Smarty has excellent value for money data packages, for example 80GB for £8 (except if buy a sim card from a retailer 80GB for £10), but God forbid something goes wrong and you have to deal with their fucked-up customer services.
Simple enough one would think, buy the sim card from the Coop, then go on-line to activate. And yes, it’s simple enough with any mobile phone company other than Smarty.
Type in the code on the sim card. Difficult, tiny light grey digits on a white background, nigh impossible to read, therefore a fair chance of getting wrong, 12 digits with no spaces. Why not group as three digit groups, white space. I guess too easy.
Next, if accessible, type in e-mail address. And that is when it goes wrong. What if is phone damaged? Cannot access? Which is why wish to activate an off-the-shelf sim to use in an old phone.
No option , than to contact their fucked up customer service. Do they really hate their customers this much?
I then spend nearly two hours going round and round in circles with an imbecile who seems incapable of understanding English.
Can it be that difficult to activate a sim? Seemingly yes, if Smarty.
I am told can find no record of my having been sent a sim card. I’d already stated I had purchased a sim card from the Coop that day. And so we go round and and round in circles. Eventually I’m escalated even though I’d repeatedly requested this.
A couple more circuits around the circle, to be told I cannot activate a sim card if I have an existing account. Why then was I asked if I had an existing account?
I can only activate if Smarty send me a sim.
And don’t even dream of asking for existing number for the replacement sum. Adamant , not possible when I’ve tried in the past.
Contrast with Lebara, when requested a replacement sim with same number, is despatched within a couple of days. No hassle, easy to activate. And if experience problems, customer service helpful.
Update: Lebara customer service now as bad as Smarty.
Update: I tried Smarty again the following day. They offer to send me a sim with the same number and will help to activate.
Is it really that difficult to offer customer service?
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