Clarification: Replacing A Stolen Phone With New Phone and New SIM
So I think I have a pretty standard situation that I would like clarity on. My phone (and associated SIM) was stolen. However, when I search this forum I see an bunch of folks having problems when activating a new phone and SIM. I have now have new phone and a new SIM, but want to keep my old number. I want clarity on how this is supposed to work before continuing. Here are the basic details of my situation.
Background
I am a Koodo Monthly subscriber and want to KEEP my plan and number.
My iPhone was stolen.
Using Find My iPhone, I then erased my iPhone.
I then successfully suspended my phone using Koodo Self Service.
I scheduled a callback to blacklist the phone and that apparently was also successful.
What I Was Told
I was told that once I get a new iPhone and new SIM, I just need to use self service to “Change My SIM”. The agent told me that it will correctly first ask me to re-activate (unsuspend) my phone/account before proceeding to change to a new phone and new SIM. In other words, just re-activate phone and then change SIM.
Concerns/Questions
I am skeptical that this will work. Can some confirm that this is the right process? I see other posts that this cannot be done online (self service). I am worried about the obvious but namely that I get stuck with my stolen phone reactivated and then not being about to properly switch.
That is exactly the opposite of what the Koodo callback agent told me. I am confused.
Can someone with experience on this clarify/confirm exact steps for me.
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After you login to your self serve, can you " unsuspend" your service?
What the rep told you is the way I did " unsuspend" through self serve and change/ update SIM card. But it was long time ago.
I remember I couldn't do anything untill unsuspend my service.
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.
These are great questions with a specific set of nuance. Let me flag a rep for you to confirm
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.
Hello @thejat
You can unsuspend the services via the Self Serve account and as our help page mentions, it might take around 15 minutes for the original sim to get activated, in the meantime, the services are unsuspended and will give you the option to change the sim card.
Indeed, it will not let you perform the sim card change while the services are suspended. As it is mentioned under the section “A few things” in the help page.
In the case that you prefer to resume just the sim card and you want to leave the phone as blacklisted/suspended. This can only be done via scheduling a call-back.
We recommend setting a new call-back if you are more comfortable via a phone call. As to troubleshoot the call-back situation, we recommend resetting the network settings. It is not normally required but it helps.
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.
