Update as of June 19, 2018: This post has been updated to provide additional clarity that leaving a voicemail message uses minutes.
Update as of June 11, 2018: This post has been updated to rectify that call forwarding counts toward your plan’s minutes.
Update as of May 4, 2018: This is no longer a limited time offer.
Hey Community,
We recently completed a pricing review and wanted to let you know that you will be seeing some changes to our 3G pricing, effective today.
Our goal is to provide our customers with simple plans that provide great value. You can check out all the new pricing on our website, but at a high level, the big thing to note is that our Canada-wide talk, text, and 3G-speed data plans are now more competitive. Great news for anyone traveling within Canada this summer!
Additionally, we are introducing a new limited time $10 30-day limited talk and text plan.This plan is available for new and existing customers and includes:
50 minutes of Canada-wide Talk
50 International Outgoing Texts and Unlimited Incoming Texts and Picture Messages
Voicemail and Call Display
Note, checking your voicemail will use your minutes. Since this is the first time we have offered a ‘limited’ plan since we re-launched the brand, we’ve included FAQs on how this will work in the spoiler below.
This is a limited time offer and is subject to change without notice. Please refer to Public Mobile’s Service Terms. Please note that the promotion will not be honoured after it has ended. This includes SIM cards that have been purchased online, are in-transit and not yet activated.
What does and does not use my minutes?
Uses Minutes
Doesn’t Use Minutes
Making a call
Answering a call
Retrieving or leaving voicemail messages
Using call forwarding
Calling *611 (the IVR)
Making or receiving calls from 911
Using calling apps when connected to Wifi
What is the maximum length of one text message?
A text message contains 160 characters; longer texts are broken down into 160 character segments. Each segment is counted as one text message.
Will you notify me when I’m almost out of text messages or minutes?
Yes, you will get an SMS message from Public Mobile when you have 10 outgoing texts left or 10 minutes left in your plan.
If I don’t have any minutes left, but I have a voicemail message, how do I check my voicemail?
There are two ways you can check your voicemail.
From a landline or another mobile phone, dial your 10-digit phone number and press the * key to interrupt the system greeting. From here, you may need enter your voicemail password.
You can purchase a long distance Add-On such as the 200 minutes Add-On that allows you to call to Canada and the US for $8. Note, the minutes in the Add-On will rollover to your next billing cycle.
Do I have to purchase a Long Distance Add-On to get more than 50 minutes?
Yes, you need a Long Distance Add-On to get more minutes added to your plan. If you often use more than 50 minutes per 30 days, we recommend one of our plans with unlimited talk.
I’ve run out of outgoing text messages included in my plan. What are my options to keep sending text messages?
We do not offer an Add-On for text messaging. We suggest you try one of our plans with unlimited text messages included. You can select any of our other Ready-Made Plans or build your own plan using our calculator.
If you like your limited talk and text plan, you can wait until your next billing cycle or you can renew your plan early.
Why is a text Add-On not being offered?
This is the first time we have introduced a plan with limited Talk and Text, so, to-date, there hasn’t been a need for a Text Add-On. Depending on demand and market changes, we may introduce a Text Add-On in the future; however this is not available at this time.
If I purchase a Long Distance Add-On, will my calls use up my Add-On minutes or my in-plan minutes?
Making a Call to someone in Canada
Making a Call to someone outside of Canada
Answering a Call from Anywhere in the World
In Canada
Will use plan minutes, before Long Distance Add-On minutes.
Requires Long Distance Add-On. The Long Distance countries we support can be foundhere.
Will use plan minutes, before Long Distance Add-On minutes
In U.S.
Requires a U.S. Roaming Add-On with talk included.
Requires a U.S. Roaming Add-On with talk included. Aside from calls to Canada, you will only be able to make calls to people in the U.S. and its territories.
Requires a U.S. Roaming Add-On with talk included. You will only be able to receive calls from people in Canada or the US and its territories.
If you purchase a Long Distance Add-On and you’re calling in Canada, your call will use your in-plan minutes first.
If you purchase a Long Distance Add-On and you’re calling outside of Canada, your call will use your Long Distance Add-On minutes (as long as the location you’re calling is accessible through your Long Distance Add-On).
Will I keep the same plan forever? Will my plan change?
Please refer to ourTerms of Servicefor more information about our plans.
How dare PM release such misleading information. I am sure some of the customers were lured to this plan (or PM) partly because of this feature.
What typically other companies would do in a similar situation is to issue an apology and honour the stated plan with the existing customer. Only the newly signed up will be subjected to the new plan (without call forward). But PM choose the easy way out, just flatly deny its wrong doing. This is the kind of company I refuse to deal with.
What does the recent change to the FAQ to indicate that Call Forwarding uses minutes instead of being free mean for those that signed up to the plan before the change, since that feature was part of their original plan?
My post was also meant to say, it’s still listed, it’s plain as day, and PM needs to adres this matter now to rectify the issue.
Ei5her fix it, which will take forever as nothing seems to get fixed anymore, cancel the plan, refund charges, or one of various other options that have been suggested before.
If it is a system issue, here is the easiest way to fix it and maybe the cheapest in the long run. Cancel the plan so no one else can sign up and grandfather those on it. Make the plan unlimited Cda wide and cut your losses. Then in a few months you can bring it back and take out Call Fwd
Because it is what they advertised, they are legally obligated to supply the feature or issue credits.
They would need to automate the latter as it would be greatly impractical for both customers to identify the wrong charges all the time and for the mods to handle this manually in an ongoing manner.
One of the oracles spoke to someone from PM today whom also confirmed they had intended to include the call forwarding minutes but ran into issues. I don't have all the details but it does seem that contradictory to the FAQ, at least for the moment, minutes are being counted while forwarding.
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That’s false advertisement then because this information is from the announcement of the plan itself, and it continues to show this info today. My screenhsot was from today. It has not changed. If we can’t trust the official announcement on the official site, what’s the point? Nothing being announced will be true.
They made a mistake. They should fix the advertisement or they should fix the system to make call forwarding truly free. I hoped they would fix the system, but it didn't work out that way. Anyway, we will see.
That’s false advertisement then because this information is from the announcement of the plan itself, and it continues to show this info today. My screenhsot was from today. It has not changed. If we can’t trust the official announcement on the official site, what’s the point? Nothing being announced will be true.
Has it been confirmed one way or another by PM staff - for the $10 50min/50txt plan, does Call Forwarding count towards your minutes or not?
Thanks
According to a post yesterday from user on RFD, he was told by PM that Call Forwarding is not free on the $10 plan. So it does use minutes.
That would completely contradict the Spoiler posted in the OP of this thread. It doesn't get more official than this. If you are charged for call forwarding minutes to a number in your local calling area (not long distance), demand a credit.
I got a call from PM after a long correspondence and waiting that Call Forwarding is NOT FREE for $10 50/50 plan. It eats up incoming and outgoing calls when the call is forwarded. Same goes to the calls forwarded to Voice Mail. They even credited me $10 for the inconvenience caused by the confusion.
Below is what I wrote in a redflagdeals forum - the whole correspondence with moderator_team.
Has it been confirmed one way or another by PM staff - for the $10 50min/50txt plan, does Call Forwarding count towards your minutes or not?
Thanks
According to a post yesterday from user on RFD, he was told by PM that Call Forwarding is not free on the $10 plan. So it does use minutes.
That would completely contradict the Spoiler posted in the OP of this thread. It doesn't get more official than this. If you are charged for call forwarding minutes to a number in your local calling area (not long distance), demand a credit.
@srlawren it is weird for sure. I think that one of the people that are advising this should contact a mod as there could be a problem with the back end of the account if this is true. They could have been on another plan possibly and the switch could have caused an error maybe. It is hard to assume for sure. @CS_Agent Can you please clarify for us?
Thanks @brent_liza. Yes I know what's in the announcement, but some users are reporting being charged for those calls regardless. So, either there is an issue with the FAQ, an issue with the system at least sometimes counting the forwarded calls when it shouldn't, or a misunderstanding by users that think those minutes are being counted against their 50 when indeed they aren't. I'm not entirely clear which one(s) of these are correct at this point.
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FYI I've messaged a few of our friendly oracles, the ones that are currently in Toronto meeting up with PM [ @Luddite, @will13am, and maybe @imm1304 ], to see if they can ask about this and get clarity on the issue, because yes the FAQ seems to contradict what people are reporting seeing in their usage history. Hopefully we can get a definitive answer, but I'm not sure if they will get a chance to ask about it or not.
@Shazia_K@Mary_M when you get a moment, could you please weigh in even?
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This is incorrect... call forwarding is FREE as part of this plan (see Spoiler FAQ in OP), whether to another number OR to voicemail. It makes no sense either way.
Has it been confirmed one way or another by PM staff - for the $10 50min/50txt plan, does Call Forwarding count towards your minutes or not?
Thanks
According to a post yesterday from user on RFD, he was told by PM that Call Forwarding is not free on the $10 plan. So it does use minutes.
@MacMe this is consistent with and would explain why users are reporting airtime consumed by people leaving them messages (let alone calling in themselves to check the messages), since the calls are call-forwarded to your voicemail box.
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I cannot find a 90-day option for the 50-min 50-text plan???
The $10 Limited Talk/Text plan is only available in 30 day duration. It's also PM's only plan which isn't Unlimited Talk or Unlimited Text.
It was initially created as a response to Lucky and Chatr both offering their own $10/50/50 monthly plans and it seems to be fairly popular. I expect it's here to stay (at least as long as competitors offer their own versions, lol) but I doubt a 90 day option will appear (since the competitors don't and probably won't offer anything similar). Incidentally, PM's version is the best and most flexible of the three, especially if you purchase (Long Distance) Add-On minutes and/or enable $2 AutoPay Reward.
For #2, I mean the call is directed to voicemail automatically when not answered or missed. The minutes that the caller connects to voicemail is counted as my Outgoing minutes under Usage.
I did not yet used up my minutes so I’m not 100% sure if they’re counting these minutes too. But I think it should not be as these minutes are passively used by the caller when the phone cannot be connected when I’m busy or network signals whatsoever.
For #1, this should NOT happen as per the FAQs, it is free. So if you are losing minutes, this needs to be corrected.
As for #2...why are you forwarding to your voicemail? If so, simply either turn off your phone, or turn off the volume, which will autotically cause calls to go to voicemail when you do not answer.
Can anyone else comment on issue #1? Has this been corrected/resolved?
