The Problem with eSIM

For many years I’ve used the same physical, plastic SIM card and simply transferred it to any new smartphone I bought. This year was different though. Although I reset my old phone before disposing of it, I accidentally left my SIM card in it.

After contacting my telecom provider’s support team the plastic SIM’s connectivity was cancelled and I was issued with a new-fangled eSIM by email. All I had to do was focus the new phone’s camera on the included QR code and as if by magic it was transferred across and my new phone began working.

Forward a couple of months and I decided to upgrade my smartphone again as the screen of the new one was too small for my aging eyesight. I reset the old one and deleted the eSIM, which is a part of the resetting procedure, then tried to obtain a new eSIM from my provider as had happened before … but apparently their old system no longer worked. I had to log into my online provider account and request it there. Sadly I needed an active phone with the same phone-number to receive the one-time-password required to access the site! So I was stuck.

As a side issue I had to buy a Pay-As-You-Go phone just so I could contact the provider’s support lines as I had no other option. Once through they promised to email me a new eSIM within 24-hours. I waited the full time but nothing arrived. I rang again. Same story but as a priority now they would now send within 12-hours. Twelve hours later, still nothing. I rang a third time and was told that the previous support team advice had been wrong, no email would be sent. I could only get connectivity back with a new physical plastic SIM and this could be picked-up at my nearest provider retail store as long as I took along ID.

I drove into the nearest town, found the store, and although they were very friendly and helpful and really tried, their system would not activate a new plastic SIM for me. However what they did manage to do was produce a new QR code for an eSIM. With this on their store computer’s monitor, I photographed it with my PAYG phone – several times from different angles – and took this home with me to try. Out of interest the new phone wasn’t setup yet because without the ability to receive a text message it wouldn’t fully install.

Back home I brought the PAYG phone images up on my computer screen and – Yay! – finally activated my new one!

This lasted just one hour before the phone was inactive again …

It turns out that someone at the telephone call-centre I’d contacted about the problem had subsequently cancelled my new e-SIM and was sending out a physical one! This was a last-ditch option that not been agreed to as it would take 3-5 working days. I’d been promised call-back within 40-minutes of initial contact to confirm how I wanted to poceed. That call-back never came.

So once more I rang them and was told that although this was the call-centre’s error – and they were really sorry – I would still have to drive back to that nearest provider retail shop and request a new eSIM.

After arguing that I should not be made to pay for their error, and getting nowhere, I made the journey and finally re-actviated my new phone. The guys in the retail store were real troupers and I did thank them.

So my advice is to steer clear of eSIMs unless you have no other option. Oh, and don’t do as I did and forget to retrieve your plastic SIM. We’re all human but there seems no accounting for that in the latest telecom provider’s systems.

As a Post-Script: I have been offered monetary compensation for the call-centre errors to the tune of three-months free access. Today I also received a Plastic SIM in the post…

Second Post-Script: I logged-in to my online provider account and asked to activate a new SIM. The Plastic one I’d been sent but told not to use, was listed, so I selected it, and put it into the PAYG phone. Within 15-minutes it was activated and the eSIM in my main phone deactivated. I switched both phones off and put the Plastic SIM into my main phone. Ta-Da! All working!

Moral of this story is: don’t go for an eSIM if you can possibly avoid it. They are more trouble than they are worth if just the slightest thing goes wrong.