Can anyone explain to me why 7-11 sells Public top up cards that don't have barcodes?

[mabmarkus]

Hi there,

So basically my local 7-11 now sells PM top up cards but I've tried to buy them a few times so far with no luck. There's no bar codes on the vouchers themselves so the cashier always has no idea what to do.

Would buy them if I could!

[mabmarkus]

Thanks for your reply! Ah Ontario...sometimes I miss it, sometimes I don't! I'm in BC and I've never even heard of a Canadian Tire gas bar!

The demoninations you mention are exactly the same as the top up cards I see in 7 11's over here. But congrats on trying out something new regarding your cell phone plan. I had been with freedom mobile for several years before dropping them for Public Mobile. Here's a simple comparison. For work I do alot of visits to apartment buildings and condos up high in the sky.

With freedom in downtown Vancouver, literally every time I entered a buildings lift (elevator) I would lose all signal and would have to manually search for my network after getting out of the lift. Missed a lot of phone calls and texts.

Guess how many times I drop coverage with PM now? Literally, not a single time! The advantage of being on a plan using Telus's network. I'm very happy with my experience so far using Public Mobile so welcome to the club.  😎

[wetcoaster]

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wrote:

Canadian Tire Gas Bars sells Public Mobile self-pay top up vouchers.

They only accept cash, not debit at least at the Taunton Road outlet in Oshawa.

Note that they sell only in odd denominations of $10, $16, $22, $40 et cetera, but if you need say $35 for a 30-day run of voice/text/1mb data, get the larger $40 voucher as Canadian Tire tacks on a $1 fee for each print out - i.e. dont purchase 2 different vouchers to give you your desired amount, save the $1 Canadian Tire fee and get the slightly larger amount, and post to your PM Account and carry forward the oustanding balance to be used for the next month. For example, i thought i needed $32 of vouchers, so i went $22 and $10, and had to pay two $1 Cdn Tire print out fees. My use of the vouchers was easy, just write the codes on the voucher ticket into your Public Mobile Account when activating - it gave me the $27 needed to have unlimited talk/global unlimited text, and posted the outstanding $5 to the Account for next month - noting i need only $22 to continue for next months service. As such, i only have to purchase the $22 voucher size in March. 

Canadian Tire should disclose its fees in advance of purchase, but they need a slice for providing the service, and i can say my purchase at Taunton Road/Wilson Rd store in Oshawa was quick and convenient. Note on voucher receipt that there is NO REFUND.

Have checked out phone coverage and plan operation as i was in north Kawartha yesterday on my first day as a Public Mobile/over Telus network user, and i am generally impressed. After 25 years of jolly mr. Rogers being in our family, including back to the Cantel-Rogers days when phones first became more available in cars, i dont really miss telcos that continued to charge well-hidden CRTC monthly fees long after they were not supposed to, but apparently they somehow got away with it by building it in on long term customer legacy plans, and coding it as a subsidy or some darn thing.  When the staffer from a store i dont regularly use, but who knew me from my local store where they had been manager and many, many years ago i set up a VIP service of 3 different services, pointed this out to me, it was time to leave the monopoly game zone and try a third party startup like Public Mobile - i am reasonably impressed so far. 

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@jgrose1

Sorry to burst your bubble - you are still in the "big three" oligopoly game. While Public Mobile was a start-up in the beginning they have been bought by Telus in 2014 and have become Telus' third tier brand.

[jgrose1]

Canadian Tire Gas Bars sells Public Mobile self-pay top up vouchers.

They only accept cash, not debit at least at the Taunton Road outlet in Oshawa.

Note that they sell only in odd denominations of $10, $16, $22, $40 et cetera, but if you need say $35 for a 30-day run of voice/text/1mb data, get the larger $40 voucher as Canadian Tire tacks on a $1 fee for each print out - i.e. dont purchase 2 different vouchers to give you your desired amount, save the $1 Canadian Tire fee and get the slightly larger amount, and post to your PM Account and carry forward the oustanding balance to be used for the next month. For example, i thought i needed $32 of vouchers, so i went $22 and $10, and had to pay two $1 Cdn Tire print out fees. My use of the vouchers was easy, just write the codes on the voucher ticket into your Public Mobile Account when activating - it gave me the $27 needed to have unlimited talk/global unlimited text, and posted the outstanding $5 to the Account for next month - noting i need only $22 to continue for next months service. As such, i only have to purchase the $22 voucher size in March. 

Canadian Tire should disclose its fees in advance of purchase, but they need a slice for providing the service, and i can say my purchase at Taunton Road/Wilson Rd store in Oshawa was quick and convenient. Note on voucher receipt that there is NO REFUND.

Have checked out phone coverage and plan operation as i was in north Kawartha yesterday on my first day as a Public Mobile/over Telus network user, and i am generally impressed. After 25 years of jolly mr. Rogers being in our family, including back to the Cantel-Rogers days when phones first became more available in cars, i dont really miss telcos that continued to charge well-hidden CRTC monthly fees long after they were not supposed to, but apparently they somehow got away with it by building it in on long term customer legacy plans, and coding it as a subsidy or some darn thing.  When the staffer from a store i dont regularly use, but who knew me from my local store where they had been manager and many, many years ago i set up a VIP service of 3 different services, pointed this out to me, it was time to leave the monopoly game zone and try a third party startup like Public Mobile - i am reasonably impressed so far. 

[MissRiley]

Former 7-Eleven employee, just confirming what was said above. 

The top-up cards actually print from the same machine that they activate gift-cards with. You should just be able to go up to the counter and ask for one, no need for a physical card. 

Public Mobile is fairly unheard of in a lot of places, so you might have to indicate they'd do it the same way they'd get you phone time for Rogers or their own phone carrier. 

Generally, "I would like to buy minutes for my Public Mobile phone" is good. They may give you a look, but most of the time they'll just go through and see if they offer minutes for that provider (they do). 

[mabmarkus]

Thanks for this! I'll know what to ask for now.

[wetcoaster]

Looks like lack of education to me... I have yet to buy a voucher at 7-11 - they do have the display cards in my local stores, but I have not used them yet.

So I'm not sure if it works the same way for 7-11 but the convenience store around the corner from me is listed in the Public Mobile voucher location finder. So the other day, needing a top-up, I gave that a try.

He doesn't have the display cards.

When I asked it seemed like I was the first person ever to mention Public Mobile in the store, but, instead of just saying he didn't have them, he did check his "voucher machine".

A bit of head scratching later he told me he had two choices: RTR (real time reload) and PIN. PIN denominations were $10, $22, $28, $48 and $60. It looked like he needed to print a seperate bar code to scan so that he could activate it. but at the end it worked out well and I'll be happily going back and giving him my business.

On the receipt it said "powered by nowprepay.ca - so I assume that if a vendor is connected through that company they have access to the offerings from them, which includes PM vouchers.

Moral of the story, assuming that the store is on the vendor list:

If you don't find blank vouchers on display on their gift card rack or with the top-up cards from the other carriers, you a) need to know  exactly what to ask for and b) have a person on the other side of the counter who is willing to "check their voucher machine" or their POS.

[stonechucker · Accepted solution]

They have to look into a separate computer system for RTR (real time reload) or the "other one".

The display card is just a display card.