Apple Watch pairing error

[JonathanB]

Hi everyone,

We've moved everything relating to Apple Watch pairing issues to this new conversation and will be providing all future updates as edits to this post, so that you won't need to go searching through the comments for these.

I appreciate these pairing errors must be very frustrating, especially for those of you that have been running into issues for several weeks now. Technical specialists are continuing to look into this, however based on what they've seen so far, this does not seem to be one overall fault that we can apply a blanket fix to.

With this in mind, please make sure you have followed the advice on the private message we've sent to each of you, this will ensure that your individual case has been escalated. We've originally sent these messages out a couple of weeks ago, so I'll double check that everyone that has commented has received these. You can find your community messages by clicking on your avatar in the top right of any page, then on "Messages".

Finally, please ensure you are following the Community House Rules when posting on the community, particularly points 8 and 13.

The private message mentioned above will put you in touch with a team that you can raise a complaint with should you wish to do so, any comments that share details of individual Three employees will be removed from the community.

JonathanB

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**Update 26/10/2022**

Hi everyone,

We really appreciate your patience whilst we've been working on this issue. I can't imagine how frustrating it is to not be able to take full advantage of your Apple watches.

As I mentioned last week above, the errors do not seem to be one overall fault that can be fixed immediately for everyone. We do need a specialist team to do some work in the background on your accounts. With this in mind, I'd advise the following:

• Make sure you've taken any action we've recommended on private messages to your community account. If you're experiencing these issues and we don't already know, please reply on this post so we can reach out.
• Do not repeatedly attempt unpairing and pairing, this may be interfering with the work done in the background. Please wait for a Three representative to contact you and advise before you unpair and pair again.

We've seen some great progress towards getting this sorted in the last few days, I'm hopeful that it won't be too much longer till this issue is fully resolved for everyone.

JonathanB

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**Update 17/11/2022**

 Hi everyone,

We’re really sorry that there’s been a considerable delay between updates on the errors with Apple watch pairing. As we’ve mentioned previously there is more than one error involved and specialist teams are working hard to address the root causes of these.

I assure you that all comments about this issue are read, and all feedback given is being escalated on a daily basis.

Whilst we’re working on this, we’d be grateful if you can do the following:

• If you’re new to this thread, please either private message me, or add a reply, and I’ll direct you to a team that can help further.
• If I’ve already sent you this information, please ensure you have spoken to that team.
• Please only unpair and re-pair your watch if directed to by one of our support teams as part of the troubleshooting and investigation of your issue.

I’ll provide another update soon.

Thanks,
JonathanB

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**Update 02/12/2022**

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your continued patience. We’ve seen some great progress towards resolving these issues since the last update. As I’ve mentioned previously there is more than one error involved, and for many of you, your bill cycle will also affect when you can successfully re-pair the service.

Here’s some general steps that should help with common scenarios we’re seeing.

• Ensure that you’ve registered for My3, without a registered online account and password set, the pairing will fail.
• There are some instances where special characters at the start of My3 passwords have resulted in an error. We recommend that you have a strong password that is a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters but avoid beginning the password with characters like /!”£$|\. My3 supports these, but it seems to be causing an issue when this info is passed onto the smartwatch pairing system.
• If you’ve changed your priceplan, upgraded, or are instructed to wait for your bill cycle to complete, you should wait till the day after your new bill cycle starts to attempt pairing. So for example, if your allowances refresh on the 1st, wait till the 2nd.
• Although individual smartwatches can be unpaired from your account, cancelling or removing the add on completely will delay being able to reinstate the service till the following bill cycle.
• As mentioned before, don’t repeatedly unpair and re-pair, the failed requests may cause further issues on your account that delay this being solved.
• I’m continuing to regularly check for anyone new on the thread, just send a reply or private message me, and I’ll link you in with a support team that can help get your specific error looked into and make sure you get the best advice.

Thanks,
JonathanB

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**Update 11/01/2023**

Hi Everyone,

As well as the steps on the last update, we're finding it helps to clear your temporary data from your iPhone before attempting pairing.

You can do this in Settings, Safari, Clear History & Website Data.

In case anyone is having trouble finding their private messages, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages". If you've posted on this thread, then you should have a message waiting from me with a link to a support team that will help.

Thanks,
JonathanB

[Gary]

Yes Steph it doesn’t work and no one at three can’t make it work 

so at least you can be honest and just say it doesn’t work and don’t know when it will and customer service should say the same and stop signing up people by saying it will as its dishonest and against the law to say it will when in fact it will not please 

[Enlery]

Waiting for the billing cycle to renew is not the solution. Your tech team needs to identify the root cause of 'E5330.' 

Why is your tech team not creating a ticket with a third-party tech team??? (of which I'm sure, you have in place) 
To find the root cause of this error. Since it's a code, it MUST come up in a library and show you what the issue is. 

I am a customer experience manager, and I know how I would handle this situation. Surely not like the way you are doing this now. 
Start working on this, escalate this, and make your directors aware of this. This could easily turn into something ugly. 

I strongly suggest everyone who's reading this to make sure you are NOT being charged for any costs, for a service you can not use. 
And let us keep writing them as much as possible, so we have a thread of complaints. 

This will be helpful once I contact consumer rights, or even try to bring this to the media's attention. I'm sure there's a story here, as more and more people are starting to buy a smart watch as well.  

Wenlery Manuel

[StephR]

Hi Wenlery. Thanks for joining us here at Three Community and for contributing to the discussion around these smartwatch pairing issues.

You've made some very fair points and it's certainly taking longer than we'd like to help every impacted customer. However, please understand that there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. We are doing all we can to resolve the matter in each situation, which includes raising appropriate tickets and keeping relevant parties apprised of the situation.

I’m really sorry you’ve had trouble with this add-on yourself, I do understand how frustrating it is. Can you please answer the following questions, so we can appropriately move things forward for you?

• Did you take out a phone contract, smart watch contract and Smartwatch Pairing Add-on all at once? Or did you already have a watch and added the Smartwatch Pairing Add-on to your existing phone contract?
• Have you followed all of the steps under the Troubleshooting dropdown on our Smartwatch Pairing support page?
• You mention having spoken to our Customer Service team over the phone. Have they confirmed that your case has been raised to our technical team for further investigation?

Let us know, and we'll figure out the next best step for you.

[Enlery]

Hello,

My points are not only fair, but they’re also accurate.
You don’t have to point out the obvious that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. That’s for Three to attend to, not something to point out at me.

Since you say, “we’re doing all that we can”, I doubt if you are.
Giving a weekly update is the least you can do. As you can see, some have been waiting for months now without a solution and without your trouble-shooting solutions resolving their issue.

When was your first ticket raised? If you say that you are doing all that you can, that first ticket is still not resolved, and that should not look good on your SLA or in meetings. Surely this should be concerning, and management should’ve stepped in after a month (which is a long time, to begin with, but I’m being nice here…). As you launched this ‘Cellular Plan’ add-on on the 22nd of June 2022, you must understand, as a business, that you should be prepared that not everything can always go as planned.

Train your agents! As I have spoken to several agents, hearing a thousand apologies, hearing Dua-lipa over and over (thanks to you, I now dislike the song), one thing stood out, and that is, none of them could adequately assist me. I don’t blame the agents for the lack of information they are given, this is a managerial fault, and I feel sorry for them. Dealing with frustrated customers when they are not being informed correctly, to begin with.

I have cancelled my cellular plan due to a lack of understanding from your side. I’m starting to wonder if I should stay with Three altogether.

I bought my watch directly from the Apple Store. I switched from Pay-as-you-go to Monthly. Once that was done, I added the Smartwatch pairing Add-on.
Yes, I followed the steps. Why do you think I’m writing to you with frustration and discontent? I hope I’m not dealing with selective readers here… as I mentioned before that you’re troubleshooting is not working. Not for my situation and clearly not for others. A few have been lucky, but those don’t come close to most people.

Yes, it has been raised and then I had a call-back, and it still was not resolved. I refuse to be kept on a leash of ‘further investigations’

I have figured out the next best step for me. I would like to have a new Smart Pairing Add-on. This will resolve my issue and then also confirm my solution, that the IMEI number (of a phone) is also linked to the ‘cellular plan’. I’m sure this is where you are going to tell me that it won’t be possible and that I must wait for the next billing cycle. If this is what you are going to tell me, I will cancel my phone contract (that I took, so I could have the smartwatch pairing), and find another provider. OR, you will use my situation as a test, ‘doing all that you can’, and make it so, that I can have my new add-on today or tomorrow.

The ball is in your court…

[Enlery]

So typical, every time the moderator responds and then has a reply, there's is no answer. Complete silence. It's a shame that your tech team does not have a solution after 4 months... 
Waiting for the billing cycle to renew DOES NOT WORK! Your agents are not even trained properly to be able to address this query. All we hear is a thousand apologies, but no solution. This is beyond frustrating. I will keep commenting until I get the attention of the directors. This issue is on a management/director level, and you are quiet when you should TAKE OWNERSHIP and resolve this matter. 

[Gary]

How can I contact the hierarchy please I’m desperate to get this working 

[JonathanB]

Hi @Gary,

I'm not sure if you're perhaps having trouble finding your messages/notifications on the community. We sent you a private message, as we have been doing for everyone posting on this thread. This was in early November when you first joined and started posting.

You can find this by clicking on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages"

You may also find it helpful to verify your email, so that you are contacted about private messages and replies. You may need to check your junk/spam if it's not in your inbox, but there should be an email from us with a verification link received shortly after you registered on the community.

The private message has a link referring you to a specialist team that can correlate what you've reported on community with your actual Three account, and from there we'll make sure this is escalated to the correct people to help further.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Bluegirl5354]

Hi,

Ive just bought an Apple Watch with cellular and it won’t pair with my 3plan. 

just says there is a problem - one of the fields is missing. 

please advise 

[Helpless]

I’ve moved from a £10 All-in a month PAYG contract to threes’ £15 + £7 pairing fee + VAT for a service that is worse! Contracted for 12 months!! What are my options?

[msandhu]

Hi Jonathan, 

I have recently purchased an apple watch from apple and then purchased the pairing plan. however I am having the same issues as above

saying 'no connection' on my apple watch but it is paired to three

any resolution? as I am paying for a service that I am not getting