"If you were a customer service rep and you had someone on the line complaining that their SIM card doesn't work, and you send them a replacement SIM and it *still* doesn't work, where would you assume the problem lies?"
Yes, I would guess it was customer equipment. OTOH, if I were a CS supervisor and starting seeing a big trend and one where lots of new handsets weren't working as well with new SIM cards, I'd suspect something else.