topic Re: Why is there no customer support? in Get Support

Why is there no customer support?

angry1 — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 07:42:54 GMT

I have a plan with province-wide minutes, but it won't let me complete calls to within my own city because i apparently don't have a long distance add-on.

Not only do I have long-distance minutes, the call is local.

And to add icing to the cake, there is literally no way to contact any human being that works for public, and their chat bot is about as useful as asking a brick wall for help.

EDIT: It's okay everyone, I've found the solution: Take my business to a company that isn't completely incompetent!

Re: Why is there no customer support?

JK8 — Sat, 15 May 2021 16:28:51 GMT

@angry1 wrote:
I have a plan with province-wide minutes, but it won't let me complete calls to within my own city because i apparently don't have a long distance add-on.

Not only do I have long-distance minutes, the call is local.

And to add icing to the cake, there is literally no way to contact any human being that works for public, and their chat bot is about as useful as asking a brick wall for help.

Try putting a 1 in front of the number.

The Public Mobile home page explains the support.

Re: Why is there no customer support?

angry1 — Sat, 15 May 2021 16:32:40 GMT

can't put a 1 in front of numbers like 811.

i cannot make *any* calls now, when i could not even a day ago.

and claiming all your support is online doesn't negate the non-extistance of support.

Re: Why is there no customer support?

Anonymous — Sat, 15 May 2021 16:36:35 GMT

# 1. To get the obvious out of the way...you used 011 or +1 in front of the country code? Sometimes there are some extra leading zero's in country codes and "foreign" area codes. Maybe try not using leading zeros.

# 2 do one thing take your SIM card out and waiting for a minute and put it back and do rebooting your phone - This one is quick and simple. Make sure your phone is off before removing and reinserting its SIM card.

Remove your phone’s battery - Some phones have removable batteries. Sometimes removing and reinserting the battery can fix certain issues. Just make sure your phone is off before you do this.

what is mean for Rebooting the phone means to turn off your phone and turn it back on again.

and if is not working

you have to Submit a ticket to a moderator.

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.
or you can send a private message to Moderator_Team by Click here. You’ll need to be logged in to your Community account for the link to work.

In your message put it, please include.
your account number,
your phone number,
your account PIN,
explanation to them nice Team and nice service

Good Luck

Re: Why is there no customer support?

HALIMACS — Sat, 15 May 2021 16:37:03 GMT

@angry1

I understand your username.

To focus on the issue you're experiencing, and less on the fact that it's well advertised that public mobile is a completely online platform, I have a few recommendations:

Unless you're on an old grandfathered legacy plan which only includes provincial calling, you may want to consider changing your plan to the current suite of plans which include Canada-wide calling. Changing plans is easy - just click on change plan tab on the self-serve landing page, select the plan which may suit you, and schedule it for your next renewal
It may be possible that you have consumed your allotment of minutes, if you are on a limited minute plan. Check under your data and add-ons section for this.
And less likely, but still possible, if you are unable to receive calls and send/receive texts, you may need to top up your plan and renew it manually to get service is going again. Confirm that the account status is active before going much further. If it isn't, top up and reactivate.

Re: Why is there no customer support?

hairbag1 — Sat, 15 May 2021 16:34:51 GMT

@angry1...

do you have a plan with limited number of calling minutes ? Could be you've run outta minutes until next renewal.

If so, get the $5 / 500minutes of Canada wide calling add-on.

Re: Why is there no customer support?

angry1 — Sat, 15 May 2021 16:40:22 GMT

@HALIMACS

>Unless you're on an old grandfathered legacy plan which only includes provincial calling, you may want to consider changing your plan to the current suite of plans which include Canada-wide calling

The solution to not receiving what i'm paying for is to pay for more?

that's patently absurd.

>It may be possible that you have consumed your allotment of minutes, if you are on a limited minute plan. Check under your data and add-ons section for this.

I have not. I have 100 minutes and have used fewer than 10.

Re: Why is there no customer support?

angry1 — Sat, 15 May 2021 16:40:01 GMT

@hairbag1

i did not run out of minutes, and i should not have to pay for canada-wide calling to call locally.

Re: Why is there no customer support?

softech — Sat, 15 May 2021 16:46:10 GMT

@angry1 wrote:

EDIT: It's okay everyone, I've found the solution: Take my business to a company that isn't completely incompetent!

yes, it will be your solution if talking to someone on the phone is absolutely critical for you. Different companies have different models and this is the support model for PM. In return for the "inconvenience", PM set the price slightly lower and no contact so you can make your decision to another business without penalty.

Re: Why is there no customer support?

JK8 — Sat, 15 May 2021 16:51:07 GMT

@angry1

If you continue to have problems contact a moderator as suggested by @Anonymous

Re: Why is there no customer support?

LurganIeUk — Sat, 15 May 2021 17:46:47 GMT

@angry1 wrote:
can't put a 1 in front of numbers like 811.

i cannot make *any* calls now, when i could not even a day ago.

and claiming all your support is online doesn't negate the non-extistance of support.

Is the 811 number in the USA? I think you can call any 800 number in Canada free (does not count against your outbound minutes if on $15 plan). What Province Wide Plan are you on....looks like most can be converted over to Canada Wide at no extra cost to you. You might be unnecessarily jumping to false conclusions!!

edit: What I should have asked.....is the 811 number in another country other than Canada?

Re: Why is there no customer support?

HALIMACS — Sat, 15 May 2021 17:46:04 GMT

@angry1

Well - you really have blinders on don't you.

Switching to a Canada-wide plan could be for the same dollar value as what you were paying before (heck - it could be cheaper - but I'll let you figure that one out by searching website options/offerings for yourself...)

As to whether or not you've consumed your minute allotment - it was just a recommendation. A lot of folks think they can count their own minutes from their device usage, forgetting that public mobile bills by the minute and not by the second. But again, you seem to have that one well understood according to your feedback.

Good luck, and be happy!!!

Re: Why is there no customer support?

angry1 — Sat, 15 May 2021 17:46:24 GMT

@LurganIeUk

811 is the local city-services number, it works in many, if not most, major canadian cities.

>ooks like most can be converted over to Canada Wide at no extra cost to you. Yo

if that's true, it's absurd. my plan is less than 2 months old. why would they even have offered only province-wide, if its the same price for canada-wide?

it's okay, though, i've solved the problem. I'm switching mobile carriers to a less-mickey-mouse outfit

Re: Why is there no customer support?

angry1 — Sat, 15 May 2021 17:48:05 GMT

@HALIMACS

seeing that my plan isn't even 2 months old, if there *are* canada=wide plans for the same price (or cheaper) that's even more reason not to do business with this company.

why would they even offer the province-wide plan, if the country-wide plan is the same price? just to antagonize potential customers?

Re: Why is there no customer support?

LurganIeUk — Sat, 15 May 2021 17:53:06 GMT

@angry1 wrote:
@LurganIeUk

811 is the local city-services number, it works in many, if not most, major canadian cities.

>ooks like most can be converted over to Canada Wide at no extra cost to you. Yo

if that's true, it's absurd. my plan is less than 2 months old. why would they even have offered only province-wide, if its the same price for canada-wide?

it's okay, though, i've solved the problem. I'm switching mobile carriers to a less-mickey-mouse outfit

You are jumping to very poor decisions!!!!!!!!! You are caught up in a PM marketing change and then pulled because of it's unpopularity and likely to remain competitive. And yes they did a poor job in not letting you know that you could change your plan free of charge to Canada Wide. So if you are on the $15 plan, Province wide, upgrade to the $15 Canada wide plan and make it happen on your next renewal. There is an option to do NOW or on next renewal. NOW will cause you to lose some money. There are many more good things about PM and once you get used to it all....you will like it.

Re: Why is there no customer support?

HALIMACS — Sat, 15 May 2021 17:55:29 GMT

@angry1

You know you're dealing with other customers on this forum, correct?

We have no idea why Public Mobile does what they do.

About a month or so ago, Public Mobile considered a price increase on their Canada-wide plans and offered Provincial wide calling at the same price point. After much negative feedback from customers, they withdrew the provincial plans and reinstated the prior price point for Canada wide plans.

As I said earlier, you can switch to one of them and not have to worry about provincial boundaries when calling.

Here’s the process for changing plans, first login to Self Serve to this screen:

Then, click Change Plan:

Then select desired Plan:

Then choose Change on Next Renewal Date:

Re: Why is there no customer support?

Anonymous — Sat, 15 May 2021 17:54:58 GMT

@angry1 : Yup. It was a poorly executed plans change. They tried to lead and one or two competitors did a little bit but then they all back-tracked back to Canada-wide. They had the Canada-wide plans still available looking like they were on special and intending to bump up their price by $5. But they were the same price as province-wide while on special. Then it seems there were several technical issues with the province-wide plans. So it all got abandoned. Everything's back as it was before the shamozzle.

There is customer support and there are actual people behind it. It's just all done online by typing messages similar to email.

Re: Why is there no customer support?

Meow — Sat, 15 May 2021 18:55:30 GMT

We have one very unhappy customer...

Public Mobile is no frills mobile provider. You get what you pay for. For the most of us, cost is more important than live support. Anyway, superb support is provided by many PM customers lurking (24/7???) in this forum. I would not want any different as usually customers are more knowledgeable that 'official support'.

And so far support from MODs was prompt, reliable and accurate.

I am sure you CANNOT find cheaper and more reliable Canada wide plan than $15 from PM. That amount goes down with few options applied. Plus coverage area is very, very wide as it is provided by Telus. Not to mention this is no obligation, no contract, no credit check service. You do not like it, stop paying and service will eventually stop.

As for the province wide vs. Canada wide, I signed up a day or two after PM switched from CW to PW. Was not too much upset but still preferred to have CW. A month or so, PM reversed that decision and brought back CW. I scheduled plan change, got CW, end of story.

811 is - Non-Urgent Heath Care Telephone Triage Services, number available in (most likely) all area codes. I checked randomly few and number is available and the same.

Re: Why is there no customer support?

Yummy — Sat, 15 May 2021 18:59:16 GMT

So far, PM provided reliable service. I am very glad I chose this provider.

BTW, I did thorough research before choosing provided. The only thing I did not know is you can be a Community member without being PM customer. Might have asked few newbie questions but now I learn as I go...

Re: Why is there no customer support?

darlicious — Sat, 15 May 2021 19:40:53 GMT

@angry1

Surely you understood public mobile's online only support business model before you signed up? It's DIY when it comes to managing your service and account. This means you can perform many actions within your account like plan changes, account suspensions or purchasing add ons on your own without having to call customer service or pay extra fees to do so or even just to talk to customer service.

Online support means you first reach out to the community to ask your question. The vast majority of questions or issues presented can be solved within minutes by the community. More difficult issues require some troubleshooting but usually can be resolved by some active participation of the OP and the community members offering suggestions. The most difficult issues that occur often hardware problems with individual phones will have some dedicated and knowledgable members doing testing and online internet searches on your behalf to locate an eventual solution. These can sometimes takes days or weeks to resolve but is service that these community members volunteer to do in their own spare time ....for you because they just want to help. If you phone another provider's customer service line with these type of issues they will tell you to contact the manufacturer of your brand of phone to resolve it.

Account related issues that can only be rectified by a moderator ( pm employee) you will be directed to contact them either via simple simon ( who I don't get along with) or by sending a private message (my preferred method). Lately wait times are about one hour but this week they have been much less than that. I had an account issue yesterday resolved within 9 minutes of first sending a message. Far quicker than the average 45-60 minutes you wait on hold when calling phone support at other providers.

The problem you are experiencing is a known glitch that crops up a few times a year ( for me at least.) Waiting 10 minutes to one hour and rebooting your phone usually resolves it along with dialing a commonly called phone number such as a friend or family member. If it persists beyond one hour or continues to occur on a regular basis then contacting the moderators and asking for your sim card to be reprovisioned/account reset is in order.

You activated during a brief 7 week period that public mobile was offering province wide calling plans. The $15 plan was the only plan that had eliminated the canada wide calling option. As suggested schedule a plan change on next renewal to update your plan to the current canada wide calling $15 plan. Here is more info on the pm update on plans....

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/UPDATE-Changes-to-Our-In-Market-Plans/td-p/674767

It is suggested that you pop into the community a couple of times a month to stay up to date on changes, promotions, contests and free gifts public mobile may be offering its custoners. You might even learn how to manage your service and account more effectively and earn a community reward for your participation something you definitely cannot do at other providers!

Here is my preferred method for moderator contact...

Contact the moderators by sending a private message and leave a detailed message explaining your issue and the info to verify your account by including the following information:

Full name and address on account. ( Or province and postal code for newer accounts.)
Email, phone # and pin #.

If you cannot remember your pin # include at least three of the following:

Date of birth (n/a on newer accounts.)
Last payment, date, amount, type and last 4 digits.
Alternate phone number if any.
Security question and answer.
Plan amount, any add ons or promos on account.
Last 4 digits of sim card.
Any rewards in your account.
Autopay y/n?
Account #.
Frequently called/texted phone numbers in the last 30 days.

The average wait time is 2 to 4 hours but be prepared to wait up to 48 hours for non urgent requests. Current wait times are about one hour and are probably even less as I have had some very quick responses today. Keep an eye on your private message box the envelope icon next to your avatar for a little number to pop indicating a message from the moderators. Responding promptly will speed up service times.

Do not post any of this info in the community only in your private messages when communicating or contacting the Moderator_Team.

To send a private message to the moderators click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437