We want your feedback

[Jeremy_M]

Hey Community!

When we first opened our doors in February 2015, we proudly hung up the BETA shingle on our home page because we wanted to make it clear that we are in a period of test and learn. 

 

Well, we have received a lot of great feedback and have been able to either act on it or put it on the roadmap for a future change.  But we think it’s time, since we are well past our 1 year mark, to remove the yellow BETA bar from the home page. 

This doesn’t mean we’re not going to continue to look for feedback and make improvements - because that’s what we’re all about.  We want to work with our customers to make Public Mobile a better wireless service but we don’t think we need the word “BETA” to do that anymore.

So, let us know if you agree that it’s time to take the BETA sign down.

[kevin_camera]

Hi!

I've been using PM service for a almost year and I would say I am very satisifed with what you guys are offering. I live in the GTA and the cellular coverage is great given the price point (still have my $10 beta customer discount too, which makes it even better).

I think PM would be OK with dropping the BETA since I don't have issues 90% of the time.

The 10% of the time is the odd scenario where my autopayment doesn't go through and my service gets cut right away.  My credit card was and still working and no one knew where the source of the problem was.  (I say 10% because I got bounced once in the last 10 months).

The most frustrating part is if we want to pay on the road, we can't because the internet was cut off from the phone.  Which means we have to steal wifi and give out our credit card information through a public network (that's a big no no for most people).

I think this is where you will be getting most of your complaints since no one likes being disconnected from a service because of payment errors due to PM's payment systems.

Not sure if it is possible, but I suggest to have a PM app which can access your account and allow the user to pay in the scenario that their phone service gets cut.

If you can resolve the payment issue, I suspect you will have a lot of happy customers!

Thanks for the continual online support.

Kevin

[kutzki]

@defence5 <------ what this guy said. This guy knows what's up.

[defence5]

To be honest, using PM definitely still feels like a BETA.

I think the problem is the website (which as we all know still has many issues), not the actual service you are providing.

How about just labelling the site as BETA as opposed to the whole service?

[7789849803]

@Jeremy_M As always, thanks for your candour. Please do keep us updated on this topic.

[Jeremy_M]

Hi Martin,

Thank you for chiming in and I appreciate your comments. To  be as transparent as possible the management team at Public Mobile is incubating the idea of leaving Beta. The reason for this post is to validate it with you and others if the idea is merited or not.

Every opinion is important to us, and our goal is to be as transparent as possible. That's the reason why we want your feedback. 

Jeremy

[Vakshwell]

I feel that I agree with what @7789849803 and many others have said about dropping the BETA moniker. With a few of the big issues that are still remaining I feel that the BETA status should stay. Not that there will necessarily be a large influx of people who will swarm to save themselves money by switching to Public Mobile (though they should 😋).

But at least the BETA stands out as somewhat of a warning. Some people may not be so tech savvy and are brought to Public Mobile by their friends or relatives to help them save. They may be expecting renewal and everything else to work 100%. So for the odd times that something goes wrong and these individuals don't know how to participate in a public forum for customer service related queries. Without a phone number to call they may feel their service is broken and have a negative view of the company. (I know my father would if I ever tried to switch him to Public Mobile). 

So what I was trying to get at without going completely off tangent is that I feel if the billing issues are at least fixed so that an auto renewal doesn't fail, and an activation can go through without much of a hitch. Then I feel personally that Public Mobile can drop the BETA tag. But that's just my opinion of course. 😄

[Martin]

Hi 778,

You're welcome.

Martin

[7789849803]

@Martin Thanks for reminding us of a couple things that hopefully were obvious to most of us all along:

(1) That our feedback is probably factored in, but it doesn't always sway decisions. And

(2) Someone at PM clearly thinks its time to leave the beta phase, for reasons that will probably remain unknown to us.

[Martin]

Hi,

This constructive criticism, which includes me, is directed to those who posted, believing that their opinion would be considered by Public Mobile. If you were to re-read the initial post of this thread, you would see that the decision to leave Beta was made. I inferred that any argument to stay in Beta could be addressed after Public Mobile leaves it.

Remember that senior management makes or approves such decisions; customers don't. This is not a democracy.

I hope to be proven wrong.

[kutzki]

@makkahn28 they have that already technically. The community. There are staff on the community, most people just don't realize they can get most of their problems solved by a real staff member on here. Lol I've had multiple problems solved quicker and better than email support has done for me in the past.

[makkahn28]

I believe also that PM should perhaps have some sort of Text support or perhaps even have some way of indirect Communication over net to discuss the issues ppl may have with their services

[Rockdaddy22]

Some new people are still going weeks without self serve and still can't call all the 800 numbers that Telus and Koodo have no problem with. I couldn't vote to get rid of the beta status yet.

[ckl]

Personally, the beta moniker had pretty much zero bearing on my decision to join public mobile. It may affect some people's decisions, but after they see the value in the plans and the active community forums, the beta status pretty much goes out the window.

[kutzki]

Not normally one to say no, but as @Martin has stated if you're still dealing with issues from beta that are critical things that need dealing with I'm not really so sure it's such a smart move to remove that Beta sign. To be honest, it shouldn't have taken more than a year to fix most of these critical issues, but like Martin said, it's not the fault of the company, they simply didn't receive enough funding from Telus... Which I suppose could be because they are a prepaid service but that should have been reason for them to get more funding not less, so they could succeed better than other partner companies like Koodo, Virgin, etc. Who didn't need as much because they're term-based companies that also sell cell phones and other such things. Anyways I agree with @7789849803 and @Martin. Don't take Beta down until you can iron out some more kinks. It's a very slow process, and you guys have to find a way to speed it up, which is why I liked the customer in person meeting at PM headquarters. Well done. Anyways, make haste with those changes lol.

[Martin]

Hi @imm1304,

Thank you for your kind words. 🙂

Cheers.

[imm1304]

Yes sir!  Its an open ended discussion 😄

We shall see what PM decides... I would be happy either way.  

I just want my PM service to continue for the longer term.  

Hope you are having a great day enjoying the beautiful sunshine.  @Martin

[Martin]

Hi @makkahn28,

You're welcome.

Hi @imm1304,

We can debate this ad infinitum, but we shall see what PM decides, though most individuals who replied are still in favour of Beta..

[makkahn28]

@Martin, Merci beaucoup.

Yes, DD is for the Double Debit Billing, as ppl had been stating in the past few months, and This, I believe firmly, is absolutely the #1 Game changer in potential first customer service experience.

If PM can have that problem eradicated, increase # of area codes and #' for ppl to have variety in Self-Serve, Fix the Change your plan schedule option, Get Auto-pay to function as prescribed, reduce Dropped calls even further to add polish, making porting more efficient and simple w/o the overall hassles, especially when one switch's from Koodo or Telus since all 3 share same system and that can cause some potential delays in porting within itself, so that ppl can still use their preferred email directly and comfortably, perhaps enable the option for us to Manage all our accounts under one email, as this is pretty much painful if you have to manage 3-more accounts to a high degree, then I can say perhaps that is when PM sends Beta off to Bed.

After Beta, where Alpha is now in play, Then PM should perhaps begin to enact some of the more popular ideas, Like PM App, Promos, Add-Ons like More Data options, additional International Countries to List, perhaps additional Cycle periods to compliment the 10,30 and 90 Days like 120 or 150, additional rewards, making Tech Support more Robust and easier to access and response back times reduced even more, utilizing FB and TW as additional ways for support as well, Making excellent use of YT to help ppl solve simple tech issues and those who may need visual description so that they can better understand the BYOD experience and become more proficient, while the more Technical aspects remain with PM Clients to assist in trouble shooting for fellow clients, and PM staff retaining their reserved responsibilities, This I can see can make PM more stronger in the long run.

If only Telus can perhaps try to free up more funds so that PM can do its job more readily and effectively, and then in the Future, well, We'll just see, won't we, Lol.

Also, perhaps PM adding a Vacation pckge so ppl can worry less about their account being Deactivated permanently after 90 Days, OR,

Increasing the 90 Day cap to 180 Days.

Something Fair, and acceptable for all.

Keep up the excellent and exceptional work PM Staff, and toball our 4 Oracle's, and all our PM Clients.

Take care

[imm1304]

Thanks for the fair analysis @7789849803, I am in agreement with both you and @Martin regarding the need to have a bug-free and fully functional system in place.  

What next?  Beta for over a year in total is long enough. PM will stagnate and head towards a decline if the only name it can make for itself is as a beta experiment from Telus.  Although I am not a subject matter expert, I can make a pretty good guess that the chronic problems would have been fixed 6 months ago if the parent company was truly motivated.  Even an overhaul of the system or temporary assignment of the appropriate Telus/Koodo staff to iron out the kinks would have happened already.  

We can not change the constraints that exist.  It is possible that what we think may not matter at all when the big bosses make decisions based entirely on the bottom line.  I just encourage some progress/change for the better.  Officially launching could lead to growth and greater clout/autonomy in terms of allocating funds for fixes, etc.  

I have had a trouble free experience with PM, worthy of a finished product. Thats why I said, that if I am part of the 95% majority, then it may be time now to move forward to the next phase.  

[Martin]

Hi @jairolevi,

Might it stand for Double Debit billing?

Martin

[jairolevi]

@makkahn28, sorry, what is DD Billing?  

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@makkahn28 wrote:

Hi @Jeremy_M, I believe, before Beta is sent to bed, I believe that PM should fix the Change Plan Option, Auto-Pay, reactivation of plan(s) when plan(s) are suspended when pay is Not rendered, DD billing, as these are the most pressing and urgent matters at hand.

After these are fixed fully and thoroughly, send Beta to bed

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[Martin]

Bonjour @makkahn28,

Ici: "Vivez la vie dans la voie publique rapide."

[makkahn28]

After reading about the amount of #'s available when wishing to change #', I can say that PM needs to offer a more robust increase in Selections so ppl can have variety to choose from.

Also, Hopefully Telus won't act like how we may feel or get funny feeling that is occurring, Telus should absolutely NOT do what Rogers has done to Mobilicity, that, would be a Sin.

We do need serious competition in order to get the prices back in check.

What happened to the 90's where Canada had more than 3 in every Prov or Territory?

Wind can't be relied on, and Sugar Mobile is Not able to shake up the system, we absolutely need, NO, require like 8 Carriers per Zone, 4 JUST can't cut it.

Perhaps our previous Fed Gov at time had too much Butter on their Fingers, and all ell broke loose.

PM should Usher in the New Public Mobile Order and lead the way to genuine, sincere change that makes the difference.

Cest la vie

How do you say Live Life in the Fast Public Lane in Quebec Canada French?

[IWIK]

Yea, I'm going to have to say setting up plan changes pretty much has to work perfect before you can remove the beta tag. There are some other issues I know, but at least this has to work.

[Martin]

Hi 778,

In addition to what you posted, of which I'm in full accord, is that the community team doesn't make decisions for Public Mobile; the board of directors, especially including the Chief Financial Officer, does, and it is beholden to its shareholders. The CEO and President of the board might truly believe that PM has been in Beta long enough, and that, over the long term, revenues will increase once Public Mobile officially launches. Considering that Telus has starved PM for sufficient funds, thus creating an interminable Beta phase, I have no doubt that, should PM officially launch, eliminating chronic problems will be put on the back burner. Instead of resolving them systemically, their solution will be done on a per-problem basis.

The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. Considering that Telus has starved PM financially to date, how could anyone logically conclude that Telus is going to change its ways?

[7789849803]

@imm1304 and @Martin: Here's an assortment of wild analyses to consider:

I don't have any better access to actual PM numbers than you guys. But assuming 200,000 customers, and an ARPU of $30 in any given month would lead us to an estimate of $6 million in monthly revenue for PM. Both these numbers are conservative, and I'm guessing PM's actual monthly revenues are a bit higher than this as of April 2016.

Average pay + benefits + administrative costs for an experienced and well-talented web developer (full-time) are in the rough ballpark of $175k per year (maybe even a bit less). Costs are likely similar for a back-end web developer or a database administrator. I can't imagine that it would take more than 1-2 additional software development personnel to fix PM's long-standing issues over a span of just 2-3 months.

Given that PM uses Telus' existing network infrastructure, we can assume that the incremental cost of supporting PM customers is likely low for Telus. And we know that PM's own existing team is rather small in size.

If there's an argument in here somewhere that PM needs to bring in more revenue before some very basic and much discussed (And complained about) overhauls can be made to its web-based administration systems, then I guess I'm just not seeing it.

[makkahn28]

Hi @Jeremy_M, I believe, before Beta is sent to bed, I believe that PM should fix the Change Plan Option, Auto-Pay, reactivation of plan(s) when plan(s) are suspended when pay is Not rendered, DD billing, as these are the most pressing and urgent matters at hand.

After these are fixed fully and thoroughly, send Beta to bed

[imm1304]

Hi @Martin!  You raise excellent points. 

You are right. I do not know if the increased revenues will be used to improve/enhance the service. My logic, you could say is somewhat naive:  If PM is bringing in good revenue, PM division will have stronger case for getting the funds because now they have demonstrated that within financial constraints, they managed to grow. With greater funding and genereal upward trend, they would naturally wanna not only fix but enhance their capabilities to provide best service.  

PM has been working at their goal of eliminating chronic problems while in Beta.  Progress has been slower than I would have liked, but I concede that I am unaware of the complexities involved.. both techincal and financial. Thats why I would love to see some numbers.. or at least advise here that more than 95% fully functional acounts is grounds for exiting the beta phase.

Also, with the goal of a pre-set beta exit deadline, they could inject more resources temporarily to really kickstart the bug squashing and truly be done with the chronic problems.  

I know I am being rather optimist here and I appreciate all of you guys who are providing a fair contrast to my view.  Probably more constructive this way.  

[7789849803]

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@kav2001c wrote:

I also am of the mindset the BETA period is not over yet. Many issues are better but Public Mobile is still far from operational status in my mind.

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FAR being the operative word there, IMHO.

[kav2001c]

I also am of the mindset the BETA period is not over yet. Many issues are better but Public Mobile is still far from operational status in my mind.