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Mifi 500 LTE activation

mrknowitall526

By mrknowitall526
in Hotspots/USB Modems

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mrknowitall526 Member Level: eHRPD

mrknowitall526

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Has anyone picked one of these up?  I ordered a Mifi 500 LTE on Monday, it arrived today.  Tried to activate it myself, had an error so I called Sprint - this happens to me usually every time I get a phone.  The "hands free activation" rarely ever works for me.

 

Talked to one guy for about 1/2 an hour, couldn't get it working.  He told me he would call back.

 

An hour later, I got tired of waiting so I called back.  Ended up being on the phone about 2.5 hours this time.  The tech, who I was on with for close to 1.5 hours, tried everything he could to get it working.  We reset it multiple times, etc., it still got stuck at "Hands free activation in progress" which then produced an error code.  I asked if it could be programmed manually, he claimed it couldn't (even though I saw "View/edit profile" in the browser interface, but you needed an MSL to get into it.)

 

He ended up saying it was defective, so they are sending me a new one.  Had to send me over to sales support.  After about 10 minutes, they tell me they are now on back order for 10-15 business days.  I can't believe they sold out in one day!  From yesterday to today.  Then it was a process to get a return ticket, etc.  They ended up giving me a $10 credit for all the hassle, which was great.

 

Has anyone else had this problem?  Or a problem with any other phone/device where this happened?  I just find it hard to believe that a brand new device is defective ... but I suppose it could be.

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mrknowitall526 Member Level: eHRPD

mrknowitall526

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I tried calling again hours later, and the same thing.  I asked the girl if there was a higher level of tech support - she said yes, and she put me on hold while she "talked to them."  came back saying the only other thing they could do was swap out the device.

 

I just ... why would they offer the "advanced" options in the browser interface, that require the MSL code, and then not know anything about them.

 

I should say, though, that all the people I talked to spoke English, were extremely polite and really seemed like they cared.  Not like calling Sprint support used to be like 5 years ago.

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koiulpoi Member Level: 4G WiMax

koiulpoi

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I've seen dozens of devices that refuse to activate "out of box". Sometimes manual programming works, sometimes not. If not, there's nothing to be done but throw it back in the box and grab another.

 

My experience has been that, for hotspots especially, manual programming is mostly useless without the entire data profile information, as otherwise it still doesn't work, and even after that further profile updates (and sometimes PRL and Device OTAs) will likely fail (as, well, the device is defective), necessitating a device swap to not cause a bad customer experience down the road.

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mrknowitall526 Member Level: eHRPD

mrknowitall526

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My EVO LTE didn't activate out of box ... and I was at the Sprint store.  It took almost an hour.  They had to start over. They were about to swap it out when they realized the guy that did it - who was fairly new - typed my phone number in wrong.

 

Mifi: When I did the data profile update, it just kept giving errors.  I was able to view the data profile, and (1) it didn't have my device's phone number listed and (2) the MEID DEC number displayed didn't match the box.  Someone told me that didn't matter.

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koiulpoi Member Level: 4G WiMax

koiulpoi

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It doesn't matter that it didn't match the box, but it must match what's on your account. If your MEID doesn't match, it won't activate, period. I think we might have just figured out your problem. Go have somebody in Care or eChat switch your ESN/MEID to the one listed on the device, not the box, and see if it activates then. I'm guessing it will...

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koiulpoi Member Level: 4G WiMax

koiulpoi

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Ok, but this last time when I called I gave them the MEID from the box.  It still didn't work.  In my call this afternoon we also tried using the one on the bottom of the device.

Well, to reiterate, if the MEID the device is broadcasting to the switch is not the same as the one on your account, it will not activate and it will not work. You need to give them the one you saw inside the device itself.

 

That being said, your device may still be defective beyond a simple sticker mismatch.

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Moropo Member Level: 3G EVDO

Moropo

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Do these activation issues also happen on a network with SIM cards? Every time I connect a new phone I always go through this excruciating experience of getting it activated (~1 hour on phone with them etc) and I wonder if in AT&T/T-Mobile it is as simple as putting in a SIM?

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Yuhfhrh Member Level: eHRPD

Yuhfhrh

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Do these activation issues also happen on a network with SIM cards? Every time I connect a new phone I always go through this excruciating experience of getting it activated (~1 hour on phone with them etc) and I wonder if in AT&T/T-Mobile it is as simple as putting in a SIM?

 

One of the best things about T-Mobile/ATT. Just pop in the sim and you're done.

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Mondays In Flames Member Level: eHRPD

Mondays In Flames

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Do these activation issues also happen on a network with SIM cards? Every time I connect a new phone I always go through this excruciating experience of getting it activated (~1 hour on phone with them etc) and I wonder if in AT&T/T-Mobile it is as simple as putting in a SIM?

When I had T-Mobile it really is as simple as putting a SIM in. I had two phones on the account, and my father uses T-mobile we would swap phones every now and then. Just put it in and you're ready to go.

 

 

-Luis

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