer service to get my iPhone 5 activated since the Galaxy s3 wasn't working. I was then told that it couldn't happen because my service was stuck in a switch that wouldn't end until midnight and then I could call the next day to reactivate. The next day after customer service sent me another sim card the same thing happened. After going through 4 sim cards the same thing happened. I then called Samsung Support and sent my phone to them, they claimed it was fix but the only thing that was done was they upgraded my firmware to 4.1.2 and fixed my charging port which wasn't messed up since the phone charged before I sent it off. At my wits end I got desperate, I cut up on of the "damaged" sim cards and put it in my iphone 5, immediately it activated itself without me even having to log on the vzw website. I then took the sim card out and put it back into the galaxy s3 with the sim adapter I purchased and the activation box never came up. Instead I called customer service and they tell me that the iphone 5 is still active on my account even though the iphone 5 has no sim card in it and is turned off. The online vzw tech informed me that the system wouldn't let them switch the imei numbers on the phone. Long story short I have what I think is an unrooted phone that won't activate.
P.S. The phone isn't lost or stolen. I asked them and he said no them system would've flagged the phone.
My questions are what do you guys think is wrong with the phone? Is this normal? Can it be fixed? If so, how? What would you do? What should I do?
to moderators...
me2cute2c said:
Hey Guys!!!
I wish there was a quicker way to get all this out so let's get started:
A few weeks ago, I bought a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 from a coworker. When she gave me the phone, she left the sim card in the phone. So I made a test call. Forgetting that sim cards store info about the plan and such other important info, I trashed her sim card and went to a corporate Verizon store for my own sim card. I couldn't use my sim card because my other phone is an iPhone 5 that has a nano sim card and I didn't have a sim card adapter. As soon as the Verizon representative put the sim card in and started up the phone the activation screen popped up and started to activate, finally realizing the activation was taking extremely longer than normal the vzw rep told me to let it continue to activate while you go home, if it doesn't work try again. So I did what I was told, needless to say the phone would never activate. So I called customer service to get my iPhone 5 activated since the Galaxy s3 wasn't working. I was then told that it couldn't happen because my service was stuck in a switch that wouldn't end until midnight and then I could call the next day to reactivate. The next day after customer service sent me another sim card the same thing happened. After going through 4 sim cards the same thing happened. I then called Samsung Support and sent my phone to them, they claimed it was fix but the only thing that was done was they upgraded my firmware to 4.1.2 and fixed my charging port which wasn't messed up since the phone charged before I sent it off. At my wits end I got desperate, I cut up on of the "damaged" sim cards and put it in my iphone 5, immediately it activated itself without me even having to log on the vzw website. I then took the sim card out and put it back into the galaxy s3 with the sim adapter I purchased and the activation box never came up. Instead I called customer service and they tell me that the iphone 5 is still active on my account even though the iphone 5 has no sim card in it and is turned off. The online vzw tech informed me that the system wouldn't let them switch the imei numbers on the phone. Long story short I have what I think is an unrooted phone that won't activate.
P.S. The phone isn't lost or stolen. I asked them and he said no them system would've flagged the phone.
My questions are what do you guys think is wrong with the phone? Is this normal? Can it be fixed? If so, how? What would you do? What should I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Feel free to delete this post. It doesn't seem as if anyone cares to answer my question. Thanks anyway.
No one is answering the question because we have no answers for it. Also don't expect us to answer as soon as you post as like you we all have a life and that is more important so we will respond as soon as we possibly can.
Sounds like a issue with your line. Someone who knows what they're doing at vzw probably needs to submit a trouble ticket for you.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Yesterday, I received a new StraightTalk MicroSIM (ATT compatible) for my new Nexus 5. I have been using a StraightTalk T-Mobile compatible one that I used in my old phone. I activated the new SIM, using the automated phone system. This morning I saw that my phone still had no service. That is, zero bars, I cannot make calls or text. Of course data doesn't work either. I logged into my account and it said that the transfer to the new SIM is complete. So I called StraightTalk and was transferred 5 times to people who did the same trouble shooting with me every time. Their trouble shooting: power off your phone, take out your SIM and then start it back up. Then they said they need to send me a new SIM card.... Here is my issue, I feel like they don't know what they are doing so their answer is just to send me another SIM.
My question: Did anyone else have this experience or ideas on getting the phone to work? I've tried different APNs with no different results.
Okay, this is odd. I figured, since I won't have phone service for a while, I would root my phone. After I rooted my phone, everything works. I can make calls and data works. Not sure what changed but when the device was rooted, it also did a factory reset. After 50 minutes of crappy customer service, I think I'll just take the new SIM card they are sending.
Takes a while for them to activate it sometimes. I was with customer services for 2 hours trying to activate my Sim card because it wouldn't let me online.
Their customer service, signal penetration might suck, but it's way cheaper, which I'm good with.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
I wonder if maybe that is what happened but I think it probably had to do with the factory reset.
I do want to post one final thing since everything has played out today... On the phone I asked them to expedite the package since this is my work phone and ONLY phone. Today, FedEx delivered a new SIM card... it was the card only. No other packaging or information. It was the wrong SIM... I needed a micro and they sent a regular SIM... but at least they tried. After receiving the SIM today, I don't feel so bad about the situation. Things may have been different if my phone didn't miraculously start working. I would have had to cut down the regular sized SIM... to find out if it is an ATT or Tmobile version... it's probably the Tmobile versions, since I ordered the ATT version. Thats how things go... have a good day!
READ THE NEXT POST FOR CONTINUED ISSUES
*** I'm going to keep posting my experience, in case anyone else can find the information useful. ***
My service should have Auto-Refilled today. However, when I went to make a call, I found out my service was deactivated. I thought maybe Auto-Refill was disabled when I transferred to the new microSIM. Unfortunately, after spending another 45 minutes on the phone with customer service, I found out that they activated the replacement SIM that they sent me... the one that doesn't fit my phone and appears to be a Tmobile SIM. So, instead of just re-activating the microSIM that was working yesterday, they have to send me another one. I confirmed with them that they will be sending an AT&T compatible microSIM. We will see what I receive.