Clarification of Public Mobile Data Add on Expiry Changes and US Roaming Add ons

[maximum_gato]

@J_PM 

With the roll out of the "new" public mobile one of the most significant changes that affect existing customers (and new ones) is the policy change regarding data add on expiry dates. The help articles state:

Overview of Data Add-Ons

Sometimes you may need a little boost in your data, which is why we offer data add-ons that supplement your plan. Whether you’ve run out of your plan data or want some extra just in case, you can buy an add-on at any time.

QUERY

1. "Just in case" works with no add on expiry but with data priced at $5/200mb and $15/1gb this is expensive data add on pricing for data that will expire 30 days hence. The recommendation should be to wait to purchase add on data just before or once you run out ofplan or add on data. "Just in case" you don't actually need the add on data.

Here are some important things to know about Public Mobile data add-ons:

Add-ons are always the same data speed as your plan.

For example, if you are on a 5G speed plan and you buy a 1GB data add-on, that add-on is also for 5G speeds

QUESTION

1. For legacy plan customers who have a plan with no data does the data speed for add ons still default to full speed 4G LTE?

Data add-ons only work in Canada. For details on data for roaming, click here.

Data add-ons are valid for 30 days after you purchase them. After 30 days, any unused data will expire

QUESTIONS

1. Will public mobile reconsider the decision to have add on data expire 30 days after purchase? Having a 30 day expiry makes data add ons nearly the same as plan data. Essentially it's a price gouge on legacy plan holders who wish to keep their plan and $15 and $25 plan holders who manage their data usage and only purchase data add ons "just in case" they need it over the following months or year or more....not the next 30 days.
2. Does the 30 day expiry also include point rewards redemptions for data add ons?
3. Going forward will this apply to promotional or gifted data add ons like the "more is merrier" holiday gift data add ons?
4. How will pm ensure that 30 day expiry data add ons are used first over older data add ons or plan data after renewal? Public Mobile has previously been unable to solve this issue for $60 Canada/US Roaming plan holders.

Note: any data add-ons purchased before May 8th, 2023 will not be subject to a 30 day expiry. These data add-ons will continue to roll-over until they are fully consumed

QUESTION

1. You have previously clarified that data add ons purchased before May 24th will continue to roll over every 30 days. Which date is correct? May 8th or May 24th?

If you change your plan your data add-on will fall off and no longer be valid. You will have to purchase a new add-on

QUESTION

1. Does losing data add ons when changing plans apply only to newly purchased data add ons that have a 30 day expiry? Or does it apply to all data add ons on a customer's account?

If you’d like to purchase a data add-on you can do so in the Public Mobile app or in My Account. You can see the full list of available add ons here.

15 Day US Roaming add ons 

We offer a special set of add-ons you can use when roaming in the United States with one service or a combination. All U.S. Roaming add-ons will last 15 days. This 15-day period begins when you pay for the add-on and ends 15 days later at 11:59PM ET.

We’ve partnered with AT&T and T-Mobile to provide you with fantastic coverage. Your U.S. coverage will include all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more details, check out our coverage map here

QUESTION

1. Previously US Roaming add on expiry was based on a 24 hour clock expiring 24×15=360 hours later vs at 11:59:59pm eastern. Please confirm that US Roaming add ons now expire at the end of the 15th day after purchase?

QUESTIONS

1. Do customers still have to wait 24 hours after expiry to repurchase the same add on? So if it expires at the end of day 15 it cannot be repurchased (without the help of customer support) until the start of day 17 (12:00am eastern)?
2. For approximately the last year customers have been unable to connect to AT&T when roaming in the US. Can you confirm that pm has renewed its roaming agreement with AT&T and assure them that they can connect to AT&T in addition to T-Mobile?
3. In relation to #2 can you confirm pm customers can now roam in Alaska? There has been no coverage in Alaska for the past year with the inability to connect to AT&T. T-Mobile has no network coverage in Alaska only a roaming agreement for their customers only with CGI.

For all public mobile customers who would like to show their displeasure with the data add on expiry policy change from no expiry to the 30 day expiry after purchase please comment below and tag @J_PM so that pm can accurately calculate how many customers would like to see this policy reversed. This thread can act as an unofficial informal petition.

We all want to believe that pm will reconsider this decision which is why Public Mobile is Grrrrreat!! 🐯😀🐈‍⬛

[uy]

I would like to see a complete and total reversal of this "new" policy whereby data add-ons expire after 30 days.

Incredibly disappointed.

Add-on data that did not expire was literally one of THE biggest super-star features of PM.

Raise the prices of the data add-ons if you must... but KEEP non-expiring data add-ons, as they always were. What a mistake!

Just spent $30 on 3GB that will mostly go to waste, due to "new" 30 day expiry policy. Not happy. Reverse course, PM.

[Alice126]

@J_PM it will be appreciated if PM can bring back the unlimited roll forward data add-on or at least we can use the add-on data when it expires earlier than the data in my plan.

[Lhaha]

@J_PM 

please add me on your list : I am very disappointed with change from no expiry to the 30 day expiry after purchase

[Arieman]

please change it back or at least make it 60 day expiry. 30 days is brutal. @J_PM 

[nerako]

@J_PM Please add me to the list who would like to reverse this policy. I don't see the explicit answer in the original post but it makes sense that at least new addons with expiry should be used first, before the old, rollover data!

[NicolasEL]

@ValeryD1 Thanks for pointing me to the Koodo and Fido plans.  This looks like an alternative to PM now that Data Add-ons don't roll over.

@J_PM  Please roll back the Data Add-Ons 30 day expiry.

[nancy21]

I think a reasonable modification to the data expiry issue would be to at least use the add on data FIRST. That way it would not expire before you had a chance to use it!!

[BAWM]

@ValeryD1 Thanks for pointing me to the Koodo and Fido plans.  This looks like an alternative to PM now that Data Add-ons don't roll over.

@J_PM  please roll back the Data Add-Ons 30 day expiry

[mik101]

I too would like to see PM reverse the 30 day add on expiry removed and go back to expire when its all used up regardless of time. We paid for it and it should be there for a customer to use when needed. The expiry date has to go. First they got rid of the old rewards system, and now this. Not many reasons to come to PM anymore when other carriers are offering the same (and give you a full month rather than 30 days). 

[Ken11]

The expiry date has to go.

[NVMom]

That's interesting but I'm in the same boat as you as I have enough data and couldn't possibly use that much. Let's hope PM reverses this or, at the very least, offers a compromise.

[MobileMom]

Another Vote to reverse this @J_PM 

[dust2dust]

@NVMom- Another user (or two?) seem to have possibly stumbled upon this possibility. They apparently bought a data add-on. Used some of it and then bought another one. It added what they had left and then also added another 30 days to the countdown.  It then looks like they bought another and it added what they had left and added yet another 30 days to the countdown totalling 90 days.
No one else has yet gone about doing this either as a test or as needed. I'm not willing to test it out as I have plenty of data and don't need it.
Nor do we know if this was intentional in the programming. It could just be a glitch.

But we all agree that this limited days business is bad.

[NVMom]

I only found out about this new 30-day expiry recently and am extremely disappointed in PM. It's especially upsetting that we received no notice of this change before it happened.

@J_PM add me to the list of customers who are very unhappy with this change. As others have suggested, at least allow for a longer expiry. I would suggest 365 days, and if you purchase a new data add-on before the old one expires, then it can roll over and extend the expiry of the old add-on. (This is how 7-Eleven Speakout's prepaid text and calling works.)

[Typhon]

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@dust2dust wrote:

@ATHENS- Didn't you say along the way with all your scrubbed replies that you found in your payment history that you bought it on something like July 7th or thereabouts? It's also interesting that the new add-on shown by user Circus has the day counter in black. I presume it would go red closer to expiration. But you have been showing red all along with lots of days left. You do seem to have some weird anomaly.

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No that's how it works    .....the expiration date goes red when one purchases an additional add on before the existing one expires - and it just adds 30 days to the original .

[LitlLdy]

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@maximum_gato wrote:

@computergeek541 

How does this "cleaning up" of the thread work? It seems to me that in your sanitizing of my thread you have archived my response to another member's concerns but have left a trail of "My Account has a problem." edited posts?🤔🐈‍⬛

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@maximum_gato , right! That person has at least 14 posts starting 3 weeks ago on your thread here that all those now say the same thing “My account has a problem” but was previously stating had 60 days expiration (with screenshots) of a Canadian data add-on instead of 30 day expiration, then made all those posts blank with a dot! This thread that you created is about the now 30 day expiration of the Canadian data add-on (that used to be non expiring until used up) so keeping those post should have mattered until they went blank & now all 14 repeated posts now! Some posts were removed that could have stayed & a lot stayed (included 14 repeated unnecessary ones that stayed) that should be gone! 🤔 I understand when some of mine disappear when they are not needed but confused about some of them that get removed or stay when shouldn’t! I understand it is not an easy or fun job to do but doesn’t always make sense! 😔 

[maximum_gato]

@computergeek541 

How does this "cleaning up" of the thread work? It seems to me that in your sanitizing of my thread you have archived my response to another member's concerns but have left a trail of "My Account has a problem." edited posts?🤔🐈‍⬛

[dandan7]

@J_PM

this change is extremely disappointing and adds expense... Reason for coming to PM was to have an af...

[hTideGnow]

Hi @tttianna judt hit bravos to show your appreciation 

In terms this thread about 30 days data, it is what it is, not going to change.  

[dust2dust]

@tttianna- You read it, seem to appreciate it, now click on the little thumbs up just under it to give it even more appreciation.

[tttianna]

bravo

[mg_gti]

@J_PM  will be porting my number elsewhere unless this policy is reversed.

[Slingshot]

Bring back no Expiry on Data Add-On’s.

[dust2dust]

@ATHENS- Didn't you say along the way with all your scrubbed replies that you found in your payment history that you bought it on something like July 7th or thereabouts? It's also interesting that the new add-on shown by user Circus has the day counter in black. I presume it would go red closer to expiration. But you have been showing red all along with lots of days left. You do seem to have some weird anomaly.

[dust2dust]

@Circus- It all depends on when you buy it during the billing cycle. I would think that people would buy data near the end of a cycle to hold them over until the renewal. Then, unless they run out again, they basically waste the purchase depending on how much of the add-on they used. But maybe you ran out earlier than anticipated.
But it has no relation to the billing cycle. It's just 30 days. Buy it whenever you like.

[ValeryD1]

I don’t know what Tellus will do next with PM, at the moment I will keep one account with PM (I have accumulated a lot of ++) and I haven’t finally decided what to do with two others or Koodo with 360 days (~ $25 a month) plan or Fido with 6 month plan (also ~$25 per month). Both companies, unlike PM, offer add-on without expiration after 30 days and LTE speed.
But, for sure I not going to purchase Data add for 30 day on PM!

[LitlLdy]

@maximum_gato , I wonder how many Customers purchase Canadian data add-ons now knowing they expire within 30 days of purchasing? I bet not many!

I don’t think we will get back to having non expiring (until all used up) Canadian data add-ons! It seems they want to push higher priced plans with more data instead & faze out lower priced plans ($15 3g speed & $25 3g speed, low amount of data plans)!

[davyjones307]

Agreed. @J_PM please bring back no expiry data add ons. This is a core value of the PM offering. You will lose a lot of loyal customers without this.

[burks]

Just found out about this change yesterday. This is one of the major reasons I have been so loyal to public mobile for so many years. I will be looking for another service provider and will no longer suggesting public mobile to any of my friends and family. Great job public. 🙄