Confused about Billing!

[RachelE]

I have been with Public Mobile for years and have referred a couple friends who are happy with the service. Unfortunately the billing is an absolute dog's breakfast and makes zero sense.

I have the very basic $15 plan, which they appear to translate as:
30-day plan $10
100 minutes $5
All good.

Then, according to the happy little texts, I have $2 off for autopay, $1 off for each of my 2 referrals, and $2 off for loyalty. The problem is, what they bill me every month is CONSISTENTLY 30% more. It's not a show-stopper, but it's annoying, and I not longer encourage people to join because I don't know what the costs are. There is zero explanation or documentation in my billing info. What am I missing?

[hTideGnow]

Hi @RachelE   $13.56 is $12+tax, that is 3 times the $4 you should be charged.   When you reply them show them the screenshot of your credit card with the credit card number , show them the screenshot from My Account, there is really no way they see "don't see the same number".  So, you have a strong case if $13.56 is shown clearly on the statement

[Korth]

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@Yummy wrote:Tell me ONE bank having surcharge on credit card transactions.

$13.56 is exactly $12 PM service + 13% tax.

Something is very odd with this billing or credit cards get mixed up and OP is paying somebody's else bill.

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You might be right about the $12 base + taxes.

But it turns out all five of Canada's big banks and many Canadian credit unions assess these sorts of charges on many of their cards. No doubt the actual credit card companies do the same. Nickle and dime percentages on each transaction is a big part of their revenue model, people without good credit scores often have to accept bad deals, people with good credit scores often have to proactively request upgrades to get rid of bad deals. It's generally even worse with pre-paid credit cards which don't require identification or credit checks/etc.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bank+visa+credit+card+charges+canada

[AE_Collector]

But the amount you saying showing up on your card doesn’t add up either so it isn’t as simple as they are billing you $15 plus tax. Lots of possibilities so the only way to sort out is to talk to a CSA. If that didn’t work I would try again. If you walk away you are walking away from $4/30 day cell service.

AE_Collector

[RachelE]

Not sure why you assume I don't understand taxes or assume my card is ripping me off. There is nothing wrong with my card and it certainly isn't adding surcharges. That wouldn't even be legal LOL. The problem is that Public Mobile isn't billing according to what their crediting. It's not my error. It's not the credit card provider. It's Public Mobile.

[Yummy]

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@Korth wrote:

@RachelE 

What is the "RAF Holiday / Référez-un-ami fêtes $5" item?

Is it a different way of wording "Reward - Refer-a-Friend ($1 per active friend) /Récompense - Référez-un-ami (1 $ par ami actif)" for five friends? If so, why is it called "RAF Holiday"?

Taxes are always charged at point of payment. PST/QST/GST/HST/whatever. That's part of the $13.56 (instead of the expected $10).

I'm guessing the remaining part is a surcharge from your bank or credit card issuer. Some kind of per-transaction fee (it looks like maybe $1.50 or $2.00) they add to each payment of this type.

I've never seen that before. On my account or on any of the referrals I've helped manage.

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Tell me ONE bank having surcharge on credit card transactions.

$13.56 is exactly $12 PM service + 13% tax.

Something is very odd with this billing or credit cards get mixed up and OP is paying somebody's else bill.

[HALIMACS]

@Korth 

It's the refer a friend bonus promotion that Public Mobile released over December 2021.

They recently had it again (for a very limited time) within the past few weeks.

It's a BONUS $30 for the person doing the referring (paid out as $5 x 6 months)

[Anonymous]

 @Korth : That was the Xmas referral treat. Also some customers got an email with that promo in February. I see nothing wrong with that list of transactions. The disconnect is what she see's on her payment card that does not reflect the auto top-up lines we see.

[Korth]

@RachelE 

What is the "RAF Holiday / Référez-un-ami fêtes $5" item?

Is it a different way of wording "Reward - Refer-a-Friend ($1 per active friend) /Récompense - Référez-un-ami (1 $ par ami actif)" for five friends? If so, why is it called "RAF Holiday"?

I've never seen that before. On my account or on any of the referral accounts I've helped manage.

Taxes are always charged at point of payment. PST/QST/GST/HST/whatever. By the Payment Voucher vendor. By any legit retailer. By the merchant (Telus) which charges your card. That's part of the $13.56 you're paying (instead of the expected $10). There's no way to legally avoid paying the tax(es) aside from having Native Status and buying Payment Vouchers from a vendor located on Native/Reservation Land. (Or from having enough Rewards to pay your entire "$0" bill for you.)

I'm guessing the remaining part is a surcharge from your bank/credit card issuer. Some kind of added per-transaction fee (it looks like maybe $1.50 or $2.00) they impose onto each payment of this type. If so, the only way to avoid this charge is to setup your AutoPay with a better card.

I agree that this bassackwards garbage Self-Serve accounting format is needlessly confusing and counterintuitive for most customers. Consumers have a different perspective than accountants tallying numbers for Big Dinosaur corporate overlords. I've complained about it from time to time for years now.

But on the plus side, they do seem to have quietly made one small improvement. They seem to always apply Rewards before applying charges. It wasn't always this way. It used to be frustrating to have Available Funds + Rewards be enough to pay for your plan together but still get your service suspended before Rewards were applied.

[Anonymous]

 @RachelE : Holy crap! No way. I hope you took screenshots of your overview page too. Wow. Reply back and demand an escalation. Ask them to provide you with the list of transactions that they think they see. Tell _them_ to prove how you're paying something different than what you ought to be.

When you're looking at some of the sub-screens, are you seeing your proper phone number that you're using?

And you're sure you aren't using a different card and that you're not paying for multiple accounts.

If you know your 4 digit PIN then dial 611 and check your remaining data. See if that matches (with a little bit of math) with the overview page that you're logging in to. 611 will tell you remaining. Overview will tell you used. So you need to do some math.

[hTideGnow]

HI @RachelE   Yes, don't give up with the ticket, escalate as what @esjliv  suggests.  Sometime, it's a junior support taken the ticket and they might not have given the correct informatoin.   Push for escalation and don't let the ticket just closed there.

[esjliv]

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@RachelE wrote:

They are denying that the screenshots - Which I took directly from their site, are genuine....They say they "don't see those numbers" . I may be done with Public Mobile. 😞

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what?!

If you verified you are showing $2 auto-pay, $2 loyalty, + $2 referral reward under your My Rewards account, and you showed us your transactions list then something does not right @RachelE 

And, that is not a sufficient answer.

Either that CSA was way off base, or they really messed up something with accounts or something else.

Go back on the ticket and ask to communicate to a supervisor.

[hTideGnow]

Hi @RachelE   How many charges from PM or Koodo on your credit card every month?  Are there 2 different transactions?  There should be one just $4+tax.  You said they charged you $13.xx, are there one charge $4.xx and another one  $8.xx?  

do you mind to post what you see on your credit card?  again, important thing is whether you have just one charge from PM/Koodo.

Also, how long you joined PM and how long has this wrong charges be?   Has it been from the beginning since you joined PM?

[RachelE]

They are denying that the screenshots - Which I took directly from their site, are genuine....They say they "don't see those numbers" . I may be done with Public Mobile. 😞

[esjliv]

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@RachelE wrote:

There's nothing wrong with the card and no extra charges. They just aren't crediting me as agreed and I don't know why.

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 Well that is the thing @RachelE I think the majority (if not all) don't know why either.

Seems Public Mobile has some explaining to do. Ask them for details, and if you care to share what happened, come back and let us know.

[Anonymous]

 @RachelE : Oh and the other kind of charge that hits the payment card is credit visa/debit top-up or some such words. Those are manual charges. But you probably don't have any. But look for those too.

[darlicious]

@RachelE 

That's the thing....they are crediting you. The problem is the charges to your autopay card. Honestly I think there's a glitch with your account and someone else's who probably renews on the same day as you. Maybe you both have cards with only a one digit difference....who knows but this is a glitch with autopay that needs to be straightened out by customer support. There has been several very odd autopay glitches reported since the beginning of the year going back to 2020 in some cases with customers that don't pay any attention to both their transaction history here or their payment card billing statements.

Luckily you noticed the odd billing and brought it up today but you need to check back the 180 days of your transaction history that you can access and then have customer support go back thru the rest since you signed up with pm. You need to do the same thru your payment card statements so that the CSA and you can compare billing to see when this actually started. You will probably see the difference in transaction history vs your card statements after you referred your first customer.

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #

[Anonymous]

 @RachelE : Alright then yes..each line that says automatic top-up is the amount that their own transaction history says they will have charged your payment card. If that line (+tax) does not match what's on your payment card then yes you are being incorrectly charged. Collect the 6 months of screenshots and 6 months of payment card transactions showing the dates of the charge and the date on the card (+tax). Make sure to show the payment card particulars so they can match that to your account as registered. Submit that as your proof.

[HALIMACS]

OK, if there's only one (1) charge each 30 days from Public Mobile in recent months, and if that charge is $13.56, definitely contact Customer Support and report that.

You may also wish to temporarily 'hold' your credit card, or at least search over the transactions for the past 60-90 days to ensure there are no unfamiliar charges showing on it.

[RachelE]

There's nothing wrong with the card and no extra charges. They just aren't crediting me as agreed and I don't know why.

[gpixel]

@esjliv 

she was private messaged by a member

[Anonymous]

Yeah I'll pile in in agreement with esjliv musing about whether you're paying for a "ghost" account. Do you see any other Public Mobile or maybe even Koodo charges on any of your cards? How long has this been going on?

Your transaction history shows everything you need. Go back the whole 6 months and keep those screenshots as proof. Compare the charge dates of those auto top-up amounts to your payment card.

Maybe even your card has compromised as darlicious hints at.

[Yummy]

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@darlicious wrote:

@RachelE 

Being charged $13.56 to your autopay card is not right. I bet there is another customer biting their tongue and wondering why they only got charged $9+tax and then silencely rejoicing even more when it went down to $4+tax the last 2 months!

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That will be only possible if PM mixed up credit card info between 2 customers.

@RachelEshould log in into her self-serving account and check what credit card info is there!

[darlicious]

@RachelE 

Being charged $13.56 to your autopay card is not right. I bet there is another customer biting their tongue and wondering why they only got charged $9+tax and then silencely rejoicing even more when it went down to $4+tax the last 2 months!

Contact customer support with copies of your autopay charges on your card statement and ask for a credit back for as long as these errant autopay charges have been going on. Tell the CSA that at the very least they should give you a $5/500min add on to boot!

Edit:

Lol...oops!

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #

[HALIMACS]

@RachelE 

According to your posted transaction history, you're receiving a total of $11 of credits each cycle, for the last 2 cycles.

In December, it was $9+tax because the automatic top-up wouldn't have received the bonus $5 referral credit that began in January.

That means you should be paying $4+TAX each month (and NO MORE).

If your payment card is showing more than that, and you have not purchased additional add-ons and are certain that you're not paying for another public mobile account, I would immediately contact Customer Support to report this discrepancy.

To contact a Customer Support Agent, there are 2 methods:

1. Use the ticketing system for a faster response time. Click here and type Customer Support Agent, then select Contact Us, then select Other (or the topic that more closely matches your request).  Click the result which states Click here to submit a ticket and follow the prompts,  or, 
2. Send a private message to the Customer Support Agent by clicking here  You’ll need to be logged into your Community account for the link to work.

Watch for their response in your Community private mailbox which will be indicated by a number on the small envelope icon to the left of your Community avatar.

[esjliv]

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@gpixel wrote:

@esjliv 

it's was a member that doesn't contribute for rewards

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I don't understand @gpixel  ?

[esjliv]

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@RachelE wrote:

I like your suggestion about manually paying each month!

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@RachelE  - just curious, who and where is it suggested to pay manually each month? I don't see this in the thread (unless I missed it).

[gpixel]

@esjliv 

it's was a member that doesn't contribute for rewards

[darlicious]

@RachelE 

Lol...oh you have the RAF credit too...no that's perfectly normal transaction history. You were charged $9+tax to hour autopay card in December. $4+tax for your renewal in January and $4+tax for your last renewal in February. 90 days of service has been charged to your autopay card in the amount of $9+$4+$4=$17+ tax.

Edit:

Sorta....geez it wasn't letting me post for like 10 minutes....I hate this new community.

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #

[Yummy]

Seeing your transaction list you should be paying $4.52 every 30 days and not $13.56 ?!?!?!

'Automatic top-up' is what goes out of your pocket.

Contact agent ASAP and demand refund or explanation why PM charges you $12 for service instead of $4?

Unless you have another account but credit card statement will show 2 separate charges then...

[esjliv]

@RachelE  - you can manually pay each month, as some people like to do, but you really don't need to.

You should be charged $4 plus taxes with autopay as per your screenshot, plain and simple.

If you are being charged more, submit a ticket to CSA, as that is not accurate otherwise.