[BUG RESOLVED]: Incoming texts not received upon return from US

[Tiana_V]

Hey Community, 

Some exciting news! We wanted to let you know that our technical team has successfully implemented a fix for a known bug that has been affecting customers who have purchased a US Roaming Add-on where, upon the Add-On expiring, incoming texts would not be received for up to 24 hours. 

Our team has successfully identified, implemented, and tested a solution, which was deployed on January 27th. Customers who have purchased a US Roaming Add-On since then should experience no issues receiving text messages once they return to Canada. 

We want to thank everyone who flagged this issue to us and for your patience as we worked towards a solution. We are continually focused on improving the reliability of our systems as well as your experience. 

- The Public Mobile Team 

[Gerry_P]

I returned from the USA February 6 after 3 weeks and two 10 day roaming packages. The minute the plane landed in Canada I was receiving texts with no probs 👍

[dabr]

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@foster-kaitlin wrote:

How can I get an answer to something? I've clicked through community posts forever and can't even see a space to post a question?

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@foster-kaitlin  Under Browse (top left), pick the catagory/heading best suited for your query/suggestion, then select Ask a Question and start posting.

[gblackma]

@foster-kaitlin  https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Public-Mobile-Community/ct-p/Public_Mobile_Community use the link scroll down to the bottom (under bravos leaderboard ) and you will see different heading CLICK on the heading that best suit you question. You will the see a link that says ask a question. Click on it and ask your question.

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@foster-kaitlin wrote:

How can I get an answer to something? I've clicked through community posts forever and can't even see a space to post a question?

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[foster-kaitlin]

How can I get an answer to something? I've clicked through community posts forever and can't even see a space to post a question?

[Staliger]

Will travel to US soon and buy an addon, so it's a good news that upon my return to Canada phone will continue working perfectly Thanks PM!

[smiley3]

Awesome!

[gjong26]

Good to know since I was planning on getting this add on when I travel. But when in doubt a simple power off And on sometimes helps fix the problems.

[Nooreya2]

Great! 

[boyboy]

May need to turn off the phone & restart again once get back to Canada, 

[SomeFriend]

Yes, that's quite true but the reason why incoming text while roaming is billed at the domestic rate on most carriers worldwide is that you couldn't control your incoming text message usage.  So they don't charge you extra.

[computergeek541]

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@SomeFriend wrote:

Doubt receiving calls would be free (at least officially).  Receiving texts at the domestic rate (in this case, most PM customers get for free) is found at most carriers, as you can't control your incoming text messages.

What if someone flooded your phone with spam messages and they were billed at $1.00/txt?

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it's a good thing that there is no usage-based-billing at Public Moible. As such, an occurance of that those type of charges couldn't happen.

[SomeFriend]

Doubt receiving calls would be free (at least officially).  Receiving texts at the domestic rate (in this case, most PM customers get for free) is found at most carriers, as you can't control your incoming text messages.

What if someone flooded your phone with spam messages and they were billed at $1.00/txt?

[Anonymous]

The US Roaming Get Help page indicates that it's officially recognized. Receiving calls???...:)

[ShawnC13]

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@Chipster wrote:

Another question is if it's also now an official policy that users can receive incoming texts whilst in the US, even without a roaming package (not outgoing, of course)?

I used to work in the US and I crossed the border from Canada into the US daily as part of my commute. I can tell you that my mobile was ALWAYS able to receive incoming texts while I was in the US with no additional packages.

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I haven't seen it come out as an official statement from PM but there was this post today confirming people are still receiving texts without the Roaming add-on

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/Long-Distance-not-working-despite-havin...

[Chipster]

Another question is if it's also now an official policy that users can receive incoming texts whilst in the US, even without a roaming package (not outgoing, of course)?

I used to work in the US and I crossed the border from Canada into the US daily as part of my commute. I can tell you that my mobile was ALWAYS able to receive incoming texts while I was in the US with no additional packages.

[dabr]

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@AE_Collector wrote:

And what a convenience it would be if the "next step" were making it so you can set the stat date and even purchase several to start consecutively! Of course other options like 1, 5, 10 & 30 day variants would be nice as well. Just dreaming out loud ....

AE_Collector

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Agree, but we may have a long wait for those options seeing how long it takes for PM to update their system.  Oh well!

[AE_Collector]

And what a convenience it would be if the "next step" were making it so you can set the start date and even purchase several add-ons to start one after the other! Of course other options like 1, 5, 10 & 30 day variants would be nice as well. Just dreaming out loud ....

AE_Collector

[dabr]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've only gone on personal observation. I found that the add-on disappeared 10 - 24 hour periods after I bought it. The texting bug does seem fixed.

The inbound texting is officially mentioned in the US Roaming Help pages.

What is still uncertain to me is the re-buy delay.

There was another customer who found the same thing around the time this was announced but he ran ahead and asked the mods to re-add it for him rather than wait. He waited an hour. He DID find that it stopped working at about exactly 10 - 24 hour periods after buying.

Another customer was able to re-buy (without buying) the next morning. So it's between an hour and the next morning. I suspect the delay is midnight ET but it needs to be verified by folks. 

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Yes it would be nice to get all of this officially verified, but it does seem that more than just the returning from the US roaming bug might have been fixed.  It's good to hear that re-purchasing the same roaming add-on within a more reasonable timeframe after expiration (if confirmed) will be good news for anyone needing to do that too.

[computergeek541]

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@CannonFodder wrote:

Yeah, the whole question of 24hr. vs. midnight ought to be clarified, but if you think about it, it really SHOULD be that day 1 of the add-on takes 24hrs. to be used, otherwise day 1 could potentially be as little as a few minutes, depending on when the customer buys the add-on. In that case, there could be numerous P.O.'d add-on buyers, that got screwed out of almost an entire day of usage.

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I agree that this isn't fair to customer. This isn't anything different than when the customer activates a new Public Mobile account or reactivates a suspened plan.  Any paritial day counts as a full day used on that plan.  I don't believe that there's any carrier remaining in the country that doesn't bill in this manner.  I'm leaning towards that I believe that there was one carrier who use to not charge for the first partial day in the past (I want to lean towards saying Fido), but I'm pretty sure that is no longer the case.

[Anonymous]

I've only gone on personal observation. I found that the add-on disappeared 10 - 24 hour periods after I bought it. The texting bug does seem fixed.

The inbound texting is officially mentioned in the US Roaming Help pages.

What is still uncertain to me is the re-buy delay.

There was another customer who found the same thing around the time this was announced but he ran ahead and asked the mods to re-add it for him rather than wait. He waited an hour. He DID find that it stopped working at about exactly 10 - 24 hour periods after buying.

Another customer was able to re-buy (without buying) the next morning. So it's between an hour and the next morning. I suspect the delay is midnight ET but it needs to be verified by folks. 

[srlawren]

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@CannonFodder wrote:

Yeah, the whole question of 24hr. vs. midnight ought to be clarified, but if you think about it, it really SHOULD be that day 1 of the add-on takes 24hrs. to be used, otherwise day 1 could potentially be as little as a few minutes, depending on when the customer buys the add-on. In that case, there could be numerous P.O.'d add-on buyers, that got screwed out of almost an entire day of usage.

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@CannonFodder you're speaking in hypotheticals, but this is exactly how it worked for the first 3+ years of the add-ons being offered.  I've yet to hear many people complain.  More people complain that they can't pick what day is day 1--ie they can't pre-purchase to activate on their first day of travel.  

[CannonFodder]

Yeah, the whole question of 24hr. vs. midnight ought to be clarified, but if you think about it, it really SHOULD be that day 1 of the add-on takes 24hrs. to be used, otherwise day 1 could potentially be as little as a few minutes, depending on when the customer buys the add-on. In that case, there could be numerous P.O.'d add-on buyers, that got screwed out of almost an entire day of usage.

[dabr]

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@srlawren wrote:

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@dabr wrote:

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@srlawren  Sorry if my question is a bit confusing, but yes if I was reading some of the other posts correctly and hoping to get that part clarified.  It appears the timeline would countdown in 24 hour window, so if the US add-on is purchased at 10 pm, then day 1 completes 24 hours later and not midnight of the day of purchase. 

Will try to find the posts I was thinking of, or perhaps, maybe @Anonymous might know more because I think he responded in one of the posts too.

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@dabr okay thanks.  Interesting.  I wonder why they wouldn't mention this, if it actually is how it works now.  Unless it was an unintended side-effect of the fix?  

@Tiana_V could you please clarify if the timeframe of the US add-ons has changed as speculated, or whether that part works the same as it always has?

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@srlawren   Yes, I thought it needed to be confirmed/clarified one way or other, just so we are supplying the correct information to other users' questions on these things.

Edit:  It could indeed be just another "unintended side-effect"!

[srlawren]

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@dabr wrote:

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@srlawren  Sorry if my question is a bit confusing, but yes if I was reading some of the other posts correctly and hoping to get that part clarified.  It appears the timeline would countdown in 24 hour window, so if the US add-on is purchased at 10 pm, then day 1 completes 24 hours later and not midnight of the day of purchase. 

Will try to find the posts I was thinking of, or perhaps, maybe @Anonymous might know more because I think he responded in one of the posts too.

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@dabr okay thanks.  Interesting.  I wonder why they wouldn't mention this, if it actually is how it works now.  Unless it was an unintended side-effect of the fix?  

@Tiana_V could you please clarify if the timeframe of the US add-ons has changed as speculated, or whether that part works the same as it always has?

[dabr]

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@srlawren wrote:

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@dabr wrote:

[I] wanted to confirm that going forward, along with the official fix to the US roaming glitch upon returning, that there is now also a change to the timeline of purchasing the US roaming, ie: the official countdown begins from the moment of purchase on a 24 hour timeline of the US add-on and won't expire at midnight of the day of purchase? 

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@dabr need some clarification here.  First off, is this a statement, i.e. you are confirming that what you've said is the correct?  or it's a question, i.e. you would like it to be confirmed by someone that what you've said is correct?

With that out of the way, I don't understand what you've asserted/asked. 

Here's how it has worked since these roaming add-ons were launched in Nov 2016:  the clock has starts at the moment you add the add-on, with that day counting as day 1 regardless of whether you purchased the add-on at 12:01 AM eastern time or 11:59 PM eastern time.  The add-on expires at midnight eastern time on day 10, meaning your "10 day" add-on is actually "9 and some fraction of a tenth" day add-on.  

Are you saying something has changed from the behaviour I described above??  If so, I don't recall this being mentioned anywhere.  From where are you getting this supposition or assertion?  More info, please.

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@srlawren  Sorry if my question is a bit confusing, but yes if I was reading some of the other posts correctly and hoping to get that part clarified.  It appears the timeline would countdown in 24 hour window, so if the US add-on is purchased at 10 pm, then day 1 completes 24 hours later and not midnight of the day of purchase. 

Will try to find the posts I was thinking of, or perhaps, maybe @Anonymous might know more because I think he responded in one of the posts too.

Edit:  Thanks @Jb456  for providing that link quickly:)

[Jb456]

@srlawren  I'm curious to. I mentioned this on another thread yesterday. That new day starts at midnight. 

However @Anonymous and @darlicious correct me and said it goes from time you buy. (ie: 10pm to 10pm)

Thread is below. 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/US-Roaming-Addon/m-p/496983#M63952

So anyone know the correct info to ensure we are passing proper info???

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@srlawren wrote:

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@dabr wrote:

[I] wanted to confirm that going forward, along with the official fix to the US roaming glitch upon returning, that there is now also a change to the timeline of purchasing the US roaming, ie: the official countdown begins from the moment of purchase on a 24 hour timeline of the US add-on and won't expire at midnight of the day of purchase? 

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@dabr need some clarification here.  First off, is this a statement, i.e. you are confirming that what you've said is the correct?  or it's a question, i.e. you would like it to be confirmed by someone that what you've said is correct?

With that out of the way, I don't understand what you've asserted/asked. 

Here's how it has worked since these roaming add-ons were launched in Nov 2016:  the clock has starts at the moment you add the add-on, with that day counting as day 1 regardless of whether you purchased the add-on at 12:01 AM eastern time or 11:59 PM eastern time.  The add-on expires at midnight eastern time on day 10, meaning your "10 day" add-on is actually "9 and some fraction of a tenth" day add-on.  

Are you saying something has changed from the behaviour I described above??  If so, I don't recall this being mentioned anywhere.  From where are you getting this supposition or assertion?  More info, please.

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[srlawren]

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@dabr wrote:

[I] wanted to confirm that going forward, along with the official fix to the US roaming glitch upon returning, that there is now also a change to the timeline of purchasing the US roaming, ie: the official countdown begins from the moment of purchase on a 24 hour timeline of the US add-on and won't expire at midnight of the day of purchase? 

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@dabr need some clarification here.  First off, is this a statement, i.e. you are confirming that what you've said is the correct?  or it's a question, i.e. you would like it to be confirmed by someone that what you've said is correct?

With that out of the way, I don't understand what you've asserted/asked. 

Here's how it has worked since these roaming add-ons were launched in Nov 2016:  the clock has starts at the moment you add the add-on, with that day counting as day 1 regardless of whether you purchased the add-on at 12:01 AM eastern time or 11:59 PM eastern time.  The add-on expires at midnight eastern time on day 10, meaning your "10 day" add-on is actually "9 and some fraction of a tenth" day add-on.  

Are you saying something has changed from the behaviour I described above??  If so, I don't recall this being mentioned anywhere.  From where are you getting this supposition or assertion?  More info, please.

[dabr]

So I'm not sure if some of this was announced officially somewhere and that I missed reading it, but I just wanted to get a few points clarified after reading through some posts and wanted to confirm that going forward, along with the official fix to the US roaming glitch upon returning, that there is now also a change to the timeline of purchasing the US roaming, ie: the official countdown begins from the moment of purchase on a 24 hour timeline of the US add-on and won't expire at midnight of the day of purchase? 

Another question is if it's also now an official policy that users can receive incoming texts whilst in the US, even without a roaming package (not outgoing, of course)?

These are great improvements but I'm hoping that @Tiana_V or anyone else can confirm these things so that we are supplying accurate information to users' questions about roaming and no longer have to qualify if some of these things are official or unofficial policy?

Edit:  One other question/clarification, why is the chatbot ? icon only available when on Get Help page and disappears on all the other pages?  At least that is what I'm getting...

[Anonymous]

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@Chipster wrote:

I purchased the US add-on on the evening (EST) of Jan 25.

I was travelling in the US early on Jan 26 to late on Feb 1. At no time (to the nest of my knowledge) did I experience any interuptions while travelling in the US. 🙂

I have continued to receive text messages since returning to Canada. 🙂

I checked this morning Feb 5, and I have the option to re-purchase the US add-on.

Hope that helps.

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Thanks for the update. So sometime last evening it expired and would have removed itself. (the 10 - 24 hour periods). Then sometime after that it allowed you to see the same add-on available to purchase. I wonder if it is indeed midnight ET.

[Chipster]

I purchased the US add-on on the evening (EST) of Jan 25.

I was travelling in the US early on Jan 26 to late on Feb 1. At no time (to the best of my knowledge) did I experience any interuptions while travelling in the US. 🙂

I have continued to receive text messages since returning to Canada. 🙂

I checked this morning Feb 5, and I have the option to re-purchase the US add-on.

Hope that helps.