Any Prorated refund for leaving the plan early?

[ThreeCs]

Hi,

I was previously in a 90 day plan with Public Mobile. I found a more competitive plan with another provider and ported my number out and the account is now inactive. Will I be credited for the remaining amount of days that I have already paid for, but will not be receiving service for?

If not, why are the plans paid for in 90 day increments? And 30 day plans cost more? My new plan with a competitor (and it's not Freedom, it's a competitor with comparable network coverage), offers more data for the same price as Public and does not make me pay for 3 months at a time.. It seems this is a marketing plan to make switching providers more difficult and costly for consumers

Thanks

[Lima1]

I am sadly currently caught in this situation with 2 months left.  My intent was not to cancel but to port in another to replace within a 24 hour, however, I was not quick on the trigger as I did not want to be caught in a porting issue.

The whole issue with this is that this is a provided service I am paying for upfront which I deemed to be deliverable.  You can't provide a product analogy to this.  The only party that gains from this is Public and no on else.

In the case of eating part of a burger, can anyone else eat the other part?  Home Depot Rental, assuming an a day is 8 hours and you used up 6, what's the guarantee that they can find another customer to cover for that time left?  Most likely not.  As for gift cards, whether you like it or not afterwards, that value is still yours to do what you like with it.

Their Terms of Service does state non-refundable, however, this really doesn't apply in my situation.  Best suggestion would be to have someone take over the account for the remainder of the period, if you can find one.

My reply maybe unrelated to this subject but I am unable to delete it.---Sorry

[mtfolks]

I think it’s fine to be upset about not getting a refund or preferring another provider. But like others have said both here and in other parts of life we are at the mercy of the rules of others and as such owe it to ourselves to understand what we’re getting ourselves into. If you didn’t do that then part of the blame kind of falls on you. Especially if your plan was to bounce to another provider the second a better deal came along. 

I mean, anyone that doesn’t stop to think WHY it’s cheaper to sign up for a 90 day vs a 30 day plan seems to be choosing willful ignorance IMO. And I don’t mean that to be harsh so please don’t take offence. 

Personally, I would never go with Freedom in the near future. Their plan prices are creeping up and their network is to date inferior to other providers. I’ll take the trade off of committing for 90 days to save money on a network that works when I need it to. But to each their own. (Edit: just noticed you said NOT Freedom. My apologies.)

Lastly, offering a discount for 90 days over 30 likely has nothing to with screwing people out of refunds and everything to do with how deals in all aspects of life work. You give something (short term commitment) to get something (cheaper price). I hope they don’t change that and go to only higher priced 30 day plans. Then I’d be the one upset. 😂

[mimmo]

@ThreeCs  I was at homedepot the other day and needed to rent a tool I had two options  4 hour rental or day rental.  I chose the ful day rental.  I was cheaper than 2 half day rentals.  

but i finished the job earlier  at 6 hour mark.  should i get a refund for the unused time?

[srlawren]

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wrote:

Ok let me expand on your analogy a little more. There is a competitor selling gift cards for the exact same goods next door. This competitor allows you to refund any unused gift card balances. Given they both offer the same product, wouldn't you question the first retailer on why they don't also refund unused balances?

Simple answer we all know- because they don't have to and they want more money. In that case, I'll go with the other competitor and recommend to others to do the same.

The burger analogy... dumb, apologist at best.

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@ThreeCs the thing is, the gift card from the neighbouring store is actually a different product, not the same product.  Why?  Because the other carriers in Canada only offer refunds on post-paid accounts and don't offer refunds on their pre-paid accounts.  So you're comparing an entirely different type of gift card.  If you bought the pre-paid version of the competitor's gift card, you'd have the same problem if you decided to not use the whole thing.  

[ThreeCs]

Ok let me expand on your analogy a little more. There is a competitor selling gift cards for the exact same goods next door. This competitor allows you to refund any unused gift card balances. Given they both offer the same product, wouldn't you question the first retailer on why they don't also refund unused balances?

Simple answer we all know- because they don't have to and they want more money. In that case, I'll go with the other competitor and recommend to others to do the same.

The burger analogy... dumb, apologist at best.

[stonechucker]

Simply put for me, I left Rogers postpaid for Wind, and then I left Wind, when I found Public Mobile.

When I finally joined here, I was getting the same data allotment, increased texting, and more available calling than I required, for less than half what I was paying at Rogers, and about 60% of what Wind was giving me.

In my case, I DO NOT NEED more than Province-Wide calling, I really don't need Global Texting, but hey, it's the only option here, and my original plan was approx 2 GB per 30 days, but the Fall 2016 promo happened, AT THE SAME CCOST, so I doubled my data as a no-brainer, future proofing my cellular needs.

Public Mobile is still the best provider for me - I do not even come close to using my 12 GB over 90 days, so these 'Big Gig' plans, or 6GB for a month would simply be a waste of my money.

So, I'm on track this cycle for using 1/2 my data... I purposly streamed 1080p video content one Sunday afternoon recently, and it was great!  I used 2 GB without a care, because I knew I could.

[mimmo]

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@ThreeCs wrote:

Yeah not a great analogy. The issue here is that this is more of a service than a product. I'm not going to waste anybody's time pointing out its flaws. You simply need to look at what competitors are offering (BYOB postpaid plans with more data and same price- same quality of service, more flexibility) and question why anybody would continue paying 3 months of service in advance. There is no cost incurred from PM when somebody signs up for 30/ 90 day plans, and if they're not satisfied the reasonable thing to do is refund the remainder of the services paid.

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I like the giftcard analogy better. once you buy a gift card you can't return it even if you change your mind before even using it.

The last time I checked PM's rates were very competitive with most providers except if they were offering promos.

 If i go to superstore on some items I pay one price if i buy single items, but if i buy 3 i get a discount. teh 30 vs 90 days is the same thing.  I get a $2/month discount  by going 90 days. (the 90 day plans used to be more than $2/month when i first joined) but yes it is a risk if you think you will want to change in the future. 

[will13am]

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@ThreeCs wrote:

Yeah not a great analogy. The issue here is that this is more of a service than a product. I'm not going to waste anybody's time pointing out its flaws. You simply need to look at what competitors are offering (BYOB postpaid plans with more data and same price- same quality of service, more flexibility) and question why anybody would continue paying 3 months of service in advance. There is no cost incurred from PM when somebody signs up for 30/ 90 day plans, and if they're not satisfied the reasonable thing to do is refund the remainder of the services paid.

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Now you are getting off topic.  You started asking about refunds on prepaid plans.  Universally, no prepaid service in Canada offers refunds.  That is why you read so much about low usage customers putting in money every month to keep an account active.  Over time, it becomes a savings account with no withdrawal feature.  No refunds is one of the negatives of the prepaid format.  There are others features that are beneficial.

As for competitive plans, it is choice that makes for a good market.  No one provider matches everyone's needs.  No one provider offers the best value everyday.  This includes Walmart, unless you dring too much of their cool aid.  So, if Freedom works for you at a nice low price, good for you.  I came from Wind more than a year ago.  I had plans that were unbeatable on price.  However, if I can't load a webpage before it times out, it doesn't matter how cheap the service is.

[will13am]

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@srlawren wrote:

@ThreeCs no there are no refunds for cancelling a prepaid service early.  I have seen a couple of analogies here in the past and the one that comes to mind easiest is:  you go into McDonalds and order a Big Mac.  A few bites in, you decide you'd rather have a BK Whopper, and you ask for a refund on the uneaten portion of your Big Mac.  You can pretty clearly see how that wouldn't happen.  

The plans are 30 and 90 days because that's what Public Mobile marketing decided to choose, and it's their right to offer up whatever services they want.  They offer a discount on the longer plan as a benefit of you committing to stay with them a bit longer.  Basically the 30 and 90 day plans are like a 30 or 90 day contract, and they reward you slightly if you commit to a longer term on that contract.  

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I could use a wopper right about now.  McDonald's app has been serving up $1 big macs every week for the past month.  I am getting pretty tired of 2 all beef patties, special sauce, cheese, lettuce, pickles on a sesame seed bun...

[computergeek541 · Accepted solution]

Whether fair or not, you will not get a prorated refund.

The fact that Public Mobile is only offering prepaid plans is often used an explanation.  Carriers issue refunds for postpaid plans for service that will go unused - but really only because they must.  Unfortunately, these rules do not extend to customers on prepaid plans.  It really has nothing to do with the fact that prepaid plans are paid for ahead of time.  Many or even most customers do not realize that even on so-called postpaid plans, that these plans are also pay for ahead of time (unless the bill payment is made past due).  The fact that there is no requirement for carriers to refund prepaid plan customers is really just arbritrary.

[ThreeCs]

Yeah not a great analogy. The issue here is that this is more of a service than a product. I'm not going to waste anybody's time pointing out its flaws. You simply need to look at what competitors are offering (BYOB postpaid plans with more data and same price- same quality of service, more flexibility) and question why anybody would continue paying 3 months of service in advance. There is no cost incurred from PM when somebody signs up for 30/ 90 day plans, and if they're not satisfied the reasonable thing to do is refund the remainder of the services paid.

[stonechucker]

Hey, was that my anology?  If it wasn’t it’s a darn good one!

i was going to have home made burgers tonight, but decided before I made them, chicken fingers and fries would be a better option.

Hey, this way I keep my hamburger meat for another night... maybe the lasanga I’m planning for Saturday.

[mimmo]

@srlawren  your analogy  made me hungry.  not sure if I will go to MD or BK.  🙂

[Lg85]

@ThreeCs

Since Public Mobile only offers prepaid plans, it does not provide any refunds for unused days. This is the same for all prepaid plans anywhere else. Only post-paid plans pro-rate out the unused days and refund you for any overpayments.

Once you port out from Public Mobile, your account is cancelled and will not receive any refunds.

[srlawren]

@ThreeCs no there are no refunds for cancelling a prepaid service early.  I have seen a couple of analogies here in the past and the one that comes to mind easiest is:  you go into McDonalds and order a Big Mac.  A few bites in, you decide you'd rather have a BK Whopper, and you ask for a refund on the uneaten portion of your Big Mac.  You can pretty clearly see how that wouldn't happen.  

The plans are 30 and 90 days because that's what Public Mobile marketing decided to choose, and it's their right to offer up whatever services they want.  They offer a discount on the longer plan as a benefit of you committing to stay with them a bit longer.  Basically the 30 and 90 day plans are like a 30 or 90 day contract, and they reward you slightly if you commit to a longer term on that contract.