[Jaggu]

Yesterday I tried getting an Airtel eSIM, all the steps work except the last one which is supposed to send the eSIM activation QR. Biggest hassle is, every time you do this, if you don't activate the eSIM, the regular SIM would get deactivated after 2 hours as per Airtel. So I had to each time cancel the request. Called the customer care and they also could not fix the issue, and asked me to goto the Airtel shop. I have one near my office in Kundanahlli and the executive there Raghav, was super helpful. Though he could not resolve it, had escalated the issue to Airtel tech team.

Today morning I checked my email and there are some 8 QR codes from all the tries from yesterday lol. Called up the executive Raghav and he asked me to do the process again and ensure a fresh QR code is generated and then activate that. Which I have done now and waiting for eSIM to get activated. Usually takes about 2 hours.

The actual reason why eSIM QR code email was not generated according to the executive was that iPhone 11 model was not added to the list of devices supported! Airtel themselves have the device listed on website lol. Anyways they rectified it pretty soon.

Hope the last step "Activation" goes off smoothly.

[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

I had gone ahead and placed an order

Problem!!!

The phone arrived today, and I suspect that I got a refurbished phone. The serial number starts with 'F' which according to the internet stands for a refurbished phone. Can somebody confirm this?

The seller was Appario so there was no reason to suspect foul play, but these days you never know. But the phone "looks" new - no scratches or anything such. The box shows a manufacturing date of May 2019. And warranty check in the Apple website shows warranty till 30 Sep 2020.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

Problem!!!

The phone arrived today, and I suspect that I got a refurbished phone. The serial number starts with 'F' which according to the internet stands for a refurbished phone. Can somebody confirm this?

Look for Model code (can be found under Settings > General > About > Model); starts with M for new, F for refurbished, N for factory replacement devices and P for Personalized units, according to this article, and this one.

Checked better half's SE, model# starts with M. Have had friends/acquaintances get devices with the other categories mentioned so it's pretty accurate.

[smnrock]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

The serial number starts with 'F'

You should looking for model number, not the serial number.

[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Checked better half's SE, model# starts with M.

Originally Posted by smnrock

You should looking for model number, not the serial number.

Oops! My bad.

The model no indeed starts with 'M'. That's a relief. Thanks guys!

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

...

The model no indeed starts with 'M'

Did you finally get the 6S or the 7? If the 7, did you a get a lightning - 3.5mm converter dongle in the package? 7 originally shipped with one, but latest 'what's in the box?' entries don't mention one being included.

[civic-sense]

Settled for the 6S itself. The 5S exchange and sbi card brought the price to 16k (vs 23k for the 7), and it came bundled with 1 year screen protection - unlike the 7.

[vb-saan]

So how does this work – does Apple produce older models (6S, 7, XS etc.) for specific markets? Asking because, here in Singapore only iPhones sold now are the 11 series, XR and the 8.

[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by vb-san

So how does this work – does Apple produce older models (6S, 7, XS etc.) for specific markets? Asking because, here in Singapore only iPhones sold now are the 11 series, XR and the 8.

Looks like it's region specific. Or it is old stock. The 6S we got is made in india. Manufactured in may 2019.

[tirthankard77]

Hope the last step "Activation" goes off smoothly.

Hi Jaggu,

Did the activation happen?

[shashank.nk]

Two interesting experiences on the iPhones at home which left me wondering what's up with Apple lately

iPhone 7 plus on 13.1.2
So my sister gets a call from an unknown number and later looks it up in truecaller only to find no results, meanwhile this caller calls another two times and assuming it to be spam, she disconnects the call. As is habit, she asks me to look it up on truecaller on my android phone, turns out the call was from examination department at the institute and they were calling about something important Thank god I looked it up and she called back! Any alternate apps other than Truecaller for this purpose ?

iPhone XR on 13.1.1
Face ID was set up to recognise my dads face and we didn't add any face under 'Set up alternative appearances' When the phone was on iOS 12 it never recognized my face as a match, however today the phone unlocked when held up to my face! I later upgraded to 13.1.2 and it still recognized my face though I never registered it. I later reset Face ID and it no longer recognized my face. Was this a bug or is this how its supposed to work ?

[revvharder]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

I have gone back and forth several times. Since I did not use Apple apps (cloud, email, photos, notes etc) but used Google Apps (Drive, Gmail, Google Photos, Keep etc) the switching was pretty easy. The only problem was with WhatsApp messages. When you switch, the messages you received in the previous ecosystem cannot be migrated to the new one. Some people have suggested workarounds, but none has worked for me.

thanks, this was one important aspect I completely forgot about. So the deal breaker remains is can the calls be recorded because oneUI allows it.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by revvharder

thanks, this was one important aspect I completely forgot about. So the deal breaker remains is can the calls be recorded because oneUI allows it.

One thing you can be sure is that iOS will never allow access to any third party app to calls and messages; so don't expect any call recorder software to work on iPhones.

Regards,
Saket

[Ford5]

Caught in action! HDFC and Airtel hand in hand barging through our screens if we ignore their SMS and spam calls.

Turning off flash messages repeatedly after the iOS 13.1 - 13.2 is not helping and Airtel as usual is feigning ignorance.

Dont know what to do now. DND and Trai app etc is all hogwash and never worked in my favour.

This seems to be a iOS 13 bug for sure.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by tirthankard77

Hi Jaggu,

Did the activation happen?

Oh yeah it did, but with some further drama.

I had scanned QR code. Waited for 2 hours and exactly at 2nd hour my physical SIM got deactivated, and I receive email saying my eSIM service request is completed. Only issue is my eSIM is saying no service lol.

Called up the nearby service centre, he is also clueless since system says all clear. Then I noticed that there is a eSim number that is mentioned on the service request closure email, so went back to email thread to see if there is a reference in that to identify the QR code. Unfortunately it was not there!

But then that is when I noticed that Airtel has sent me one more QR code, besides the one that I used assuming it was the latest. On a hunch scanned this and lo behold! eSIM signal is back on!

So guys ensure if it is a new model phone, get a confirmation from Airtel it is added to the system. Request for the eSIM through phone only once and use it