Lyca SIM Only Failure followed by success

daverickard13

Just wanted to share my experience with Lyca, it wasn't good.

In short, I wouldn't recommend it, it's been a total waste of time, several hours so far and wasn't able to activate the MSE deal, although the payment etc. all went through ok.

More detail if you want it...

I took the £2.45 for 6 months deal, via the MSE link, paid, got the SIM in a couple of days and went through all of the usual account setup stuff. Everything was fine until I tried to activate my plan, the only way to do it is to use their 'smart PIN' system, note, it is an 8 digit number sent by email not the 4 digit one sent by text, even when I realised this it didn't work, just gave me a 'technical error' message and to call 322 for customer service. 

I did that thinking it would just be a case of providing the details for them to manually activate the plan I had bought, but they said all they could do was refund my initial payment of £2.45 and setup a new plan, but that would be from their 'standard' plans and said there was a £5 and £10 per month opinion, no way to provide the £2.45 option I signed up for.

Only option was to cancel the whole thing, including my porting request, get them to refund and go back to my previous SIM - an MSE Lebara deal that worked perfectly, sadly new customers only, but will probably try a work around for that as been pleased with them so far.

JohnReese

daverickard13 said:

Just wanted to share my experience with Lyca, it wasn't good.

In short, I wouldn't recommend it, it's been a total waste of time, several hours so far and wasn't able to activate the MSE deal, although the payment etc. all went through ok.

More detail if you want it...

I took the £2.45 for 6 months deal, via the MSE link, paid, got the SIM in a couple of days and went through all of the usual account setup stuff. Everything was fine until I tried to activate my plan, the only way to do it is to use their 'smart PIN' system, note, it is an 8 digit number sent by email not the 4 digit one sent by text, even when I realised this it didn't work, just gave me a 'technical error' message and to call 322 for customer service. 

I did that thinking it would just be a case of providing the details for them to manually activate the plan I had bought, but they said all they could do was refund my initial payment of £2.45 and setup a new plan, but that would be from their 'standard' plans and said there was a £5 and £10 per month opinion, no way to provide the £2.45 option I signed up for.

Only option was to cancel the whole thing, including my porting request, get them to refund and go back to my previous SIM - an MSE Lebara deal that worked perfectly, sadly new customers only, but will probably try a work around for that as been pleased with them so far.

I do think they need to be much better at their Confirmation e-mails, the Information they provide to the Customer, their Website functionality etc. Lebara seems to have a much more seamless process and user experience with their website and simpler activation. 
I think the Lyca Mobile letter/pack that comes in the post seemed decent and more user friendly. What seems very outdated are their e-mails, their website and somewhat overly complex manner of activation. 

daverickard13

Totally agree with that John, the Lyca website is particularly awkward to use.

UPDATE: After spending some time on the phone to Lyca Customer Service my original order has been cancelled and should be refunded, will need to wait a couple of days to see if that happens.

I thought I'd give them a second chance and ordered another sim via the MSE offer, it arrived this morning, I followed the instructions as before and this time it activated straight away.

All set up and port in request sent.

I've downloaded the Lyca app and although only had a quick flick through, it seems reasonable and better than the website. Although number porting can only be done through the website that seemed to go ok, at least I've received confirmation the request was successful so fingers crossed! 

JohnReese

daverickard13 said:

Totally agree with that John, the Lyca website is particularly awkward to use.

UPDATE: After spending some time on the phone to Lyca Customer Service my original order has been cancelled and should be refunded, will need to wait a couple of days to see if that happens.

I thought I'd give them a second chance and ordered another sim via the MSE offer, it arrived this morning, I followed the instructions as before and this time it activated straight away.

All set up and port in request sent.

I've downloaded the Lyca app and although only had a quick flick through, it seems reasonable and better than the website. Although number porting can only be done through the website that seemed to go ok, at least I've received confirmation the request was successful so fingers crossed! 

Yes, their website is a little awkward to use and rather glitchy. The Lyca app sounds good. They just need whoever does the App and their Letters to redesign the look of the website and get it functioning smoothly. 

The MSE offer was a good one, so glad to have got it working. Hope it goes well!

daverickard13

2nd UPDATE: Number porting has gone through, only took a day, so that's good. Just need the refund for the first SIM to arrive and all good, bar the time taken to get it sorted, worth it for such a good deal though!