Account and service suspension near plan cycle renewal

[wleung]

Hello,

Last night July 24th 2018 was supposedly the last day of my previous plan cycle and I have activated AutoPay.  There was also more credit than enough for my plan renewal already in my account balance.  I had plenty of remaining airtime minutes (30+) and outgoing SMS texts (30+) and not used up my quotas of my cycle.

However last evening when I attempted to use my phone at around 22:00, I found out that my mobile service was out.  After logging into my Public Mobile account immediately, I was shocked to see the following messages indicating that my account was in suspended status:

"Please disregard this message if you have enough funds in your balance or are on AutoPay. Your account has been suspended. Make a payment to reactive your current plan.Suspended accounts are deactivated after 90 days of non-payment and you will lose your phone number and service."

"Account Status: Plan Expired"

"Your service is currently suspended due to insufficient funds."

The service suspension lasted until at least when I last checked at about 00:15 of July 25th 2018 before I went to bed.

Another glitch I have noticed on my account is discrepant plan renewal dates:

My printed account activation summary sheet states "Next auto-pay date: 25-Jul-18"

My account activation welcome email states "Your next payment date is 7/25/2018"

On my online account access, the top grey account summary panel states "Plan Expiry Date: Jul 25, 2018"

However the online Auto-Pay summary section states "AutoPay Next Payment Date: Jul 24, 2018"

Checking my phone this morning on July 25th 2018, my plan now appears succesfully renewed and service restored.  However, I feel that service suspension is inappropriate and significant issue especially considering I am registered for AutoPay and would like to know if it is expected routinely during plan cycle changeovers???????  If it was only for a brief minute, I can probably overlook it, but last night, it lasted for at least 2 hours-- TWO HOURS and PROBABLY MORE-- which was significant.  If such is expected to happen routinely, I would have to seriously reconsider staying with Public Mobile.  I would also like to know if there was anything I could do to prevent such account and service interruptions.

Lastly, what time exactly do plan cycle changeovers take place???  00:00 of account expiry date or other???

[wleung]

Went through a CCTS complaint for this that finally elicited a proper response from Public Mobile.  Got a phone call from someone from management I assume who offered to settle the complaint with a $10 credit.  I'll deem this satisfactory for now and observe if my next plan renewal goes well without problems.

[wleung]

Gave each other another final opportunity to resolve the incident by requesting a review and intervention by someone in managerial / supervisory capacity.  A whole week has passed and no response at all.  Very disappointing.  Just sent one final follow-up message to the @CS_Agent and might initiate CCTS complaint if still no satisfactory response next week.

[wleung]

Stunnded that the @CS_Agent replied with another unapologetic dismissal of my request for a satisfactory answer and resolution.  They again firmly denied crediting back any courtesy/compensatory airtime/texts to me and didn't give a word of apology or explanation for the 2+ hours service interruption I truly experienced.  What an utter lack of business ethic, responsbility, reliability and courtesy, and quick dissolution of my relationship with and trust for Public Mobile after joining 1 month ago.  I regret having started recommending this company to my family and friends and feel glad that they did not listen to my recommendation.  I will give the CCTS complaint a try before confirming to leave.

[wleung]

Thanks @z10user4 for your sharing.  Thanks so much @NDesai and @Anonymous for the information.

I have just received the moderator team's reply to my private message about this and am very disappointed.  I have given Public Mobile its chances after previous frustration with mysterious outgoing texts that I did not actually send but was taken off my outgoing SMS quota, considering that they although did not really figured out or repaired the problem, compensated by crediting those mysterious texts number back onto my unused quota.  I stayed despite feeling unpeaceful about the technical problems that seem to occur with this young budget mobile company's system seeing that at least they seem willing to compensate for them by giving quota credits back upon request.

As a result of the erroneous service interruption last night, I was not able to send out 30 SMS texts and make 1 call to my voicemail from my phone using my previous cycle unused airtime and texts, which had more than enough to cover these tasks, as planned.  I actually tried to do those at 22:00 as planned on July 24th, but failed due to the service outage.  The moderator that replied have admited in their reply the service outage I experienced was a system glitch and should not happen, but closed with a mere "However, as you know, technology is a tool that we cannot fully control, errors can occur and that's what happened with your plan renewal."  My explanation of my ruined plan last night and lenient request for a compensation for merely the missed 30 SMS texts and 1 voicemail call airtime to be added to my new cycle's quota so that I can send those texts and make that call now and nothing else was rejected by him who told me "On another note, do keep in mind that any unused text messages or talk minutes will not roll over to your next cycle and that's what happened in your case. Your plan is meant to be used during the same cycle, I'm afraid that in this case there's nothing that I can do."  Of course I know all the time that the unused quotas do not normally carry over to the next cycle.  I am requesting for compensation for the erronous system glitch that prevented me from using my unused quotas from the previous cycle as originally planned.  He did not offer any explanation for why and how the glitch happened, and not even an apology in his reply.

Seeing now that they are no longer even willing to credit reasonable compensation for results of their system problems as they did for me before, I am seriously disappointed by Public Mobile and unsure of this company's trustworthiness.  I have sent them another private reply expressing this, and will consider leaving if they do not offer satisfactory response.

[Anonymous]

@wleung, There are two dates on the self service portal.  The first one is the date by which you need to have funds in your account - if not using auto-pay.  The second date (in the rewards section) is the next day.  The actual renewal happens over night between those two dates.  Seeing the warning /expiry message is a bit unnerving, but usually means nothing.  However, in your case, service was interrupted, which it should not have been.

I suggest you reach out to the moderator team and ask them to investigate.

Click here to send the moderator team a private message. Their hours are: Mon-Fri 9AM-9PM(EST) & Sat/Sun 9AM-7:30PM(EST)
You can find information regarding the moderator team by following this link.

[NDesai]

@wleung The reason you see 2 dates is because the payment is taken before the midnight and the actual renewal happens after midnight. Seeing those warnings is completely normal even though you are on AutoPay. However, there should not be any interruption with your service. 

[Anonymous]

I've only been a here a couple months and so have only had two renewals. I don't recall any service outages though. I did indeed see all the dire warnings. Sometime overnight of the end of/beginning of the plan period is when the payment happens. My most recent one didn't actually transpire until sometime the next morning. But again...no service outage.

So it's puzzling that you had a service outage.