Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Is Your 2Degrees SIM Missing? (Full Update)

By Benedict Wee

Since news of 2Degrees emerged in May I've had high hopes for our 3rd mobile provider and was pretty excited to try out their new services. I registered for their Chinwag promotion and got my partner as well as our mates to sign up and was eagerly awaiting the free SIM to be posted to me, hell I've even bought a mobile especially for the occasion. Its seems however that things have run into a snag as my SIM card has been lost, twice. Here's a short rundown of events:
  • July 5th - Signed up for 2Degrees Chinwag campaign. Got a text confirming signup.
  • August 7th - Got a text from 2Degrees assuring SIM would arrive Sat 15th latest.
  • August 11th - Got another text from 2Degrees saying SIM is in the mail.
  • August 13th - 2Degrees SIM in mail, addressed to my partner who also signed up.
  • August 14th - Sent email to 2Degrees enquiring about SIM and reconfirmed address. No reply.
  • August 19th - Sent direct message to 2Degrees on Twitter asking about lack of communication.
  • August 20th - Got text informing new SIM has been sent. Got reply via Twitter asking for details. Replied saying not necessary as text has already said SIM has been sent.
  • August 25th - 5 days since text, still no SIM.
It seems like I'm not the only one experiencing the missing SIM phenomena. A mate of mine has "lost" hers in the mail too but she's not as excited about the new telco as I am and has decided to not pursue the matter and stick to Vodafone. I'm pretty sure most people would take that attitude as well.

I find it a tad amusing as the problems I've experienced in purchasing the China-made mobile to put my 2Degrees SIM in -exhausting and tedious as they were- have finally come to a resolution as the phone was delivered yesterday, thus making the international retailer of fake mobiles from Hong Kong more reliable then our local companies. It's more sad however as I feel pretty let down as the excitement of testing out the new telco's services has crashed in utter disappointment by the big delay in communication and the loss of my SIM. Twice.

So what's the deal? Did 2Degrees send the SIM to the wrong address twice? Do we have dishonest postal workers*? Did the prawns from District 9 take it? Whatever the case it doesn't look good for our new telco as I'm sure I'm not the only one who is experiencing the problem of disappearing SIM cards.

What about you guys? Are your Chinwag SIMs missing?

Update: Just got an email this morning from them, they're going to resend a SIM but in an unmarked envelope this time. Looks like there are cases of people pilfering SIM cards from mailboxes and 2Degrees PR person Bryony Hilless will be providing us with some information about the process so stay tuned.

Update 2: 2Degrees has explained the process of sending the SIM cards out in the comments below, if you're still missing yours go to the website here or email them at care@2degreesmobile.co.nz with your mobile number and mailing address.

* I highly doubt this as the Post Office here provides an excellent service and I've not lost a single piece of mail once. Good work posties!

3 comments:

  1. Hey mate,
    Shame to hear about your experience, I received my SIM the next day in the post after 2degrees launched. Maybe I was lucky being in Auckland?

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  2. Perhaps it's just my personal bad luck. My partner has gotten the SIM on time and we live together. Also mates in Christchurch have been missing SIMs as well.

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  3. Hi Benedict,

    Process is:

    1) The SIM is mailed. The night that the SIM is put in the post we send a text to the customer saying SIM is in mail, look out for it tomorrowish.

    2) The SIM cannot be identified as ‘lost’ until seven days from postage.

    3) In the interim, if the SIM is returned to us as return to sender mail, we send a text to customer saying ‘uh oh, your SIM was returned. If you still want one send name and correct address to care@2degreesmobile.co.nz’.

    4)On day 7, an email is sent to all customers who were sent a SIM and have not activated saying ‘has your mail been lost? If so, send us your correct address to care@2degreesmobile.co.nz’.

    5) The Care email address is cleared every day but no email reply is sent what we do is send a text message to say we've got your email that your SIM is lost a replacement SIM is on its way to you.

    6) From here our Customer should receive their mail within a couple of days.

    It is unfortunate that missing SIMS are becoming an issue, but we are receiving great support from NZ Post in tracking down wayward mail.

    There is a section on our website on lost SIMs:

    http://www.2degreesmobile.co.nz/lost-sim

    We are keen to get them into the right hands so please let your readers know to contact us on care@2degreesmobile.co.nz if they have a lost SIM issue.

    Cheers!
    Bryony from 2degrees

    ReplyDelete