To answer my own question, yes Public Mobile really is incredibly bad. I recommend any potential customers to run away.
A summary so far:
I did get a reply from a very nice agent, the person seemed to know what they were doing and said they would fix everything however they can only do it if you have a sim card, they can't use an ESIM which is how I wanted to subscribe. So I go get a sim card. It is now the next day and a different rep is how trying to help. This rep wants my phone # and pin even though I've never been able to activate so I have no phone or pin. I explain this and tell them exactly what plan I should be on, that there is a referral code and that I'd paid(verified with my credit card company). The rep then activates the account in the wrong province, wrong number, with the wrong plan and says I need to login and pay even though I've already paid. It is clear they either cannot read any account notes or have just not bothered. They have got exactly zero correct so far even though everything has been very clearly explained via chat. It has also cost over 4 hours of my time so far.
I hope this gets resolved soon and will update as it goes. But again at this point I'd recommend potential customers avoid PublicMobile.
