Brand New Faulty CELL C BLACK DONGLE E1820 - To my discovery RICA already

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen.

(I WON A CELL C DONGLE AND TO MY DISCOVERY THE SIM CARD IS already RICA )

My frustration with my toy I won from a "technology website" was excited and over the moon when i found out I won a prize for 1st time ever in a long time.

So received the goodies on Monday Afternoon but didn't bother to test and try if the dongle is working (The same day I discovered I won also on myadsl)

First thing is first I try out the new black dongle on my notebook as I already have all the necessary installation files, etc and wanted to see whether the new dongle was working out of the box - to my discovery every time I tried to connect to the internet - the dongle would stay connected for approx 1minute + - and get unplugged automatically without me touching the dongle or bumping it by mistake.. (Then it would display discovered)

So decided to do the necessary steps to install all the necessary drivers on another computer(fresh installation) - installation turned out to be a success after a 2 reboots, then once windows boot up. I open up CELL C Dashboard - hit on connect and I am connected to the CELL C network - approx 1-2minutes or so does the same on another pc - unplugged the dongle and plugged it back in - same problem persisted - my conclusion Faulty dongle


So I decided to install the WHITE Dongle E1752 on the new computer everything worked as it should out of box and no disconnections whatsoever even my 1st black dongle...

How I discovered the CELL C SIM Card is registered, sent myself a call me sms and was able to connect to the internet without rica the sim card..

My Conclusion of the Faulty Black Dongle, someone bought the dongle and had issues returned it back to CELL C and CELL C didn't unrica the particular persons details.

(Also sent an email to the technology website to give me advice on what to do with this matter or who to contact at CELL C to get this sorted out)

Did the "technology website" you won it from not RICA the sim before they gave it to you ?

ColdComfort said:

Did the "technology website" you won it from not RICA the sim before they gave it to you ?

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I have the company letter head - stated clearly "I need to RICA in order to use it"

What is stated on the letterhead might well be different from what really happened.

Same here

I also won a Cell C package. Picked it up at the post office, and was surprised to find the package open, with the sim already inserted in the modem...

Got the same letter with, saying I have to RICA it.

Reading Richard's post, I just now plugged it in, it is not disconnecting, but it is also working, therefore must already have been RICA'd ?

Open package, that's dodgy

Tallies said:

I also won a Cell C package. Picked it up at the post office, and was surprised to find the package open, with the sim already inserted in the modem...

Got the same letter with, saying I have to RICA it.

Reading Richard's post, I just now plugged it in, it is not disconnecting, but it is also working, therefore must already have been RICA'd ?

Click to expand...

I am trying to get to the bottom of this now to see what can be done about this RICA'd package and faulty hardware I received.

@Tallies are you trying to tell me your SIM CARD that you received is already RICA'd without you taken the necessary documents to get your sim card rica'd.

Well if it is already RICA'd, I would be careful, the SIM has probably been activated a month or two ago, and you will have effectively 'lost' that data, and your 12 months internet might end up being only 10 months (how do you explain that to Cell C a few months down the line?)

Tallies said:

I also won a Cell C package. Picked it up at the post office, and was surprised to find the package open, with the sim already inserted in the modem...

Got the same letter with, saying I have to RICA it.

Reading Richard's post, I just now plugged it in, it is not disconnecting, but it is also working, therefore must already have been RICA'd ?

Click to expand...

I also won a package at the myadsl conference. It was opened with the sim inserted - they probably tested it beforehand. I took it to the Menlyn store and they RICA'd it for me. I therefore cannot say that it was previously RICA'd in somebody else's name.

renierp said:

Well if it is already RICA'd, I would be careful, the SIM has probably been activated a month or two ago, and you will have effectively 'lost' that data, and your 12 months internet might end up being only 10 months (how do you explain that to Cell C a few months down the line?)

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That is my concern could of also been RICA'd about 5months ago or more for all I know.

I gave it a bash to contact CELL C customer care, they transfer me to technical help desk they in return cannot help me at all, I try explain to them in detail that I won a CELL C DATA Bundle have to repeat myself like 3-4 times etc, and told them I am worried why this SIM CARD is RICA'd seems like the consultant couldn't help me at all or tell me procedures on who to contact etc. (She also told me the Number in question has only 25 meg of data and is not part of the data bundle promotion - bs I queried on CELL C SELF SERVICE WEB PORTAL clearly states 4G package.


UPDATE RESOLVED - All competitions dongles/sim cards are RICA'D automatically under the marketing department basically what happened on the 13th February when I plugged in the dongle, that is the day it actually got activated.... Sorted un-rica'd just a telephone call and done

SoTrue said:

I also won a package at the myadsl conference. It was opened with the sim inserted - they probably tested it beforehand. I took it to the Menlyn store and they RICA'd it for me. I therefore cannot say that it was previously RICA'd in somebody else's name.

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Same here my package was opened but have a faulty dongle - I didn't RICA'd the sim card or anything just plugged the modem onto the computer, then opened cell c dashboard and clicked on connect. (If the sim card wasn't RICA'd I wouldn't be able to this at all) but was able to check data balance and all.....

I am cool with the package being open and all but sending me faulty hardware - when i connect to the internet everything is fine for about 1-2minutes then the modem automatically unplugs itself from the computer, then identifies the dongle again the same problem occurs (If I could do a firmware flush on the dongle this would sort out this issue)

Glad that you got that cleared up for us, thanks Richard.

For interest sake, I did call Cell C support before plugging in the dongle, the lady assured me that the package had already been activated...

As to your problem, my dongle does the same on the front USB ports, but works fine on the rear ports.

Tallies said:

Glad that you got that cleared up for us, thanks Richard.

For interest sake, I did call Cell C support before plugging in the dongle, the lady assured me that the package had already been activated...

As to your problem, my dongle does the same on the front USB ports, but works fine on the rear ports.

Click to expand...

Just ask the call centre to transfer your call to escalations department - they the only people that are able to delete you off the system or alternatively mention CELLC on twitter explain everything to them and they will contact you back after 4hours or so.

Your dongle also seems to be disconnecting after few minutes of use(USING the front USB ports - interesting)

very strange even used the same notebook - where my black dongle was connected for 7 days non-stop - I have a faulty dongle no doubts about that will go into CELL C store tomorrow.