Verizon Customers Experiencing Apple Watch Activation Issues
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Apple Watch owners who purchased their wearables somewhere other than Verizon are reporting issues with activating their devices on Verizon’s cellular network. Affected users report they’ve had to jump through several hoops to convince the carrier to fix the issue.
While Verizon and Apple Watch owners have had a few spats before, mostly over rebates and billing issues, this time, some cellular-capable Apple Watch owners are being blocked from connecting to the Verizon cellular network at all.
AppleInsider reports that it has been told by users who say they’ve “spent hours” on the phone with Verizon support, dealing with what looks to be a rather common problem.
User “Tim” posted in the Verizon Community Forums that the issue has to do with whether or not the Apple Watch was purchased through Verizon or whether it was purchased from another source. A Verizon-provided Apple Watch generally has no issues in being activated on the Verizon network.
“When Verizon receives product from Apple for their inventory, Verizon logs the IMEI number into their system,” wrote the user. “When you go through… activation, the Watch App looks for the IMEI [International Mobile Equipment Identity] number in the Verizon system, finds it.. and voila, a connection to the Verizon network is made.”
However, if the customer is trying to activate an Apple Watch obtained from another vendor, including from Apple itself, it’s another situation entirely. This is because the IMEI number is not in Verizon’s database, so the Apple Watch will fail to activate.
“All the pairing, unpairing, resetting, etc is not going to make a bit of difference,” continued Tim. “Nor will cancelling the service on that line and starting a new service.”
The user says the only solution is to get Verizon to enter the Apple Watch’s IMEI into the carrier’s database. Unfortunately, it’s not a case of politely asking and having a customer service representative immediately punch in the IMEI number somewhere.
You will need to push HARD to get to Verizon’s Engineering tech level to get a “ticket” created to manually add the IMEI to their database. I went through 2 Verizon store managers and countless service techs (all of whom demanded to “try” and activate the cellular service before pushing me forward) before FINALLY convincing one to create the ticket.
Since multiple Verizon users have allegedly experienced this issue and there are entries in the forums about the issue, you’d think Verizon team members would know about the problem and how to handle it. Unfortunately for Verizon customers, the carrier’s customer support team seems blissfully unaware of the issue or the steps to take to resolve it.
Users on Twitter are also reporting the issue:
Verizon has yet to comment on the issue. However, the activation issues are reportedly not limited to Apple Watch owners. In July, a Galaxy Watch Ultra 7 user took to Reddit because they couldn’t activate their wearable as Verizon said the device was too new and had not been entered into their system yet.
Just spent over an hour troubleshooting with Verizon technical support and it turns out they can’t activate my watch because it is too new and their system does not have a profile for it yet. Thought that was super odd. They told me to try back on July 25th when their system is updated. Just thought I would post here to save others an hour of time!
Other Reddit users reported similar issues with their new Galaxy Watch Ultra 7 smartwatches.
