Telenor online SIM booking system, a review

Telenor has recently introduced an online SIM registration and postal delivery solution after being forced by PTA regarding sales and distribution of SIM cards. Even though the process is still underway which will install NADRA’s Biometric Verification System at the retail shops, the introduction of this solution depicts that Telenor is still not willing to have that system installed. Keeping the Biometric system out of the discussion, we will be discussing the new registration and delivery procedure that we experienced with Telenor.

No link to online SIM booking

First of all, there is no link regarding the new service on the main website of Telenor. I scoured their website for quite some time in search for a link but could not find any button or link that would indicate any thing about the new SIM registration procedure. Then I called their Customers care center for more information regarding the matter. The first customer relations officer that took my call only knew that such kind of a service had been introduced and then redirected me to another CRO. After 3 minutes and 2 CROs I came to talk to a CRO who actually knew what he was doing. None of the 3 CROs knew the URL for the New SIM Registration procedure whereas I came to know the website through the message their IVR was relaying. It is www.newsim.com.pk and anyone with a CNIC can apply for SIM online.

When you open the website you can choose any number that is available. The interesting part is that you can search for any number patterns or starting and ending numbers and if the number is available, the website will give you a list.

Number Selection form

Select the number of your choice

After you select you favorite number and click on “Book Number” you are presented with a form which requires details from you CNIC and the address you want it to be delivered to. After you fill out the details you are sent an email which confirms that you have requested for a new SIM.

Unhelpful customer representative

After getting the confirmation email, since I did not know about the delivery time of the SIM, I called their Customer Care Centre for details upon which I came to know that the SIM will be delivered within 24 working hours which come out to be 3 days to be exact.

The call charges for talking to a Customer Relations Officer are Rs. 2 which are way higher than other networks. Though these services should not be charged as the company is already generating revenue from the customer’s mobile usage, this should mean that I get preferential treatment if I am paying for the service but NO!

Instead of any preferential treatment I got my time wasted and the CROs didn’t know the answers to my questions. They respectfully apologized for not knowing and said that they would redirect my call to the concerned department and kept on repeating one statement “Would you like to know anything else?” I don’t want to know anything else, I just want to know the answers to MY questions.

Irresponsible Customer Care

On top of the junk heap, I am not allowed to call the Customer Care Center more than 8 times! When I tried to call them for the 9^th time the IVR responded that you have exceeded the amount of times you can call our customer call center and please try again after 24 hours. This kind of service is totally unacceptable as I am already paying for calling their customer center and then paying additional Rs.2 to talk to the CRO, I should be allowed to call as many times as I want.

This new SIM distribution feature fails to meet the basic verification requirements. There is absolutely NO way of knowing if a person is using his actual CNIC or not. Nevertheless, we waited for our SIM to arrive on time but unfortunately it didn’t happen nor we received any call from Telenor sales team. We are also expecting a response from Telenor communication team on this very basic issue. In a follow up story we will update our readers on the post booking scenario.