Series 4 Apple Watch Cellular doesn’t work

[Nsjmurray]

So, in typical Vodafone fashion they have come out with a new feature and product that doesn’t work at launch - in-fact it does several unannounced and unauthorised credit checks.

So I received my brand new iPhone and Apple Watch today and I have to admit, they look fantastic, after opening the iPhone box and just seeing the magnificence that is the phone I am definitely happy with my purchase.

I open up the oddly packaged watch box and start to set it up, everything is fine except for when I got to the mobile data setup section- at first it looked promising a Vodafone log-in screen, “Awesome” I thought, so I logged in and all of a sudden it was asking me to add a subscription for £5 per month.. I thought this was strange as I was already paying for the watch now you’re trying to charge me more for a subscription, I knew it seems to be a mistake so I just glanced at the terms, it seemed normal just about linking them together so it made sense, I went ahead and clicked add subscription knowing that I would just call Vodafone and explain the situation if they tried to charge me more.

Anyway, it shows me a loading screen and I’m simply waiting for it to complete the link between my devices.

After a short while it went to a blank white screen and then... what’s this... I HAVE FAILED A CREDIT CHECK AND I HAVENT BEEN CHARGED?!?!?

So not only did it fail.. Vodafone has performed a credit check, without authorisation just to link it to my existing plan that I was already credit checked on?

Good one Vodafone, will be returning the watch and the device and leaving the network for good, this is the final straw, I’ve had nothing but trouble with you for 7 years and I’ve stuck by you, but you just cannot get anything right first time, EVER.

wondering if anyone else had this happen to them.

[paul2472]

After the call I got an email to say they were processing as I’m swap request. This evening I thought I would have a go at setting up data, I got a notification to say new carrier settings were sent to my device.  Watch is now working and I was able to put my phone on airplane mode, switch off Wi-fi on the watch and make a call.  I have also been able to stream Apple Music directly to the watch. 

[Chris726]

Ohh please tell me how you managed to stream Apple Music direct to Your Watch? I have Spotify but subscribed to Apple Music hoping I can use celluar in the gym without the iPhone to listen to music in the cloud, but can get it working and Apple support has been useless!

[paul2472]

I can tell you what I did to stream music, I didn’t do anything to make it work.  I use Apple Music as my main streaming service, so I have recently added music and music in the library.  This is where I played music from on the watch.  Make sure you have some recently added albums or playlists in your library.

You will need headphones connected to the watch to listen to music.  Once I had put the iPhone in airplane mode, i switched off Wi-fi on the watch to make sure it was using data.  Then I pressed the crown, went in to Apple Music.  It showed me recent albums and I pressed on one and it streamed.  I also went in to library and picked a really old album so I knew it wasn’t cached or saved to the watc( and it streamed.

Hope this helps you?

[Chris726]

Re music playback from cloud, very odd as all I can see on the watch is the albums I synced not able to find other albums. When I use Siri to search it won’t work without the iPhone. If it can’t playnall music remotely without iPhone I will stick with Spotify which I get for free and carry on playing via iPhone just don’t want to bring iPhone into the gym as well. Real pain!

[paul2472]

Have you checked you have data working in the watch?  Also make sure you disconnect the phone from the watch by going in airplane mode and check that WiFi and Bluetooth are off. When I do this the watch doesn’t try to connect to the phone for music. It seems the default is always to use the phone for connection if it is connected to the phone. 

[Pjc1066]

Good to see that some of you are now getting watch to work. I wont give up hope 😡. Did buy the watch for birthday but xmas  is looking nearer 

[anthp]

Been working for a week and 2 days it’s really worth the wait 

[Adam]

Hi @JWatch, I’m sorry to hear you’re having problems with your Apple Watch, if you’ve reached out to us over Twitter, we will respond, we’re just a little busier than normal. If you’d like, you’re able to send us your details via the private message I’ve sent you.

[Slim1234]

My watch now working fine on cellular. 

The experience though of getting Vodaphone to activate cellular was appalling to say the least.

I think lack of training of telephone advisors was the problem.

Instead of passing my query on to someone more qualified, I was fobbed off with one ridiculous solution after another, including ‘ you will get a scratch card with a code’. 

The answer quite simply, would be for Vodaphone to ensure all telephone advisors give their name, or at the very least a reference number, so that ghe customer can then refer back, and query advice etc.

This would then stop lazy, inefficient, or poorly trained operators giving spurious advice.

[Matt123456]

Well hoped never to have to read this forum again - looks like not much has changed VF still incompetent

so after 3 weeks of the watch working fine just checked mobile data - No SIM NO Connection 

I had two weeks of pain eventually CEO’s office got the watch working but now I will have to go through it all again.🤬

Be warned even when you think VF have sorted your watch out can still fail weeks later!