topic Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate in Get Support

New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

trevorg — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 11:24:46 GMT

I switched to my public mobile plan approximately 9 days ago, coming from Koodo prepaid. I am running Android.

On Koodo, a 1 GB block of data would typically last me 2 months, however, after just these 9 days on public mobile, my Data & Add-On Usage page says I have already used 815 MB of my 1 GB plan.

My usage has not been unusual in any way. When I look on my phone under Mobile Data Ranking, and view usage of all apps for the last MONTH (most of which was while on Koodo, not Public Mobile), the total adds up to a little over 900MB, yet Public Mobile thinks I've used almost that much in 9 days. (I haven't been able to find any GOOD apps for detailed mobile data analysis on Android, and the default utility kinda sucks, any suggestions are appreciated.)

The only thing I can think of that might explain this is if my first purchased month was not a full month, so my data has been pro-rated in some sense, but looking under my billing, it appears that I've been charged for an entire month.

It seems to me like something very weird is going on.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

GinYVR — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 04:21:40 GMT

@trevorgThere is no prorated system at Public Mobile. Can you figure out the time / place where the traffic went?

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

trevorg — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 04:24:40 GMT

> Can you figure out the time / place where the traffic went?

No, the native data usage tools on Android don't seem to be able to report at a very granular level. But according to my phone, I've only used a gig of data in the entire last month, whereas PM says I've used almost that in 11 days.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

geopublic — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 04:30:04 GMT

@trevorg Android's built-in data usage is pretty accurate for me when i compare it to the PM usage history log. Just set the date as your PM plan start date and the reset duration every 30 days.

Not sure why you are having issues. Maybe your WiFi was diwn without realizing it.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

YVR — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 04:32:46 GMT

@geopublic wrote:
@trevorg Android's built-in data usage is pretty accurate for me when i compare it to the PM usage history log. Just set the date as your PM plan start date and the reset duration every 30 days.

Not sure why you are having issues. Maybe your WiFi was diwn without realizing it.

Agree. Android has been accurate within 10%. I've noticed that the carrier usually is a little bit lower than what android shows

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

ChuckYeah — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 10:10:14 GMT

You may have already done this. But when my data seems wierd, I check my data usage and it usually gives me some insight into where my data went.

This is a screenshot I did for another PM user earlier this week. Click on Plans and Add ons, then Usage history. Set the date from your signup date to today. Click data usage, then click it a second time. All your data should come to the top of the chart. Ignore the MMS entries as they do not count towards your data usage.

Hopefully that will give you some indication of what is happening to you. It could be one large spike as mentioned earlier in regards to wifi being down, or large daily doses which may indicate your phone is requesting more data, possibly due to unclosed apps or autoplaying videos.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

trevorg — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 13:18:13 GMT

Thanks, didn't know you could see detailed usage. So according to the reporting provided by PM's own systems, it seems that the problem is on their side - they report two different versions of data usage. The detailed usage is correct, the summary usage is incorrect.

Can I contact a moderator to get this resolved?

EDIT: Actually no that's wrong. It doesn't work for me to click the button a second time to get the data lines to rise to the top so I had clicked on the DataUage column header to get it to the top, but due to a bug in the the grid (there are several bugs in it actually), I can't find a way to get all my data showing at the top.

The simple and obvious solution to that would be to add a dropdown to filter on CallType and add the ability to modify the number of lines shown in the grid, makes one wonder why that isn't available.

I would like a moderator to look at this because their measured usage is entirely inconsistnt with my history as well as my phone's reporting, and the bugs in their wb form appear to make it practically impossible to get any insight into where the disagreement has occurred.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

kselmak — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 13:22:23 GMT

Can you please contact the moderator team about this and make sure you supply those screanshots

Wait may be long

Ps. My suspicion is that since they share system with koodo and since you have the same number and probably same email it was never reset, so they probably count both together

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

ChuckYeah — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 14:17:15 GMT

Yup. I'd say that's proof positive that your data numbers are incorrect, and I tend to believe the user in all cases because you know your habits.

I'm not a moderator, but PM should agree! If you can survive the 48 hours (or so?) on 200Mb, I'd say your issue will be solved! As @kselmak stated, attach both those screenshots when you send it and this should expedite your issue being resolved.

Contact @Moderator_Team
It can take up to 48 hours for the team to respond to your concerns.

About @Moderator_Team

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

trevorg — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 14:44:39 GMT

Ok, I have contacted the mods, many thanks to everyone for their help!!

EDIT: Someone ent me this very interesting PM:

"My suspicion is that since they share system with koodo and since you have the same number and probably same email it was never reset, so they probably count both together"

I do indeed use the same number and email address, so I wonder if this could be the case!!??

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

kselmak — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 15:16:33 GMT

@trevorg wrote:
Ok, I have contacted the mods, many thanks to everyone for their help!!

EDIT: Someone ent me this very interesting PM:

"My suspicion is that since they share system with koodo and since you have the same number and probably same email it was never reset, so they probably count both together"

I do indeed use the same number and email address, so I wonder if this could be the case!!??

Hi @trevorg it was me I thought maybe you didn't notice the message I sent above. The wait seems to be long and I wanted you to contact them before you run out of data

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

geopublic — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 14:50:29 GMT

@trevorg You are correct about bugs. So from your screenshot it looks like you used 150MB in two days. Did you try going manually through the pages and add up usage that way?

When I first started out with PM I had the same issue. Moderator response was that the numbers were correct and when I manually went through it they were correct.

Let us know what happens.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

trevorg — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 15:17:51 GMT

> When I first started out with PM I had the same issue. Moderator response was that the numbers were correct and when I manually went through it they were correct.

I haven't, in part because I clicked "last page" about 20 times, and it never seemed to ever come to the last page. Considering there are many other obvious bugs in the implementation of this grid, I don't feel like spending hours clicking through pages and manually adding up rows of data that I don't really have a great feeling can be trusted to be correct, considering the number of other obvious bugs in the programming. I've never, ever consumed data at anything approching this rate, and then I switch to a new peovider and immediately my usage goes through the roof....and also the provider has numerous bugs in their UI - sorry, I'm not buying it.

Absolutely nothing about this experience makes sense to me, but I am completely open to being proven wrong.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

goldilock — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 15:32:37 GMT

@trevorg So sorry that you are experiencing problems, but as others reported, contact a moderator to report the problem and they can assist you further. In the meantime, what I do is turn off cellular data and only turn it on when I need to use it. Also programs can run in the background that can eat data, doing automatic updates etc. so it's good to keep an eye on that too.

It takes aproximately 48-72 hours (2-3 days) for a response from a moderator. Be patient, they will respond and help you.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

geopublic — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 17:12:43 GMT

@trevorg wrote:
> When I first started out with PM I had the same issue. Moderator response was that the numbers were correct and when I manually went through it they were correct.

I haven't, in part because I clicked "last page" about 20 times, and it never seemed to ever come to the last page. Considering there are many other obvious bugs in the implementation of this grid, I don't feel like spending hours clicking through pages and manually adding up rows of data that I don't really have a great feeling can be trusted to be correct, considering the number of other obvious bugs in the programming. I've never, ever consumed data at anything approching this rate, and then I switch to a new peovider and immediately my usage goes through the roof....and also the provider has numerous bugs in their UI - sorry, I'm not buying it.

Absolutely nothing about this experience makes sense to me, but I am completely open to being proven wrong.

@trevorg The data usage counters on the system are run by Telus and not PM. It is the exact same data counter that Telus and Koodo use for their subscribers and it's accurate.

Yes, the PM usage reporting interface is full of bugs and in many cases slow and unusable but don't confuse this interface with the actual data counter systems.

In fact when you message the moderators for a dispute they simply forward the complaint to Telus support and they investigate it. In my case the response was "it's correct" and guess what it was when I went through the logs.

If you feel that it is incorrect then please let the moderator team know and they (Telus) will investigate.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

trevorg — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 18:47:29 GMT

> The data usage counters on the system are run by Telus and not PM. It is the exact same data counter that Telus and Koodo use for their subscribers and it's accurate.

I suspect what has happened is that my Koodo usage (prior to switching over to PM) is also being counted under my PM account. If the usage table handles all platforms, and they query the usage table on telephone number &/or email address, this could easily happen.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

geopublic — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 18:59:20 GMT

@trevorg wrote:
> The data usage counters on the system are run by Telus and not PM. It is the exact same data counter that Telus and Koodo use for their subscribers and it's accurate.

I suspect what has happened is that my Koodo usage (prior to switching over to PM) is also being counted under my PM account. If the usage table handles all platforms, and they query the usage table on telephone number &/or email address, this could easily happen.

@trevorg No, that is not possible because your Telus acct# is different from your Koodo acct# is different from your PM acct#.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 19:07:04 GMT

@geopublic wrote:
@trevorg wrote:
> The data usage counters on the system are run by Telus and not PM. It is the exact same data counter that Telus and Koodo use for their subscribers and it's accurate.

I suspect what has happened is that my Koodo usage (prior to switching over to PM) is also being counted under my PM account. If the usage table handles all platforms, and they query the usage table on telephone number &/or email address, this could easily happen.
@trevorg wrote:
> The data usage counters on the system are run by Telus and not PM. It is the exact same data counter that Telus and Koodo use for their subscribers and it's accurate.

I suspect what has happened is that my Koodo usage (prior to switching over to PM) is also being counted under my PM account. If the usage table handles all platforms, and they query the usage table on telephone number &/or email address, this could easily happen.
@trevorg No, that is not possible because your Telus acct# is different from your Koodo acct# is different from your PM acct#.

I dunno. Earlier in this thread, kselmak offered what I thought to be a plausible explanation. We know that there are shared services between Koodo and here. The same backend as the saying goes. Until trevorg gets any kind of explanation of what happened other than just resetting the data counter we'll never know.

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

trevorg — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 04:47:39 GMT

@geopulic

> @trevorg No, that is not possible because your Telus acct# is different from your Koodo acct# is different from your PM acct#.

Is this based on reviewing the source code?

Re: New user, data usage seems extremely innacurate

geopublic — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 04:58:20 GMT

@trevorg wrote:
@geopulic

> @trevorg No, that is not possible because your Telus acct# is different from your Koodo acct# is different from your PM acct#.

Is this based on reviewing the source code?

@trevorg No, based on my previous experience as a software developer and common sense.