Everytime my plan renews, my phone needs rebooting

[Patchzilla]

Wondering if anyone can help

I have autopay set up and in spite of this, everytime my plan is renewed, my calls, texts and data stop working and I have to restart my phone and then wait a while for them to start working again.

Is this normal? Is this just a thing with PM, or with all pay and go sims? (I'm from the UK, so apologies if this seems like a silly thing to ask).

It's not a huge deal, but also it's very inconvenient if I forget that my plans renewing and I'm out and about somewhere trying to use my phone to find it's not working and have to take 20 minutes to reboot it and for my sim to start working again.

I was happy to accept this was just a minor inconvenience I had to live with, until recently when I was at the vets and couldn't call them to let them know I had arrived and was waiting outside (covid means you have to call from the parking lot and wait to be seen). I was stressed and upset enough already at the time and the last thing I needed was to be stuck outside on my own with a dying animal desperately trying to get my phone to connect a call.

Now I want to ensure I'm never in a situation like that again where the last thing I need is to pick up my phone and realise I can't make a call.

Wondering if this is something I can address. If it's not, but is exclusive to PM or to pay and go plans, I might consider trying something else as I'd be happy to pay a little extra for the peace of mind.

[LovesToPM]

Hi @Patchzilla 

The situation is not normal. Is it possible the problem is happening intermittently? And it is not timed exactly with your plan renewal?

Mind if I ask what model phone you are using? Why does it take 20 mins to reboot it?

Is there any other phone you could try the PM SIM card with?
This can help determine whether the problem is hardware or service related.

If the phone is problematic and you really want to use it, performing a factory reset may improve its performance.

[darlicious]

@Patchzilla 

      Hey it cant hurt! When is your next renewal? The added bonus if youre a bit of a trickster is when you report your phone lost (suspend it) it generates a text message to your referrer telling them "your refer a friend rewards may be less due to a friends inactivity " once you report it found it will generate another text " Cha-ching! Youve successfully referred a friend!"

    For future reference using the lost/stolen feature for other than its intended use will troubleshoot these issues:

1. Force the system to take a payment from your balance after your service is suspended due to nonpayment or an autopay failure.
2. Restore incoming calling when all incoming calling goes to voicemail but outgoing calling is unaffected.
3. If you suspect an unauthorized port or you get a message from public mobile asking if you are porting your number out and you are not. If you suspend your account quick enough you may prevent the unauthorized port then contact the moderators.

[Patchzilla]

@darlicious Do you think doing the lost/found thing might help if I do it now anyway or is this just a solution that might help when I'm actually having the issue?

[Patchzilla]

@kselmak Great idea, I will give this a try and see if I get the same issue.

[kselmak]

I wander if it would happen with different phone. If moderators don't manage to resolve it maybe borrow a friend's spare phone for couple of days just the day before renewal.

[darlicious]

@Patchzilla 

It almost seems like a sim provisioning issue....having a moderator create a ticket for the tech department to look into your account and fix it is best course of action. However if it does happen again you can try two options ( along with @Anonymous suggestion which reconnects you to the network) if you have access on another device to your self serve account use the lost/stolen feature. Log in. Report phone lost. Log out. Log in. Report found. Log out. Reboot phone. This disconnects your sim from the service and reprovisions it. Alternatively if you cant access your self serve account remove your sim from your phone and put it back in and reboot your phone. Hopefully these might speed up restoring your service if the problem persists or the tech team needs time to properly address the issue.

[Patchzilla]

When this happens and I check my account, it shows that my plan has been renewed successfully. Since this is not normal I will go ahead and file a support ticket, thanks for the reassurance, I wasn't sure if this was just a normal issue since as I say my last provider was a UK one and Canadian phone plans work a lot different here! 

[yanzhiqiang]

Maybe it is phone problem.

[Jb456]

Quite unusual. I never came across this before.

Typically the renewal process occurs around 2am EST. It is automatic and a seemless process.

Logging into your account during renewal time. The account displays the following (but does not affect your service)

• Active to Expired
• Expired to Suspended with this note
• 

   

• Then once the system updates it goes from suspended back to active.

But again that is just how things are displayed during renewal and does not affect your service.

With autopay on. The system first applies any credits owed to you for that 30day period to your account balance. Then it debits your account balance and any additional amount owed is charged to your credit card.

The only time service would actually stop. Is if the auto-pay system malfunctions (which has happened sometimes) then your account would remain in suspended status state. 

It is NOT something that can be fixed with a simple rebooting of the phone. You would actually have to make a manual payment to cover you plan amount owed to reactivate your service. Is this by chance what happened?

If so, I would suggest before next payment due date that you log into your account and manually add the money to your account balance. MANY people do it this way incase of an autopay failure. By adding the funds manually you will still get your $2 discount for the autopay reward.

Some also do it when they get the text from 611 a few days before the payment due date. The one like screenshot below that says "heads up your payment is do. If you have funds in your account or are on auto-pay ignore this message".

 

 

Maybe try adding the funds manually to your account before your next payment due date to see if it resolves your issue?

[Anonymous]

 @Patchzilla 

Totally not normal. Never heard of it here.

What exact make/model/submodel is your phone?

Maybe even just flipping in and out of airplane might be faster than your full restart and wait. But you shouldn't need to do anything. It should simply be seamless.

[popping · Accepted solution]

@Patchzilla 

It is not normal.

Create a moderator support ticket for help using this link https://publicmobile.ca.ada.support/chat/
1. Tell SIMon what is the issue (important) - "Need to reboot phone after every renewal"
2. Ask for "moderator"
3. SIMon will give your 2 choices. Click on the "Account-specific question"
4. Then, click on "No, I want a human"
5. Click "Submit a ticket"
6. Follow instruction to create support ticket.
7. After submitted a ticket, members should check their private message SENT folder for their ticket which they just created.
If you cannot find your ticket in your SENT box, You did not create your support ticket yet. Also monitor your INBOX for any reply from moderator.
Click the envelop icon at the top right corner to access your private message mailbox.

You can also enable email notification after receiving a private message at your INBOX if it is not enabled.
My settings --> PREFERENCES --> Private Messenger --> enable "Receive email notifications for new private messages' --> Save