Apple Watch Ultra and One Number - Plan being Dropped / not in use

[Crellster]

I went through a tortuous and painful onboarding journey with Vodafone to take out a Sim only (on an existing iphone 13 Pro Max) and add "One Number" so I could share the data with. 

I wasted my life talking to a bot that was completely unhelpful and a webchat service that wasn't much better

I spent hours on the phone to people who had no idea how to fix  the problem with countless resets. Eventually I got through to someone, who through some form of witchcraft managed to get my One Number working on my watch. 

I was also paying for a service that Vodafone couldn't deliver - I expected a pro-rata refund but no notification of such & which never materialised . 

Putting that to one side, I now at least had the working setup I wanted. 

That was then ... this is now. The plan has been dropped from my watch - it's there for very occasional use so I'm not checking the status but I see I have "No Sim" and "no Connection" on the watch. 

I can see by searching the forums this is a recurring complaint from Apple watch customers on One Number and is specific to Vodafone. I want someone to 1) get my watch working again 2) Assure me this won't keep happening 3) compensate me for the non-available service. 

[swords1010]

Agreed - it only seems to be finicky with Vodafone and no other provider. The simple fact that there is no integration with the native Apple Watch mobile data set up process and we have to go via sim swap every time is absolutely awful. Sometimes I get the feeling that there’s nothing but some papier-mâché behind the scenes holding this entire company together. If it wasn’t for your roaming offering, I’d have been long gone.

[jonnyp43]

After 5-6 attempts to fix this multiple complaints and an escalation to the resolutions team I’ve had enough. 

You name it I’ve done it, multiple swops, resets (you have to redo all the Apple Pay cards which is a major pain), back end changes, a full disconnect of my primary phone which it took them days and days to fix… when my phone was back on we redid the watch… guess what No Sim, No Connection again! One new suggestion was I take it to an Apple Store to get it patched! 🤦🏻‍♂️

So I asked to cancelled it… despite the full account rebuild they are struggling due to duplicate eSim’s… you have to conclude the back end is held together with gaffer tape! 

[Crellster]

I suppose you tried the social media (instagram specifically) route? They did get mine working after a day. So far it still has the eSim associated with the watch but I will check if there's a Watch OS or IOS update. I get your frustration. There's no reason (other than the sticky tape back end.... actually and the dire front end eSim / One number UX) it should be that hard. Good luck with your next airtime provider

[raguza]

I am also having the same issue and thought I'd reach out for help!

[Crellster]

And so it continues….. contact the Vodafone team on instagram for the best chance of getting to people who have and idea how to resolve this for you. 

[raguza]

Thank you I have sent them a message last night, waiting for response

[swords1010]

I still maintain the quickest route is to delete the esim, call 191 and request to speak to the Tech team for your apple watch sim swap, and ask the Tech team to request a sim swap on your behalf by providing them with the EID. Refuse to go through the watch reset option. This can resolve your issue in as little as 5 minutes.

[Crellster]

… and I still maintain I did this (several times, inc  via 191) and it did not resolve my issue. This is how it should work, but didn’t for me.  Let’s assume we didn’t have the same root cause. 

[swords1010]

Didn’t mean to annoy, Crellster We’re in this together. Missed the comment where you say you tried this route.

I sincerely doubt the root cause is different, though. Most likely a case of incompetent CS agents, of which Vodafone certainly has a few. It works for me every time, I just have to be super persistent on the phone to push through the you-don’t-know-how-it-works attitude I get in the first couple of minutes and insist that I know precisely what I want to achieve in the call - i.e. a SIM swap.

What was your exact experience with this method? The 191 agent completed a SIM swap successfully and it still didn’t re-activate on the watch?

[jallcott]

Do you have any more info on the exact steps - as Ive just been told to go through the whole watch unpairing/restore option after vodafone doing what looks like a sim swap and its a pain. This is the second time in as many months my eSim has stopped working