Please help: PIN code for online prepaid Tim Tourist SIM card

If you haven’t received the email by the time you go, probably the TIM store can still help you. Just take the print out of your payment confirmation with you.
I’m not sure what the purpose is to prepay for the SIM card if you still need to go to the store once you get to Italy, before you can have it. You could have gotten to the store and pay for it there when you got the SIM card installed.

Thank you Roberto. I thought the online cost may have been a discount vs purchasing it at the store, and perhaps it might save a little time having it already purchased. Now I realize it might have been better to do it all in person. I am definitely bringing that code with me, and hopefully it will work out.

Did you check again the spam folder after a couple of days?

PS If you have an iPhone, be aware that texting is not included in the Tim Tourist offer. You can chat via internet, but an old fashioned text message to the US could make the sim go negative. Incoming texts won't be a problem.

Were you able to sort this out with TIM Mobile? Same thing happened to me and my partner with little help from their Customer service - I reached out to them on Facebook but they gave me an email address to email. Going to try my luck with the email they provided me.

@ Gerard

Curious, did you purchase the TIM SIM directly from the TIM website or from a 3rd party vendor.

@ periscope

Directly from Tim’s website. This is the link I purchased it through:

https://www.tim.it/en/landline-mobile/international-calling/from-italy/tim-tourist

yeah, I never purchase SIMs on-line, I just head to a storefront and pick one up. Sorry to hear you didn't get the email but that is a real nice price 15GB for €20. Without an email I'm not sure what your proof is, and it's hard to say whether your name is in the system before actually registering the SIM card at the store. I have heard of reluctance by store staff to help out given they don't get any money for serving you on a pre-purchase.

Yeah it’s not ideal. I do have the confirmation number after the transaction was successful but I’m not sure if this is enough to get the SIM card from the TIM store. Worst case scenario is I reverse the charge on my credit card and buy from the store front upon arrival at the airport.

A TIM confirmation # or a credit card confirmation # - if it's from TIM that might be searchable on their system or the storefront person should be able to access the company hotline for assistance. But as you say, just buy it at the store and put through a reverse.

Buongiorno tutti, and thank you to Dario, Roberto, and others for your replies.

I purchased my SIM directly from the TIM website - like Gerard. I never received the subsequent email with the code to bring to the store, so I tried to contact TIM by replying to the email that said transaction successful. I never got a reply, so decided to dispute the charge with my credit card bank and got the purchase cost credited.

I switched to planning to buy a SIM directly at a TIM store after arriving in Italy - as Roberto suggested, but then I found out for a similar price I could do an international add-on with my US-based cell phone plan. I have a prepaid go-phone account with AT&T, and they have a reasonable plan of $35 for 7 days, 5GB of data that gets added to your current data balance and all of it is available to use, and unlimited talk and text. It’s not as inexpensive as the TIM plan for 30 euros (~$33) that provides 15GB for up to a month’s time, but since I was only on a 7 day trip it was fine for me. Plus, after arriving in Europe all I had to do was place a free call to my AT&T account system to add the plan, and it kicked in almost immediately thereafter. So there was no wasted time to stop at a TIM store, swap SIM cards, and have them ensure everything was working. I had good cell service throughout Tuscany. All worked great and can highly recommend this option for anyone with a AT&T prepaid account.

The trip was awesome and already look forward to my next trip back to Bella Italia.

Saluti!

Turns out all that was needed was that confirmation number. I went to the TIM mobile store in FCO Terminal 3 right after leaving baggage claims and customs, showed the confirmation number and I was handed the tourist SIM in exchange. Online instructions clearly do not match what happens but it worked out well. Only pain point is that it took nearly 2 hours for the SIM to register on the network.

Glad to hear the confirmation # carried the day - problem is you still had to go to a storefront to get the SIM and activate.

Personal preference - I'm still going to do it when I hit the ground in Europe - that way I can quickly check Vodafone's rate at their store versus TIM's rate at their store.

Thank you for the follow-up regarding using the confirmation code to pickup your SIM.

I'm having the same experience, purchased online, got a confirmation number (fortunately printed it), but no follow-up email. Can't find a customer service email on the website either. Well, crossing my fingers I can get my SIM at the Rome Airport.