Failed Renewal / Plan Expired? / No Service

[geogolem]

Please read the post before responding - I am aware that "Self Serve" regularly shows "Plan Expired" during renewal but this time seems different - Thanks!

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I have been with public mobile for a long time (more than 4 years) and on autopay. I have noticed the "plan expired" message in self serve during renewal dates, but ignore it since I understand it says that for everyone even if autopay is enabled or there are enough funds in account etc..

Today something different happened. I usually do not experience any interruption in service during renewal. Also, I usually get a couple messages - one indicating the rewards are sucessfully being credited to my account... and another message indicating that my plan was successfully renewed.

I had $90 in my account and was set to receive $27 in rewards. My plan is $120 so I was expecting the remaining $3+tax to be charged to my credit card via autopay etc.

At 12:00pm (noon) today, I received a message indicating my rewards were successfully applied to my account (as expected) but at 12:03pm (3 minutes later) I received a message indicating that my plan was not renewed ... immediately followed by a message, "manual payment, please ignore this message"..

My phone still says "Public Mobile" in the top left corner, but if I try to make a call it says there is no active plan on my account. Likewise text messages do not get sent (though on my end it says they are sent, but the people i am sending them to, do not get them).

If I login to self serve, my account balance is $117 (so the rewards were in fact successfully applied) but it says that my plan is suspended - it tells me to ignore the message if autopay is enabled... Usually I would just ignore this but my phone is actually not working.. so it appears as though service is indeed suspended..

I sent an e-mail to the @CS_Agent with all the information but am just posting here to see if others have experienced this problem and if there is anything I can do to avoid it. I literally have been on auto-renew for years without issue. Its strange that something different happened today. Having said that, abuot a month ago, I noticed that my friends referrals all disappeared from my account even though I know they are active public mobile customers - I contacted the moderator and they fixed it... so I'm not sure if this is related to that - i.e. they did in fact fix it, because my rewards were successfully applied as expected - its just the remaining $3 autopay portion didnt seem to go through for some reason despite the fact I am 100% sure the credit card is accurate and active.

[ivana]

Hi,

I just alos private messaged moderators, because I got this issues too.  I have an auto setting for $40 plan with $6 discount.

I think this problem happened because I had a $20 credit sitting in my account from a friend referral promotion.  And the plan tried paying with the credit balance and saw it was deficient.  I want to reactivate it, but the promotions do not seem to be applied.

ie. I am supposed to pay $14 but PM is asking for $20 (no $6 credit from autopay and referral and loyalty.

Im so disconnected 😞 😞 😞

[Mary_M]

thanks for the update @geogolem, I'm glad to hear that you figured it out and got it settled 🙂

Cheers,

Mary

[SD08]

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@geogolem wrote:

I figured it out --> a while ago... maybe 9 months ago. I lost my card, and got a replacement. The credit card on file for autopay was the old card number.

I guess I had enough credit covering the last several payments, and this is the first time autopay had to dip into my card..

So I was wrong when I said I was certain the card was fine.. Though it seems like a long long time ago, that I actually changed the card. 

I reactivating the plan and everything seems to be working fine now! 🙂

Thanks for everybody's help. I also deleted the private message I sent to the MODS.. so hopefully they dont even get it..

Have a great night!

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@geogolem

Glad to hear you got it working.  

Actually, deleting a private message won't cancel its delivery if you already clicked send.  No worries, just let the mods know your issue was solved when they reply.  At least now you won't have to wait a couple of days for cell service.

[geogolem]

I figured it out --> a while ago... maybe 9 months ago. I lost my card, and got a replacement. The credit card on file for autopay was the old card number.

I guess I had enough credit covering the last several payments, and this is the first time autopay had to dip into my card..

So I was wrong when I said I was certain the card was fine.. Though it seems like a long long time ago, that I actually changed the card. 

I reactivating the plan and everything seems to be working fine now! 🙂

Thanks for everybody's help. I also deleted the private message I sent to the MODS.. so hopefully they dont even get it..

Have a great night!

[Luddite]

@geogolem It may be your card, or simply that early renewal of a current plan cannot be done from self serve. That's why I suggested a manual payment.

Though I do suspect nothing will help tonight.

[Dunkman]

@geogolem

It is an interesting situation.  

If you need to use your phone tonight, I would pick the "reactivate current plan tab."  Probably lead to a page where you would need to manually load $3.  If you could wait to tomorrow morning, that is another option.  

Of if you don't want to pick the "reactivate current plan" tab, might want to manually load $3...  

Might be interesting to try the lost/stolen phone trick for this situation as described by abTest.  

[geogolem]

@Anonymous:  I figured out the credit card is the problem --- but I do not know why. it is the same card as normal.. and it is definitely not expired and I know there is more than enough funds/credit available..

I am calling the credit card company now.

[Luddite]

I did have a similar problem when activating an account - no service after payment and the same message that no payment is needed. As I did not need that particular phone immediately I waited and service was restored overnight.

The system is correct in that $3 is missing but service is not supposed to be interrupted. Why not try a 1 time payment of $3? Reboot your phone afterwards.

You can message the moderators but you will know the answer before they respond. 

For calls while awaiting resolution try an application like that from fongo.com. It provides free calling across Canada from wherever you are connected to wifi (or on cellular data). Even though I have never needed it in 4 years, it's my backup service for these situations.

[SD08 · Accepted solution]

It looks like the credit card charge failed, since the $117 consists of only the funds you already had, plus the converted rewards.  Did you check to see if your credit card (the expiry date registered on the PM account) hadn't expired?  If it is, try updating it, then do a manual top-up for the remaining $3.  Even if it isn't expired, I'd suggest trying the $3 top-up just to see if it gets the plan going, as the money will be required anyway.

[geogolem]

OK, I tried to "reactivate current plan" button and I received the following error: 

I am 100% certain the card is active and has more than enough to cover the $3.. lol.. It is the same card I have been using with auto-pay for a while.

Interestingly enough my cell phone credit card app on my phone popped up with a message indicating the 3.xx charge from Public Mobile was declined.. so I am guessing that I have to figure out why the charge is being declined.

[geogolem]

There is the button there that says "reactivate current plan"

I am guessing I likely could try doing that and it might work. I just don't want to make things worse.. lol

EDIT: the transaction history just shows the 3 rewards being credited to my account. There is no indication of an attempt to grab the remaining $3 from my credit card (autopay)

I am inclined to try clicking the "reactivate current plan" button as i think that will likely fix things.... BUT  I find the part at the bottom confusing where it is saying to pay the remaining amount by 11:59pm on January 21st..  that is in a few hours...

but I am confused why my service is not working right now... it would make more sense if it stopped working at 11:59pm like it says..

EDIT2: If i go into the payment tab in self serve it says 'Auto pay is enabled'...

Everything looks good...This time is definitely different then the others, because of the text messages, and actual disruption to the service...  Other than those text messages, and disruption of service, everything seems normal. I wonder if it will just correct itself overnight tonight.. i.e. grab 3$ from CC via autopay and reactivate..

Regardless though --> it shouldnt happen like this.. lol.. but its the first time in several years.. Im just debating if I should try the "reactivate current plan button", wait until tomorrow to see if it fixes itself and/or if the MODS reply to my message.

[Anonymous]

Hey @geogolem.  A couple of questions/comments...

-  Anything showing in your payment history page for today/yesterday?

If account balance and history show that the money has been taken, you could try the lost/found phone trick (report your phone lost.  log out.  wait a few minutes.  log back in and report phone found.  restart phone.

EDIT:  Almost looks like your payment went through, but the actual application to plan did not.  Is there any sort of option that says apply payment (or something similar?)