Can't add funds via Simon anymore, can't add less than what is due via self serve *still*

[Pawprints1986]

Can you fix this problem already? Paying via Simon used to be the work around to accounting for rewards you *will get* with your upcoming renewal.  now you can only add via my account or 611, which is fine if you'd allow us to do our own basic math, so we don't have $5 sitting there in limbo every month

Unless y'all are going to actually allow people refunds, due to these limbo balances now being unavoidable - until this is fixed, should people wish to switch carriers

This is a  problem. Please, FIX IT ALREADY!!!

Sorry, I'm just annoyed. You took away the one way we had to do what we want to do, without fixing the other ways that are supposed to work first. Bad move PM

edited by computergeek541:  removal of attempt to bypass profanity filter

[softech]

---

@darlicious wrote:

It's too bad too many community members have forgotten that point in favour of pointing out directions on how to contact customer support.

---

@darlicious  I hope you don't mean me.  Someone just accused me of that last week,   DISAPPOINTED.  (to clarify , not disappointed at you 🙂 )

Yes, I understand your point that more optiion is definitely better, I have to agree.  

But this Simon feature is not common.  Not many members would able to suggest

We all know Simon is not easy to navigate, I doubt many can make good use of it, especially under time pressure (day 89.5)  . 

And one more thing, Simon-transition needs My Account to login, many under that time constraint don't even know their login, so Simon-Transaction might not be very useful in that case

Again, you brought up a good point, there were glitches in My Account avoiding you from completing a tranaction that should be easy and simple.  So, I think I stick with my point, just fix those glitches first and not to rely on Simon-Transactoin as a workarounds to those My Account's glitch 

[darlicious]

@softech 

Muskbird can't help if you cannot add their voucher thru self serve or the 611/IVR system. There are many thousands of customers that never visit the community until it's panic stages. Admonishing them for not realizing their account is suspended, or they miscounted their days of suspension or pm sent them an email with the wrong timeline to reactivate is not what they need to hear. I have run into the issue of not being able to reactivate an account with plenty of funds on it but there's a glitch preventing it after you unsuspend from lost/stolen. With a $0 gift credit card on file that you can only update if you have access to your email. We have all been unable to access our accounts during unscheduled maintenance. It doesn't matter if 99.99% of customers had no idea of this former option via Simon as long as one member knew that could tell the desperate customer how to add a payment with only minutes before deactivation that's all that counts.

Copying and pasting how to contact customer support does diddley squat in those moments. That one solution is worth a thousand solutions on contacting a closed customer support department in the middle of the night. Being able to offer these kinds of community support is the reason we are here. It's too bad too many community members have forgotten that point in favour of pointing out directions on how to contact customer support.

[softech]

@darlicious  even you learned this new feature today, how many members you think will really make use of it?

and if anyone on 89/90 , discover unable to login, i would remind them, i always advise people to top up on Day 85th, not day 89.5

Also, i would remind them  Darlicious found a great workaround and able to help them on day 89.8: Muskbird.com  🙂

[darlicious]

@softech 

Until you are on day 89/90 and discover for whatever reason you can't log into self serve and the 611/IVR system is down. You are only $1 short of reactivation. What do you do? 

[softech]

---

@computergeek541 wrote:

---

---

I have my doubts that many would have used this feature even if it were well known.  For the most part, customers would have simply gone into Self Serve to perform the transactions.

---

@computergeek541   you are talking about people like me 🤣

Those are fun features, but honest, why not just login to My Account and pay?    Some members might like it,  but  I highly doubt if even 5% of all the manual transactions are done via SIMON.

Yes, it somehow allows you to load funds less than the amount due, but I would think it makes more sense to fix the My Account payment glitch than keeping SIMON's special features just  for that

Overall, I don't have trouble seeing these Simon features gone.  Maybe keep better Help pages to walk through customers how to pay or do various things on My Account would be a better investment  🙂

And thanks Oracle @computergeek541 for confirming.  This is why we need Oracles here as a bridge between PM and Community members 🙂

[dust2dust]

This place just keeps getting stupider and stupider and the usual complete lack of communication. I swear they just want to altogether close this place up.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Scheduled-System-Maintenance-on-Sept-8/...

The above was severely edited after an initial mention but it led me to investigate and I was impressed that so many functions were available logging in to the chatbot. Gone. Severely cut back. Why does an oracle end up off-handedly informing the community that it's no longer possible? Why can't we hear these things directly? I'd far rather hear something official than a possibly interpreted, second-hand, possibly abbreviated statement.

Yes ever since the new system, the ability to do small payments was lost. Stupid.

[wetcoaster]

---

@computergeek541 wrote:

---

@hTideGnow wrote:

Hi @Patchio actually there was never any communication about those special SIMON features, I think they are there for experiment, it is pretty much just hidden features.  Probably because of that, PM decided not to announce

Even some Community gurus not aware the feature 🙂

---

I have my doubts that many would have used this feature even if it were well known.  For the most part, customers would have simply gone into Self Serve to perform the transactions.

---

The point of this thread is that this particular desired transaction is NOT possible in Self Serve?

So, do we now need to beg CSAs to add odd amounts below amount due to our accounts?

Are they allowed to do that?

Are they willing to do that? Or is it another one of those hit and miss things, depending on the CSA and the mood they are in on this particular day (like solving problems with (bonus) RAF or some activation bonus data, where some CSAs outright refuse to help, even if you can proof your eligibility)?

[Pawprints1986]

@wetcoaster yep that's exactly the issue... If, in my example my plan is 30, but then I know I will get $5 in rewards (this time around, community rewards  fluctuate), I literally cannot pay $25 only. I'd have to pay the $30 balance, then I'd get $5 rewards for a $35 balance, then they take the $30. 

The *next* time, since those previous rewards are already there, it will allow for a $25 payment, but not for a $21 or $20 payment accounting for both the rewards in your account already from a month ago, and the ones you are about to get. Hence what I called "limbo rewards"

It's fine for people who do like to add more than what's due for a few months at a time. But 3rd tier is typically for those without much to go around to begin with. 

I've also never given autopay the chance to fail, it's seemed like solid advice since I joined. If post paid, if it fails they're contacting you, they want money for a service you've already used. But for prepaid, they're not worried if your account goes inactive for a day until you have time to deal with it. 

@computergeek541 but why though? It wasn't hurting anybody...?

[computergeek541]

---

@hTideGnow wrote:

Hi @Patchio actually there was never any communication about those special SIMON features, I think they are there for experiment, it is pretty much just hidden features.  Probably because of that, PM decided not to announce

Even some Community gurus not aware the feature 🙂

---

I have my doubts that many would have used this feature even if it were well known.  For the most part, customers would have simply gone into Self Serve to perform the transactions.

[hTideGnow]

Hi @Patchio actually there was never any communication about those special SIMON features, I think they are there for experiment, it is pretty much just hidden features.  Probably because of that, PM decided not to announce

Even some Community gurus not aware the feature 🙂

[Patchio]

@computergeek541 

If PM is going to randomly discontinue functionalities that were previously available to customers, it would be appreciated if they communicated this news with some sort of advanced notice or announcement. 

If I were @Pawprints1986 , I would be annoyed as well because I wouldn't have known this function had been officially discontinued unless an Oracle decided to chime in and set the record straight. 

[wetcoaster]

---

@darlicious wrote:

@wetcoaster 

It also eliminates the $1 manual top up for provisioning issues and reactivation issues. Lost/stolen also no longer works to trigger a reactivation.

---

@darlicious 

Ah yes, these scenarios can happen to anyone, whether they are on $ or points.

I was not aware about the lost/stolen work-around no longer working, thanks for mentioning it.

[darlicious]

@wetcoaster 

It also eliminates the $1 manual top up for provisioning issues and reactivation issues. Lost/stolen also no longer works to trigger a reactivation.

[darlicious]

@Pawprints1986 

Aha...I just learned something new today from you.....unfortunately now I have also learned the workaround no longer works? 🤔

If your rewards are currently $5 playing with voucher amounts should enable you to pay only what you need but once you bump up to $6 or $7 with loyalty or a community reward will make that impossible without paying a fee for an RTP or instant top up. Unless you want to allow suspension to occur and immediately pay the amount due via 611 or self serve.

Maybe @maximum_gato needs to start a brand new wishlist as almost everything on the last one has been fulfilled? Then again maybe just putting it on that wishlist is all you need to do?

Ah heck it's still about 50/50 but interesting to see you need to be careful what you wish for....

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/The-Community-s-Public-Mobile-Wishlist/td...

[dabr]

@computergeek541    That's good to know for those affected by this change, but perhaps PM should have made this information available through an announcement/notification so customers were aware that it had been discontinued? 

[computergeek541]

---

@wetcoaster wrote:

@computergeek541 

So what does management say about the initial problem, the fact that you can't manually add less than the amount due before rewards? It's not that they have ironed out autopay fail, so they should allow us this option to avoid being without service.

---

Public Mobile is aware of the concerns and complaints, but unfortunately,  I have seen very few of the issues fixed.

[wetcoaster]

@computergeek541 

So what does management say about the initial problem, the fact that you can't manually add less than the amount due before rewards? It's not that they have ironed out autopay fail, so they should allow us this option to avoid being without service. 

Edit: I think it's time to bring this thread to @J_PM 's attention.

[computergeek541]

---

@Pawprints1986 wrote:

Can you fix this problem already? Paying via Simon used to be the work around to accounting for rewards you *will get* with your upcoming renewal.

---

Sorry, but transactions through SIMon have been discontinued.

[wetcoaster]

@fujiyama 

With all the bad programming around here it's likely another oopsie, but... The cynic in my is piping up with a "what if it's intentional?"

[fujiyama]

Thanks @dabr I honestly did not know about this bug 😅 autopay has been trouble free for me so far, knock on wood lol.

I just tried it and got the same results as @wetcoaster explained in their post above. This is a pretty big fail for sure. 

[wetcoaster]

Fascinating... It seems that the 4 replies (at the time I started to type this, I'm sure this is on page 2 by the time I'm hitting "reply"... As always, I'm late with my $0.02) are not getting the point, that @Pawprints1986 a long standing member here is making.

They are pointing out that it's impossible now to manually add less than the amount due - which does not include reward dollars - to your account.

Not everyone can afford keeping money in their PM account nor, do they want to rely on autopay. They want to pay manually the exact amount that'll be needed at renewal. *

This screen shot is from a $15 plan with $10 rewards:

  

It used to be good practice to add $1 manually to double check that a newly added / changed credit card worked on the account. Not possible anymore. *

Edit: * These are, obviously, just two possible reasons why one would want to add less than the full amount due... Even on the points system (where, in my understanding, you're always paying the amount due because there's no $ adjustments on renewal night)  the function to add whatever amount we want should be available, IMO. 

[dabr]

@fujiyama   I think since PM updated the self serve account last summer, topping up the account with custom amounts has become a problem unless you already carry a balance that covers your next renewal.  It seems the payment system won't take into account any  rewards that will be available and wants the full amount of your plan amount due unless you have available funds.

edited for clarification after trying to top up on one account that doesn't carry any extra balance but payment due is minus the rewards but wouldn't accept lesser amount top up.

[fujiyama]

@Pawprints1986,

What problems are you running into with adding money on self-serve? I have always been able to add custom amounts to my account. Both on desktop and mobile browser.

[dabr]

Never used chatbot to pay either before, but definitely if that is supposed to work as an option/workaround, then it should be fixed without delay, however, we know lots of things around here that should be fixed are not...alas!

@Pawprints1986   Perhaps, you should tag J_PM about this?

[Meow]

It is OK to vent out from time to time to lower one's blood pressure but you are barking under the wrong tree.

We are ALL customers here like yourself and PM staff seldom lurk here or read posts.

You have a complain - talk to agent.

You can always add fuds to your account:

[LoveNature]

Hi @Pawprints1986 

browser/ open inPrivate mode,from computer., add more and using for next payment.

[softech]

@Pawprints1986 hold your breath, PM never really fixes things quick :(. I don't think many people use that to pay, so maybe PM took it down because of that??

[Handy1]

@Pawprints1986  

Auto pay can fail

To make payment and reactivate plan .. if you know PIN number you can *611 with a voucher and *611  no PIN needed . You can also do this by by calling 18554PUBLIC . otherwise log into self serve make manual payment and reactivate service and or update credit card if necessary

My account

Legend  and features

Change plan / update cc /auto pay

Account #/ change # port /swap SIM

If you  still have service and your plan renews today / tomorrow you can ignore this suspended notice