topic Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus in Get Support

Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

stonechucker — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 10:24:54 GMT

Hello Public Mobile, and by extension Telus, the owner of Public Mobile.

I am a subscriber of your prepaid service since July of 2016. I have been a very happy customer, and I’ve enjoyed the service provided to me via your plans, the Community, and the Moderators and other staff who interact with the subscribers of this service.

I write you today, as it has once again become rediculous the way new subscribers are having problems activating new services, existing subscribers are having failed AutoPay renewals, failed plan changes, and everyone is having difficulty figuring out how long they will need to wait for their issues to be dealt with successfully.

It is beyond belief that there is no communication on a daily basis at this point, about what is going on. There are problems with the website interface in the Selfserve portal, the forgotten password process has been ineffective for the better part of my time with your service, and the current delays are creeping up daily. I would not be surprised if folks are now waiting in excess of 96 hours for initial response to support requests to the Moderator_Team.

You really need to stop offering these fantastic promotions until you get your technology fixed. This is insane. I’m happy I’m here, but I can’t recommend my friends to come here until you get your ducks in a row.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

will13am — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 01:08:08 GMT

I think there simply needs to be fixes to the issues noted in this letter. The notion of stopping promotions until the fixes are done does not make sense. It is the growth of the business that emphasize the importance of this service to Telus and therefore the need to invest in the brand. The more new activations bring up these problems, the more Public Mobile nees to take them seriously and put resources to resolving them. Bringing new business and fixing problems should not be viewed as mutually exclusive but rather two pursuits that are well connected. @Alan_K, @Brooke_C, do you guys care to answer to this open letter?

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

sheytoon — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 01:13:55 GMT

Letting @Dave_M know as well.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

stonechucker — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 01:18:59 GMT

Thanks for the tags you guys... my iPad wouldn’t let me put them in.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

jp2 — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 01:36:12 GMT

@will13am wrote:
I think there simply needs to be fixes to the issues noted in this letter. The notion of stopping promotions until the fixes are done does not make sense. It is the growth of the business that emphasize the importance of this service to Telus and therefore the need to invest in the brand. The more new activations bring up these problems, the more Public Mobile nees to take them seriously and put resources to resolving them. Bringing new business and fixing problems should not be viewed as mutually exclusive but rather two pursuits that are well connected. @Alan_K, @Brooke_C, do you guys care to answer to this open letter?

I think they are probably a little tied up at the moment. I would hope it's all hands on deck.

@will13am I'm going to have to disagree with you; I think @stonechucker is right they need to reduce the promos so the system isn't being overloaded. Also, the company will not be growing when new people aren't able to activate or are mad because support is more than 2 days away so they leave. These people are never going to come back. If you have a highly functioning service and website customers would experience these issues and will be happy. A bad company reputation will not be able to be overcome by a 25 dollar credit.

We have been telling PM about these issues for a while. Think of how many private messages would be have been averted if the password reset was working. If this can't be fixed it might be time to face the facts and build a whole new up to date system.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

esperanto41 — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 02:07:00 GMT

Still another credit card mess-up:

I'm brand new and already disgusted with PM's failure to verify my registered MasterCard — which works everywhere except PM — after more than a dozen tries on 2 browsers (Explorer and Chrome in Windows 7) and *611, and hours of wasted time, I was about to sign up my mother-in-law, but now I'm ready to quit PM, unless this can be resolved immediately.

—Gene Keyes (esperanto41)

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

Dunkman — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 03:33:40 GMT

@esperanto41

You might want to start your new topic. The self-service website is finicky. That is the first thing that needs to be fixed.

Did you leave the apartment section blank? Some people will try Firefox browser. Incognito mode sometimes help. Clearing the cache might be an option also. If that does not work, you might need to contact moderators, who like you seen in this forum have been too busy and wait times are too long and expect 1-2 day response minimum.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

happycamper — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 04:18:11 GMT

@stonechucker wrote:
Hello Public Mobile, and by extension Telus, the owner of Public Mobile.

I am a subscriber of your prepaid service since July of 2016. I have been a very happy customer, and I’ve enjoyed the service provided to me via your plans, the Community, and the Moderators and other staff who interact with the subscribers of this service.

I write you today, as it has once again become rediculous the way new subscribers are having problems activating new services, existing subscribers are having failed AutoPay renewals, failed plan changes, and everyone is having difficulty figuring out how long they will need to wait for their issues to be dealt with successfully.

It is beyond belief that there is no communication on a daily basis at this point, about what is going on. There are problems with the website interface in the Selfserve portal, the forgotten password process has been ineffective for the better part of my time with your service, and the current delays are creeping up daily. I would not be surprised if folks are now waiting in excess of 96 hours for initial response to support requests to the Moderator_Team.

You really need to stop offering these fantastic promotions until you get your technology fixed. This is insane. I’m happy I’m here, but I can’t recommend my friends to come here until you get your ducks in a row.

All excellent points - you should send the above in an email to :
Darren Entwistle Chief Executive Officer of Telus
I am sure there must be an email address on the Telus site somewhere

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

Watoko — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 04:25:31 GMT

It's true. I talk to my girlfriend about how great it is at PM and how she could be saving lots of money, finally convince her to switch and we got stuck activating her SIM because of a "Back" button that should not have been pressed. Luckily, I have been involved with these forums for the past 1.5 years so I was able to reassure her of what the next steps were to remediate the issue, but I can imagine for those who don't have this wealth of knowledge, it would definitely be a negative first impression right off the bat from bugs that should have been ironed out long ago on this primitive system.

Especially for a company that relies so heavily on self account management, these bugs really kill the experience.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

MoreYummy — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 04:40:58 GMT

These kind of bugs are here for long time, which supposed to be fixed long time ago as well. They well aware of their existings. They probably dont put them into first piority.

Things as important as reset password is there is way over due.

Perhaps they dont mind losing a portion of customers and referral due to these bugs.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

esperanto41 — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 04:47:52 GMT

Thanks for the reply, Dunkman. Now I've tried Firefox & Firefox incognito. Same old same old, but look at this contradiction on my "Make Payment" page:

"Your account has already enough balance."

"Your service is currently suspended due to insufficient funds."

(I'm on Autopay for the $10/mo. plan, but had to replace my MasterCard on the same day it was stolen abroad on August 1. PM has registered the new number.)

I also contacted my MasterCard provider, and was told PM had been there to verify on August 11; and that MC has no hindrances on my account.

(I posted in Stonechucker's open letter, as an example of how PM can lose one or two or three new customers due to sloppy aggravating bugs in their payment system.)

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

Watoko — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 04:50:22 GMT

@MoreYummy wrote:
These kind of bugs are here for long time, which supposed to be fixed long time ago as well. They well aware of their existings. They probably dont put them into first piority.
Things as important as reset password is there is way over due.

Perhaps they dont mind losing a portion of customers and referral due to these bugs.

Seems that way becuase you're right. It's been going on for 3 years now, and if they were substantially losing customers to the point where revenue was affected, they would have likely prioritized and fixed these issues years ago.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

will13am — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 05:32:02 GMT

@jp2 wrote:
@will13am wrote:
I think there simply needs to be fixes to the issues noted in this letter. The notion of stopping promotions until the fixes are done does not make sense. It is the growth of the business that emphasize the importance of this service to Telus and therefore the need to invest in the brand. The more new activations bring up these problems, the more Public Mobile nees to take them seriously and put resources to resolving them. Bringing new business and fixing problems should not be viewed as mutually exclusive but rather two pursuits that are well connected. @Alan_K, @Brooke_C, do you guys care to answer to this open letter?
I think they are probably a little tied up at the moment. I would hope it's all hands on deck.

@will13am I'm going to have to disagree with you; I think @stonechucker is right they need to reduce the promos so the system isn't being overloaded. Also, the company will not be growing when new people aren't able to activate or are mad because support is more than 2 days away so they leave. These people are never going to come back. If you have a highly functioning service and website customers would experience these issues and will be happy. A bad company reputation will not be able to be overcome by a 25 dollar credit.

We have been telling PM about these issues for a while. Think of how many private messages would be have been averted if the password reset was working. If this can't be fixed it might be time to face the facts and build a whole new up to date system.

I will agree with you that inadequate support can conspire to damage reputation that no promo cannot repair. I still cannot agree that cessation of all promos will be useful in fixing the problems afflicting the self serve site and all the processes involved in setting up and managing an account. The fall promo was a major shake down of the entire system, identifying all problems and weaknesses. Subsequent to that promo ending, there was no further promos for a long period of time until early summer when they ran a targeted promo for Freedom customers. That promo was short lived and did not appear to have mass appeal. That pretty much summed the promos for 2017. Much of 2017 should have been opportune for fixing all the bugs flushed out by the 2016 fall promo. While there were small improvements here and there, much of the major problems remained unresolved. If we were to hang onto the excuse that there should be no more promos until all the major system bugs are dealt with, this service would cease to exist long before the bugs are gone. The reality is that competitive pressure don't go on hold just because the Public Mobile systems are in disrepair. I maintain that competition drives the promos and fear of lost reputation drives customer service improvements. Both are continuous and concurrent processes.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

ShawnC13 — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 05:33:11 GMT

@stonechucker, great letter. I posted something very similar in our Oracle area looking for answers to the issues that are still going on and new ones that have popped up.

On the other hand I personally have had very little issues. The only one is the no text after expiry of US addon. Tonight I just ported the 8th number for lines that I am involved in managing/helping and it went smoothly as expected.( Once I checked availablility availability of the correct phone number)

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

kav2001c — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 06:31:33 GMT

@stonechucker

I'd argue some more clarity as to what each brands goals are is required

It is beyond bizarre to me the way the Public-Koodo migration battles are going right now

It is actually CHEAPER for a client to walk into a Walmart, pay for a SIM activate on Public

Go home then port that number over to Koodo

I mean really; WHY???

They are literally fighting each other at this point and tons of rumours being thrown out by store reps about Public closing etc is not good

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

jp2 — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 10:22:10 GMT

@will13am I'm not quoting because it's getting to long. I will agree to compromise my suggestion of stopping the promos. My modified stance is that PM should continue with the promos but only one at a time. This way they can spread out the amount of new customers coming in over say 6 months instead 2 months. I realize they look at when the most peoples contracts are ending and other factors but it is clear the system cannot handle a major influx in customers

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

Alan_K — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 17:20:20 GMT

@stonechucker

Thank you for your honest feedback.

We understand your frustration with the various ongoing issues you’ve discussed, and we are actively working to get permanent fixes. Often, the problem is more complicated than anticipated and takes time to test the solution. As @will13am touched upon, we tend to view the promotions and system fixes as independent, meaning that a greater focus on one does not take away from the focus of the other. In many cases, Public Mobile requires promotions to remain competitive. That said, we are equally dedicated to improving the customer experience here and hope to provide you with good news very soon as we have fixes to the password reset and suspend state plan change in the pipeline.

Based on what we heard from the Community during AutoPay issue earlier this month, we will be communicating any future service-impacting issues as soon as possible to our Community. We hope to provide timely communication for these types of issues moving forward.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

JL9 — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 17:22:38 GMT

@Alan_K wrote:
@stonechucker

Thank you for your honest feedback.

We understand your frustration with the various ongoing issues you’ve discussed, and we are actively working to get permanent fixes. Often, the problem is more complicated than anticipated and takes time to test the solution. As @will13am touched upon, we tend to view the promotions and system fixes as independent, meaning that a greater focus on one does not take away from the focus of the other. In many cases, Public Mobile requires promotions to remain competitive. That said, we are equally dedicated to improving the customer experience here and hope to provide you with good news very soon as we have fixes to the password reset and suspend state plan change in the pipeline.

Based on what we heard from the Community during AutoPay issue earlier this month, we will be communicating any future service-impacting issues as soon as possible to our Community. We hope to provide timely communication for these types of issues moving forward.

Thank you for the update Alan.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

cappaj — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 14:10:22 GMT

Have you looked into any sort of auto response when people message Moderator_Team? I think it'd help a lot of customers new and old to be assured that their message was received. And I know the stated policy is a response within 48 hours - but if that automated response could include something about "as of right now, anticipated response time is X hours" thatd be nice too. Oh and if that automated response could say "please don't message multiple times, that just puts you at the bottom of the queue" that'd be good too, a lot of people dont know that and shoot themselves in the foot by repeatedly messaging what can seem like a black hole.

Edit: Removed that last setence, a mod has since clarified that this is not how it actually works.

Re: Open letter to Public Mobile, Telus

will13am — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 18:36:45 GMT

@Alan_K wrote:
@stonechucker

Thank you for your honest feedback.

We understand your frustration with the various ongoing issues you’ve discussed, and we are actively working to get permanent fixes. Often, the problem is more complicated than anticipated and takes time to test the solution. As @will13am touched upon, we tend to view the promotions and system fixes as independent, meaning that a greater focus on one does not take away from the focus of the other. In many cases, Public Mobile requires promotions to remain competitive. That said, we are equally dedicated to improving the customer experience here and hope to provide you with good news very soon as we have fixes to the password reset and suspend state plan change in the pipeline.

Based on what we heard from the Community during AutoPay issue earlier this month, we will be communicating any future service-impacting issues as soon as possible to our Community. We hope to provide timely communication for these types of issues moving forward.

Thank your @Alan_K for the clarification. For so long I was the only heretic here saying that promotions must keep coming irrespective of system problems.