Cannot Activate - Alternate Phone Number Regex Help

[nnijo]

If you experience this, you're not alone. Only Mods can help you activate, there's nothing you can do. Give them all the required info when you sign up and they will do it.

Public mobile needs to look into the codes behind the activation page. Most probably it's a poorly coded jquery.

Posting this for visibility since Google crawls this forum. Hope that others won't waste hours trying to activate on different browsers, devices, networks...like I did, and instead just tell mods to activate on your behalf.

Peace out!

[srlawren]

@mpskahlon I have edited your post to remove your personal information, as this is a publicly visible community.  That said, please do not suggest other customer send you their information.  

@rag_anne and everyone else, please only share your personal info with a member of the @CS_Agent (anyone with the "MOD" bold tag beside their name), and only via private message.  You can always use this link to private message the moderator team at any time, and someone will get back to you as soon as they can.

EDIT: corrected my tagging of the wrong person

[mpskahlon]

Hi, Please try one more time and if it didn't work send me your information at mXXXXXXXX1@hotmail.com and I will try to fill the form for you.

Thanks 

[rag_anne]

I am having the same problem and cannot transfer my number over.  I have tried clicking the checkbox first as some have suggested, my name is less than 11 character....but I still see the error when I input a 10-digit alternate number (without spaces/dashes).  Can you help me with the activation?  Thank you!

[mabbas]

Hi Shazia

@Shazia_KPlease help, I messaged around a week and a half ago and still awaiting a response. 

I have the same problem, getting the alternate regex help error. I hope you can help me, I will send another private message with all details. 

Thank you

Mohamed

[mpskahlon]

Finally I was able to port my number from Rogers to PM today.
The issue I found was with Name column. ..I was trying to type my first name that consists of two words "######## ***". But this time my one friend suggested me to use just first 8 letters of my name and I was able to successfully port my number.

So anyone getting "Regex" error. ...try using smaller name without any space ....just one word.

[srlawren]

Actually @nnijo, I believe it goes back much further.

[nnijo]

You can PM Shazia or Mary_M here with all the information required on the first page and second page of the porting process. I find taking a screenshot and giving it to them helps.

It's been a month since we encountered this problem and it has yet to be fixed 😞

[mpskahlon]

Hi, I am trying to port my number from Rogers while activating my PM SIM but getting the "Alternate Phone Number Regex Help" error after I enter alternate phone in the column.

I have read the PM forum and noticed other people also had the same problem...could any moderators can help me activating/porting my number?

Regards

[nnijo]

@misshumhum any update on your porting process?

[srlawren]

@yuan23 yes, if you haven't sent the phone number you're porting and account number to Shazia, please do so immediately so she can help.

@nnijo I couldn't agree more.  I know that PM staff are working hard on the issues, but I have no idea when the insanity will stop!  🙂

[nnijo]

@srlawren good reply. What all mods do are good, but what's better is fixing the website so these poor people can save time activating & porting and mods don't get the hate they don't deserve. As I've said, most clients here don't need help if the errors don't appear and can complete all processes by themselves! That's a huge load off the mods

[yuan23]

I did send the SIM card number and email that I used to activate account. Do you also need the phone number that I'm trying to port? And the account number?

[Shazia_K]

Hello @yuan23, 

Sorry to see that! 

Please also send me the info requested above 😉

Thanks,

Shazia

[yuan23]

I've been having this problem as well since last night. I ported 2 lines no problem, just the third number that I'm having issue porting. I sent you a PM last night. I wanted to port all my lines before my Zoomer account cycle ends but no luck with this last one.

[Shazia_K]

Hello @misshumhum, 

I'm very sorry to hear about this! 

I understand that this situation can be quite unpleasant but rest assured that I am here to help you. 

Can you please send me a private message with the following for both of you: 

-Email address used for activation

-SIM card #'s 

Thank you so much @srlawren 

[srlawren]

@misshumhum and @nnijo -- definitely sympathetic!  I'd be frustrated too.  In my own opinion, I think PM marketing underestimated the volume of people that would flood into PM for the current promo plan.  This is just a theory.  I can say that they are well aware of the frustration, and are actively working on ways to improve turnaround time.  I am hopeful that by the end of this week, we will see support return to a more normal turnaround of hours.

I don't know how PM moderators and email support staff prioritize the requests.  To be honest, if I worked on that team the past 72 hours, I'd be looking for the nearest bridge to jump off of.  I think whatever systems they have in place for issue tracking and prioritizing probably fell completely down over the weekend, and unfortunatley isntead of first-come-first-serve or more-urgent-need being considered, I think it was a scramble from one issue to the next, and unfortunatley some requests fell through the cracks.  I do know that they are working very hard, and helping A LOT of people, and unfortunately, so far, you haven't been among those lucky folks.  The moderators do care, but they can only do so much in their workday.

I am truly sorry for the experience you guys and some others have had so far, and as I said, I'd be frustrated in your shoes too.  I DO hope that you hang in there, and that you get helped quickly come tomorrow, because once you're up and running, I really do think it's worth the hassle having gotten going.  I hope you will love the network and the plans, and over time this poor activation experience will hopefully fade for you somewhat.

Wishing you a speedy resolution.  Cheers.

EDIT: I wanted to bring a reply earlier this evening from @Shazia_K to your attention. Please click me.  I wanted to highlight it becasue it includes two interesting things relevant to this discussion.  #1 it shed some light on how requests are prioritized--and it makes sense to me.  And #2 it shows the dedication as Shazia stayed hours after her shift ended to try help as many as possible.  I know the other moderators are working very hard, too.  I hope they get to you both tomorrow and you get a quick resolution.

[nnijo]

Hey there, yeah tell me about it! It was super frustrating for me and my gf too!

For the mods i think they read your message and pass it on to the backend team, then relay the solution back to you. Don't think the mods here hold info back, it's most probably backend problems. They admitted to me that they have zero idea how to fix this problem as it's coding-related

[misshumhum]

Okay this is pretty ridiculous. Both myself and my bf @shirohane ordered the SIM cards and tried to register repeatedly over the weekend. We got the same Regex problem too and pm'ed @Shazia_K for help, on Saturday evening. 

Not only did we not hear anything back for over 48 hours now but the problem still exists. On top of that choosing to create a new number doesn't work anymore either. For an online mobile company your engineering team should be more solid. 

As for replying to PMs, I thought there should be a first-come first-serve practice?? 

Really not happy about this. 

[nnijo]

Ok good news, Shazia has put in a request for the port. Number should be up and running by tonight! Just in time for Halloween!

[Shazia_K · Accepted solution]

@nnijo, 

You're welcome! 😉

The port has been requested, please allow at least 30 minutes to 2 hours for the port to complete. You will receive a text message saying that the port has completed and then simply reboot your phone 🙂

Thanks,

Shazia

[nnijo]

Thanks to Shazia now my Self-Serve account is finally activated.

Tried to port using Change Phone Number function, filled out the form and waited. Kaboom "We are experiencing difficulties porting this number. Please contact Public Mobile for further assistance."

PM'ed Shazia and waiting...

[srlawren]

@nnijo sounds like you're in good hands?  PS support hours are 9AM-9PM eastern today (Mon-Thurs).  

[Shazia_K]

Hey @nnijo, 

I just sent you a reply about 5 minutes ago, please check your private messages. 

Thanks,

Shazia

[nnijo]

Almost 5pm EST. Well, gotta wait another day it seems.

Started Friday night now we here...had the website worked, none of this time-wasting back and forth would have happened. I'm feeling very disappointed with PM and its porting-in process...

[nnijo]

Update: 1.30pm EST. Shazia replied to my private message within the hour after she posted in this thread. Due to a typo error when she set up my selfserve account, I'm still unable to activate my account. It's been an hour since I sent her a request for correction and still waiting. 

In the spirit of Halloween, please, let all be done today...

[Shazia_K]

Hello @nnijo, 

I'm sorry to hear about this! 

Can you please send me a private message with your Public Mobile phone #?

Please allow a short time for me to reply back 😉

Thanks,

Shazia

[nnijo]

It's 11:15 EST monday morning and still nothing from Mary_M. Can someone else activate my selfserve account or tell the system to resend the activation email? Why there's no option to resend that email?

Rest assured I have checked all spam folders...

[nnijo]

Update: still no hear from Mary_M. It's 5pm PST and 8pm EST. Looks like I won't be able to port in for monday.

Activated Friday night, website error, pm'ed mod Sat morning, got activated on temp number on Sat, selfserve website failed, pm'ed mod again Sat night and Sun morning, mod never replies >>>> will get pushed to Monday.

Definitely not a good weekend

[nnijo]

I've pm'ed Mary_M this morning and still waiting. Even if the port is successful, without a selfserve account I can't choose & pay for any plan anyway...

Hope this is done today so come Monday i have service for work...

[srlawren]

@nnijo at this point if you still can't port, I'd suggest you send a private message to @Saray_O with the following info:

- your temporary PM phone number

- the provider name you want to port from 

- your account number at that provider

- your alternate phone number

- your name, exactly as it appears on your provider's phone bills or self-serve system

She should be able to initiate/fix the port request for you.