Can no longer place or receive calls

[CDoug]

Hello,

For the past four days, I have not been able to place or receive phone calls on my Public Mobile phone.

I am signed up for the "Pick and Pay" service, a 90 day pass. According to the self serve, it will expire Feb 3, 2016.

This plan includes:

• • - 1GB Data
  • - Unlimited Canada-wide Talk 
  • - Unlimited Canada-wide Text

If I attempt to place a phone call to a local or long distance number, it does not ring and immediately disconnects. If someone calls me, it goes immediately to my voice mail message. I last received a phone call four days ago.

I am able to send and receive SMS messages fine. My cellular data service also works as expected.

I have tried power cycling my phone. I have also tried removing the SIM card, power cycling, replacing the SIM card, and then power cycling again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[srlawren]

@elehemeare I hope you realize you were responding to a 15 month old post.....  I'm pretty sure the issue was resolved by now!

@atwab depends--what were your issues a year ago?  I do think most things have improved but there are still some areas for improvement.  What drove you to leave, maybe we can talk about those things?

[atwab]

That's too funny, are you just looking for some credit lol... I have signed backup after a year to see if this has gotten any better... hopefully it's not just 5 reps taken from Telus and put in some back room to run PM anymore... Maybe it will be more reliable... however I was not able to reactivate my old account, so I had to get a new random email address to setup again.

[elehemeare]

Did you try power cycling your device? 

[CDoug]

@Rick Hi Rick, thanks for your input. The problem has been resolved, but it was likely not an issue with the 3G settings. The phone was receiving full 3G and LTE data service during my voice outage.

edit: corrected a Freudian slip

[CDoug]

I sent the following email to Public Mobile support with regards to my ticket:

---

Hi

To follow up, the problem seems to have resolved spontaneously, with
no action on my part, outside of a power cycle of my phone. It
certainly wasn't *just* the power cycle, as I had tried restarting my
phone a dozen times previously. I'm not sure what the solution was,
but my ticket can probably be closed.

Please let me know if you did something to resolve the problem, so I
can update the Public Mobile community thread with the solution.

Thanks

---

 They responded to the email and told me:

---

Thank you for contacting public mobile.
I am sorry for the inconvenience, did you try to enter the APN

<instructions to configure my APN settings>

---

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. A satisfying resolution.

[Rick]

Make sure that 3G is enabled on your device (if the 3G network in not enabled you will not get service as public mobile does not support 2G)

[Luddite]

@elehemeare Apparently excellent suggestions such your last are only considered if submitted as an idea to the Public Lab. 

[elehemeare]

---

@CDoug wrote:

...the problem seems to have been resolved spontaneously with no action on my part...

I'm not sure if something was changed on Public Mobile's end and they haven't told me, or if it was simply magic. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

---

Actual suggestion; maybe if Public Mobile communicated the root cause of some issues that were eventually (seemingly transparently) resolved by the Support teams, it would allow for better future troubleshooting of issues.

[Luddite]

@CDoug If it's magic you're the magician since noone at PM is taking credit. Now if you only knew the incantation to trigger the magic repair you wouldn't be stuck waiting for a support response! 

[7789849803]

@CDoug Great to hear! Be sure to ask PM support for credit for those 5 days of no calling.

[CDoug]

After another back and forth with support confirming that I am in the service area and have full reception, the problem seems to have been resolved spontaneously with no action on my part, outside of a power cycle of my phone.

I'm not sure if something was changed on Public Mobile's end and they haven't told me, or if it was simply magic. Regardless, after five days, I am able to make a phone call again.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Luddite]

@CDoug So the response is not a resolution as you already tested the SIM in another phone. Suggest you reply to their email and we'll see what happens next. @Jeremy_M or @Guetson_R may need to intervene.

It's very odd that you have an issue almost every month. It's been 8 months with no service issues and only one accounting glitch for me.

[CDoug]

@Luddite I contacted them approximately 12 hours ago. To their credit, they have seem to have briefly skimmed my email and responded.  I have attached a screenshot of the exchange to this post, with identifying information removed.

[Luddite]

@CDoug When did you email PM about your problem?

[CDoug]

@atwab Thanks for sharing your experience. I agree with you in that it is very frustrating dealing with Public Mobile. In my ten years of paying for cell phone service, I had never had an issue that needed to be resolved by support until I switched to Public Mobile. Since then, I have had approximately one per month. Unfortunately, to get your problem addressed, you need to slog through a couple rounds of  "power cycle your phone" or "check the community forums", which are rarely helpful.

 edit: after posting this response, I power cycled my phone, but it did not resolve the issue.

[atwab]

@CDoug you don't want to waste time posting in the forums, all the things that were suggested to you will be repeated to you by the Email Rep, don't bother telling them you have power cycled, because they will tell you to power cycle over and over again.

This is a huge issue, and it is not just affecting you, I had the same issue, and after emailing back and forth for 2 days, and having a "community manager" get in contact with me, it only got worse, I wasn't able to send or receive text messages, or make phone calls, however I could still receive them up till the point I walked into another carriers store and Ported my phone number out of PM....

I have also made a claim on my MasterCard to get my $146 back as I pre-paid for 3 months too... It's illegal in Ontario to sell a faulty product, so I will get my money back, even if "PM" says that it's in Beta... Good luck with your service, but I can't be without a reliable service.. Wind Mobile was better than this was...

[7789849803]

@CDoug Then choose the corresponding option in the form, but do send in that request without delay!

[CDoug]

Hello,

Thank you all for your input. There seems to be some confusion.

1. I did not mention it in my initial post, but I have tried my SIM card in another phone. It did not resolve the issue.
2. I have tried power cycling my phone, but I will try it again to see if it resolves the issue.

Again, thank you for your responses. I value your input.

edit: power cycling my phone did not work

[7789849803]

@CDoug Please follow these steps:

Click on "Contact Us" below ->

Click "Contact us below." ->

Click "Contact Us" ->

Select "Technical / Hardware Issues" ->

Click "Next" ->

Select "Calling and Text Messaging" ->

Click "Next" ->

Select "Voice calls not working" ->

Click "Next" ->

Select "The problem affects all my calls" ->

Click "Next" ->

Select "My phone is receiving a signal" ->

Click "Next" ->

Select "I believe my account is paid and up to date" ->

Click "Next" ->

Select "I have not tried a SIM card in another phone" ->

Click "Next" ->

Click "Email Us" ->

Type out the details to complete the form ->

Click "Send"

[youbme]

After clicking on contact us, go to "Contact us below" then "Contact Us" button... You will then be guided through what your issue is regarding before sending off your message.

EDIT: The link: https://publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help

[CDoug]

Hi @7789849803,

Clicking on the "Contact us" link and following the dialogue refers me to this thread:

http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Phones-Hardware/Not-able-to-make-or-receive-a-phone-ca...

None of the options in this thread are able to help me.

Please advise.

Thanks.

[youbme]

Hello @CDoug,

It seems that you have done everything you can on your end and it is most likely something going on with with PM (unless there is a weird hardware issue going on). The only remaining troubleshooting I can think of is to try out your SIM card in another unlocked phone to see if the issue is indeed from Public Mobile and not your phone.

If you haven't already, please send a webmail to PM through the Contact Us link below and make sure to explain your situation in detail, including your account information. They should respond within 48 hours, and if your issue is still not resolved, please let us know and we can notify a community manager to help escalate your issue.

[7789849803]

Hi @CDoug,

Smart comments aside, I'm sorry to hear about this issue. Please get in touch with PM support right away by clicking on the Contact Us link at the bottom of this page. They will resolve this for you.

If, for some reason, your issue goes unresolved for 48 hours after sending this webmail, please let us know and we will bring in a community manager to help escalate the problem internally.

[CDoug]

Yes I have, but I will try it again to see if it works.

edit: it did not work

[elehemeare · Accepted solution]

Have you tried power cycling the device?