Autopay failed after 2 years

[ckl]

Not sure what happened, but both my kids accounts got deactivated because autopay didn't work. This causing some panic after school as I could not get in touch with my kids and they could not get in touch with me. Of course, at the time, I didn't know it was deactivated. It was only until I found my kids that I got a hold of their phone and there was a big X on the signal status bar meaning no service. Totally confused at that point.

When I got home, I immediately logged into their accounts and saw a deactivated status. So I suppose this means autopay didn't work. Why? It had been working flawlessly for at least 2 years... Anyway, I thought maybe it was the credit card on file had expired, but no, I made manual payment without changing any details and it worked. So still confused.

So I'm not sure what happened but it looks like I'll have to keep a close eye on my accounts from now on.

[darlicious]

@ckl 

You must be coming up to or are already recieving the maximum $5 in loyalty rewards. Congrats on that! Sometimes autopay fails for a perfectly normal reason as you mentioned an expired card, fraud alert, card hold, a same time payment etc....and other times it could be a power surge or failure, a pm glitch or a ravenous raccoon chewing on the telephone line.... If it does occur again then open a ticket with the moderators to see what is causing the issue to reoccur.

@mitchnet12 

I'm happy to see you have employed the manual method to ensure you don't suffer an autopay failure. Although Canadian Tire's pm vouchers do have a delay in validity. I prefer to recommend 7/11, SDM, London Drugs (vouchers count towards the LDX program) and Shell Stations (air miles) for their immediate validity.

More user contributed info on vouchers here...

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Paying-for-your-service/Voucher-Catalogue/m-p/479165#...

[mitchnet12]

That certainly is a cause for concern to have auto pay fail without any notice!

I did have an auto pay problem back in April 2020, after nearly a year with PM. I had to stand in line at Wal-Mart to purchase a voucher to get my account re-instated. A moderator was contacted to sort the credit card problem out. Since that time, I have kept ahead with my account with payment vouchers. Canadian Cell Supplies is one source to watch for payment voucher sales. My preferred place to purchase vouchers is at Canadian Tire. If you do decide to purchase a voucher in store, be sure to ask the cashier if they have a binder with pay-as-you-go vouchers, if there aren't any vouchers on display. The vouchers are orange and blue on display and in their binder.

As a side note, the $40 plan that you have is a real deal. I can't say that I have seen that kind of a BYOP deal for a long time!

[ckl]

Thanks for your quick responses.

Yes, both my kids were activated relatively close. When I logged in one said the renewal date was the 14-jun and the other said 15-jun.

As a reference, I've been with Public, along with my wife, since the $4GB LTE for $40 days deal (which I believe was far longer than 2 years ago) that renews every 3 months (instead of every 1 month) and auto pay has never failed... I can't find where in the account settings a date that says when the account was activated, but I checked when I registered as a member on this forum (which is around when I activated my first account here) and it said 2016... wow!

[Anonymous]

Autopay sometimes fails.  You could either manually make a top up payment or purchase a voucher to make a payment.  You could also pay by using recharge.com or ding.com but there is a service charge. 

• if you still not working you have to Submit a ticket to customer service by Moderator Team,

  Only one way to solve your issue , explanation to customer service by Moderator Team

  and the are nice service Team the will help you 100%.

  Here’s how to contact customer service by Moderator Team,

  • Get help with your account the easy way by starting a conversation with our virtual assistant, SIMon. It’ll take you to relevant help articles, or if it’s something more urgent, it can help you submit a ticket to the Moderator Team. Click HERE to get started.
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        Good Luck

[will13am · Accepted solution]

@ckl , auto pay has been known to fail from time to time.  There is nothing you have done wrong here.  

[esjliv]

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@ckl wrote:

Not sure what happened, but both my kids accounts got deactivated because autopay didn't work. This causing some panic after school as I could not get in touch with my kids and they could not get in touch with me. Autopay had been working flawlessly for at least 2 years.

When I got home, I thought my credit card on file was expired, but nope. When I logged in, I made a payment (without changing any details) and it worked. If it was expired, it would not have gone through. 

So I'm not sure what happened but it looks like I'll have to keep a close eye on my accounts from now on.

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@ckl Autopay failures can sometimes happen.

Do you still have services? If yes, this could be your account going through the normal renewal process. The SELF SERVE account can say "expired" or "suspended" on the day of or before your plan is due to renew. So if this is the case, ignore these messages on your SELF SERVE account.

If you have no services, and it is past your renewal, maybe your autopay failed?

1. Add Funds to your Plan Amount through SELF SERVE (or by calling 611 if you have a card registered)
2. Go to “Plan and Add-Ons” TAB
3. Select "Lost/Stolen Phone" TAB
4. Select "Suspend Service" BUTTON
5. Then, Select Resume/Reactivate Service
6. Reboot your phone.

For any Autopay failure, I would suggest to let the Moderators know about it.

To contact the Public Mobile Moderator_Team, there are two methods to reach them:

1 -  Faster - Click the bubble comment circle on the bottom right-hand side of your screen,

or use this link to: Get Help With SIMon the Public Mobile chatbot

OR

2 – Slower - Use this link to:

Private Message to Public Mobile Moderators (PM Customer Service Representatives)

[softech]

Autopay did fail occasionally..

in your case , are the 2 accounts both renew on the same day and same amount and on the same cc?  If so, might be the fact that cc card seeing 2 same charges and decline?  I understand it has been working for 2 years for you, but this is still possible.

.. but as I said, Autopay did fail occasionally.  Don't know why.  I guess just monitor next cycle (30 days later) and make sure it is picking up Automatically again.