topic Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :) in Get Support

Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

kutzki — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 19:21:44 GMT

Hey there Public Mobile Community. So I have a question... I will be going out of the country on Thursday and I have a feeling people will be trying to text me while I'm out of town. Anyone have any way to set up an Auto Responder while I'm out of town? I know there are apps but those are assuming you'll still have service. I will be bringing my phone to New York with me and I would like to let people know I won't be available... I'm assuming that PM does not offer a function of this sort where any text message someone sends me will be automatically responded to with a pre-written message?

Any help you guys can offer will be greatly appreciated. I'll be gone for a week.

All the best,

@kutzki

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

Martin — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 06:36:12 GMT

Hello @kutzki,

Are you aware that, with an unlocked phone and a SIM card from www.roammobility.com,
you can receive calls from Canada? Simply change your PM outgoing announcement to state what your U.S. number is, which you will know upon activating the Roam Mobility SIM card.

Two reputable unlocking services are: www.cellunlocker.net and
www.quickphoneunlock.com.

Cheers.

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

kutzki — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 06:44:52 GMT

What do you mean by my PM outgoing announcement? O.O

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

kutzki — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 06:45:31 GMT

Also @Martin I have just ordered a RM SIM card which will hopefully arrive before I leave on Thursday.

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

Martin — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 06:47:56 GMT

Hi @kutzki,

Assuming that you have voicemail, you can change your greeting, which I referred to as an outgoing announcement.

FYI.

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

kutzki — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 06:49:19 GMT

Oh, yes. @Martin I most likely will, but will my number stay the same?

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

Martin — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 06:54:44 GMT

Hi @kutzki,

Your PM number will remain the same.

Using a non-PM SIM card in your phone in no way affects your PM number.

FYI.

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

Luddite — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 14:07:55 GMT

@kutzki Staples carries the RM card if you don't want to wait.

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

DK — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 14:10:08 GMT

To add to @Luddite post, 7/11 stores also sell the roam sim if that is closer.

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

TroyDaBes — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 14:15:00 GMT

@Luddite woah. Staples sells RM sims? Wow. That's for the info.

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

Luddite — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 14:22:22 GMT

Haven't tried it yet but wonder about http://freedompop.com for folks who travel regularly to USA. Offer is 500 meg/month free which would be plenty for VOIP such as fongo.com. There is some question of whether unlocked GSM phones will work, but then they often have sales on mifi's. Other issue is requirement for a US address for shipping if you can't find a store.

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

mint9317 — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 15:30:49 GMT

Also Amazon, CanadaComputers, NCIX stores all carry Roam Mobility sims, I had to go on a trip and urgrently needed one and paid the extra $$ at amazon for their one day shipping to get it to me before I left. Once you start using roam you'll never look back:)

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

Martin — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 15:37:44 GMT

Hi @mint9317,

Thank you for sharing that information.

Cheers!

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

srlawren — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 18:15:51 GMT

Everybody has given great info, and I myself use Roam Mobility while in the US (this past weekend for example!). However, nobody has addressed the initial question about texting. Unfortunately, none of the solutions mentioned so far will address that. While you're using your Roam Mobility SIM, you will have a different phone number, based in the states, so any texts you receive on your PM number will just queue up until you return to Canada and swap back to your PM SIM, unfortunately. I suppose if you had another unlocked spare phone around you could put your PM SIM in it before leaving home for your trip and leave it at home, plugged in, and run some sort of app to auto-respond to texts. I'm guessing there probably are such apps for Android and/or iPhone, but the trick is your PM SIM would have to remain in Canada in a phone that's powered on in order to work.

This is one reason why SMS really sucks! Here is another possible workaround: get your contacts to message you on a data-based messenger such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Although WhatsApp uses your phone number as your user name and how your friends can find you, it will actually still work fine while using your Roam SIM in the US without changing the phone number setting in WhatsApp. I've done that a few times. Facebook messenger similarly has no dependence on your actual active phone number, nor do most data-base messengers, but those are two of the most popular I find. As long as your contacts are okay to message you that way instead of SMS, just top up your Roam SIM with a plan that includes data (either data only or talk+text+data) and you will be fine.

Hopefully that helps a little.

Re: Hello Beautiful PM Members. Question :)

Luddite — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 18:21:51 GMT

My sister uses fongo.com with wifi while in the USA. They have a texting plan (around $2/mo) that she uses. Only aggro was getting all her usual contacts to call/text to the "while I'm in Florida" number. It has stabilized to the point she is considering staying with Fongo service even after returning.