Autopay Failing (again)

[biros]

How can I get this fixed?  I have autopay set up on TWO accounts - one account is mine the other is my wifes. The autopay is set to the EXACT same credit card.  On my account it processes just fine automatically everything three months... on my wife's it fails and the account always goes into SUSPENDED...  I called American Express who confirm that no charge requests came in from Public Mobile on or around the autopay date, and no charges were declined (PM or other) on or around the autopay date.  This issue is clearly on the PM side.

This is crazy... two accounts, same card, both autopay, one works, one doesn't.

How can I get this fixed? (!)

[biros]

Oh.. and yay! my Amex was accepted in my wife's account now.... but today is a nice warm spring day... doubt she'll be calling me for help today... LOL.

[jp2]

As @biros says you need to private message the mods. I have attached instructions in the spoiler

Spoiler

How can you get help with your account, activation, or service?

• Please contact the Community Moderator Team to get help with you account.

• They are Public Mobile support employees who can help with your issue (More details).

• Click here to send them a private message. or use the @ symbol followed by Mod_Team with no spaces to bring their attention to this thread.

In your message please include:

• PM Phone Number, 4 digit PIN, Account email address, Detailed explanation of your issue.

Don't know your pin?--provide any 3 of the following:

• Complete mailing address, Email address, Alternate phone number, Date of birth, Last top up date & amount

How long until they reply?:

• Office Hours: Mon-Friday 9am to 9pm, and Saturday & Sunday from 9am to 7:30pm [Toronto Time]

• Messages are replied to during office hours, in the order in which they are received

• Typical response time is between 1-3 hours, depending on message queue, but can be up to 48 hours.

• There is no need to send multiple messages.

How can I view my private messages between myself and a Community Moderator

• How to view and reply to your private messages

[biros]

You have to pm a Mod (if the PM Community system allows you to), they give you a list of things to tell them about you, the account and the card (a different mod may reply thanking you for list #1, then tell you you needed to supply list #2 of info). Once you get through that, then they request Telus(?) to whitelist your credit card... and that it may take 48hrs.  (Actually, now that I am typing this, I can't recall if i actually remembered to go back in to reset my wife's autopay to my amex now... sigh).

Anyway... that's what it took for me.

[jgravelle2016]

HI!  How do they end up solving the issue?

[jgravelle2016]

yes, I feel that I would not recommend this service to anyone because of this...unfortunately

[jgravelle2016]

Omfg.  I hope its easier to solve than this!

[triggerman]

Yes..he lost his phone service as I was just checking the day of autopay was supposed to work or come out.  Then I thought I'll wait till midnight on the due date and once again no payment was processed so the following day the cell phone when he calls out says something like no service and not paid.  

[matbasm]

@triggerman, Did you son actually lose service?  If not, how do you know that the autopay did not go through?  If you look at the renewal date on the main page of your self serve portal, it will show the day BEFORE automatic renewal.  The date shown on the Rewards page is the day the payment is processed.  It is done early in the morning.  If you look at the account the day before the actual renewal, it might show the acount as expired, etc.

In the event that the payment does not go through, the phone might stop working, but the number would not be lost for 90 days.

[triggerman]

Hi there

I just recently joined Public Mobile and I am registered as an AUTOPAY ($2 credit) but for some reason my credit card on file was not charged and I had to pay manually.....I received my autopay credit so I know its on file.  How do I know this will not happen again as I don't want my son to lose his phone number. 

[matbasm]

@markncol, if you are having issues with the auto-pay, you need to contact the moderator team directly, as they do not always monitor these posts.  If you need to do so, click here to send them a private message.
Information regarding the moderators team can be found by following this link.
Lastly, you should always start a new topic when posting something new, even if it is the smae problem as another user.

[markncol]

@CS_Agent, we're pleased with service, reliability and PRICE of PublicMobile... We just referred my in-laws, who were reluctant to leave Rogers but swayed by our experience with PM.

The (not) auto pay issue, however, appears to be an ongoing concern every 90 days for at least one of the four accounts in our family.  Today my daughter found her account suspended and was unable to call to reassure us after driving in freezing rain conditions.  Glad she didn't need to call for help from the roadside somewhere...  This will definitely be a put off for my in-laws.  I hope it can be addressed soon.  

[biros]

The @CS_Agent discovered what the problem was - although it is rather odd I feel (given all services I have from Bell,Shaw,Insurance,Alarm,etc all auto-bill every month for decades and never have a problem - PM is the only merchant giving my this ongoing grief). 

Here is what I was told by @CS_Agent:

"...the reason why you couldn't use the card ending in 6002 is because it was blocked for security purposes by the system as there have been previous usage on it."

That's it. Full stop. So, if you don't want your credit card blocked, make sure that you don't ever have any previous usage charges on it with Public Mobile (?)....    #Bizarre

[biros]

What I can say is that this who issue has been 10x more frustrating in just having to deal with customer service / @CS_Agent.... 

The first message from @CS_Agent requested

• the phone number impacted by the issue
• PIN code or the following:
  • plan details,
  • birth date,
  • complete mailing address with postal code and
  • email address linked to the account

Then @CS_Agent reported my sent item was not received, so I resent.

Then @CS_Agent advise the needed information was not included, I needed to provide instead

• a.Date of Birth
• b.Last four digits of a registered credit card
• c.Address with Postal Code
• d.Home or business contact number
• e.Commonly called numbers or text messages
• f.Last top-up amount and the date
• g.Last add-on purchased and the date
• h.Email address

Then on compiling all the new information needed and formulating the message to send, the Community system once again reports "You have reached the limit for number of private messages that you can send for now. Please try again later."

So now, again, not sure how to send @CS_Agent the information when the system they are having me use won't even permit it. I appreciate "The phone company with no phone number" thing, but is it too much to ask for "The phone company with operational/reliable systems"  #Frustating

[biros]

@CS_Agent - from my sent items again... proof that the requested response was re-sent to you:

To: Moderator_Team 

Sent: ‎04-07-2018 10:27 AM

[biros]

From my sent items I replied to Aïssata

To: Moderator_Team Moderator
Sent: ‎04-06-2018 03:05 PM

So there is something wrong with the PM function in the PM community system it seems.

I am now recopying the sent item and sending it again.

[CS_Agent]

@biros, sorry for the inconvenience. Yesterday as we requested the account information, you said you were being helped but we have not received the requested information yet. So, if you could answer to one of the private messages sent to you with the requested information, we will gladly continue to assist you. Thank you for your understanding! 

[jp2]

Well I hope they fix this issue permanently for everyone.

Good luck

[biros]

Thanks @jp2, but no go.

The odd thing is that my other account accepted and is using my Amex. This problem account had accepted my Amex (that what is in there when i went to manage cards) but then the autopay started at some point to refuse to use it.  When I go into Manage & Replace card to reenter the exact same Amex card that is current saved in autopay now... it won't even allow me to save the card - it just returns with "Unable to Process Transaction 
Sorry, we are unable to verify your credit card information,...".  It's not like it takes the card, then fails to process on the autopay date, now it won't even take the card (that is currently on the other acct and working just fine every 90 days).  Oddly, on this account, I can save a Visa card - not my Visa so it's just a hack to reactivate the line.... 

And now it seems the @CS_Agent has gone silent on me (after nearly instantly replying to ask for my number and PIN/billing info)... so, either they are ignoring the situation or are actively deep diving into their billing system to see what the error is.... and I am setting my beliefs on the latter of course.

[biros]

Thanks @will13am, the renewals are presently separated by about one month.  Thanks for your reply.

[jp2]

I'm new to PM but I had several issues activating my sim card. I saw a post that PM's website doesn't work well with google chrome unless you are in incognito mode; I tried switching to that mode and everything went smoothly. Maybe when you reentering your card info try using this mode.

[will13am]

@biros, is the renewal date identical for the two plans?  I have a friend who has the entire family on this service.  Three account renew on the same day.  Invariably, one account fails to renew all the time.  The solution was to let an account go into suspension a couple of days to put some separation between the renewals.  I suspect that multiple payments to the same provider at the same time causes the credit card systems to have conniption fits. 

[CS_Agent]

@biros, I'm sorry to hear about this. Please check your mailbox, I just sent you a private message.

@ShawnC13, thank you for your help 🙂

Cheers,

[ShawnC13]

@biros, if you get the message about not being able to send a private message right now I have just waited a few seconds and it has worked.  I would contact the MODS again and have them look into it for you.  That is where I would start.  Again sorry to hear you are experiencing this.  I have had no issues with autopay and think it is a great system so I do hope that you get this cleared up soon,

[biros]

@ShawnC13, no I did not PM the @CS_Agent... I got the sense that this is not possible given that if I did (and reattempted to do from the link in your sig) I just get a red bar notice "You have reached the limit for number of private messages that you can send for now. Please try again later."
But, I have only ever sent one PM ever to @Shazia_K on 31MAR2016.... so it's not like I am over indulging on PMs here.  😞

Thus, the post to this group - hoping a Mod is kicking around.

In regards to the "redo the credit card" - it's been done and redone... at first i chalked it up to "oh well", but now it's just frustrating.... and every time i do a manual top-up to re-activate the account it just kicks the issue down the road another three months... at some point I just need to stop and get this fixed by PM.  <sigh>   (sorry for the rant)

Thanks for your reply @ShawnC13 - it is appreciated.

[ShawnC13]

@biros, sorry  to hear about this.  I am sure you have contacted the MODS about this already so won't go there.  My only other thought is to maybe remove the credit card from autopay and and then set it up again?  That could be worth a shot as it seems there must have been some glitch in the setting up of it somehow.  Sorry not much help but all I could think of trying, without going to a different credit card.