Samsung's SIM snafu may have nudged some Sprint Galaxy S9 owners toward Verizon
Friday's launch of the newest Galaxy model from Samsung included a snafu that may have steered some Sprint customers toward rival Verizon.
The mix-up affected an undisclosed number of Sprint subscribers who went directly to Samsung to buy the Galaxy S9 or S9+, the device maker confirmed Friday but without revealing many details.
Specifically, Samsung shipped customers SIM cards for Verizon's network. A SIM card is a finger-nail sized chip that slips inside a smartphone. Each SIM carries a unique identification number that lets a device connect to a specific carrier's network.
Most consumers never see their SIM cards because wireless carriers tend to deliver phones with their network SIM cards already inserted.
Evidence of Samsung’s SIM snafu showed up when a tech blogger, Brandon, posted a photo of an order for a Sprint SIM card next to the Verizon SIM card that arrived instead.
The error hit only consumers who ordered phones directly from Samsung and specifically bought unlocked phones, which work with any carrier as long as a subscriber have the right SIM. Because SIMs are so tiny, they're attached to a plastic card the size of a credit card.
Those who got the wrong SIM cards are being told to visit Samsung customer service online or call 855-726-8721.
Although Samsung acknowledged its error, it wasn’t providing details.
Here’s a statement from Zach Dugan, a Samsung spokesman.
“We are aware of a limited number of customers who received a different SIM card with their unlocked Galaxy S9 or S9+ purchase via Samsung.com or the Shop Samsung app than the one they requested. We are in the process of correcting this issue and are providing customers with the correct SIM card that they ordered for their device."
The spokesman said he couldn’t say whether Verizon SIM cards were sent on all orders that requested Sprint SIMs or only some, but later updated that to say only some were sent the wrong cards. Nor could he say whether other SIM card shipment mistakes were made.
In theory, a customer could choose to pop a Verizon SIM card into their new Samsung phone and set up an account with Verizon — in other words, jump ship from Sprint.
Sprint spokeswoman Michelle Mermelstein said Sprint considers that Samsung has addressed the error and that "we don’t expect this to cause customers to switch carriers as a result."
This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Samsung's SIM snafu may have nudged some Sprint Galaxy S9 owners toward Verizon."