HACKER Q&A
📣 righthand

Has a Verizon Store Employee Ever Snapped Your SIM Card in Two?


Yesterday I was attempting to switch from an Iphone to my Librem 5. I inserted the SIM card into the Librem but Verizon demanded that I validate the change. Suffice to say after switching the SIM card back and forth from the Iphone to the Librem, I locked myself out of Verizon service. So I went into the nearest store at the Atlantic Center in Brooklyn. I explained to the employee that I switch my SIM card between devices and had locked myself out and that I would like it reactivated. The employee took my phone and started the reactivation process. He returned my phone and I noticed he had a broken SIM card in his hand. I did not see him remove it and did not see him snap it in half and assumed it was a different card. When I got home I noticed there was no SIM card in my phone. The employee destroyed my SIM card and set me up with an eSIM.

Today I went back to the store to attempt to allow Verizon to right the issue. Another employee there asked me what kind of phone I had, I showed him the Iphone 12 Mini and he told me they would not give me a SIM card for that phone and that I had to call customer support.

Has this happened to anyone else where a store employee destroys your property without asking? This seems like some sort of enforced corporate policy to force people to an eSIM to control which devices you can and can't use. Let alone refusing to give me a SIM card for my specific device.

I think I am done with Verizon at this point and will happily switch to another carrier.

UPDATE:

I called customer service today and they told me that the location should have given me a new SIM card without hesitation. That the employee shouldn’t have broken my SIM card. She also said there was no way to contact the corporate store and correct the issue from her end. No way to lodge a complaint.

  👤 seabass-labrax Accepted Answer ✓
It's never happened to me! Technically, the physical SIM card is still the property of the mobile carrier, in much the same way as a credit card is the property of the lender - you're renting the card as well as access to the service that it facilitates. Maybe Verizon has a company policy now not to issue physical SIM cards?

Verizon don't operate in my area, so I don't think my recommendations would be of any help^, but I would certainly take my custom elsewhere if their employees ignored me like they did you.

^ Might as well say anyway: I'm a satisfied customer of RWG mobile, who operate from South Wales and whose SIM cards work across the UK and (for a charge) the EU. They resell Now services, who themselves resell EE services. I'm not sure how the connection is so affordable with that many middlemen!