topic Re: What is going on? Urgent situation! in Get Support

What is going on? Urgent situation!

deyneko — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 22:32:44 GMT

Hi,
In spite of I use autopay Public Mobile suspended my account!
Then I tried to pay via "Reactivate my plan".
But it doesn't work either:

I am going to my work and need my phone!
What can I do?
WTF?

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

jonathanlee — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 15:19:25 GMT

Best to send a private message to the Moderator Team, and use that same screenshot. They should be able to resolve it for you. It's been my experience that their responses are quite prompt in the same day!

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 15:27:56 GMT

@deyneko : After you've submitted a ticket, I suggest going to recharge.com to buy a voucher and using the 611 service to get your phone working again. Then deal with the payment card and moderator after work.

Or stop at one of many stores and buy a voucher. Or even a few places to do Instant Top-up.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

deyneko — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 15:28:53 GMT

Who is moderator here or who is responsible for such questions?

P.S. Well, I think Public mobile is very unreliable company probably and I should change mobile provider. ☹️

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

BKNS27 — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 15:32:28 GMT

@deyneko it happen to me couple of days ago. If you are on AutoPay, disregard the suspension message. You are near the end of your 30 day plan. This is a normal message during the transition to your next 30 day plan. Everything will be adjusted the next day.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

deyneko — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 15:30:14 GMT

Unfortunately I don't have a time to call or write here .. I must run for my work

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

Triguy — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 15:30:38 GMT

Here’s when and how to contact the Moderator Team:

Get help with your account the easy way by starting a conversation with our virtual assistant, SIMon. It’ll take you to relevant help articles, or if it’s something more urgent, it can help you submit a ticket to the Moderator Team. Click here to get started.
Alternatively, you can send a private message to the Moderators by clicking here. You’ll need to be logged in to your Community account for the link to work.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

HALIMACS — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 15:58:46 GMT

@deyneko

I'm going to ask this - don't take it the wrong way.

Are you COMPLETELY without the ability to call and text? The message you're seeing is seen by everyone undergoing a renewal - and 99+% of folks go through a successful renewal without ever having lose services.

If you're without services, you'll need to make a manual payment to get services reactivated.

If you HAVE services, you need not do anything.

[FYI, Moderators are Public Mobile staff who users can request account assistance by clicking on the SIMon chatbot (the little bubble) on the bottom right. All customer service is online, and much like e-mail, only through Public Mobile's messaging system. (See envelope icon between bell and your avatar upper right of screen for any unread messages therein) ]

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 15:38:24 GMT

@BKNS27 : I don't think his services are working. The warning messages appear the evening before renewal. Through the night. Then by 6 or so in the morning ET it should be complete. Then at noon ET a text goes out saying all is well. All the while services keep working. It's that early in the morning time that services might stop working if there was a problem.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

benfatto — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 15:49:59 GMT

@deyneko For your future peace of mind get the Fongo or TextNow app. Free calling while on wifi. If you forward your number there before any problems messages will arrive even while suspended.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

Camera4617 — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 16:26:56 GMT

@deyneko wrote:
Who is moderator here or who is responsible for such questions?

P.S. Well, I think Public mobile is very unreliable company probably and I should change mobile provider. ☹️

@deyneko I get your frustration but here are some of my thoughts.

I think that anyone who comes to Public Mobile should know what to expect. Also, is it worth of your 'time' to deal with this potential issues. I've been with PM for now almost a year and overall I'm quite happy with 'service' and 'price'.

Couple important things to understand:
- Autopay is known to fail and your service could be suspended.
  - Workaround is go and manually add funds to your account (even if you have autopay on to get 2$ which you should be). I do it few days before due date as I'm sure at that point I'll continue service. You could add enough funds for multiple months but if you leave PM, there is no refund.
- There is no phone/chat for customer service. It is through 'bot' and that might take time. That is the cost we need to pay for 'lower pricing'

So, as long as you are OK with these, then PM is great company. If you don't want to bother yourself with paying in advance (for most of customers autopay actually works but you never know when it will fail) and you want to be helped right away, then you should look some other providers.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

LurganIeUk — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 16:50:39 GMT

@deyneko wrote:
Hi,
In spite of I use autopay Public Mobile suspended my account!
Then I tried to pay via "Reactivate my plan".
But it doesn't work either:
I am going to my work and need my phone!
What can I do?
WTF?

Alarming for sure is the first message.

But the second one is key.

If your payment has truly failed, what is wrong with your auto-pay set up?

CC had expired?

OR?

I highly recommend the hybrid auto-pay. Take the $2 off but never let it kick in.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

darlicious — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 18:24:03 GMT

@deyneko

You have been given to some good advice by everyone here. Let me summarize them for your so you come out of this experience with a well rounded understanding of how the autopay system works.

Public mobile is quite reliable but its system is not perfect(nor is any providers) but an autopay failure does occasionally happen for no reason. There are 1 or 2 help inquiries on this issue here everyday but with 1,000,000+ (up to 2,000,000?) active subscribers to pm's service that is a very low failure rate. However in your case I highly suspect that @LurganIeUk has hit the nail on the head that your credit card has expired.

You have been a member of the community for nearly 5 years ( Congrats on that you will soon be getting the max $5 loyalty reward + $2 autopay =$7 off your bill every 30 days. Are you really going to give that up because you forgot to update your credit card?) so unless you have previously updated your credit card info you were overdue to do this....that shiny new card is probably in your wallet right now. Lets hope so or you will need a different card to pay for your services. See below for advice on how to do this.....

Normally a panicked customer seeing the suspended message like @BKNS27 mentioned would have no cause for alarm as it is part of the normal renewal process but as @computergeek541 pointed out you are seeing it in the morning so there is something to worry about(which we have already identified.)

Also about an hour ago you would have recieved the first of normally two texts messages from pm. The first will tell you that your rewards were successfully applied. The second which you didnt recieve would tell you that your payment was recieved and your renewal was successful. But you may recieve a message or email advising you that your renewal was not successful but this is very YMMV in my opinion as is a supposed text reminding you to update your cards expiry date. Getting a new card in the mail and its reminder notice should be sufficient enough notice for you to carry out this task.

It has been mentioned by @Camera4617 and @LurganIeUk that paying for your service by topping up your account ahead of renewal by a couple days ( like after you get the pm reminder text) is a prudent way to ensure no interruptions to your service but seeing as you have been plodding along with no autopay issues for the last 56 months or so you should do just fine once you update your credit card.

Once you update your credit card by using these instructions you will need to pay for your services.

When you update your credit card follow this method to avoid errors/messages......

Reboot your device.
Clear your browser, use secret/incognito mode in firefox, chrome or safari.
Choose replace card rather than remove card.
Copy your address from your billing statement.
Add your apt/unit/suite # to the street address. ie. 101-123 1ST AVE W, CITY, PROV.
Do not put a space in the postal code. X0X0X0 not X0X 0X0.
USE ALL CAPS if necessary.
Do not use autofill. Type everything manually.

Once you successfully update your card do not attempt your payment immediately. Log out/in then go to make a payment to pay for your renewal. Otherwise if you were not suspended I would recommend a $1 test payment. Follow my further instructions for a successful payment to unsuspend your account.

Do not try more than two attempts at adding a card or payments ( successful or not) or you will continue to get this message. Wait at least 1 hour to try a third time another hour for your 5th try....and so on....and do not make more than 4 unsuccessful tries with the same card in a 24 hour period or you will trigger a fraud alert lock out requiring assistance from the moderators.

Go to make a payment. Choose the "other amount" option and add $1 more than the amount owing and submit the payment. If that is successful go back to your overview page and if it does not say active click on the reactivate button. If that works log out and reboot. If that does not work and your payment is in your balance rather than showing $1 then go to the usage or plans page. Click on lost/stolen and suspend your service. Log out/in. Resume your service. Your balance should be $1. Log out. Reboot and carry on with your day.....your good for another 5 years.

@jonathanlee I'm happy to see you helping out but the purpose of the community is to avoid having to contact the moderators. Please do not make this suggestion until an issue had been identified and determined to be be an account issue that can only be fixed by a moderator accessing the account. It is extremely unlikely that the OP would require this assistance to fix the issue.

@Triguy You should just know better.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

Korth — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 18:41:59 GMT

@deyneko

Nobody's mentioned one of the first things to try.

Clear your browser cache/cookies (or use Incognito mode) and disable any scriptblockers/adblockers. Then restart the browser. Then login to Self-Serve.

It might not work. But then again, it might.

I've always found private message to @CS_Agent is the fastest way to get support from Public Mobile. Although they prefer support tickets through Simon chatbot.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

darlicious — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 20:03:27 GMT

@Korth

I'm going to admonish you too......since obviously your eyes glared over by the second line of my post if you bothered to read any of it at all as you have reiterated what is already in my post. I can 99% guarantee you that the OP's credit card has expired in which case the moderators help is minimal except to do the work the OP should have done themselves when they recieved their new card in the mail.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

maurice — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 20:30:19 GMT

I can't believe that it took so long for some one to suggest that the issue was most likely an expired credit card. I will bet that it is by far the most likely reason for one of these payment failures.

While I don't always agree with Darlicious, (which is fair, we live in a democracy), He is absolutely bang on in all aspects of his two messages in regard to this post.

You have bravos from me on this and good on you for reminding everyone not to waste valuable and scarce resources.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

darlicious — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 20:41:25 GMT

@maurice

It was the fact that the OP has been a member since 2016 with no previous autopay issues that was the biggest clue ( not confirmed yet). Thank you for your bravos even though my big mouth can be the opposite of your opinion ( which yes is totally ok) but I will correct you in one aspect..... the he is a she!😉💄👙👠

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

maurice — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 20:47:12 GMT

Ooops! Obviously the reptilian part of my brain won that round, hence the dino result. Thanks for the correction!

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

darlicious — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 20:37:38 GMT

@Luddite

"Contact the moderators?" Really that's your choice for the solution? Seeing as we never heard back from the OP makes me suspect that the OP who has been member nearly as long or longer than you was embarassed to the fact that they had a shiny new credit card in their wallet and after 5 years of impeccable service had the nerve to call pm's service unreliable and threaten to leave depite having the maximum loyalty reward and the autopay reward ($5+$2=$7) applied to their bill each month. All because they forgot to update the expiry date of their credit card in their account. Usually 2+2 does=4.

Re: What is going on? Urgent situation!

deyneko — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 03:18:59 GMT

The PM system asked me many times to finish this thread with and mark the solution.

This is my son's SIM card - I bought it and paid for him.

The solution is:

Yes, the system started to work, but anyway we decided that he will leave PM to another provider (Koodo or Chatr). We will start the process next week I think.

Thanks to all who wanted to help.