Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
Samsung shipped some Sprint Galaxy S9 units with Verizon SIM cards, is now working on a fix
- It seems that Samsung has sent Verizon SIM cards instead of Sprint SIM cards with some Galaxy S9 units.
- How widespread this issue is or why this carrier mixup happened, we don’t know.
- Samsung is now working to fix the issue.
The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are now on sale, and pre-ordered devices are now starting to make their way to early buyers. Unfortunately, some buyers have been receiving their Galaxy S9 units with Verizon SIM cards, even though they were ordered with Sprint SIM cards.
This is according to Brandon of YouTube channel This is Tech Today, who was supposed to get a Sprint SIM card with his Galaxy S9. Instead, he ended up with a Verizon SIM card that is completely useless to him.
Nailed it ? @SamsungMobileUS pic.twitter.com/nG0PwfYdne— Brandon | This Is Tech Today – YouTube (@thisistechtoday) March 14, 2018
This does not appear to be an isolated incident. Dozens of user comments from at least two Reddit threads allege that the same thing happened with their Sprint Galaxy S9 units, all of which were purchased from Samsung. The same issue appeared to happen whether someone bought an unlocked Galaxy S9 with a Sprint SIM card or a Sprint Galaxy S9.
When folks attempted to contact Samsung, some were told that the company ran out of Sprint SIM cards and that they should contact Sprint. Others were told that this was a known issue and that Samsung will report back at another time.
One customer was even told to just pay the $30 that Sprint charges for a SIM card. Others were given the SIM card for free, though a handful still paid $10.
We do not know why Samsung has this carrier mixup with Sprint and Verizon SIM cards. What we do know is that, according to Android Police, the Galaxy S9 on Sprint uses a new fragmented SIM card that has been difficult to get a hold of.
We also know that Samsung is very, very sorry about this. Samsung sent the following statement to Android Police:
We are aware of a limited number of customers who received a different SIM card with their unlocked Galaxy S9 or S9+ purchase via Samsung.com or the Shop Samsung app than the one they requested. We are in the process of correcting this issue and are providing customers with the correct SIM card that they ordered for their device.
Anyone who experienced this issue is advised to contact Samsung’s customer support. You can also reach out to Reddit user and Sprint employee halcyoncmdr. He also provided the correct SIM card information for those trying to contact Sprint or Best Buy.