Activating Apple Watch - any one else having issues?

Chris,

When you see this MSG would you please IM me.  I need your help

JT

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@ComcastChrisL wrote:

Hello everyone,

 

I wanted to reiterate that we continue to address things on a case per case basis.  My colleague who spoke with Lmarion1965 was able to implement a fix that corrected his issue with cellular connectivity.  We have attempted that same process on other watches with the same cellular connectivity issues, and it did not work, and it has prevented us from issuing any notifications of a universal fix.

 

We will continue to investigate and look for a permanent fix for all cases.  If you need assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out.  Click on my name “ComcastChrisL” and then click on “send message” in order to message me privately.    

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I can't send you a message privately, Even after I signed in. Are you able to assist? 

First off, Xfinity (Comcast) has the worst possible support of any company I have every encountered.  After almost 6 hours of dealing with people at Xfinity (phone) support and in-store, my situation was not resolved.

SOLUTION: Call (844) 963-0125 and ask for Tier 3 support.  They will not let you talk to them, however, all Tier 3 needs to do is to "remove the phone number associated with your watch from their backend system."  This should take about 10 minutes until it all flushes through the front and backend systems.  While they are doing that, unpair your Apple Watch from your iPhone and start the re-paring process.  By the time the watch has been re-paired with the phone, the line should be dropped from the system and you should be able to activate the cellular service on your Apple Watch (with Cellular) Series watch.

Here is my awful support story.....

1. Attempted to activate the cellular feature on my Apple Watch Series 4.  
2. After being prompted to login to my Xfinity account, I received a message stating "This watch has been pretty busy.  This watch was already activated on another line. Call us at (844) 963-0125 to deactivate the watch from its current phone before proceeding".
3. I called Apple Support prior to calling Xfinity Support as I knew what I would be getting myself into so I thought I would just try Apple Support first.  The rep at Apple was extremely nice, when I explained what I was doing and the step I was currently on, he advised that "unfortunately, you are going to have to call the carrier.  Since it is prompting you to log into the Xfinity account, that is where Apple and Xfinity separate and Apple no long has any control over this process, sorry."  No problem, it totally makes sense.
4. Next I call Xfinity Support.  I am on the phone for almost 2 hours back and forth with the rep stating I have to unpair my watch, set my watch to factory settings, format my iphone (which I didn't do), etc., etc., etc.  He stated that he was talking with Tier 2 support the entire time.  After 2 hours I ended the call because I had things to do.
5. I called back later that afternoon.  The first rep, upon hearing of my problem with the Apple Watch, just hung up.
6. I called back again, spoke with a female support agent who proceeded to argue with me that my iPhone XSMax was the problem.  It is listed in our system as an iPhone 8 Plus.  When asked what I have to do to remedy this because apparently their records were not up to date, she stated "you need to go into a store, get a new sim card and open a "new line of service" with us which will run you $45 a month".  Wrong!  When asked for a supervisor, she said he would tell me the exact same thing and therefore would not get a supervisor on the line.
7. I hung up and called back.  I spoke with a gentleman, explaining immediately that I needed to talk with a supervisor and gave him the background.  He said he was speaking with the supervisor, but that was in fact the problem because my phone has to match what the system says or it will prevent it from working.  He gave me two options: (1) go into a store and get a new SIM card and register it on the network or (2) he could mail me a new SIM card.  I said I'd go into the store knowing full well that they wouldn't be able to assist.
8. I spent the next 2 hours in the Xfinity Store with the rep immediately telling me, we can't do anything as we have to call support.  So he was on the phone 2 hours and couldn't make anyone understand that this watch and phone had been previously paired and was working.  When he asked to speak with the Tier 3 support agent (he was speaking with a Tier 2 agent), she said he couldn't speak with him, only the customer could.  When I asked about the XSMax vs. iPhone 8 Plus, the in-store rep said that isn't the problem.  "We have the correct serial number, IMEI, ICCID of the XS Max, it is just labeled wrong on the front facing system.  After 2 hours and apology after apology, he said I'd have to call the original number on the error message and ask for Tier 3 support.  He said "they won't let me talk to them and all they have to do is drop your number from the backend system, just like the message states, but I can't get anyone to hear me".
9. The next day, I called and spoke with a female (Debbie) who was on it.  She immediately stated "Oh, we just need to drop the line from the system so you can re-register it".  So, she emailed another agent and within 10 minutes, my Apple Watch cellular service was back online".

Hi Chris,

I have the new Ihpone 11 pro with xfinity mobile and just bought the Apple series 5 watch cellular.  Having tough time activitating my watch.  done all of the suggested steps.  who do I talk to?

Thanks.

Adam

Hello All,  To resolve the issue you have to have Tier 2 completely remove the Apple Watch from your account.  Then you will need to go into an xFinity store and have it added back.  This resolved my issue over the weekend.

I had the same month long saga trying to activate my series 3 watch  and was finally successful with help from ComcastChrisL and tier 3 support  .  Canceled the series 3 Watch service last week and  Activated a new  Xfinity phone and tried to activate a new series 5 aluminum  purchased from Apple .  No luck 

  If activation of a new watch fails My best advice is to call tech service and insist they fill out a technical troubleshoot ticket and ask it to be escalated to tier 3 support.   Level one support and most store personnel want to be very helpful but are wasting everyone’s time .

 On the troubleshoot ticket include the paired phone number and the IMEI number of the watch .

Hopefully I will get my new Watch activated in the next few days.

Hello everyone,

I posted the following message to the other thread concerning Apple Watch series 5 compatibility and wanted to share it with everyone here as well;

As of now, the only Apple Watch series 5 devices that will be able to connect to cellular service with Xfinity Mobile are the following models;

Watch Series 5 Aluminum 40mm Space Gray w/ Blk Sp Bd
Watch Series 5 Aluminum 40mm Gold w/ Pink Sand Spt Bd
Watch Series 5 Aluminum 44mm Space Gray w/ Blk Sp Bd
Watch Series 5 Aluminum 44mm Gold w/ Pink Sand Spt Bd

If you have purchased an Apple Watch series 5 model that is not one of the ones mentioned above, support for those devices is incoming. As of 9/30/2019, we will be supporting all Apple Watch series 5 models.

What still holds true for Apple Watch series 5 as it did with series 3 and 4, if the device originated from AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint, all models from those service providers remain incompatible.

Let me know if you guys have any other concerns. You can private message me by clicking on my name ‘ComcastChrisL’ and then click on ‘send message’. Thank you again for all of your support.

Can't get my wife's watch activated - getting the "Uh Oh".  Also, getting no option to message ComcastChrisL when I click on the name.

Tried pretty much everything suggested and then some.

Support (no luck getting to tier 3 so far) is suggesting I reset the watch. Is that going to be a boondoggle too?