topic Re: Question About Moderators in Get Support

Question About Moderators

dnadolny — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 14:50:10 GMT

Hello,

I'm new to PM (just got my number today). So far things are going well (having some trouble porting in a number from Koodo, but a Moderator is helping me out with that).

So far, I'm a little confused. I was warned that PM didn't have customer service/support, but it looks/sounds like there are Moderators who reach out really quickly... was I misinformed? Is it because of the possibility that Moderators could take a long time to reply? Do they have more limited things they can do compared to the customer service with other providers? Are they actually community members doing this for benefits, or regular employees of PM?

Thanks for any insight!

Re: Question About Moderators

NDesai — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:24:59 GMT

@dnadolny You got it right. People expect email responses to be delayed compare to quick phone support when you are talking directly. It is good to hear you are hearing back quickly. That tells me there probably isn's much going at the moment or they are working long shifts etc.

Re: Question About Moderators

Jb456 — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:27:40 GMT

Moderators are employees of Public Mobile and are the customer service agents in theory.

Public Mobile has no phone number to call to speak to them like other companies. Which is why plans are cheap:)

You just have to contact them online via the chat bot or private message.

On the forums here you post a question. We're all regular people that just have Public Mobile accounts helping people out. Even the Oracles.

If we can't figure out how to fix the problem we would refer you to the moderators. As you have seen you get answers faster on these forums then the hold time waiting of customer service to answer the phone.

Moderators generally reply within 24/48 hours and they're the only ones that have access to your account.

Welcome to Public Mobile 🙂

Re: Question About Moderators

gblackma — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:27:38 GMT

@dnadolny The moderator are the customer service here. Everything is done online through autobot Simon and private message here. The answers come by private message. You have to keep an eye on the envelope top right of your screen. Welcome to PM.

@dnadolny wrote:
Hello,

I'm new to PM (just got my number today). So far things are going well (having some trouble porting in a number from Koodo, but a Moderator is helping me out with that).

So far, I'm a little confused. I was warned that PM didn't have customer service/support, but it looks/sounds like there are Moderators who reach out really quickly... was I misinformed? Is it because of the possibility that Moderators could take a long time to reply? Do they have more limited things they can do compared to the customer service with other providers? Are they actually community members doing this for benefits, or regular employees of PM?

Thanks for any insight!

Re: Question About Moderators

dabr — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:29:43 GMT

@dnadolny wrote:
Hello,

I'm new to PM (just got my number today). So far things are going well (having some trouble porting in a number from Koodo, but a Moderator is helping me out with that).

So far, I'm a little confused. I was warned that PM didn't have customer service/support, but it looks/sounds like there are Moderators who reach out really quickly... was I misinformed? Is it because of the possibility that Moderators could take a long time to reply? Do they have more limited things they can do compared to the customer service with other providers? Are they actually community members doing this for benefits, or regular employees of PM?

Thanks for any insight!

Moderators are the official PM support staff here and will have MOD after their name. The rest of us who reply here on this forum are customers like yourself and we can offer some advice and suggestions for some of the more simple problems that may occur with activation, but only moderators will be able to take a look at your account and provide more technical support.

Sometimes if there are a lot of glitches and issues in the system, then the response time from moderators can take several hours and even days. However, most of the time you will get a response back within an hour or two.

Welcome to PM:)

Re: Question About Moderators

dnadolny — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:30:15 GMT

@NDesai Thank you! Does that mean it does typically take a while for them to respond? The message I got when I first submitted the ticket said something about 48 hours, so I was prepared to have to wait a while to hear back, but was pleasantly surprised when I saw a message the next time I looked in here.

Re: Question About Moderators

dabr — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:32:17 GMT

@dnadolny wrote:
@NDesai Thank you! Does that mean it does typically take a while for them to respond? The message I got when I first submitted the ticket said something about 48 hours, so I was prepared to have to wait a while to hear back, but was pleasantly surprised when I saw a message the next time I looked in here.

It's more likely to be couple of hours, only if there is backlog of issues will it take longer.

Re: Question About Moderators

NDesai — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:33:35 GMT

@dnadolny wrote:
@NDesai Thank you! Does that mean it does typically take a while for them to respond? The message I got when I first submitted the ticket said something about 48 hours, so I was prepared to have to wait a while to hear back, but was pleasantly surprised when I saw a message the next time I looked in here.

Yes, it will depend on how much they have on their plate and how many mods are working. When there is a system issue or an outage, expect to wait longer as they often have to wait for customers reply to resolve tickets.

Re: Question About Moderators

dnadolny — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:35:28 GMT

@Jb456 Thank you!

"As you have seen you get answers faster on these forums then the hold time waiting of customer service to answer the phone."

Yes, this does seem to be really fast responding. I guess the incentive for answering questions on the forum helps 🙂 It's funny because it seems like the no-customer service I was warned about is actually a feature. The other thing I was warned about was slow network speed, but I still seem to be able to watch a regular youtube video without any problem.

You mentioned "even the Oracles" - are Oracles just customers who respond a lot on here, or do they have to somehow prove their knowledge to the Moderators?

"Welcome to Public Mobile" - Thank you!

Re: Question About Moderators

dnadolny — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:37:32 GMT

Thank you!

Sometimes if there are a lot of glitches and issues in the system, then the response time from moderators can take several hours and even days. However, most of the time you will get a response back within an hour or two.

Welcome to PM:)

Do you mean the moderators get caught up fixing glitches, or the ticket system itself glitches and creates problems? Are there often glitches with the network?

Re: Question About Moderators

Luddite — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:38:36 GMT

@dnadolny Welcome aboard. Pleased your issue got sorted; even so I recommend reading:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/BE-PREPARED/m-p/112014#M20827

The good ship "PM Adventure".

Re: Question About Moderators

Jb456 — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:47:51 GMT

@dnadolny

Oracles are just regular customers like us. They provide a wealth of detailed knowledge and over the years have proven themselves to Public Mobile to be able to join the exclusive Oracles club.

You can read all about the Oracle program at link below.

Oracles click here

Re: Question About Moderators

Staliger — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:42:13 GMT

@dnadolny Yes, PM doesn't have a customer support office with a support number. Moderators here help clients online through messages, or chat-bot SiMon is also useful.

Re: Question About Moderators

NDesai — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:45:16 GMT

@dnadolny @dnadolny wrote:
@Jb456 Thank you!
"As you have seen you get answers faster on these forums then the hold time waiting of customer service to answer the phone."
Yes, this does seem to be really fast responding. I guess the incentive for answering questions on the forum helps 🙂 It's funny because it seems like the no-customer service I was warned about is actually a feature. The other thing I was warned about was slow network speed, but I still seem to be able to watch a regular youtube video without any problem.

Your data speed is probably not throttled yet. It takes about couple of days to settle. You will get 3mbps on LTE. Even then, you should barely notice anything unless you are playing very high quality (1080 and up) videos.

Re: Question About Moderators

dnadolny — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:50:40 GMT

@Staliger Thank you! The chatbot was pretty helpful before I decided to make the switch. Those things have come a long way from a few years ago.

Re: Question About Moderators

dnadolny — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:53:27 GMT

@NDesai Got it. Maybe I'll wait a few days before we switch over my wife's acccount, to test the speed. I currently see the LTE+ when I'm using the network - that should switch to 3G once it's been switched over, is that right? Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it.

Re: Question About Moderators

NDesai — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:53:56 GMT

@dnadolny wrote:
Thank you!

Sometimes if there are a lot of glitches and issues in the system, then the response time from moderators can take several hours and even days. However, most of the time you will get a response back within an hour or two.

Welcome to PM:)

Do you mean the moderators get caught up fixing glitches, or the ticket system itself glitches and creates problems? Are there often glitches with the network?

No, moderators do not get involved with fixing glitches. From time to time glitches occur with the backend system. Some known ones are AutoPay do not go through or issue paying manually, but it would depend if your account is due for renewal then. So far my 4+ years with PM, i never had any outage due to glitches in the system. My plan always renewed without any issue.

Re: Question About Moderators

dnadolny — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:55:00 GMT

@NDesai Got it! I currently see the LTE+ sign when I'm using the network wifi. That will switch to 3G once the change has happened, is that right? Maybe I'll wait a few more days to test the waters before I bring over another account. Thank you for all the help!

Re: Question About Moderators

NDesai — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:55:38 GMT

@dnadolny wrote:
@NDesai Got it. Maybe I'll wait a few days before we switch over my wife's acccount, to test the speed. I currently see the LTE+ when I'm using the network - that should switch to 3G once it's been switched over, is that right? Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it.

No, it will stay on LTE network. You just won't get the full LTE like speed.

Re: Question About Moderators

popping — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 01:55:53 GMT

@NDesai wrote:
@dnadolny wrote:
@NDesai Thank you! Does that mean it does typically take a while for them to respond? The message I got when I first submitted the ticket said something about 48 hours, so I was prepared to have to wait a while to hear back, but was pleasantly surprised when I saw a message the next time I looked in here.
Yes, it will depend on how much they have on their plate and how many mods are working. When there is a system issue or an outage, expect to wait longer as they often have to wait for customers reply to resolve tickets.

PM moderator response time have improved a lot. I joined PM at the end of July 2018. The moderator response time was between 3 days to a week. My first day on this forum, there was an Uber driver with his account issue and had to take an unscheduled 1 week off. Since then, I was not recommending PM for business or someone job is depending on a working phone for over a year. Recently, I warn them and let them decide whether to use PM or not.