Clarification: Replacing A Stolen Phone With New Phone and New SIM

So I will provided an update after Dec 26, 2023.  I have  decided not to switch phones in the exact middle of the holidays.  However, let me provide a little more information in the meantime and see how this all pans out in a couple days.

As best as I can tell, yes the theory is to simply unsuspend the account then change your SIM.  My concerns (just to beat this to death) are two fold. 

First, if you unsuspend your account there is a window of time (albeit small in theory) that your stolen phone is again re-activated and in the hands of the thief.  The window of time is dependent on how smooth and fast Koodo’s systems are at changing the SIM. 

Second, I can only assume that 10’s or 100’s of phones are stolen every day/week.  However, when you ask an agent how this exactly works you get different answers.

Right now, the best I can share is what I have been told, and is as follows:

Answer/Agent #1:  The original Koodo support agent (during a callback) told me its easy, just unsuspend and change SIM.

Answer/Agent #2:  I called a Koodo store and basically asked how all this works.  She said since she is not in support I cannot come into a store to do this, but as she understands it, just unsuspend and change SIM.  However, she was under the impression that the unsuspend active is not simply checking a box.  When you unsuspend this will force a callback in which an Agent will verify if the phone has been recovered or not,  If it has not been recovered then the account is unsuspended but the phone/device will somehow still be marked as stolen.  This type of explanation makes a little more sense to me.

Answer/Agent #3:  Based on the above, I thought I would  triple check.  During the callback the agent said you just need to unsuspend and change SIM all done online.  I asked, well what about what the store told me.  Namely, there needs to be a callback to unsuspend, it cannot solely be done online via self-service.  He said, yes correct.  I am like huh?  Which is it?  Either I can do it all online by myself or I need a call back.

Current Outcome

At that point, the agent offered to do a callback on the Dec 26. and we would do it together in case there was a problem.  He was confident that it would all work fine, but I am still unclear what exactly will happen.  I will update this post after we attempt.

I continue post updates only so that others who have struggles see that they are not alone.  I have no technical update, but customer service woes.  

On Dec 23, I spoke with Agent #3 (see above).  He was very personable and agreed to call me back to walk through all the above at 8:00am Dec 26.  8:00am has come and gone.  Thinking it was time zone confusion I waited until 9:00am.  That has come and gone.  

Via Koodo Assist I requested a fresh call back at 9:30am.  Koodo did automatically call me.  However, when you say “hello”, it normally rings back to an agent and away you go.  It rang back for approximately 7 minutes with no one picking up so I hung up.

Now, you may say, dude why are you wasting so much time on this.  Just try unsuspending your account and changing your SIM. 

Well I might, but Koodo literally cannot do a callback successfully.  It gives me no faith that they can do anything more complicated correctly.

Let me begin by saying that I do appreciate any response(s) provided by folks and I am not trying to arrogant in my comments.  I now will summarize and detail the “resolution”.

Summary

• In this exact circumstance you CANNOT get the new phone operational without the help of a rep.  You cannot use self service to do it. I provide a screen shot at the very end to prove it.
• At the time of writing this post, with the help of a rep, I was able to get going.

Background

Just in case you are reading the final post, let me provide the situation.  Personally, I feel the should be an extremely common situation. Hence why some frustration with all of this.

• My phone (of course with the associated Koodo SIM) was stolen and I am not getting it back.
• From the the Apple Find My Phone eco system you declare the phone lost.  This basically remotely lock your phone.  This has NOTHING to do with Koodo.
• From the the Apple Find My Phone eco system you erase the phone.  This has NOTHING to do with Koodo.
• From Koodo Self service, you suspend the phone/account.  If I recall this actually launches Koodo Assist to perform that function.
• You then blacklist the phone, but you cannot do this via self service.  If I recall, while suspending your phone via Koodo Assist, it ask you if you want to blacklist the phone.  If you say yes, it schedules a call back.

Resolution

Yes, its true that you need to unsuspend your phone/account first.  The truth is that EVERY single person said this but it will not work (see screen shot).  Why?  It’s my guess/understanding that because the IMEI and/or Sim CARD (ICCID) have be flagged as stolen or blacklisted, the system will not allow changes due to this.  Although I attempted it a couple times with the agent on the phone, it would not unsuspend/active.  I am not sure of how, but the agent had to disassociate the SIM with the blacklisted phone.  Once that was done, I was able to activate my service and then change to my new SIM.  Its important note that any step in the process, whether it be the agent doing things or you doing things on self service , takes time.  Each step is not instant as it takes times for changes to propagate the system.  About 45 minutes total I would say.

Again, yes, it is simply 1) activate  your suspended account, 2) Then change your SIM but you need a rep to help you in the scenario I describe.  The only person to actually suggest this would be the case was a Koodo sales person at a store.

Screen Shot