topic Re: Auto-pay failure grace period? in Get Support

Auto-pay failure grace period?

alingus — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 07:35:10 GMT

Hello, this is perhaps not so much of a question but a suggestion. I had auto-pay set up and for whatever reason, my credit card decided to not be cooperative-- this is not my issue however. My issue is that there was a gap in my access to phone services while I was addressing the payment issue, and as a result I missed an important call from my doctor.

My suggestion is to give a grace period (24-72h?) with continued phone access, in the event of payment failure, so that issues like mine don't come up again. I now have to reschedule my appointment with my doctor, which should not have happened because I should have been able to take his call. I imagine this measure would not be too difficult to add, and it would be a wonderful convenience for longtime loyal customers who have every intention of continued patronage (notwithstanding random credit card failure).

Sorry for the bit of a rant, and I look forward to any feedback.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

will13am — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 17:58:11 GMT

This sounds like a reasonable approach but I sense it won't work. Until the service actually gets interrupted, customer will tend not to do anything or may not have full awareness of the autopay failure. The real solution is to find the cause and eliminate it.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

softech — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 18:01:45 GMT

good idea.. but not sure PM willing to do it.

and if the Autopay is failed , maybe PM should automatic re-try after 2 hours. Many time we see, it's an Autopay issue rather than credit card. We see that many times, customers went back and pay manually with the existing credit card on the system, the payment went through, so, the initial failure was likely on the PM side. If PM could re-attempt in 2 hours.. probably it will save a lot of the hassle.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

LurganIeUk — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 18:03:11 GMT

@alingus

If you can afford to do...try the hybrid auto pay.

Set up your account with auto pay. That alone gives you $2 a month off.

Pay 2 months in advance.

Each time PM texts you of your payment is "taken", then pay again using the online top up process.

Then any errors from PM for auto pay won't happen and a CC issue can be discovered in advance and fixed with out any disruption of phone service.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

esjliv — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 18:05:07 GMT

@alingus wrote:
Hello, this is perhaps not so much of a question but a suggestion. I had auto-pay set up and for whatever reason, my credit card decided to not be cooperative-- this is not my issue however. My issue is that there was a gap in my access to phone services while I was addressing the payment issue, and as a result I missed an important call from my doctor.

My suggestion is to give a grace period (24-72h?) with continued phone access, in the event of payment failure, so that issues like mine don't come up again. I now have to reschedule my appointment with my doctor, which should not have happened because I should have been able to take his call. I imagine this measure would not be too difficult to add, and it would be a wonderful convenience for longtime loyal customers who have every intention of continued patronage (notwithstanding random credit card failure).

Sorry for the bit of a rant, and I look forward to any feedback.

@alingus Yes, it is really too bad that Autopay Failures happen. But this IS a prepaid service, so you must pay before you get the services, like any other prepay service.

I know some people pay ahead of renewal dates, in the event, of a failure. I think this is silly too, since...It. Should. Not. Fail.

Perhaps, that is why some people prefer Postpaid services.

Go ahead and rant, all you want, we all do sometimes. 🙂

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

softech — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 18:10:52 GMT

the hybrid model.. i still not comfortable with the idea.. why we need to do extra to cover up PM's error? PM should look into the Autopay and fix it.. we should keep pressing PM to get a solution.

of course, I agree if it is emergency phones for kids.. for seniors, you really should like into this hybrid model and manually pay monthly to avoid surprises

and for those who says they use the phone for business calls and not afford to miss.. i always think PM is not a place for critical business phones. Prepaid is just not the right model for business phones

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

ShawnC13 — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 18:12:29 GMT

@alingus, while that would be nice to have I can see people taking advantage of it and now getting 33 days of service for the cost of 30 and continue doing this. As a prepaid service, this is how it should work, if there hasn't been a payment to continue service it will be suspended. Postpaid can add late payment fees and such but that isn't possible here. It is unfortunate you missed the call but the suggestion made by @will13am is the best solution. Find the problem and eliminate it.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

LurganIeUk — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 18:42:19 GMT

@softech

lol....me = senior!!!

PM is unlikely to ever fix it. The PM system is easy to see as an extract from the Telus Prepaid system. I was hit only a couple of times with the miss of auto-pay and was on Telus for about 15 years...so not bad. And if I recall..I had no idea that it failed and had no service. Once discovered Telus fixed it quick and they were quite aware of the problem and how to handle it. Then I was in contact with Telus Loyalty over an issue with both of your accounts having too large of a balance and rather than having them assign an unwanted plan add-on they put them on a plan for $100 a year and it would be paid from my balance (and was promised that my balance would not expire) so no more auto pay failure. So paying in advance became more of an reassurance of the plan always working. And actually paying a year in advance is less hassle for sure. I would like to see PM come back with the 90 day payment.

If you do pay in advance the only caution I have is.....don't let it build up too high as you never know when or why you might need to change your service provider, and is not advantageous to lose those funds in your balance. And more so if you are heavily on the PM rewards system.

Now your point about critical......with numbers of folks that no longer have a land line....with the loss of phone booths in general and loss of ashtrays in vehicles (full of quarters)......I would say that ANY PM customer would need to have the option to make critical calls.

And say for my wife and I for $13 a month or less.....using the hybrid system is a cost of $26 x 2 and $13 a month x 2 there after. It is not a bad alternative is it? But is a loss of "auto", but I don't mind doing the manual process as I have a bill paying regimen one day every week. But some one on a $70 plan may not want to do it. I understand it. But then "critical" will always have to be considered.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

alingus — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 18:56:35 GMT

@ShawnC13

A grace period doesn't mean an extension to the service period, it's just additional time to finalize payment. I honestly don't see a way for there to be an epidemic of scammers, especially if it's limited to those who have set up auto-pay. Moreover, PM gives data freebies periodically anyway, so it's not like there's a scarcity of product on their end that necessitates cracking down on their customers.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

BlueB — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 19:05:43 GMT

You're onto something here, @alingus about giving users some opportunity to correct the payment issue before suspending service. I also like @softech's idea about retrying after 2 hours.

Come to think of it - I'm with another service provider (not phone service) that provides me coverage monthly on the 1st of every month. However, automatic payment for the next month occurs the night before at 7pm. If that fails, you get a notification which allows you to jump in and correct the problem so that payment can be retried. This worked well once when a card needed to be replaced but wasn't updated in their system. 🙂

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

LurganIeUk — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 19:28:01 GMT

I would have to disagree with asking PM to have this option. Prepaid every where is hard and fast...pay on time or lose service. If an error on the side of the vendor then it should be graciously fixed for you, no hassle.

So the critical question is "what is the reason for the CC to be uncooperative"?

Today we seem to use auto pays and online payment options. No more visits to the local Cable Provider or Bank to pay a bill or to mail a cheque......and some may ask...what is a cheque??

It is the responsibility of a customer to have some method of knowing what they have set up for bill payments and what a new credit card in the mail means to your payment methods. ie. a new credit cards means you have renew that card information on all of your auto pay set ups.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

darlicious — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 19:36:25 GMT

@alingus

You do get about a 4 hour grace period between 2am and 6 am eastern on the day of your renewal from the approximate time autopay attempts to charge your card (2 am) and the time (6 am) pm will suspend your services for non payment (or deactivate the account if its been suspended for 90 days.) If you have something that is important enough requiring your mobile services that coincides with your renewal setting your alarm to check your account and make a manual payment if you are unlucky enough to suffer an autopay failure is an option.

When I had to worry about paying for my services I made a manual payment every month usually the day before renewal. I would also review the account to make sure everything was in order and take screenshots of my overview and transaction pages. I do the same after renewal. I look at autopay as a back up safety net in case I forget to pay the bill rather than rely on it to pay for my services.

In the whole scheme of things....autopay failures represent a miniscule percentage of customers that experience this issue. No automatic payment system is perfect and no provider has a fool proof system. However pm's autopay unlike other provider's will only attempt to charge your card on file once. You do not give pm carte blanche to bill your credit/debit card as you do with other services that you have set up pre-authorized payments.

I pay all of my bills manually either online or at a bank machine after I have fully reviewed the paper bill ( when possible) to make sure there are no errors or teeny tiny typeface telling me my services are going up in price. I have always done this but bf's contract with fido taught me to never trust a service provider is putting your best interests first. 18 months of monthly billing errors, overages and frankly fraudulent charges upwards of $100 each and every month keeps me vigilant.

I catch "honest" billing errors all the time....1/3 reciepts and/or billing statements I review have a mistake and it is rarely in my favour. I am astonished at how many people are willing to be ripped off by a service provider or put complete trust in their credit card issuer just for the convenience of an automatic payment.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

softech — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 20:08:39 GMT

yes, autopay the night before could be a solution..

but of course, there would be others complaining they want to opt out midnight and why got charged early.. lol

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

alingus — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 20:14:00 GMT

@BlueB I think auto-pay acting the day before would be a decent compromise, because as it stands, my card gets charged at midnight of the new pay/service period and any issues that arise occur when I'm asleep. I see a lot of replies basically blaming the customer by highlighting the fact that PM is a prepaid service, but it should be in a company's interest to make an opt-in feature like auto-pay as frictionless and seamless as possible, if only to reduce customer churn or increase customer loyalty. I've always been happy with PM, but this incident is making me reconsider. A small grace period is not a huge ask in the large scheme of things.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

LurganIeUk — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 20:19:04 GMT

@alingus wrote:
@BlueB I think auto-pay acting the day before would be a decent compromise, because as it stands, my card gets charged at midnight of the new pay/service period and any issues that arise occur when I'm asleep. I see a lot of replies basically blaming the customer by highlighting the fact that PM is a prepaid service, but it should be in a company's interest to make an opt-in feature like auto-pay as frictionless and seamless as possible, if only to reduce customer churn or increase customer loyalty. I've always been happy with PM, but this incident is making me reconsider. A small grace period is not a huge ask in the large scheme of things.

So the critical question is "what is the reason for the CC to be uncooperative"?

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

hairbag1 — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 20:28:36 GMT

I would take a guesstimate that 50% of the autopay failure are caused by the credit card on file has expired or changed somehow.

I, also, like to manually pay just before next renewal.I still get the Autopay Reward, I've minimized occurrence autopay glitch and I get to visually see what my cell phone plan costs.

I'd be reluctant to pay too far ahead...in case I wanted to flee to a different provider with more attractive plan/costs. Might have a difficult time getting refunded those future payments I made.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

darlicious — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 21:12:36 GMT

@alingus

Midnight for you....11 pm for me....4:30 am for anyone in Newfoundland so their grace period to pay is a more reasonable 8:30 am. The system is designed to best serve the vast majority of customers. If you want to pay early then do so manually.....if you want an alert then figure out how set an alert for when your card doesn''t get charged vs the alerts that tell you when your credit card has been charged.

If you are fast asleep by midnight then you are up early enough to pick up your phone and check if you have service. If not...log in and make a payment it takes a few minutes to do and reactivate.

But really as long as it doesn't fail again next renewal that chances of it failing again after that ?.?are extremely low until the month you get your replacement credit card with a new expiry date.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

softech — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 21:42:17 GMT

I agree if it is expiry date issue then its not something PM could help.

But we also heard so many times Autopay failed for no reason, user could do manually pay after with the same CC on file.. or the CC has no expiry issue but just PM couldn't get thr money for no reason even with manual pay..

I still think the PM Autopay failed for too many times. I have autopay on other systems and never have a single issue.

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

ShawnC13 — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 23:56:20 GMT

@alingus, so you are saying like a 3 day grace period and when the person gets things cleared up their next"contact" would be reduced by the number of hours/days that it took to make the payment go through? PM's system couldn't handle people picking their own plans in the plan builder I can't see it being able to handle a grace period and subtracting however long from the next 30 days. I understand it is a good idea but I have been around a long time and wouldn't trust PM to be able to pull this off with their system

Re: Auto-pay failure grace period?

hTideGnow — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 00:11:42 GMT

@ShawnC13 wrote:
wouldn't trust PM to be able to pull this off with their system

True. this is exactly the issue here, the system couldn't even process Autopay correctly.

Same for me, I have experience with Rogers, Fido, Bell and other kinds of businesses, their auto debit from CC never failed as long as the card is not expired but why here?

I think the 3 days grace period is too much, 1 day would be great if possible. Suggestion above for Autopay try again after couple hours might help too.