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2.5 time limit per call

ZR
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

During Covid-19 2.5 hours time limit per phone connection can lead to someone death. 

Waiting time for vaccination booking is  longer than 2.5 hours which is making booking impossible. I think it could also lead to legal action in the future. 

Please remove this 2.5 hours limit for safety and health of Public Mobile users.

53 REPLIES 53

@Nezgar Westjet is one of the most annoying one to call, I had to call MULTIPLE 4 hours+ calls to get my refund due to Covid sorted out !!   No, I didn't try using PM just in case I got cut off when I finally able to get to someone

 

but it is good to know.. will try to call my wife with that one say... to see if PM cuts me off first or my wife..   LoL


@darlicious wrote:

I had a long conversation with my neighbour who I would normally use fongo to call or just pop in next door but I happened to use my phone. We finally ended the call after he offered to drop off a lobster tail for my dinner. Call length....3 hours, 52 minutes and 50 seconds.

 

Looks like pm has extended allowable call length times....


My wife's aunt was on hold with WestJet for 3 hours 23 minutes yesterday evening with her PM line to reschedule after a last minute flight cancellation of the 2nd leg of her trip that would have left her stranded in Calgary as there were no seats available on any connecting flights for another 2 days! Anyhow, I was happy to hear her call didn't get cut off after 150 mins, that would have been super aggravating! WestJet (And Air Canada) are cancelling like 50% of all flights in/out of Calgary ever since Xmas it seems, causing all kinds of hiccups for air travel. Hopefully she is actually able to complete her trip on Thursday now - thankfully not paying extra to stay in a hotel in the mean time.

 

 It's great the PM has finally addressed this issue that has caused grief for quite a few people!

Obitalk.. yes.. brief look at it there is no setting on my ATA to restrict the talk duration


@softech wrote:

@Nezgar   , it's X_BridgedOutboundCallMaxDuration , right?  if that is the one.. it wasn't set with any value.. so, that means it is a FPL server settings?


What ATA are you using? Doesn't sound like a model I'm familiar with, but yes that would imply no limit set on your side.

@Nezgar   , it's X_BridgedOutboundCallMaxDuration , right?  if that is the one.. it wasn't set with any value.. so, that means it is a FPL server settings?


@darlicious wrote:

@Nezgar 

Update:

I had a long conversation with my neighbour who I would normally use fongo to call or just pop in next door but I happened to use my phone. We finally ended the call after he offered to drop off a lobster tail for my dinner. Call length....3 hours, 52 minutes and 50 seconds.

 

Looks like pm has extended allowable call length times....


What can you find to talk about for nearly 4 hours with your neighbor ???? I could give you instruction on where to get lobster in about 2 seconds.... Safeway !! 

HOHOHO Merry Christmas 🎅

@softech sorry I should have said "freephoneline.ca windows application" !  Yeah there's no "phone app" - at least without paying the unlock key and using your own. Same for fongo home phone - they give you an ata but it's preprovisioned and the end user has no access to view/change the settings. (I am a former customer)

 

🖖

@Nezgar    I was talking about freephoneline.ca with ATA.. let me check my ATA setting again.

 

btw, you said freephoneline.ca  app.. you don't really mean it has an app , right?  

@darlicious that's great intel, and a positive improvement to an issue that has plagued many... now to hear more corroboration!

 

@softech when you say "fongo" is that mobile, home phone, or freephoneline? For home phone, there is likely a default 4h limit configured in their ATA's separate from the server at least.

 

I guess I could try calling from freephoneline.ca app to my pm phone and let it sit there to test the max 🙂 best test would be from a real POTS line I guess though. (Which as far as I ever knew never had time limits)


@darlicious wrote:

@Nezgar 

Update:

I had a long conversation with my neighbour who I would normally use fongo to call or just pop in next door but I happened to use my phone. We finally ended the call after he offered to drop off a lobster tail for my dinner. Call length....3 hours, 52 minutes and 50 seconds.

 

Looks like pm has extended allowable call length times....


I wonder if the PM calls would make it to 4 hours... 

 

BTW, Fongo cutoff is 4 hours

@Nezgar 

Update:

I had a long conversation with my neighbour who I would normally use fongo to call or just pop in next door but I happened to use my phone. We finally ended the call after he offered to drop off a lobster tail for my dinner. Call length....3 hours, 52 minutes and 50 seconds.

 

Looks like pm has extended allowable call length times....

@Chanah 

Last time I called I CRA, when connected with an agent I immediately asked if I could provide my phone number in case we got disconnected hopefully they could call me back...

This seems like an excellent opportunity for somebody to make an app/service. Let it bridge the connection, automatically stay on hold and "keep-alive" for you for as long as needed, then play a "connecting, please hold..." message to the agent at the other end while it calls you.

 

Indeed, wouldn't it be wondrous if the provider (Public Mobile or Telus) could integrate this "call-holding" feature on the back-end (along with conference-calling, call-forwarding and all that other junk) for all subscribers.

Chanah
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Miraculously an agent picked up the call at two hours and twenty-two minutes. Fortunately it only took seven minutes to sort.

 

But I was a wreck the whole time.

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@Chanah wrote:

And Canada Revenue says the wait time is 4 hours....


@Chanah make sure to deduct 4 hours @ your typical hourly salary rate from your taxable income!  If they want to keep you waiting, they should pay you for your time.  😂


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@Chanah  not bad actually, you know PM allows you 2.5 hours only, so, with 4 hours wait time, you can hang up or call back with a land line 🤣

Chanah
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

And Canada Revenue says the wait time is 4 hours....

Twice in one day......geez! Oopsie....

ha

@Nezgar 

Even more interesting was her portugeuse "plan"  which included home phone, 500+ tv and movie channels, unlimited high speed wifi/internet (1000+mbps) and cell phone plan w/an unlimited calls/ texts/data across the EU and long distance calling to 100+ international countries for €89=$145 cdn.


@darlicious wrote:

@Nezgar 

Well that didn't work. I just got off the phone with my sister.....for the second time because she had to call me back because pm cut off the call at 2:30:50 (150 min and 50 sec.) I sent my other phone number a couple of texts during the call and it made no difference. Interestingly she was using her work phone which is a telus phone. She continued to talk for a couple more minutes until she notced I was being awfully quiet and she noticed my text saying my text test failed. She called me back but we decided not to test another 2.5 hour call. But she did stay connected to the call on telus so the top tier does not get cut off at the 2.5 hour mark. Her koodo phone does not have roaming so we won't be testing it.


Darn... Well, not half surprised, but there's enough quirks with Public Mobile you never know if something like this is true! Thanks for quashing it quickly. Moving on then!

@Nezgar 

Well that didn't work. I just got off the phone with my sister.....for the second time because she had to call me back because pm cut off the call at 2:30:50 (150 min and 50 sec.) I sent my other phone number a couple of texts during the call and it made no difference. Interestingly she was using her work phone which is a telus phone. She continued to talk for a couple more minutes until she notced I was being awfully quiet and she noticed my text saying my text test failed. She called me back but we decided not to test another 2.5 hour call. But she did stay connected to the call on telus so the top tier does not get cut off at the 2.5 hour mark. Her koodo phone does not have roaming so we won't be testing it.

@ZR 

Other than calling family if I know I may be on hold for a long time I just make sure I use my fongo number. If a callback option is presented then I leave my pm number.

ZR
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Thank you, I'm not going to switch for another provider because of that. I really like Public Mobile. Let's try to fix this issue. I don't think it happens often to anyone to do such a long phone calls. This was my "first time" when I was forced to stay on line for longer than 2.5 hours. I think it's worth to try any solution which might works for this rarely done connections. 

Pawprints1986
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@Korth I don't think you quite took what I was saying in the way I meant it. I meant simply the network should know what type of call you've made and act accordingly (so 1800-anything= cut off exempt) but not so deep as "this person called this specific business at precisely 1pm and waited on hold/spoke for a total of 3 hours"

 

I get your point about talk to the businesses if it's an issue, but are they really going to change anything, especially govt offices? Realistically No. We've got a way better shot at the 2.5 hours being removed/exempt for these calls imo

@Nezgar 

I'm sure I will have another call with one of my sisters or my mom pretty soon....I will give it a test.

Way to go, @Nezgar 

 

I was just about to post the potential fix on this thread as well.

 

Hopefully if anyone can test it, they'll post the results on either thread.

 

This way,  @ZR might have a fix to implement instead of leaving Public Mobile for another provider. 

 

 


@steveb11 wrote:

I didn't think that WhatsApp allowed calls to landlines? Only calls between WhatsApp users.


That is correct. It may be easy to confuse, since WhatsApp users are linked from their phone number... I believe "Signal" is similar. Signal's "Secure calls" are only when two signal users call each other using the app - not via a PSTN phone number to someone not also using the app.

 

Another interesting observation was recently made by @Retlaw58 - where they seem to have extended the 2h31m limit by sending a text to themselves (or someone else) while on the call. Curious if anyone is able to test this if they have an upcoming lengthy call...

steveb11
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

I didn't think that WhatsApp allowed calls to landlines? Only calls between WhatsApp users.

 


@Pawprints1986 wrote:

Even if we are a "welfare" brand ...


The maximum call durations are based on the network. Telus and Koodo and Public customers are not differentiated at this layer, the "welfare" brands are not slighted in this regard.

 

I disagree about thinking that business calls should be exempt from this limit, should be identified by the network and handled differently by the network. The network is invasive enough, none of their business what my business might be (shouldn't be tracked and tallied, in my opinion), not right for them to offer some kind of "business plan" at premium prices (since that's just an anticonsumer conflict of interest, in my opinion).

 

I think the onus should fall onto the businesses themselves. If they can't figure out a way to communicate with their customers and service customers needs without hours-long waiting queues then they should just lose customers. I'd personally prefer to spend my time doing other things. The problem here is the government and corporate institutions who seem to feel that keeping customers on hold for 2+ hours is acceptable. Complain to them if you want change.

Pawprints1986
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

Imo any call to any business or service toll free number should be exempt from this time limit cut off, due to the nature of the call. Having to rely on WiFi not going out or data is not ideal either. We pay for our phone number, we should be "allowed" to use it as needed. Even if we are a "welfare" brand as someone said. They're still doing plenty well enough even with people using the 15 plan with top ups, for services that cost pennies to actually provide. And even more top ups soon when the provincial only begins. Let alone the $100+ plans on main telus brand, that also cost pennies to actually provide. With what they're bringing in combined, it's really not a big ask for when it matters

 

I do also agree that callback options need to be much more common place, but until it is... This is sometimes no big deal, call your friend back. But any sort of formal call to a business waiting in virtual line is IMO wrong. Back to the back of the line due to your network, not you. That's not cool. At all

 

Many of us don't have landlines anymore either

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