Autopay Issues - October 2019

[johnpaul]

My first month was ending on Oct. 8th. I have autopay enabled. I had $26 funds in my account.  In my first month I was on Plan 40. In the middle of my first month, I changed my plan to plan 25 to take effect at the beginning of the 2nd month. On Oct 8th, my account expired and lost service. If I did not contact a moderator, my plan would not get reactivated. So my questions are:

1. Is the autopay feature really this inconsistent? Losing service is such a bad inconvenience.

2. How many PM subscribers have this problem during their renewals?

3. Was this autopay problem because of the fact that I had a scheduled plan change?

As a PM user, how often do you have this autopay issue? Let me know your experience. I love PM when everything works but losing service potentially every month is unacceptable. I thought that this has been resolved.

[terrybev]

I agree with Johnpaul.It happens on ocacasion,I have been with PM for almost a year and have had not one problem with auto pay

[computergeek541]

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@GinYVR wrote:

 but considering Public Mobile has 1.5million + subscribers a few each month is relatively rare. 

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I agree that the error ocurring doesn't haopen all that often, but I don't beleive that Public Mobile has 1.5 million customers. I'm not sure that a number has ever been released.

[totalUser]

Yes I don't see it as a big deal to pay manually either when I'm paying other bills  or when I get that message that due date is coming.

It would be nice if all the people were made aware of this at signup. I'm very thankful to the person who referred me for pointing this one out so I never had to go through such frustration and maybe willing to forgo all the savings and goodies so I don't have to go through something like that again. 

[GinYVR]

@johnpaulScheduled plan DOWNGRADE can cause disruption of service. It is hard to judge how many people have autopay issue but considering Public Mobile has 1.5million + subscribers a few each month is relatively rare. However it is not comforting if it happens to be you. I would suggest keep a month's plan worth of credits in the account, so even if autopay fails you won't be out of service.

[johnpaul]

I’m giving PM one more chance to see if autopay works seamlessly next month.

[darlicious]

@ajit  and @johnpaul  Its too bad you are both considering leaving public mobile over the Auto pay fail issue. While I agree it is marketed as a "reoccuring" renewal it really should just be considered a back up to paying your service. I subscribe to the manually top up plan to avoid any risk of failure and subsequent  suspension of service and headaches that go along with it. If you know that tingling in the back of your neck will lead to a migraine if you don't take your pill do you take it or just wait for the migraine and complain about it and take the pill anyways even though it's now less effective? By spending a little time on the community you can learn how to prevent the issue and/or learn the basic fixes for common problems to reduce loss of service of your mobile device to a minimum. Service times have been long at times but currently rival phone wait times of other full service providers. I have found despite a very recent horrendous customer service experience  that overwhelmingly most moderators deliver excellent customer service in a timely manner. In fact the moderator after my bad experience solved my issue from start to finish in a mere 10 minutes. And im talking from first message from me to resolution. Its important to remember you get what you pay for at public mobile and the considerable savings to service provided is much higher here in my experience than all other telecom providers i have previously been with in the past. I would rather put up with the occasional hiccup to have a pocketful of cash than empty pockets and a phone number to call when inevitably there will be an issue regardless.

[GinYVR]

@ajitPublic Mobile is still a subsidary of Telus

[cavemantoronto]

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@ajit wrote:.No customer service and faulty site. Very frustrating. Seems like a different company. Did it get sold again? The solution to the activation bug did not help. If this was any other company this would of been solved immediately by a rep. Is the person helping sending useless emails to get a discount by 'helping' other customers? What's going here.

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Moderarors don't earn Community rewards. They work for the carrier. Telus is the owner of Public Mobile.

[ajit]

I am considering the same in terms of changing service. I have had no proper assistance on this matter as well as no activation after 0 owing. Half a month without service. The person that was helping doesn't seem to comprehend the problem and i explain my self every email that is when there is a reply. No customer service and faulty site. Very frustrating. Seems like a different company. Did it get sold again? The solution to the activation bug did not help. If this was any other company this would of been solved immediately by a rep. Is the person helping sending useless emails to get a discount by 'helping' other customers? What's going here.

[johnpaul]

Thank you @Dunkman @totalUser for the help.

I guess it was the plan change that messed with the renewal. But again the auto-pay should have paid if it thinks that the funds were insufficient. I was hoping that the auto-pay would make this prepaid system work like it is postpaid (seamless service month to month). I will try again at the end of this month (no plan change) if auto-pay is successfull. If I lose service again, I may consider changing providers. 

[totalUser]

Hi @johnpaul 

I heard that there is an issue when you downgrade (apparently not when you upgrade). For some reason system wants you to have the higher of the two amounts and it fails thinking that there is not enough funds in the account although there are.

But I don't trust it anyways. I was advised by the person who referred me and I've read here from couple of users who treat it as only backup option and great option for rewards, but still pay manually and that's what I do.

[Dunkman]

@johnpaul 

In your situation, the likely cause was your change of plans ot a lower priced plan. Autopay often fails when that happens.  

Otherwise, autopay is usually fine, but when it does fail, it is a big inconvenience.  That is why some regulars will manually load money into their available balance 1-2 days prior to their payment date.  Silly, but that way, it does not fail.  

I have never had autopay issues (knock on wood) and I have multiple accounts.  

[Luddite]

@johnpaul In summary to your questions, PM is not error prone for most customers. BUT this does not provide any joy for folks in your situation.

As your account has the funds to pay for your plan first try these tricks:

a) Lost/Stolen Trick 

1. login to your account >> Plan and Add-ons >> Lost/Stolen Phone >> click Suspend Service >> logout

2. login to your account >> Plan and Add-ons >> Lost/Stolen Phone >> click Resume Service >> logout

3. wait a few minutes, reboot your phone and check for service

b) $1 Trick

1. login to your account >> Payment >> One TIme Payment >> follow the direction to poay $1 >> logout

2. wait a few minutes, reboot your phone and check for service

If neither work, you need assistance from the moderators. To get a ticket:

1. click the ? on the lower right of this page,

2. enter "ticket",

3. click "Contact us",

4. click "Submit ticket",

5. login manually if your username/password are not filled in,

6. click the drop down menu (in the white area),

7. pick the topic that fits your issue and follow the directions to submit it,

8. If none of the topics are correct click Other/Something Else until you reach the blank form

Response time seems to be improving, 1/2 - 5 days, so engage a backup plan. Mine is using fongo.com over wifi.