OneNumber not working on Apple Watch after phone contract renewal

[Jezzer22]

I have been using an Apple Watch series 6 with an IPhone 13 and OneNumber account for about a year. About a month ago, my contract ended, so I chose to renew it. So far so good. 

However I then noticed that my (cellular) watch wasn’t working online when away from my phone. 

Looking at my watch’s mobile data status, it shows Plan as Vodafone and Status as Connected. I have OneNumber enabled on my account and am paying for it monthly. 

I spent the usual 1 hour + on Chat with Vodafone support and they took me through the process of (re)activating the eSIM on my watch (by entering its EID into the SIM Swap function on the website). I received emails saying “We’re working on your SIM swap request” etc. 

I then unpaired and re-paired my watch with my phone. 

Result: no change. 😤

Today, I’ve had another go at doing a SIM swap and re-entering the same EID again. No change. I did get a few ‘Server error” messages from Vodafone’s website in the process.  I’ve now gone in and removed my data plan altogether, thinking I may be able to add it from scratch. But it won’t work. I now have “No SIM” and “No connection” in the Mobile Data section on my watch. When I try to add a data plan, it takes me to a page for subscribing to a (presumably new) OneNumber account and when, in frustration, I proceed, it just hangs or crashes with a server error. 

Can anyone point me at a page which gives step-by-step instructions on how to re-attach an Apple Watch to an *existing* OneNumber account?

And perhaps Vodafone could have a look at their Provisioning system to see why contract renewals aren’t carrying forward existing Apple Watch OneNumber accounts. 

Many thanks in anticipation 

Jez

[Jezzer22]

Thanks. This approach had occurred to me too but I avoided it because I thought the tech/social media team wouldn’t have authority to cancel a OneNumber subscription mid-contract. How did you pull that off? Were you out of contract?

Anyway, I did finally get the SIM swap to work. Lots of b@llache however. 

[rmcc]

I recommend you phone 191 from your mobile and just demand that they cancel the OneNumber subscription now. Mine is a rolling 1 month OneNumber subsciption. I also have a 50% discount on OneNumber because of my Xtra package. This 50% discount then just got automatically applied to my new OneNumber subscription.

TL;DR — Here's the complaint details I've logged:

This complaint is about how bad the eSIM swap process is for existing customers who have bought a new Apple Watch and want to transfer their OneNumber subscription. I initiated the SIM Swap by following the correct instructions and filling out the Swap SIM form. I was told this would take 24 hours.
Saturday - filled out form, got email confirmation, and was told it would be sorted in 24 hours.
Sunday - still not sorted.
Monday - still not sorted. Spent time on phone with Vodafone via 191. Was promised it would be sorted in 24 hours.
Tuesday - still not sorted. Spent time on phone with Vodafone via 191. Was promised it would be sorted in 24 hours.
Wednesday - still not sorted. Spent time on phone with Vodafone via 191. Was promised it would be sorted in 24 hours.
Thursday - still not sorted. Spent time on phone with Vodafone via 191. Was promised it would be sorted in 24 hours. At this stage I just said NO, and instructed them to cancel my OneNumber subscription.

Once cancelled I then simply enabled Mobile Service on my Apple Watch app on my iPhone (as you would do with a new Apple Watch OneNumber subscription). This worked straight away. Not only was I without service, but its really bad that Vodafone make out that this process is simple, when in actual fact, its a complete debacle. I will never be using the SIM Swap process again. Only for the fact that Vodafone have a strong cell signal in my area, I would be leaving Vodafone completely. If possible, I would like some money credited to my account for this huge inconvenience.

[kvlr]

Has this SERIOUSLY not been resolved yet Vodafone? I have been unknowingly paying for two OneNumber subscriptions for months now because of this issue. When I bought my new Apple Watch, I preemptively signed up to OneNumber via MyVodafone only to be led round and round in circles when trying to link my watch to it. I found the only way  to resolve this was to set up a brand new OneNumber subscription. I contacted Vodafone via online chat and after being assured the initial subscription had been cancelled, I found out yesterday that in fact it hadn't been, and I've been unwittingly paying double for months. My watch has been disconnected from the OneNumber plan for a few weeks now for god only knows what reason, and I am tearing my hair out trying to resolve it. It's absolutely shocking that a significant issue you have been aware of since October last year (at the very least) involving the leading Smart Watch manufacturer has STILL not been resolved seven months later.

[Gemma]

@kvlr - I can understand your frustration with finding out you've still being charged for the service and it wasn't cancelled. If it's now been cancelled, my team on Social Media can look into the previous Live Chat you'd had, and why it wasn't cancelled back then. 

[DougieD]

@kvlr Sadly this is still an issue. We're not really getting any resolution apart from logging issues on this forums.

From my personal experience the watch mobile plan seems to drop monthly. You then have 2 options: Either push through 191 to get to technical support who must perform an eSIM swap using your EID as reference on your existing subscription, or cancel your OneNumber subscription completely and sign up again. At this point in time, first line support have no issues cancelling the subscription.... which is a positive I guess.

I've not had much luck with technical support so generally cancel my subscription, give it a couple of days for the dust to settle and then sign up again through the iPhone watch app.

I am really not sure how we can get to Series 8 watches and still have these problems with the network. The issue is compounded as the eSIM swap cannot be carried out by ourselves as the web page where you need to enter the EID does not work!