Community

Dave_M · ‎08-15-2019

Note: Please clear your cache to optimize your experience on our portals.

Hey Community,

We’ve got some exciting news to share with you!

As you may have noticed already (sorry – hard to hide this one :)) we’ve updated our look! From a new logo, new colours, to fresh, fun illustrations- we got a makeover. Why? Because, we’ve been on a journey since 2015, and we’ve learned a LOT along the way. Our recent research, suggested our brand identity didn’t accurately reflect our mission: Public Mobile is the wireless company with you in mind. We didn’t name ourselves Public Mobile by accident after all. Everything we do – from offering the most affordable phone plans in Canada on the largest network, to rewards that save you even more, to this online community run by passionate customers is with you in mind.

And so, this new design truly embodies the personal, unique, simple and community first approach that Public Mobile stands for. We hope you like the changes as much as we do. But that’s not all, beyond the makeover, we’ve also been hard at work working on some new initiatives that we think you’ll be pretty stoked for and are a long time in the making:

New ticketing resolution process – yes you read that right, it’s coming! More details to come this week (as this in itself warrants its own full Community post) but essentially, this process will make it faster + easier to track, manage, and resolve issues when submitting a ticket to our online Moderator team.

System improvements - over the coming weeks, we’re excited to bring through a variety of system improvements. First up is an improvement to our latency and reliability of our web portals, meaning faster loading speeds in Self-Serve and fewer occasions of activation issues related to timing out. We’re also doing some fat trimming and are saying goodbye to our build your own plan calculator. While we love the flexibility of our plan calculator, the tradeoff is the ability to reduce pressure on our systems, help the general upkeep of our portals, and simplify the plan purchasing experience for customers. We know some plans can only be accessed via the plan calculator today, we plan (pun intended ;)) to bring some of those options back in the near future! Lastly, as you're likely aware, we transitioned to refer-a-friend codes a few weeks ago to better protect your privacy and make referring easy 🙂

We can’t wait to hear what you think about all this goodness and are thrilled to deliver initiatives like #1 and #2 to simplify and improve the customer experience. We know we have more to tackle and are absolutely committed to continuing to make wireless simple, uncomplicated and accessible to all Canadians. Why? Because you’re the public, we’re for you.

Sincerely,

Dave

mimmo · ‎08-20-2019

@Alan_K, @David_J there is a small issue with mobile view as seen in the attached Pic. It occurs on the first post under headings.

mh1983 · ‎08-20-2019

Likely your browser cache was showing the older branding and the browser update and refreshed to show the newer branding.

The new look and feel was announced here: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Exciting-changes-to-our-brand-and-custo...

geopublic · ‎08-20-2019

@Pondball wrote:
@geopublic wrote:
@Pondball wrote:
Oh Krapppp.

Have been researching PM and others for the past month and hadn't got a chance to sign up (been super busy with other things). I had finally narrowed it down to a Build Your Own for $105 giving me unlimited NW phone and INT texting... and included 3Gig of data on a 90 day plan.

So now I see that for $35 I can buy into a monthly plan only that gives me 1.5 Gig of data. I don't see this as an upgrade. Others have mentioned getting rid of the 90 day, build your own is no big deal, but halving the data is a big deal imo.

Not too happy here!
@Pondball While waiting for the moderator try inserting the sim into your phone. Does it connect to the PM network? If yes, then it's possible that your sim was activated just click here to register your selfserve account.

If your sim does not connect check to see if your credit card was charged. If yes, then you have to wait for the moderators. If not, then clear your browser's cache. Make sure Javascript and Cookies are enabled within your browser's settings and best to launch your browser in privacy mode or incognito mode at least 1 hour after your previous activation attempt.

Keep us posted.
Sim is in card but it returns a no signal at the top of the screen.

Nothing new has been posted to my Credit Card.

@Pondball In that case try the activation again sometimes it requires more than one attempt to get the activation going. Hang in there it will work.

RossN · ‎08-20-2019

@BEER since the last time you looked lol

Pondball · ‎08-20-2019

@geopublic wrote:
@Pondball wrote:
Oh Krapppp.

Have been researching PM and others for the past month and hadn't got a chance to sign up (been super busy with other things). I had finally narrowed it down to a Build Your Own for $105 giving me unlimited NW phone and INT texting... and included 3Gig of data on a 90 day plan.

So now I see that for $35 I can buy into a monthly plan only that gives me 1.5 Gig of data. I don't see this as an upgrade. Others have mentioned getting rid of the 90 day, build your own is no big deal, but halving the data is a big deal imo.

Not too happy here!
@Pondball While waiting for the moderator try inserting the sim into your phone. Does it connect to the PM network? If yes, then it's possible that your sim was activated just click here to register your selfserve account.

If your sim does not connect check to see if your credit card was charged. If yes, then you have to wait for the moderators. If not, then clear your browser's cache. Make sure Javascript and Cookies are enabled within your browser's settings and best to launch your browser in privacy mode or incognito mode at least 1 hour after your previous activation attempt.

Keep us posted.

Sim is in card but it returns a no signal at the top of the screen.

Nothing new has been posted to my Credit Card.

BEER · ‎08-20-2019

Just a few minutes ago I noticed that the PM account and Community pages have a totally new updated look. When did this happen?

makkahn28 · ‎08-20-2019

@Dave_M , @Alan_K , @David_J when I saw what PM has done in regards to these changes, I'm deeply shocked, as this screen-shot of what Plan Change looks like.

PM needs the 90 Days Options and I feel that these changes will decimate PM

Also, I hope PM has NOT discarded the LTE 4G as I think that the 3G is laughable, and not something to be taken serious.

Cheaper is NOT always the Answer, and taking on Chatr and Lucky, feel PM can do a lot better than that.

Why not PM make the Plan I am on, the Can-Wide+US Talk+ Global Txt+ 6GB Data LTE for $165 for 90 Days

No need for a Calculator

My opinion, IF PM had a 2 Tier System, one that caters to those on a Budget, the other for those who can afford More, maybe that could be an answer

So,

PM 6 Cylinder = Lucky/ Chatr

PM HEMI = The big Toys

Just saying, I feel that PM might not survive these obtuse Changes

stonechucker · ‎08-20-2019

@David_J, another set of buttons to fix - as they are unreadable still (from the old system to the new).

Inside the dialogue box for posting a URL link in a forum response, the cancel and OK buttons are too dark to read the dark text.

geopublic · ‎08-20-2019

@Pondball wrote:
Oh Krapppp.

Have been researching PM and others for the past month and hadn't got a chance to sign up (been super busy with other things). I had finally narrowed it down to a Build Your Own for $105 giving me unlimited NW phone and INT texting... and included 3Gig of data on a 90 day plan.

So now I see that for $35 I can buy into a monthly plan only that gives me 1.5 Gig of data. I don't see this as an upgrade. Others have mentioned getting rid of the 90 day, build your own is no big deal, but halving the data is a big deal imo.

Not too happy here!

@Pondball While waiting for the moderator try inserting the sim into your phone. Does it connect to the PM network? If yes, then it's possible that your sim was activated just click here to register your selfserve account.

If your sim does not connect check to see if your credit card was charged. If yes, then you have to wait for the moderators. If not, then clear your browser's cache. Make sure Javascript and Cookies are enabled within your browser's settings and best to launch your browser in privacy mode or incognito mode at least 1 hour after your previous activation attempt.

Keep us posted.

pm-smayer97 · ‎08-20-2019

@Pondball wrote:
@wetcoaster "I think you have just proven their point about the 90day plans here. On the $105 plan the 3GB were to be used over the full 90days, not 3*3GB every 30days. So the $35/1.5GB/30days IS a better deal."

aha... I assumed (obviously incorrectly) that the 3Gb was per month... I stand corrected

In the meantime I bit the bullet and signed up for the $25/1Gb plan... or so I thought... pressing the activation button got me a 404 - File not found page... nor can I log into the account I thought I was starting up as it doesn't recognize my email...

nice start to PM eh!

I have a message into a moderator now but this is not as smooth a start as I would have like.

Pretty common...lots of problems...don't let that surprise you moving forward...

Alan_K · ‎08-20-2019

@srlawren wrote:

@Dave_M I like the fresh coat of paint and I'm extremely excited about the ticketting system (though, also trepidatious until I actually see it live).

However, why the removal of the plan builder? Can you please provide more info on exactly what problems this was causing? I'm sure that in recent history, the ready-made/promo plans have been very popular, but is there not still a non-trivial percentage of the userbase that currently has a pick-and-pay plan? I think that for a lot of people, that's one of the great things about PM, so that they can pay for exactly the services they really need. I'd love to hear more about what the challenges are and what the advantage is to removing the plan builder. Are existing pick-and-pay customer plans grandfathered indefinitely? If so, can you really gain any operational efficiencies while maintaining that backward compatibility? Could we maybe get a developer's blog entry on this? cc: @Alan_K

Hi @srlawren , when we decided to remove the pick and pay calculator, we found that only 1% of new customers were making plans on the calculator. To further simplify the customer experience (retail customers were often confused by the plan calculator), and to reduce issues (we constantly had problems with the calculator that would be flagged by the Community), we decided it was time for it to go.

WIth that said, anyone with a plan calculator built plan will now be considered on a grandfathered plan - that is, your rate plan features are not changing due to the calculator removal, and if you were to change your plan to something else, you wouldn't be able to go back to a grandfathered plan.

Pondball · ‎08-20-2019

@wetcoaster "I think you have just proven their point about the 90day plans here. On the $105 plan the 3GB were to be used over the full 90days, not 3*3GB every 30days. So the $35/1.5GB/30days IS a better deal."

aha... I assumed (obviously incorrectly) that the 3Gb was per month... I stand corrected

In the meantime I bit the bullet and signed up for the $25/1Gb plan... or so I thought... pressing the activation button got me a 404 - File not found page... nor can I log into the account I thought I was starting up as it doesn't recognize my email...

nice start to PM eh!

I have a message into a moderator now but this is not as smooth a start as I would have like.

MacMe · ‎08-20-2019

I like the new colour scheme, but reading a lot of text with a non-white background is difficult. Maybe adjusting the CSS to have the colour for just posts from Antique white to white would be better, ex:

AE_Collector · ‎08-20-2019

@madhi19 wrote:
I liked the builder it let me cut up crap I don't use like texting and overpriced data. I also liked the province wide plan since I don't call out of province and it a effective way of screening out of province telemarketers and scammer.

Not really.... your outgoing calling ability does nothing to limit the areas that you receive calls from. Rest assured that scammers can still call you from anywhere in the world.

Terry

AE_Collector · ‎08-20-2019

I was going to point out the same thing. Many seem to default to thinking that the data amount quoted is every 30 rather than 90 days for some reason. In the 9 months or so that I have been here I can’t recall seeing a 90 day plan that was a better deal than the 30 day plans. The only benefit was the ability to use less data in one month and still have it available to use the next month.

Terry

wetcoaster · ‎08-20-2019

@Pondball wrote:
Oh Krapppp.

Have been researching PM and others for the past month and hadn't got a chance to sign up (been super busy with other things). I had finally narrowed it down to a Build Your Own for $105 giving me unlimited NW phone and INT texting... and included 3Gig of data on a 90 day plan.

So now I see that for $35 I can buy into a monthly plan only that gives me 1.5 Gig of data. I don't see this as an upgrade. Others have mentioned getting rid of the 90 day, build your own is no big deal, but halving the data is a big deal imo.

Not too happy here!

@Pondball

I think you have just proven their point about the 90day plans here. On the $105 plan the 3GB were to be used over the full 90days, not 3*3GB every 30days. So the $35/1.5GB/30days IS a better deal.

Having said that I am not happy with the the decision to take the plan builder away either. While I'm on the ready made $25plan right now, having the option to pick and choose according to my needs brought and kept me here. Now Public Mobile is literally the same as every other provider... (And I don't buy that "better/faster self serve" excuse - if anything it's again showing the lack of will to address the root problem for the crappy moderator response time: the self serve platform needs to be rebuilt from scratch to eliminate all the band-aid fixes that lead to more glitches somewhere else. )

mimmo · ‎08-20-2019

@katebeau having work lines at pm is not ideal, if/when things go wrong the wait time to get things going agsin can be long. Plus if you. We'd invoices you need to request them evdry month for each account.

katebeau · ‎08-20-2019

I'm absolutely livid at the plan changes. The plan builder and 90 day options were what people I know liked about switching to PM. On top of that, separating LTE and 3G a while back was a bad enough sign, and now you've removed LTE options completely? We were working on switching our work cells over to PM at the end of the month, but since you've killed everything that was good about switching, I'm off to start looking at other companies.

Leigh1 · ‎08-20-2019

The plan calculator was what I liked so much about PM. I think this decision needs another look.

on2wheels · ‎08-20-2019

Great news about speeding up the website(s). 90% of my frustrations come from slow/broken sites that I've paid money to use.

Interesting logo design, what's the history on it? Do the different fonts symbolize the multiculturalism of Canada and therefore the open nature of Public Mobile?

Pondball · ‎08-20-2019

Oh Krapppp.

Have been researching PM and others for the past month and hadn't got a chance to sign up (been super busy with other things). I had finally narrowed it down to a Build Your Own for $105 giving me unlimited NW phone and INT texting... and included 3Gig of data on a 90 day plan.

So now I see that for $35 I can buy into a monthly plan only that gives me 1.5 Gig of data. I don't see this as an upgrade. Others have mentioned getting rid of the 90 day, build your own is no big deal, but halving the data is a big deal imo.

Not too happy here!

will13am · ‎08-20-2019

I was going to change the plan in one of my accounts this morning and to my surprise, there is no more plan builder option. The announcement said "we are saying goodbye to our build your own plan calculator". It didn't say effective immediately. Item 2 was preambled with "Over the coming weeks...". I am really disappointed that this change is marketed as an exciting change. I am not amused to say the least.

kelvarnsen · ‎08-20-2019

A ticketing system is a good move. Just implementing that would cut down on a huge number of forum posts.

If you did that and made it clear on the billing page that those costs were before taxes I would not be surprised if number of forum posts were cut in half.

saje_ward · ‎08-20-2019

All I know is that we will continue to keep our $120 every 90 days for 12gigs at 4G with province wide calling.

I keep checking in, and I still don't see anything that would make me let that plan go.

Thanks PM!

madhi19 · ‎08-20-2019

I liked the builder it let me cut up crap I don't use like texting and overpriced data. I also liked the province wide plan since I don't call out of province and it a effective way of screening out of province telemarketers and scammer. And I loved the 90 day thing, it let me load money in the account and not worry about it for months. As long as were not forced to drop our existing plan.

torontokris · ‎08-20-2019

@mimmo wrote:
@Squintz_2C yes full lte is no longer, I believe we may see it some time again in the future as a promo or something but there is no guatenttee. if you need full lte telus would rather see you join Koodo or telus. PM is strictly competing with chatr and lucky so it is offering similar style speeds and plans as they are.

I really don't know why people say they lost options, the plans on the builder were often more costly than the pre-made plans. And people often did not understand the concept of 90 days plans. Lte plans were priced similarly to Koodo, and I bet few people chose anything other than Canada talk +text +xgb. The only outlier was the provincial talk only plan which was retired officially but not in the plan builder.

Right now PM is falling behind chatr & lucky as they offering unlimited throttled data. Lucky has 1gb canada wide with unlimited 128kbps data after 1gb is used that is on Bell network.

Wonder if we will see more "Koodo migration" plans to attract people over to koodo/LTE

pm-smayer97 · ‎08-20-2019

@GinYVR wrote:
@makkahn28I am pretty sure as long as you don't change your plan you will still be able to keep your full LTE. However Public Mobile's LTE plan is just not price competitive, it is the reality. Since Telus is a corporation, its mandate is to maximize profits, I am sure they did a ROI study and decide it is just not worth it.

Just as I am sure they did a ROI study on benefits of hiding all the details of plans and making plan comparisons a gymnastics feat of opening multiple pages to discover them or elimitating access to such common plans as unlimited talk & text. 😕

For a budget brand, I'm finding them less and less competive all the time.

GinYVR · ‎08-20-2019

@makkahn28I am pretty sure as long as you don't change your plan you will still be able to keep your full LTE. However Public Mobile's LTE plan is just not price competitive, it is the reality. Since Telus is a corporation, its mandate is to maximize profits, I am sure they did a ROI study and decide it is just not worth it.

makkahn28 · ‎08-20-2019

@Dave_M , Unfortunately, How can this be exciting, when it's depressing?

The way PM is now, it feels like PM has become like the Old Republic in Star Wars, Swept Away by the reorganization of the Galactic Republic into the First Galactic Empire.

If only there was an Obi Wan Kenobi to save PM

pm-smayer97 · ‎08-20-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
@VanZem wrote:
What’s with $2 autopay? Is it discontinued as it is not mentioned in the plans anymore?
Keep scrolling. The rewards are all still there.
You might be thinking of the bonus data with autopay. Click on the plan and those details are shown.
As pointed out earlier, it seems odd that the marketing department wouldn't want to say that up front as it used to. Oh well. They make more than I do.

How long will they make more $ than you, if they get less takers, since the benefits of PM are more and more hidden?

Community

Exciting changes to our brand and customer experience