So in the last post I was talking about how we are moving my wife to Verizon from AT&T. Well that was going quite well, until about an hour ago. Oh yes, the simple process has now become a complicated process.
To thy own SIM be true(ish)…
Well my wife just clicked the pay button for her final iPhone payment with AT&T. Based on the instructions we were given by AT&T the phone should be ready to port. So I have this Verizon SIM card and a little tool for swapping out SIM cards. Just a few seconds, and bob’s your uncle, it is now a Verizon iPhone.
Wait, what is this? An activation error? No that cannot be! I followed the instructions! Instead of boring you with the 6 hours of phone calls and research, let me give you the summary of it. The first AT&T rep could not understand what I want to do, so she tried to port the number back to AT&T, but with an invalid SIM card number. The second AT&T rep said there was no issue, and the phone just need a few hours.
Finally, the last AT&T rep I spoke to said the instructions we were given a day ago were wrong. We were supposed to pay off the device, wait two days, ask for an unlock, and THEN insert the new SIM card. This is quite the change in steps, and nowhere close to what we were originally told. This rep not only knew the answers but tried hard to help get this accomplished. In the end I wound up talking to his manager to give the representative kudos on doing such a good job.
Can you hear me now? Nope, can’t even dial…
Fun fact, do you know what happens when you stick a SIM card from a new carrier into a locked phone? Oh let me tell you! The number immediately ports to the new carrier, but the phone cannot activate on the network, thus the number points to a non-reachable endpoint. That is the long way of saying all calls forward straight to voicemail and we cannot call out.
This is where my wife’s iPhone is currently sitting, and it cannot move until AT&T unlocks the phone. The unlock occurs 48 hours after we make the request. We cannot make the request because AT*T’s technical system is not talking to the billing system. This means tomorrow we have to call billing who will make the phone as paid. Once paid we have to wait 48 hours to ask for an unlock.
Tl;dr? We have to wait a minimum four days to get her cellphone back.
Interstate unlock
To make this whole case more interesting we have to go out of state for a family thing. So now, tomorrow evening we will leave for the week and have only my cell phone. Two people, working remote, with one cell phone. Boy that is a 21st century movie trailer right there. Well we will keep through the process and see what comes of it. This is how you end up All Hat, with No Cattle.