iPad 3 Verizon LTE sim issues

I had clicked the 'deactivate now' option under the same pretenses as everyone else, got the 'burned' and useless SIM card, and got pretty ****** off.

but after updating to the OS6, the SIM card is working again and I can access the internet using cellular data, just as Vidman321 is reporting. I'm off travelling soon, so I thought I'd have to get an entirely new SIM card and have a Verizon or Apple person help me set it up. But something to do with updating the operating system reactivates the SIM card.

Anyone know why this would be? Clicking the 'deactivate now' option instead of the 'deactivate later' doesn't permanently 'burn' the SIM card, as reported. After I get back from travelling, I'd like to deactivate my cellular data plan so I'm not wasting $20 per month. Have there been any steps forward in resolving this issue?

Thanks for the info on updating the system to fix the sim card .

Here is my story and what i did yesterday 10/13/2012 to fix the sim issue.

To all those who have accidentally deactivated their pre paid Verizon ipad account on the ipad 3.

First go to settings then ,general ,then about.

Write down your phone number of the ipad and also the imei and meid numbers

Go to the verizon store and tell them you want.

1. A prepaid sim card for your ipad

2. You do not want to have the ipad added to your existing phone plan.Every verizon sales person will ask you your cellphone number when you tell them your problem.So you must tell them i am not adding this to my plan, perioud

3. You do not want a post paid plan for you ipad.either

They will try and try to say they can not do what you want . I had three sales persons try to get me off my pre paid plan. Be firm and do not listen to their lies.

4. Have this number ready.800-294-6804 it is Verizon prepaid support

5. Before you leave the store make sure the ipad will connect to the web .

6. You will still proable have to call verizon prepaid and give them the numbers off the sim card. There will be two rows of numbers on the card. I had to this right in the verizon store.

They (tech support)will activate it over the phone and add your credit card again to get your billing and data use age going.

The verizon store people know what to do to get you going, but have been told not to push the prepaid plan. I had three sales people who all said that once i cancelled the prepaid plan i could never go back. Even with the ver support person on the phone ,the salesmen said it cant be done.

.the store sales people are tring to get you on a more expensive plan.

Also the new sim card is free.

Also do not go to the apple store ,i did , they can not help you.This is not an apple issue, but apple could have made it where you can only deleat your account by removeing the sim card.

So i hope some one can use this info and save several hours of their time.

Just remember be firm with them .and tell them.

I WANT A PRE PAID SIM CARD!

The Verizon prepaid phone number is 888-294-6804.

Not the 800 prefix.

Filed my complaint today. Thanks.

CAn anyone confirm this issue exists in is 6 as well and whether this just affects VZW ? I am purchasing a new iPad with cell for first time and thought Verizon would be better for connectivity but this issue has me concerned as I will only use cell data once or twice a year. Please help confirm or deny, thanks

I dont know, no one has really confirmed it. There's been one person here that I read that his sim became usuable again when he updated to ios6.

I'm wondering if this will be a problem on the iPad mini, so much so, that I ordered a ATT version this time until I can confirm they wont have the same problems.

My Verizon iPad 3 sim card was "burned" after using it July and then canceling. Updated to new OS 6 and wonder of wonders, the sim card worked because I could sign up again and I did that in September. I did have a different email address at that time. When I canceled it that time, it "burned" the card again. I filed a complaint with the FCC using the link provided previously in this discussion.

Doesn't make sense to me that a burned card would work again. If that's possible, why isn't it possible to fix the card?

I am curious to see if the new iPad 4 will be advertised the same as the 3 with the ability to start and stop wireless connectivity whenever you want. I'll never buy another Verizon device!

So glad to find this thread, as I would have been much more knowledgable about this situation had a read it before attempting to solve my problem.

As many others have, I have the Verizon LTE iPad 3, and enjoy being able to just purchase 1 month at a time as necessary. Of course, on Tuesday, I got burned again with the hold auto-recharge, because I had not cancelled the auto pay feature. It was the 2nd time, so I figured, well, I will go into the setting right now and disable the autopay. Again, as other had pointed out, you must select the "DELETE ACCOUNT LATER" choice, which in reality simply cancels the auto-recharge feature, and lets you still keep the data you purchased until it runs out or the 30 day limit is reached. It was late at night, and I mistakenly selected the DELETE ACCOUNT NOW feature. Of course, I then deactivated the SIM card, and lost all my data. The message displayed says to go to a Verizon store to get a new SIM card or to call an 800 number.

I tried calling the number, it was for post-paid contract services, and I had to be transferred to the pre-paid division. The rep was very nice, but said that as I had deactivated my pre-paid account, there was no way for her to issue me a refund. She said I should dispute the charge, which I just did tonight.

Yesterday, I trekked to a full-service Verizon store in West Hartford, CT. It just happens to be across from the street were there is a mall that has an Apple Store. I figured that if Verizon could not help, I might be able to then hop over to the Apple Store. Of course, all the Verizon Sales employees were clueless, and had never heard of such an option. They did offer to give me a new SIM card, but told me that they could only establish it on the "Post-Paid" side of the business, and that I would have to manage the account via the website. I stated that having to do that basically defeated the purpose of being able to buy data from the iPad, as what if I am in a location without WiFi, and cannot get online? At least with the pre-paid option via Apple, you can manage the account through the LTE or 3G network, and sign up for data even if no WiFi was available. The rep. suggested I go to the Apple store. Of course, I check on my iPhone via the Apple Store App, and there were no more Genius Bar appointments that evening. So I made an appointment this afternoon.

Today I visit the Apple store. Again, my "Genius" had never heard of such an issue, never, ever... Thankfully, they did have the SIM cards, and offered to put a new one into my iPad at no charge. I was able to set up a new "pre-paid" account via the iPad. I had to again spend $20 to get 1GB of data, but at least it was working. I thanked her for her help, and told her I would deal with Verizon to attempt to recover my two-day old $20 charge, which I knew that I would just dispute with my credit card issuer. I just did that painlessly tonight with a rep. over the phone.

To make a long story short, as long as you have the iOS5, never, ever choose to DELELTE ACCOUNT NOW, as you will terminate you SIM card. Really, what a F***ed up feature, why should this even exist? You have to choose the Delete Account Later feature, which will then cancel the autopay. I guess as long as you buy another month of data sometime in the next 5 months, your SIM card will stay active.

I am going to insert my old SIM card into my wife's iPad 3, as she has a WiFi only model. I will be curious to see if it works. Thanks for the great information on this forum, and I agree with many posters that it is really false advertising on the part of Apple and Verizon to advertise this as month to month, when it really is not at all, you have to jump through all these hoops to use it that way, and you are required to at least buy a month of data every 5 months to keep the service active?? What a joke. Verizon *****. I think if you don't have an Apple store nearby, and you read this thread, go into a Verizon store and demand an unactivated SIM card, and insert it into the iPad and attempt to set up a prepaid account directly on the iPad. Don't let them tell you it has to be post-paid, and you can manage it on their website only...

BWParker

Hartford, CT

I have similar issue. My original Verizon LTE iPad 3 that I purchased in April malfunctioned. So, I went to Apple store and Apple had it replaced with the new iPad. It appeared that Apple took the my original Verizon Sim card for the malfunctioned iPad to the new replacement iPad. Since then I can no longer use the cellular data plan on it. Visisted Verizon store and explained the whole thing. The Verizon rep told me that the account has been deactivated and I can no longer use the prepaid plan like I used to. I did not know about this forum until visitied the Verizon today. Instead, they tried to sell me the month-to-month plan for $30/month and $35 reactivation fee. I can cancel the plan anytime, but I can no longer have the ability to turn on/off the plan like I used to on the iPad. And they want me to pay $35 everytime I want to turn on my data back on the iPad. This is surprising to me as I did not expected this.

I'm a previous owner of the original iPad with AT&T and had been using the data plan with AT&T when I want to. I can turn on my dataplan with AT&T when I traveling and did not have the plan when I'm not travelling. This works flawlessly with AT&T for 2 years. I'm very dissapointed with Verizon and filed complain with FCC today.

SHAME on you, Verizon!!! You just turn my Wifi/4G LTE iPad to just Wifi iPad!

It is a shame this is still going on. File with the FCC like i did. I am sure some lawyer or group of lawyers will be filing a law suit for false advertising.

Just so everyone who has a verizon SIM card account problems here are the facts.

1. SIM cards are free at verizon.

2. The SIM card already holds an account numbers ,you don't program a SIM card.You will proably get a new phone number assigned to the ipad.

3. With a new SIM card ,the verizon salesperson assigns your ipad a new phone number.

4 . It will take about 30 minutes to set up your new prepaid account at the verizon store

5 .this is not an problem that apple can fix . It is fixed at verizon.

6. If the verizon salesperson at the store says you can not go back to your prepaid account, then call verizon prepaid at 888-294-6804 and let the sales person talk to the verizon prepaid person .

7. Remember that verizon sales people do not get sales bonuses for getting you back on your prepaid account. So be persistent .

8. You have to let the salesperson know ,that most of the sales people are trying to not help customer get back on the prepaid account.

9. You may have to be in the verizon store for an hour if you run into resistance.

I would recommend you to call the verizon prepaid number above and have them on the line at the first contact with the store people. For you will almost always be told that your ipad can not have a prepaid account.So if they know you have access to prepaid support ,then they will cut the sales pitch and get on with getting you account going again.

This is great news if factual for all Verizon stores. Back in Sept. the local Store Manager refused to give the card for fre even refusing the Corporate person stating, "it's an inventory issue." I hope in the past two months that has been straightened out.

I wonder why this situation hasnt been completely fixed since March?

Verizon prepaid support at 888-294-6804, said a SIM card would cost me $ 5.00.

I have had three SIM cards used on my ipad .The first two got used up because of errors made by the verizon sales person ( franklin tn.)and the account closed after 24 hours..

So I was traveling to laurel ms. And the laurel ms.store did it for me in 30 minutes with another SIM card .( this store was honest and started me a new account with a new phone number for my prepaid account.

None of the stores ask me to pay anything for SIM cards.

I was told the SIM cards are the same ones used in the phones.

To answer your question ,why hasn't this problem been fixed since march.

It's not going to be fixed because verizon can make almost twice as much money if people let the verizon sales people talk them into going into a $ 37.00 plan like the cell phones use.

How does salesperson say it . I am sorry ,but your prepaid account can never be used again ,but I can start you on an unlimited data plan for only $........

My questions was sarcastic.

For now I have the original card and number reset by OS6 plus one sent to me by corporate. They did state I might need Verizon ppl to set it up for me and if they tried to charge I should call Corporate back. Well, I would like to be positive on that.

I do not travel much so the need for the LTE is very low for me. I hope the people that need this the most can force the issue.

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Well I am here tonight because I did the no no and deleted my prepaid account after i got an email saying my credit card was going to be charged. I should have had three more days, 30 days or 2gb whichever came first was how I understood it. I was waiting to cancel when my 30 days was up as I did not even come close to using the data. Thats when i got the message about the fried sim card. So.....my dilemma, this ipad was a Christmas present for my son, I took it on vacation to tryit out and was now going to wrap it after my service was deactivated. Has anyone backed up the device to their computer or cloud and reset it and then tried to reactivate cellular???? I will tell him if I need to but would like to not have to, since I had already updated the operating system to OS6 Does anyone know if I will have to so that again ? Since the other user updated his to 6 and his sim worked again I was wondering if this ipad would be fixed without the dreaded trip to Verizon , Which is in a city over an hour away from me. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.