topic Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM? in Get Support

What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

helloPM — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 06:40:53 GMT

I thought that the 'cost' of moving to PM was that you had to get all of your C/S and T/S via the website, which could entail some small delays. And I was fine with that.

I've now moved 4 cell numbers to PM and its been a terrible experience, such that now I'm thinking that what we are getting in moving to PM is a lack of resources allocated by Telus, such that they are understaffed and their systems are terribly buggy.

This could well be a brand segmentation strategy by Telus - if using PM is too smooth an experience then higher paying Telus customers could move - but I sure hope not because it is insulting to treat your customers' time as worthless.

And that is how this last experience felt. In the end they found that it was a problem on their side and they seemed to find it and fix it quite quickly once T/S tried. But to get there I had spend 20-30 hours of my time over a week, endless messages with the reps, 3.5 days with no service at all, 5 trips across Toronto because this activation was for my neice, and most of all frustration!

I recognize that I have just a few data points (and I don't know what was happening behind the scenes) so I'm resisting drawing a conclusion, and I'm not blaming any of the PM reps I dealt with, but I'm very scared about what I've got myself into now.

Do you believe that PM's backend systems and self-serve portal are worse then the other carriers? And that their customers are expected to endure more?

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

ShawnC13 — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:07:57 GMT

Sorry to hear of your issues. I have moved over 3 phones and have had no issues on any of them and my experience is just the opposite of yours. I have had no issues that have required attention that I could think of that were service related. All 4 of your phones are experiencing a problem?

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

vinions — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:08:54 GMT

I feel like once all the issues have resolved itself, things are fine. I was on this forum a lot during my first couple of weeks with PM but I've barely been on in the past 1-2 months. Didn't have to. Didn't need to. Everything was working with. Everything is good as long as you are willing to be patience when something does go wrong (which has been rare for me).

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

jpar — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:11:24 GMT

I wish the self-serve site had more features & was a little more user-friendly, but other than that I haven't had many issues yet. I hope it stays that way.

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

helloPM — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:16:59 GMT

No, all 4 lines are working fine now, and I'm not thinking of moving them out at this time - I'm just not going to bring over any other family members.

The issues I had with activating the other lines were not as bad, eg. for one of them I made a mistake in my password - I find it a little annoying that PM blocks pasting passwords which makes it harder to use my password manager so more chance of error - and tried to do password reset but could not get it to work.

Eventually I contacted one of the reps about it and discovered that it was an issue they had known about for quite a while and it was causing trouble for lots of people.

This was a miniscule problem compared to what I went through this time but it is equally illustrative: password reset is pretty basic and should be working and even more importantly they didn't put up a message on that page warning users but just let everyone waste their time.

And the e-mail confirmation system is broken too! Again a really basic thing, not a big deal at all, but I'm surprised that so many basic things don't work.

They must be really short staffed!

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

Watoko — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:39:29 GMT

Thanks for not blowing your top off, as I know you may be frusturated given that this did not happen in isolation, rather a recurring problem with each of your activations.

To answer your questions, I do believe that PM's backend systems and self-serve portal are worse than the other carriers. Especially compared to when I was with Koodo previously, and I am pretty sure the big 3 probably have systems that are leagues more user friendly and less buggy.

That being said, I agree with @vinions that after all the activation storm and once everything is fixed and fine, it should be smooth sailing from here on. The only issue that I could forsee in the future is just with the payment system as PM has a rather complicated billing system.

I do believe however, these issues ARE recognized and they are working to fix them, so while we do have to endure a bit now, I am optimistic that we will be rewarded soon. Right after the problems created during the promo period, PM is now hiring a systems guy/girl to fix all these issues and to rehull the web experience for us.

And it seems PM IS listening, given the recent community web layout changes that might be more user friendly (some might argue), and ongoing minor improvements based on ideas suggested by community members.

So don't lose hope! I hope you'll feel your money's worth in due time!

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

canucks4life — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:32:21 GMT

I would be going a bit nuts trying to manage 4 seperate accounts...PM really needs to make multiple lines on account a reality soon.

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

helloPM — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:38:06 GMT

Glad to hear about them hiring new systems personnel!

Yes, it sure would be nice if I could put all four lines (one is me and three are family members) in one account. I hope that is on their list, and that they allow people to merge existing accounts into one once they've implemented this (rather then just allowing it for new accounts).

I am hopeful that, for the accounts I've now moved to PM, everything should be smooth sailing - as long as I don't make any changes!

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

dohadotahmed — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 01:06:43 GMT

Hi, sorry to hear about the troubles you had in the past. I believe it was during the promotion time. In that time there was a backlog but now everything went smooth. The mod usually reply within two hours.
You mentioned that you have 4 lines and only 1 line got the problem. So this is really the case only a few percentage of customers are getting problem because pm online system is very smart to handle the database. Because this is an online self serve system and it's designed to handle the work.
There is always need of improvement for every system and I believe the pm is working hard for that.

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

will13am — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 04:37:03 GMT

Definitely one of the sacrifices with joining Public Mobile is losing the ability to speak to a live human being to resolve issues. That said, I am not sure this sacrifice is that significant. I have dealt with Rogers and affiliates for a number of years. More than half of the reps I speak to are clueless and do nothing to resolve my problems. When I look back at the number of hours I spend on the phone listening to elevator music, having to deal with call centre staff is not the panacea.

Admittedly, Public Mobile has a small number of staff and when issues pile up the line up wraps around the block a few times. At least when an issue is brought to their attention, they know what they are doing and efficiently deal with the problem the first time. I have no problem with recommending others to this service.

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

will13am — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 04:39:04 GMT

@canucks4life wrote:
I would be going a bit nuts trying to manage 4 seperate accounts...PM really needs to make multiple lines on account a reality soon.

I don't understand the hardship? I manage the same number of accounts. Now that they are all set up, it all about auto pilot.

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

mjagadeesh — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 11:46:19 GMT

I used to pay about $110 to Rogers and i am paying $38/month with PM, so sacrificing $70

NO more calling to retentions and begging for discounts, so sacrificing hours of talk with unknown person. (pun intended)

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

Chaos_Scorpio — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 12:40:05 GMT

To voice in here... ROGERs is not that great either... I have them working on an issue where I cannot see my home internet usage online. Everytime I ask for a follow up for the case I get "we closed it because we do not see an issue" ... I want them to bloody contact me via email and I will show them a picture of their **bleep** website. But no. I get it works for us tough **bleep**.

(so I complain a lot with rogers and would moved on but I've haggled my price with them to be stupid low because of their issue).

With the case here, I just dont bother looking at my tracking. If I go over my usage in any way the service stops and I Am not overcharged like any other company Ive been with :D. If I want it back on I just go top off services. the only thing I would ever see topping off is long distance minutes addon (which I only use if I really have to... otherwise I do long distance calling over the internet).

PM imo is better than the big three. Yes there are issues but the big three has issues too. They may have people you can voice your pain on a phone but they are just there to pat your back. They do not care to fix it half the time (Unless you get a sweet old lady ... those are the BEST because they want to be there working! ... young males are the WORST... either I hang up on them or they hang up on me... #@%@#^%@#)

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

helloPM — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 15:16:54 GMT

@will13am

Yes, you are right that once it's all setup it isn't so bad, but it was a nuisance setting it all up. And I was planning to bring over more accounts before the troubles I had with #4. It certainly would be easier to manage activation and payment if I could do it all in one account.

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

helloPM — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 15:21:30 GMT

@will13am

I certainly agree that speaking to a human is way over-rated, and I've bad experiences and been annoyed at time waiting in the queue.

The more important issue isn't how exactly you get your support, but the quality of the support you get and the systems backing it up.

I will say though, in my experience the other carriers would have taken things more seriously once I'd completely lost service on the line. It wouldn't have taken another 3.5 days of assuming that the problem was on my end and getting me to make repeated trips to visit my neice, try new things, and bang my head against the wall.

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

helloPM — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 15:23:04 GMT

@dohadotahmed

No, the main problem occurred over this last week. And I did have problems on the other lines that showed that their systems are buggy (as described above) just not as bad as what I experienced this last week.

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

will13am — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 15:44:30 GMT

@helloPM wrote:
@will13am
Yes, you are right that once it's all setup it isn't so bad, but it was a nuisance setting it all up. And I was planning to bring over more accounts before the troubles I had with #4. It certainly would be easier to manage activation and payment if I could do it all in one account.

I had some high maintenance friends that I looked after. For some, we did the activation together and I used my community forum to communicate with the moderators. There was a lot of back and forth phone calls about setting up the APN. Through all this, people learned from the experience and it makes them more knowledgeable and independent.

Apart from having to wait during the promotion period for a response, I have nothing but good experiences with the customer service. The important factor in all this is patience. You see me mentioning this over and over again. Just because you can't yell at a live human being right away, it does not mean the problem is not in the queue and will be dealt with.

For all the people that I have referred and helped with this service, nobody has had any regrets. I am looking forward to the next promotion so I can shill this service to more people.

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

Smakboy — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 16:10:10 GMT

I ported two phones and had only one minor issues which was quickly resolved on my own end with a reboot of the device.

Not saying it is PM or your fault, but did you read all the user advice. I followed the porting advice and it worked just as the community said it would work.

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

Kokanee08 — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 17:27:26 GMT

The only thing I really feel like I am "sacrificing" is the live chat option. Rogers did a pretty good job (waaaay better than Telus) at keeping live chat queue times low.

However, I am now saving $45 a month. Is it really worth paying an extra $45 a month so that I can use live chat to solve a problem a few times a year? Not at all.

Meanwhile these forums may as well be called "live chat" because responses and help come through so fast. Everyone is so helpful and mods are so quick to respond.

Re: What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

helloPM — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 17:38:36 GMT

@Chaos_Scorpio

I agree that there are advantages to PM's way of doing support - like one, I'm the type that is happier doing things by text & e-mail and not sitting waiting on the phone.

But I'm not happy with inadequately staffed/funded systems because a little bug in the back end can cause a vastly disporportionate pain for customers. Consider my example of the password reset that didn't work - eventually someone at PM has to fix it cause lots of poeple use pw reset. The time during which it is broken, with no notice to users, is an innefficient waste: PM isn't saving any money and users are wasting their time. It's a little thing but a good example IMO.

I have no problem with companies trying to save money but past a certain point it is inefficient (and insulting to the customers to treat their time like it is worthless) and looks suspiciously like brand segmentation and not running lean.

I'm not saying that is the case here - that is my experience so far but I'm reading and absorbing the experiences of the others in this thread.