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iPad Air 2/Verizon Cellular Question

O

Osip

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 10, 2008
24
0
My experience with this is pretty much nil, so I'm hoping you guys can assist.

My mom finally purchased a cellular iPad after years of admiring my Verizon iPad 3 during Best Buy's Black Thanksgiving online sale. She (and admittedly I as well) was not aware of the fact that Verizon does not support the Apple SIM. Verizon is the only carrier with that their vacation home is within range of, so this has to work on Verizon. I've been reading mixed results in regard to customers being able to convince Verizon to sell them a prepaid SIM in-store and I was wondering if any of you guys have tips/foolproof advice she could use to get a Verizon Store to sell her a prepaid SIM.

Your advice/assistance would be appreciated as she's not very tech-minded and has a tendency to give up quickly if things don't go smoothly...

Family, got to love them right? ;)
 
Verizon can be a pain to get a prepaid sim from... I've heard Best Buy sells them ($10?) but I've had very good luck buying from eBay for the cheapest ($5 ish.)

Good luck!
 
it is my understanding as long as you bring the iPad air 2 to the verizon retail store and agree to activate the device in the store, they will give you the sim card free of charge.

what they will not do is let you walk out of the store with a sim card if you do not bring a device

don't let them sign you up to an agreement. just tell them you want to activate the sim card on a prepaid plan on the iPad

i went to the verizon page and gave them my meid and they said my iPad air was not compatible
.. if their website said the iPad was compatible. they would of mailed me the sim card free of charge with 1 month of service i paid for in advance
i heard some horror stories ( or rumors ) where you have to activate the sim card in another tablet and then move it over
 
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yeah. the worse case scenario is you will have to obtain the sim , even off of eBay or amazon and you will need to borrow someone else's Verizon tablet or borrow one of the store's iPads, activate the sim card using your billing info and then eject the sim card and insert it into the iPad air.

you said you already had a verizon iPad. so you might have to use your verizon iPad to activate it.

i bet they would give you the free sim and u use your own verizon iPad to activate HER sim if you took them both to the verizon retail store
 
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The easiest is to buy one on eBay or Amazon, if you are going the prepaid iPad activation method. I bought 2 just to have a spare.

Verizon corporate stores can be iffy. IF you have Amazon Prime, you can get one in 2 days.
 
I activated my Air 2 on Verizon about a month ago. I took mine to a Verizon dealer and they replaced the Apple sim (which I kept), popped in a Verizon sim and set me up on the month to month prepaid service with no issues at all. Took about 15 minutes and I was on my way. :)
 
UPDATE: I went to a couple of local Best Buys and was basically told, "Go to Verizon." Well, one store told me one thing over the phone and another when I arrived in-store to grab a SIM... :mad:

I eventually caved and ordered one off eBay. Here's hoping it works when it arrives... Thanks for all your help - I'll let you know the results when it gets here! :)
 
Just went through this myself. Bought a Verizon SIM off Ebay, inserted it into the Ipad Air 2, activated through Verizon's web site. Worked, no problems.
 
I got my Verizon SIM for free by asking at my local Apple Store. It rang up at a penny and they said have a nice day LOL :)

Replaced the Apple SIM with the Verizon SIM from the store and I was good to go
 
Best Buy should be able to activate the iPad if not the employee is being lazy. All the do is grab a verizon sim and activate it.
 
UPDATE: The SIM arrived last night and I swung by my parents to install it. I've confirmed that it is allowing her to select the pre-paid plan she wanted and we're good to go.

The Apple Store in Altamonte Springs referred me to Verizon without bothering to offer further assistance. This doesn't surprise me because, honestly, I've found their service in general to be a bit lacking. I didn't try the other two stores in the area, unfortunately.

And speaking of lacking, the Best Buy clerks I encounter tend to be lacking as well... Oh well, guess they don't want to make a sale. ;)

Thanks again, everyone!
 
Osip said:
UPDATE: I went to a couple of local Best Buys and was basically told, "Go to Verizon." Well, one store told me one thing over the phone and another when I arrived in-store to grab a SIM... :mad:

I eventually caved and ordered one off eBay. Here's hoping it works when it arrives... Thanks for all your help - I'll let you know the results when it gets here! :)
Click to expand...

For future reference non-corporate Verizon stores will ALWAYS charge for SIM cards, just as Verizon charges them...
& corporate Verizon will NEVER charge you for a SIM.
 
Tycho24 said:
For future reference non-corporate Verizon stores will ALWAYS charge for SIM cards, just as Verizon charges them...
& corporate Verizon will NEVER charge you for a SIM.
Click to expand...

I don't mind paying for a SIM card, but I had been reading stories from customers across the web complaining that corporate and non-corporate stores were refusing to provide the SIMs period or forced customers to jump through hoops/visit multiple stores to get a SIM. As stated initially, I wanted an easier method of obtaining one without the frustration and it seems the best/easiest method is to find a seller on eBay. I'm not particularly fond of this option, but it seems to work so *shrugs*.
 
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