I’ve been wanting to try WIND Mobile for a while now, but my phone (Nexus One) didn’t support the frequency bands used by the new carriers. But recently I replaced it with a Galaxy Nexus, which supports the frequencies of all the Canadian carriers. WIND had a great deal on ($40 for unlimited everything), so I grabbed a WIND SIM card and signed up online.
I didn’t want to port my number over until I was sure WIND’s coverage was adequate, so I declined the option when I activated my SIM. A few days later I was satisfied, so I called up WIND customer care to request the port. The person who answered my call told me it was impossible to port a number to a SIM that was already activated, and that I was stuck with the number that I had been assigned. Not happy with this response, I asked whether there wasn’t some other possibility, and I was told that I could go to a WIND store and get a replacement SIM, which could then have my number ported to it.
I phoned my nearest WIND store, and was told it would cost $25 to get a replacement SIM. Obviously I had no intention of paying $25 to fix a problem on WIND’s end, so I headed to Howard Forums to see whether other customers had faced the same problem. It didn’t take long to find several discussion threads on the topic. Some customers had managed to get a free replacement SIM at a WIND store, and others had eventually convinced WIND to cancel and re-activate their existing SIM, entering a port request with the new activation.
I called back, hoping to get a different customer care rep. This time, the rep was happy to put through a port request for me, but said the request would need to be handled by their back office staff, and would take three to five business days. While this seemed like an awfully long time for such a simple request, it sounded like a better option than making a trip to a WIND store, so I asked the rep to put through the request. She took down my information and gave me a reference number.
After four business days had passed, I was getting impatient. So I called back and gave my reference number. The rep told me that the reference number didn’t exist in their system. He looked up my account, and found that no port request had been made. I explained what had been done on my previous call, but the rep insisted that it was not even possible; I could not port a number to a SIM that had already been activated. The rep told me I would need to go to a WIND store and get a new SIM, which he insisted I would not be charged for.
At this point I was irate. How could my request have disappeared into thin air? I called back one more time, hoping there was somebody in customer care who could actually help me. The fourth rep again couldn’t find my request from the previous week, but after explaining my situation he told me that my number could easily be ported in to my existing SIM. He only had to cancel my existing SIM and re-activate it. He was able to do that within minutes, and my number was ported within the hour.
Clearly WIND has a big problem with insufficiently trained customer care reps. Two out of the four reps I spoke to didn’t know it was even possible to help me, and one was too incompetent to do it properly. My tweets to @WINDmobile during the ordeal went unanswered, as did an email to customer care. While I plan to stay with WIND for the time being, in the hope that their network is better than their customer care, I will definitely not be recommending them to friends. Koodo will remain my recommendation.
Well, to be fair, you really should have looked into how the porting is supposed to work before committing. It’s just common sense if the old number was that important to you. Plus, WIND gives a credit for porting over your number too right? Doesn’t that doesn’t cost them money? For forty bucks including data, you’re complaining and recommending the Koodo/Telus sleaze balls that try to nickle & dime you? Sad, go ahead & get ripped off by Robelus. I guess you don’t deserve to save the extra cash every month because you didn’t want to spend $25 once for a new sim.
First, I’ve never had trouble porting after activation with any other carrier. Second, I did look into it in WIND’s FAQ before signing up. There’s no indication that one can’t port after activation, nor should there be since it’s indeed possible. The problem here was the customer care reps giving out false information and, in one case, botching my request. It’s clear from the forum postings that I’m not the only one who experienced it.
WIND no longer offers a port-in credit.
Why should I pay $25 for a new SIM when I just bought one? (And why do they cost $25 when Koodo offers them for $10?)
I will continue to recommend Koodo because (except for heavy users) their plans aren’t that much more expensive than WIND’s, their coverage is better, and my experience with their customer care has been excellent.
right, telus has such wonderful customer service that the federal government took actions to introduce more competition due to massive public complaints. please… lets face it, you’re just an extremely ‘thrifty’ & self righteous guy. I wonder what your post will be like when telus tries to charge you for one additional month when you’re about to switch providers …. nickel & dime = telus; I doubt telus would have deactivated then reactivated your sim like wind did. from my experience telus has no respect for their customers nor does rogers. thus the introduction of the new entrants.
I’ve been through customer service nightmares with Bell, Rogers, and now WIND. But so far Telus hasn’t done anything to upset me. If they do, I’ll be sure to blog about it.
Interesting article, although I am more than happy with the Wind Mobile service. Most of my customers (I am a accessories dealer) are also happy. Most of the complaints center around coverage – which they are improving upon every day so I can’t complain as yet.
So far I have found the coverage within WIND Home to be comparable to the other carriers, with the exception of my desk at work where I get only 1-2 bars (compared to 4 bars on the other carriers). But even at that level I’m still able to listen to Internet radio and watch the occasional YouTube video, so I’m satisfied.
I’m hoping WIND Home will continue to grow, so that I don’t have to depend on my girlfriend’s Koodo phone so much for data while traveling. Either that, or the $4000/GB price for data on WIND Away needs to drop by a couple orders of magnitude. But that’s not likely to happen with Rogers in the picture.
It’s quite possible that you can’t change the number of a SIM card. I’ve had the same response from Rogers and Bell back before I joined Wind. This time when I joined Wind I automatically ported my number. You can’t blame Wind mobile if there’s simply no way to change the phone number of a SIM card. Just call any other company and ask them if you can change the number of a SIM card and they’ll give you the same answer.
That’s not true. The number associated with my SIM card was changed (twice!), so clearly it’s possible. In fact, it happens even if you port your number in at the start, since you’ll be assigned a temporary number which will be used until the port is complete.
In any case, it was the poor customer service that upset me, particularly when I was told my request would be processed, only to find out a week later that nothing had been done, and that the request wasn’t even recorded in their system.