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A Letter from Dave: Looking back on 2019 and our 2020 goals

Dave_M
Retraité / Retired
Retraité / Retired

Hey Community, 

 

As we enter the final month of the year (and decade!) I wanted to take the time to reflect on what a year it’s been. I also wanted to thank you all for another great year. Public Mobile could not be where it is today without you, our customers. 

 

We kicked off the year focused on your wishlist from 2018

  • Faster Moderator response times
  • Improved ticketing process
  • Additional goodness from SIMon

 

Since last year, we’ve beefed up our Community support and brought response times down from days to minutes, getting you connected to Moderators faster. Our virtual assistant SIMon is also now better equipped to support you: SIMon has resolved 70% of all issues without needing a Moderator, and houses our new streamlined ticketing process, which helps you get better and faster support. All this progress wouldn’t be possible without you, our passionate Community. Thank you to those who have helped us identify these issues, test our systems, and provide feedback. While this progress is good, our journey is far from over. I encourage you to continue to provide feedback to help us build a better service for you.  

 

We recognize that you are at the heart of everything we do, which is why we’ve refocused our brand promise. Our new motto “we’re for you” isn’t just for looks, we want to make sure you’re at the center of our systems, promotions, and even campaigns. We’ve been putting that into action, from free data giveaways to our #PublicMobilePDA campaign, where we broadcast the things you love on billboards across Canada! 

 

But 2019 wasn’t all rosy. Earlier this year many of you experienced issues with your service because, frankly, our systems just weren’t good enough. In August, we made significant improvements to ensure that this didn’t happen again. Part of this required removing our Build Your Own Plan Calculator. This wasn’t an easy decision, and we know that many of you enjoyed the flexibility of the calculator. We’ve heard that feedback and are planning to introduce some enhancements to our plans in the coming year because of it. At the end of the day, having reliable service is just table stakes, and we want to make Public Mobile the best it can be for you. We have made improvements over the last year, but we’re not done yet. 

 

As we continue to focus on our customers and what you want, in 2020 we’re focusing on a wishlist of things you have asked for: 

 

  • A simpler and mobile-friendly self serve experience
  • Promotions and programs that benefit you, our valued customers
  • Continuing to ensure that our systems are best-in-class and improving the experience you have when you need to get help 
  • An enhanced Community that is easier to use and more engaging 

As we work on this wishlist in the new year, we want to do so with more transparency. Our goal is to keep you more informed on the decisions we make and why we make them. 

 

But, before we kick of 2020, I want to take a moment to sincerely thank you for being a loyal Public Mobile customers and a valued member of the Community. Last year, we were #LessForLess, but now we’re for you.  As December is the season of giving, we wanted to show you (in addition to telling you) how much we appreciate all you do. Make sure to check back on the Community this coming Wednesday, December 4th for a special announcement about some free gifts coming your way. 

 

Sincerely, 

Dave

171 REPLIES 171

To whom this applies to....THANK YOU!


@pm-smayer97 wrote:

@darlicious wrote:

@umar1234 wrote:

Thanks, and yes ability to share data will be great between family members. And also if we can be able to temporarily suspend service while out of the country for 1 or 2 months.


You can already do this

When and How to Suspend or Place an account on Hold (Extended absence, etc)

Many people think that just because they do not plan on using their phone for a period of time that they need to suspend or place their account on hold. In most cases, that is actually not necessary. If fact it may be worse if you do.

 

...


The above quoted text comes from the a post here:

When and How to Suspend or Place an account on Hold (Extended absence, etc)

 

Please refer to that link for the most current info.

@pm-smayer97  Thanks linking was not working for me and got frustrated and just copied and pasted. All credit goes to you for your article. Cheers!


 


@darlicious wrote:

@umar1234 wrote:

Thanks, and yes ability to share data will be great between family members. And also if we can be able to temporarily suspend service while out of the country for 1 or 2 months.


You can already do this

When and How to Suspend or Place an account on Hold (Extended absence, etc)

Many people think that just because they do not plan on using their phone for a period of time that they need to suspend or place their account on hold. In most cases, that is actually not necessary. If fact it may be worse if you do.

 

...


The above quoted text comes from the a post here:

When and How to Suspend or Place an account on Hold (Extended absence, etc)

 

Please refer to that link for the most current info.


@umar1234 wrote:

Thanks, and yes ability to share data will be great between family members. And also if we can be able to temporarily suspend service while out of the country for 1 or 2 months.


You can already do this

When and How to Suspend or Place an account on Hold (Extended absence, etc)

Many people think that just because they do not plan on using their phone for a period of time that they need to suspend or place their account on hold. In most cases, that is actually not necessary. If fact it may be worse if you do.

 

It is recommended that you read this entire article to fully appreciate the ins and outs of when and how to suspend you account and the implication of each method (you may need read it more than once).

 

Q1: When should I suspend or place my account on hold?

A1: The answer is, it depends. The only time you actually need to place your account on hold is if you have more funds in your account than it costs for your plan at renewal for which you are signed up. If you have less funds in your account than the cost of the plan, your plan will automatically be suspended when the plan period expires, unless you have registered for AutoPay.

 

Q2: Can I get a credit for unused time if I suspend or place my account on hold?

A2: Typically not. Understand that PM is a PrePaid service. This means that whatever time you have already paid for, is paid for. Suspending or placing your account on hold does NOT stop the clock on your plan. And you normally cannot get a credit for the balance of the time (though it can never hurt to ask, but it is not standard).

 

Q3: So why should I not suspend or place my account on hold manually?

A3: Because you only have 90 days to reactivate your account from the day the account is suspended or placed on hold. For a better way, read on.

 

Q4: When should I choose to suspend or place my account on hold?

A4: It Depends but typically only if you have more funds in your account than the cost of your plan at renewal. As mentioned above, there is no benefit to suspend it manually otherwise.

 

Q5: When should I actually suspend or place my account on hold?

A5: As late as possible.

Once an account is suspended or placed on hold, you only have 90 days before you have to reactivate the account. Otherwise you will lose your telephone # and your plan. So if you suspend your plan far before your expiry date of your paid plan, you lose the extra time (for more on this, read on).

 

Q6: How do I suspend or place my account on hold?

A6: There are 3 ways to suspend or place your account on hold:

  1. Contact the moderator team and ask them to do it. It will take effect immediately (BUT requires waiting for a moderator to respond and the back and forth of being validated).
  2. If you have less funds in your account than the cost of your plan at renewal, you may turn off AutoPay! Then do nothing. Your account will automatically be suspended and placed on hold when your plan period expires. CAUTION: This may impact your bonus features!
  3. Do it yourself online. Go to your self-serve account and click on Plans and Add-ons. Then click on [Lost/Stolen Phone] tab. Then click on the (Suspend Service) button. That's it.

NOTE: You can confirm that your account is marked Lost/Stolen by clicking on the [Overview] tab. Just below the big grey box you should see "Account Status: Lost-Stolen / Fermé".

 

Q7: Does turning off Autopay suspend or place my account on hold?

A7: No. Not directly anyway.

The only function that registering for Autopay serves is that if you have insufficient funds in your account to pay for the plan you have selected, Autopay will automatically charge your registered account the missing funds to cover the cost.

 

CAUTION: If Autopay is turned off BUT if you still have sufficient funds in your account, PM will automatically apply the funds and renew your plan. The only way to stop this is to suspend or place your account on hold.

 

Of course, if you have Autopay turned off and you do not have sufficient funds at renewal time, your account will automatically be suspended and placed on hold.

 

Q8: What happens to my funds if my account is suspended? Do I lose my account balance?

A8: No.  No matter HOW your account gets suspended, ALL your existing funds in the account will remain. You will only lose your balance if the account becomes deactivated after the 90 days have past and no plan has not been renewed.

(This is confirmed both from discussing this with moderators AND from personal experience having tried ALL methods.)

 

Q9: What happens to the features on my plan?

A9: They all stop working until the plan is re-activated. This includes voicemail. Callers will simply get a ringing that does not stop and will never go to your voicemail.

 

Also note that your plan and related features will be restored when you re-activate your account (except the ones associated with AutoPay if you turned off AutoPay to suspend your account and if the AutoPay bonus is not longer available).

 

Q10: How do I re-activate my account?

A10: There are 3 ways to re-activate your account. They are simply the reverse of the 3 methods listed above:

  1. Contact the moderator team to re-activate the account. 
  2. Turn on AutoPay with enough time for the system to withdraw funds from your registered account to pay for and renew your plan. NOTE: if you have used the [Lost/Stolen Phone] feature, you cannot turn on AutoPay first. See option 3-1, below.
  3. Do it yourself online. There are 2 ways:
    1. If you used the [Lost/Stolen Phone] feature to place your plan on hold, you must first go to your self-serve account and click on the [Plans and Add-ons] tab. Then click on the [Lost/Stolen Phone] tab. Then click the (Resume Service) button. Then you can perform step 3-2. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you try step 3-2 first, it will NOT re-activate your account, but the system will not tell you why (there is no feedback that you need to resume your account from the Lost/Stolen state first). 
    2. If you did not use the [Lost/Stolen Phone] feature to place your plan on hold, go to your self-serve account and click on [Overview] tab (the default tab when you first log in). Click (Reactivate Account) button if it is there. 

TIP: At the moment, there is a bug in Self-Serve that may not automatically re-activate the account after doing steps 2 or 3-1, or 3-2, even if there are sufficient funds to cover any plan you choose or you have AutoPay already turned on. Until this is fixed, there is a work-around. Simply add at least $1 to your account using a voucher, credit card or visa debit card AFTER "resuming" the account (step 3-1, if applicable). Then the system will automatically renew your plan.

 

NOTE: Also, the system currently prevents you from turning on AutoPay (if it was disabled) until your plan is fully re-activated and renewed with a payment

 

Q11: How much time do I have before I have to re-activate a suspended account?

A11: You have a maximum of 90 days from the day the account is suspended or placed on hold. 

If you do not re-activate your account in time, you will lose your telephone # and your plan, including any balance left in the account.

 

The system will show the your exact date your account will be deactivated. Go to the [Overview] tab and in the big grey box you will see "Top up before [date]". You must re-activate your account by 11:59 pm the day before this date to not lose your account (telephone # and balance).

 

Q12: What if I want/need to suspend or place my account on hold longer than the 90 days suspend time?

A12: Two Strategies:

  1. Select the cheapest available plan and add enough funds to cover that plan. This will give you the time for that plan period + 90 more days after that plan expires (and you no longer have funds to cover the cost). CAUTION: The down side is that you would give up your existing plan to do this (and you risk not being able to get it back if it is no longer offered when you re-activate your account).
  2. Renew your existing plan for another payment cycle, then repeat the process of suspending or placing your account on hold (this approach is more cost effective if you already have a 30-day plan vs a 90-day plan).

 

Other considerations:

  1. If you turn off AutoPay, you may lose any bonus feature(s) that PM gave you as a result of turning on AutoPay. The bonus feature(s) may not be recovered if they are no longer offered at the time you re-activate your account.
  2. As soon as your account is placed on hold, any telephone number used as a referral will lose its referral award until your account is re-activated.
  3. Beware of any turn-around time from a moderator if you choose to go through them to perform any of this, which is unpredictable, ranging from hours to days.
  4. Beware of any announced or unannounced system maintenance times where you may lose access to your self-serve account to perform any of these changes. To never miss an announcement from PM, see the following instructions:   How to get notified of ANY New Promos, Announcements, System Outages, etc

TIP: As noted above, there are important implications when turning off AutoPay. Therefore. use the option to place your account on hold by turning off AutoPay as a last resort.

 

Edit: Please refer below to the original author @pm-smayer97  below for updates to this post and a correct link....bravos go to his original post I am only the messenger.

umar1234
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thanks, and yes ability to share data will be great between family members. And also if we can be able to temporarily suspend service while out of the country for 1 or 2 months.

Asima
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thanks for updates and also thanks for providing great service at the lowest price (in my knowledge). Our whole family is with public mobile and hopefully, there will be some new plans to choose from in 2020 and also will be great if data sharing between family members can be possible.


@computergeek541 wrote:

@Jencho wrote:

When r you going to allow us to pay by debit card?


Many banks already issue Visa Debit cards which are accepted, but do you mean by EMT?


They MAY be referring to general debit cards other than Visa debit cards.... for instance, although I have a debit card, it's from BMO, and I'm assuming, wouldn't work, since the blurb on the site specifically states "credit card, or Visa debit"..... 🤔 

link4sah
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Thankee! 

 

@Ciph 

You should have a "Charter Member" icon on your posts!

 

AE_Collector

Ciph
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Glad to see how Public Mobile has come along since my first in-store registration around 2011 (back then there were Public Mobile stores with a wall of CDMA phones).

Although there has been a few storms along the way and lurking abysses ready to swallow everything into nothingness, most of us persisted and stuck clenching for dear life onto this tiny little boat that was Public Mobile. It has since grown much more imposing and word-of-mouth made Public Mobile a not-so-well-kept-secret between colleagues, friends and family.

I eagerly look forward on continuing this journey with Public Mobile and cannot wait to see what lies ahead beyond the horizon.

Ayxmania101
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Good to know PM is thinking about making progress. 


@Jencho wrote:

When r you going to allow us to pay by debit card?


Many banks already issue Visa Debit cards which are accepted, but do you mean by EMT?

Jencho
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

When r you going to allow us to pay by debit card?

@pm-smayer97  A few months ago after posting about the *poof* the magic dragon disappearing post bug @oglat remembered a link they had found in a similar situation and kindly found it for me. For those of us that come down with this bug on a regular basis it's the closest thing to a cure were going to get because the fix that existed apparently got fixed as well. I try to share it with anyone having the same issue.

That is the only way into that area buried somewhere in the back of your profile.Im assuming the mods can access it on their end and could previously turn off the edit/spam filter as ex-mod Mary did for @Dunkgirl.


@darlicious wrote:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/premod/moderationitemspage/tab/rejected

 

@CannonFodder   Hardly any digging involved at all.  I hope?!!


Thanks for sharing.

 

How did you get that link? How do you navigate to that area without that link?

 

P.S. I just discovered 2 posts of mine in there from 2 years ago; nothing important though... 😕

catchat3
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thanks for establishing such a great company. I'm new to Public Mobile and loving it already.



 

@CannonFodder  Lol! I knew it wasn't coming out right...didnt get the best sleep last night. Not too clever...appreciate the edit today.  I can help shorten your digging for *poof* the magic dragon disappearing post bug victims...if you so wish.


@darlicious wrote:

@AE_Collector  The only consistent reason for my posts disappearing  is editing

 

I think it's the editing, because in the short while I've been here, I've noticed that if I edit a post once, it's fine, but if I attempt another edit on the same post, it disappears into a cyberspace black hole.

 

and/or they are always long posts. Which more than few members might think in my case is a good bug to have to save the community from me! I can tell you there's at least 30 posts in there. I've only released about five  back into the community  hoping they'll do some good.


Fixed the above portion for ya! 😜 

Crimsonix
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

That is good to know as PM still has a better future coming.

Yeah I had no luck getting one out. Copy and paste didn't work for me either. Screen shot is a good solution. 

AE_Collector

@AE_Collector  As you can see that a screenshot is my work around for releasing a post from banishment. The only consistent reason for my posts disappearing  is editing and/or they are always long posts. Which more than few members might think in my case is a good bug to have to save me from the community! I can tell you there's at least 30 posts in there. I've only released about five  back into the community  hoping they'll do some good.

Yeah the disappearing posts! On the rare occasion that I have looked in the quarantine area I am always surprised as I had no idea that what I wrote never showed up! By the time I realize that what I wrote didn't post the subject is usually weeks old by then. Even if we had some idea what triggers this to happen but I haven't a clue so far.

 

PS: I see that this topic has been moved BACK to the home page from long term storage. 

 

AE_Collector

 @Ed404  @iPhoneUser  @PAULRANG18 @DonForgo  @Jb456 @88cranston  and the newest member of the self imposed quarantine sufferers of *poof* the magic dragon disappearing post bug.... @AE_Collector 

@Dave_M  In helping our newest member locate his disappeared posts safely hidden in his unmoderated items banished forevermore...this was once fixed by Mary for @Dunkgirl  but alas the moderators say they have fixed the fix! I have found my original commentary for this thread....so I would like to add please find us poor folk a cure to this rare bug for we suffer needlessly!Screenshot_20200103-135436.png

Tapan676
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

An "app" would be charm to manage account and serve the community!


@Ivasofya wrote:

Another something to improve is the coverage.. it's crazy but my workplace is the only place I get no reception at - at all!


Agreed, except in my case, the signal strength at home kinda sucks, even though the coverage map indicates that we're supposedly well within the coverage area.

 

Quite frankly, the low cost plan and the various options here are about right for my current use case, and the signal strength is the ONLY reason I currently have to potentially leave for another provider.


@dboxtvinfo715 wrote:

* 15 /m  with 500mb minimum and Autopay bonus 500mb would be a great reference 


The suggestion above is edging closer, at least in terms of data, to the $25/month plan. I was thinking of something more like, a $15 Talk plan and a $15 Data plan, where it could be like this:

 

$15 Talk is the same as currently, but with more outgoing minutes included, and Autopay gets you the 250MB of data.

 

$15 Data is the same as currently, but includes 250MB data, and autopay gets you a bonus 250MB.


@dboxtvinfo715 wrote:

* 15 /m  with 500mb minimum and Autopay bonus 500mb would be a great reference 


Hear! Hear!

Jaskerry
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

In 2020 it would be awesome if you made a PM app! Easier to access data usage and account information. Or at least if you don't create an app to make  the MY Account mobile friendly please! Thanks and Merry Christmas!

Ivasofya
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Another something to improve is the coverage.. it's crazy but my workplace is the only place I get no reception at - at all!

Still though I reccomend public to everyone!


S

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