Ordered two 14 pros from xfinity mobile as upgrades to existing BYOD lines on my by the gig plan which arrived 9/17. Activation of the first phone (mine) went smoothly once I received the email from xfinity that it's time to activate, which arrived about 1 hour after the phone was delivered. Started working on setting up my wife's phone later in the day, well after we got the activation email. Feeling confident about my setup from earlier, I set hers up the same way I did mine - updated the old phone to iOS 16, then setup the new phone using the quick setup/transfer from old phone. No issues were encountered. Then I logged in to my xfinity mobile account > devices and launched the activation. A text message was delivered to the old phone with a confirmation code, which I entered and worked fine. Got the message that the activation was in process and an email would be delivered when it was complete. Told my wife to watch for a notification on the new phone about esim transfer and to accept. No notification came through. 30 minutes later I logged back into my devices page and I see the following message:
Let's fix a glitch
Looks like we ran into an issue with activating your device. Give us a call and we'll get it worked out.
I got on chat with support - this was around 8:20pm PT. Took a good 20 minutes to get through to someone at xfinity mobile, who went back and forth with me a bit before saying he was seeing the same issue on his end and need to consult with his team. Then he asked me ridiculous questions like "did you receive a SIM card" and started sending me links to various generic support articles like "what is an esim". Finally after about an hour, he says I have to wait 12-24 hours and that he created a case in their CRM for someone to resend the activation message.
The next day I decided to try calling and getting through to tier 2, after some hours I was successful. The rep tried to help but was candid with me and explained that their system currently lacks the functionality necessary to fix this issue. He explained that currently the only way he's observed the issue get resolved is by trying various steps on the new phone to get the push notification from the esim activation to go through, and even then he said these steps don't guarantee the issue will resolve. I asked him if he had a way to restart the activation process on his end, and he said that for esim there isn't. He advised performing the following steps to see if the esim activation push notification would go through on the new phone
-Go to settings > general > about and waiting for a carrier settings update notification (I had none)
-perform a network reset on the new phone,
-perform a full factory reset on the new phone.
None of the above steps worked for me, I got no push notification on the new phone and the activation error on the device in my account remains "let's fix a glitch" with no button to click to retry activation. The rep asked me a few times if I ever got an email with a QR code to activate the esim - I never got any such emails from xfinity. He also had me try the various other cellular plan activation options on the new phone, including transferring the SIM from the old phone and registering the esim manually via URL. None of these options worked.
The rep went on (very candidly I might add) that they are well aware of the issue and are expecting a fix to be implemented within 48-72 hours. He also said he would put my contact information on a list of all the other customers who are experiencing this issue, and that I will receive an email, text or phone call when the fix is available. He even said he would call me himself, personally! (not sure I believe that, but we'll see).
Based on his tone and candor I believe he was being honest. That said, it doesn't make me feel any less disappointed about a >$1000 purchase that will sit on a desk as a glorified ipod touch for the next 3 days (or more) while I wait for xfinity to hopefully get their act together. Xfinity has REALLY dropped the ball on their esim rollout. I was a happy xfinity mobile customer before, but this experience has really soured me and I will absolutely be shopping for a new carrier once these device credits expire. I've gotten two new phones from them over the years and added lines - I never once had a problem. I will also be filing a complaint with the FCC.
