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Camera4617 · ‎05-01-2022

Today is my 'renewal' date, and this is second month that it doesn't go smoothly. Autopayment took money (what needed after rewards), but Overview page says plan expired and has shows enough money for renewal. If I try to 'reactivate' service, it just takes me to payment page instead of reactivating service. I've even added $1 and tried to reactivate, but now it just shows $16 in balance..

My service seems to be working but this is definitely annoying and makes me uncomfortable to keep using Public Mobile. PM should resolve these issues if they want to keep customers as there are other similar providers and I don't care if I'll lose few bucks if I move..

softech · ‎05-02-2022

@Yummy , but @gpixel was correct on the fact that with a proper Pre-authorized payment, the bank save the work for verification and it has a pre-set limit. With PM's autopay, it is not a real pre-authorization payment, so the bank still has to go through the regular verification like a net new retail transaction.

Yummy · ‎05-02-2022

@gpixel wrote:
@14ALL41
I think it has something to do with the 30 days and verification processes between pm and the institution. pre-authorized payments are different as it's always on the same day.

Not necessarily. My payment dates for gas, electricity, water, etc. bills vary almost every month +/- few days.

I believe it is some kind of special flag these recurring payments send to the bank.

gpixel · ‎05-01-2022

@14ALL41

I think it has something to do with the 30 days and verification processes between pm and the institution. pre-authorized payments are different as it's always on the same day. while pre-authorized payments are verified only one time while adding the recipient, the bank has to verifiy everytime PM tries to withdraw money. because of this there are too many variables for auto-pay to fail on both sides. prepaid is meant to be prepaid. it's a nice option they tried to add, but it's simply flawed... and not just for PM

softech · ‎05-01-2022

Autopay is certainly not bulletproof. But is it that bad? Maybe not. Remember, this is a forum for people to post problems. 99.9% people come here to see help, Not 0.1% will come to confirm that Autopay works or come here just to praise the service. That's why what we see is heavily skewed towards one end. We see Autopay failure related posts here everyday, but this could be just 0.001% of the total transitions. We might not see Rogers/Bell/Telus hvae such a big numbers or complains about payment issue because we don't know. They do have Forum/Communities, but when their clients have problem, they likely call the helpdesk instead of posting online. I am not trying to defend the system, but just want to keep it open mind.

Again, there is easy fix to reduce at least half the failure. PM should re-attempt a 2nd time or 3rd time when Autopay failed. They know clearly what is the return code from the process. If the see a actual decline form credit card, it should trigger an email to clients and tell them it's their CC , not PM. If it is a error from the process, like time-out error, the process should wait 15 mins and try again. It is not that hard to implement.

hTideGnow · ‎05-01-2022

@14ALL41 wrote:
@gpixel wrote:
@Camera4617
all cellphone companies have auto-pay issues.
Why is that? Why it dificult to create good auto-pay system???
Imagine if utility, banks, you name it have bad preauthorised system.
Tel companies hire only cheap programmers?

Hi @14ALL41 We are Tier 3 service, we we only get to hire grade 3 programmers. LoL

gpixel · ‎05-01-2022

@Camera4617

Anyway, one thing I know, I'll not recommend PM to anyone anymore.. I can live with it as I do have 2 lines, so if PM is not working, I do have a way to communicate. But for majority of customers, this is the only one and things should be smooth.

i agree. I wouldn't recommend them for other various reasons. most people are data users and PM's 3g data is inadequate and unreliable... one would think because it's throttled, the 3mb speed constant. but, it's not. the 3mb is the maximum and your signal to the network will determine whether or not you will consistently pump out 3mb. when I was on 3g the average I would hit most often was 1.5mb in the area im living in.

Camera4617 · ‎05-01-2022

Correct. Reliability is the key and any company that is not reliable, will not succeed. I'm the least problem here, as I'm tech person and I'll resolve my issues (or move somewhere else). However, I'm reading daily from many customers who don't even have their login info, the same issues all the time. I don't care about 5G, or some other features that big 3 are providing, all I care is reliable service. I did leave my credit card, so please charge it. Don't fail for no reason.

Anyway, one thing I know, I'll not recommend PM to anyone anymore.. I can live with it as I do have 2 lines, so if PM is not working, I do have a way to communicate. But for majority of customers, this is the only one and things should be smooth.

14ALL41 · ‎05-01-2022

@gpixel wrote:
@Camera4617
all cellphone companies have auto-pay issues.

Why is that? Why it dificult to create good auto-pay system???

Imagine if utility, banks, you name it have bad preauthorised system.

Tel companies hire only cheap programmers?

gpixel · ‎05-01-2022

@Camera4617

all cellphone companies have auto-pay issues. all one has to do is read reviews.

just pay 3 months ahead of time or longer and let your rewards build up. once it builds up to your plan amount then use it for a free month. I don't worry at all about the renewal process. when using auto-pay the account will actually suspend(deactivate) while it's going through the payment process. in some cases customers will have an active account, but will experience various service issues because the account did not provision correctly. whereas with loaded money on the account it skips that and just takes from the available balance. no interruptions. this is something every customer should be doing if they want reliable service.

it's politics. they don't want this service to be better than Koodo or Telus. it's a diamond in the rough. the way I like it

hTideGnow · ‎05-01-2022

HI @hairbag1 I think the reason is that Autopay is a not a traditional Pre-Authorized payment. You just left your credit card number in the system for PM to pull your payment. I think the program behind is buggy.

JL9 · ‎05-01-2022

I feel your pain.. It is a little antiquated and definitely frustrating, it would be nice after several years if it was something that was nipped in the bud.. But probably not happening any time soon if at all

hairbag1 · ‎05-01-2022

@Yummy wrote:
@Camera4617 wrote:
Point is, I just don't want to think about renewal, did it work or not, is it showing Expired or not.. This should be resolved if PM is any serious of keeping customers.
I hear you! I love pre-authorized payment; set it up and forget. Well with PM you always have to check did it work or not. Kind of pain. Sometimes I have a feeling the whole accounting software was written by elementary school children in computer introductory classes...
HOW can autopay fail???

You'd think that of any processes to work good,...they'd make certain Autopay was bullet-proof. I've had my account since 2017 and autopay renewal has been a frequent source of failure. Sometimes customer caused...sometimes PM caused. Using the self-pay method has eliminated the problem for me entirely.

Camera4617 · ‎05-01-2022

@hairbag1 wrote:
We all agree with you, indeed.
Some long-time PM'ers will manually pay their account a few days before next renewal. That seems to make the renew process happy...and you stillget whatever Reward or Points you're entitled to.
It's not the best..but minimizes Renewal Day Vexation.

I was doing that for the long time, but that then requires me to go an pay manually. It is all about my time and how much it is worth to me.. I know it is not hard to do it, but how is it so hard to fix this issue (I'm in IT field). We see this kind of messages on daily basis here in the community forum.

Yummy · ‎05-01-2022

@Camera4617 wrote:
Point is, I just don't want to think about renewal, did it work or not, is it showing Expired or not.. This should be resolved if PM is any serious of keeping customers.

I hear you! I love pre-authorized payment; set it up and forget. Well with PM you always have to check did it work or not. Kind of pain. Sometimes I have a feeling the whole accounting software was written by elementary school children in computer introductory classes...

HOW can autopay fail???

hairbag1 · ‎05-01-2022

We all agree with you, indeed.

Some long-time PM'ers will manually pay their account a few days before next renewal. That seems to make the renew process happy...and you stillget whatever Reward or Points you're entitled to.

It's not the best..but minimizes Renewal Day Vexation.

hTideGnow · ‎05-01-2022

Hi @Camera4617 is your service working now? If it is , just ignore it

Last month, were you those lucky one from April 1st? I hope that was a one time April Fool joke only. 🙂

Camera4617 · ‎05-01-2022

@Yummy wrote:
If you see this on your renewal day (or maybe +/- day/two) AND you have service, ignore it. Everybody gets that message on renewal day.
Yes, I'm aware of that but in the past, that message was before renewal, and in the morning when I get up, it is gone. Now it is still there which is 'new' to me, at least.. Last month I had the similar issue but there service wasn't working, so I had to contact CSA.. Point is, I just don't want to think about renewal, did it work or not, is it showing Expired or not.. This should be resolved if PM is any serious of keeping customers.

Yummy · ‎05-01-2022

If you see this on your renewal day (or maybe +/- day/two) AND you have service, ignore it. Everybody gets that message on renewal day.

hTideGnow · ‎05-01-2022

HI @dust2dust Couple days? that is a way too long

I thought PM used to be able to switch from Plan Expired back to Active like around 6AM , then someone said 12. I was too say it is now passed 12 noon EST time and it is already too late

dust2dust · ‎05-01-2022

I recently had that and it went on for a couple days. As long as the pay before date is 30 days in the future and your services are working and the things reset then I wouldn't worry about it.

Maybe for curiosity go in to purchase add-ons and see if it lets you (without completing).

softech · ‎05-01-2022

@Camera4617 do you still have your service? Can you make and receive calls?

Usually with Plan Expired, you just leave it until the status change to either Active or Suspended.

So, if your service is not affected, come back and check later today

BKNS27 · ‎05-01-2022

@Camera4617

This is a standard message to everyone the day before your renewal date but it also states to ignore this message if you are on AutoPay or have sufficient funds in your account.

Also your account will show expired but service will continue.

If your balance is $16 then you have a $16 credit…I am assuming you are on the $15 plan with the $1 added into your account.

Dunkman · ‎05-01-2022

@Camera4617

As long as your service is working, I would ignore any warnings. Especially if you have enough funds in your account. If today is your renewal date, you likely got some account warnings last night. The warning should disappear and your service should not be interrupted.

Community

Account Status: Plan Expired