AutoPay On. Service Suspended

[thychi]

Public Mobile needs to fix their payment system, or at the very least do something so that when something goes wrong on their end customers still get service for a period of time.

Ex. If a plan shows up as 'suspended ot expired' allow for calling/texting service for 24 hrs rather than a hard cut off. We get a text message alerting us anyways so it can add 'or in 24 hrs your service will be disabled'. In this time the customer can contact the mods but still have service.

I've enabled AutoPay on 2 of my accounts. Both with different credit cards, and both credit cards working. On the dates of our account renewals our plan gets suspended/expired because 'Your plan did not renew because we did not receive your payment'. This is not a problem on my end.

I have contacted the mods. However, it is not the first time service has been cut due to a problem on Public Mobile's end. We did not switch from our previous plan to get no service every 90 days if they don't fix this. 

[MVP]

There is definitely something fishy going on with PM's autopay system/credit cards..

I also had a weird experience  (a recent topic, mismatching names/addreses).

It is not related to the credit card issuers/banks, but rather its all PM's internal glitches.

They need to fix it asap. There is no excuse for leaving ppl without any service for days.

I'm worrying everytime a reneval date comes on my accounts, this should not happen!

[computergeek541]

I'm not sure when Public Mobile started doing this, but on the morning of your renewal, they now show a disclaimer that everything might be okay.  On the renewal date, it will now say, "Please disregard this message if you ahve enough funds your balance or are on AutoPay."

That's a step up from before, but I'm still not really sure why Public doesn't fix this expired/suspended website bug.  Any other prepaid provide does renewals and auto payments immediately at midnight (or whatever time that they have things set to).   Yet, Public Mobile insists on doing this over-complicated process of saying "expired" a few hours early before the billing cycle even starts, and the very instant this new billing cycle starts, also lists any account as suspeneded.  Then, for whatever reason, autopay payments are processed, funds and rewards transfered into "account balance", and that balance is allowed to set there for hours until the actual renewal is done. 

Things really should be more one-step (or least instant - it should happen so quickly that the customer doesn't even notice), and seemless-looking to the customer.  The expired and suspsended messages really only should kick in after a renewal fails.

[youbme]

OK, glad to hear service was immediately restored!

Hopefully IT can figure out what is going on with autopay...

[thychi]

Service was restored as soon as the payments were made (manual one time payment done by a mod on this account, and manual one time payment done by me on my other account).

The most bizarre part was that the mod used the card information I already had on my account. I did not message the mods my full card number or any other credit card detail. He just asked if I would give authorization for him to take a payment from my card ending in **** (the last 4 digits of the card on my account).

For my other account, I also did not change a single detail of my credit card number. I didn't even retype the info (this means that all the info there was correct). All I did was use the drop down menu and click submit. AutoPay would be using the exact same credit card information. 

This indicates to me that:

- The card information I gave was complete and correct. Otherwise the system would not be able to process my payment at all with the manual one time payment. The problem is with AutoPay.

- These were 2 different cards. One per account. With different banks at that. The problem isn't with the cards since the manual payment was able to go through on both, no problem.

At this point moderators opened ticket #s for IT on both my accounts for them to look into. Hopefully this does not happen again the next billing cycle. Very bizarre indeed.

[youbme]

@thychi, I'm happy to hear you were able to at least get payment sorted out. Hopefully service has been restored or soon?

As for autopay, it is quite bizarre that it wouldn't work while the same card was able to make the payment without issue. Hopefully, this is a one-time issue, but obviously it would be good to monitor the autopay process for the next billing cycle in case it occurs again. I would delete all payment info and re-enter the cards for autopay.

Have the moderators offered any suggestions with regard to future autopay?

[thychi]

Just to update everyone now that Mods have responded to both of my accounts.

I have no idea why AutoPay did not work for either of my accounts. The mods have opened up ticket numbers for both for IT to look into. In my other account, the mod replied that at midnight the system tried to take the payment, but it did not work. A reason was not listed why. This is the unusual bit:

- For this account I gave a mod authorization to manually take the payment from the credit card associated with this account. It worked. I made zero changes to the credit card information I gave Public Mobile for AutoPay.

- For my other account a mod suggested I make the payment manually. All I did was make a one-time payment (drop down menu pay current balance, and press submit), I made zero changes to the credit card information I gave Public Mobile for AutoPay.

The information I gave for the cards is clearly correct and works fine. No idea why AutoPay was unable to work. 

[thychi]

I will definitely be taking your suggestion and posting my idea on the Public Lab. When I signed up for Public Mobile I understood that I'd be paying lower prices in return for some customer service cuts such as e-mail/ or call centres. What I didnt expect was a complete service shut off in case of problems. 

It is very frustrating right now because by all means, I know these cards work. I typed in the same info I use when ordering off of Amazon or any other online retailer. After I changed the card information I checked my the card numbers listed on my account. The visibile digits (first few and last four) have been changed. 

[youbme]

Thanks for clarifying @thychi. Very frustrating indeed!

It is likely that the change in the credit card didn't go through properly, or some information was slightly off (billing address or name, for example). Once the moderators get back to you, hopefully it will be resolved for good.

[youbme]

Hopefully, you can find out more from the @CS_Agent regarding what is going on with your account. As I said, this is quite unusual from my experience with PM over the past couple years.

Regarding your suggestion to allow for a 24-hr 'grace period' after an account is expired, I think there is some value here and you should post it in the Public Lab for consideration.

[thychi]

This is our first complete billing cycle with Public Mobile. The last time our service was cut was during the August billing fiasco where a load of accounts found their accounts prematurely suspended.

When I opened our accounts I used a credit card that was going to expire in September or October. So about 1 or 2 weeks before our renewal dates I changed the credit card info for AutoPay on our accounts. They're both different credit cards, and I have made purchases on them online and in person as recently as yesterday. There's nothing wrong with the cards.

Edit: I am still waiting for the mods to reply.

[youbme]

This is very troubling @thychi. I have been with PM for two years and never had any issues with autopay. As @will13am mentioned, on the day of the renewal, my account will show as 'expired', but no interruption of service and everything looks OK the next day.

If you are regularly losing service every 90 days, there is something very wrong with your account. Is it possible that your credit card company is flagging PM, causing a rejected payment?

EDIT: I see in your reply that there is loss of service. Has a moderator explained why this happens on your account?

[thychi]

That's the big problem here:

I have ZERO service on both accounts. I cannot make calls. People cannot call me.

For the number associated with this account it has been since the 20th. I looked through the community and decided to ignore the account suspended message on my renewal date for exactly this reason. Today I get a call on my home phone from the owner of my other account (through a landline phone) telling me that their service is also completely down. This is very troubling as they use that number for work. I tried calling with my number, sure enough, zero service.

It's ridiculous that customers get stuck with zero service until a mod fixes this despite how the problem is not on our end. I doubt we'll get more than a 'sorry' rather than something like credit on our accounts for the hassle. 

[will13am]

The accounts go through a metamorphosis that lasts many hours including looking like the payment has failed.  Don't worry about it, unless the service had actually stopped working.  When all the dust settles, the account will be in active status with the proper payment applied.