Missing Data in my plan

[evidia]

My mother has a $40 / 30 day plan that comes with 5G of data. 

Since This morning June 5, she could not use any data. 

She could make calls, receive text msg, but could not open any webpage. 

I checked her online account. Payment was made in total (autopay) two weeks ago, so she was not owing money. 

The overview page, under "My Data & Add-Ons ", it used to show "data I used/total data", but now it's gone. 

I clicked change my plan, and got directed to a blank page with only the Public Mobile header.

I click "plan details" and got directed to "server internal error" page.

Please fix the problem. Thank you! 

[sunflowershine]

@evidia Maybe you should get her the plan with more data because the cost will have a small difference instead of add-on. 

[evidia]

@GinYVR 

We live in Toronto. She used to be with Freedom...Can't remember why we switched. Will definitely look into that. Thanks for the suggestion...

[GinYVR]

@evidiaIf your mother lives in a populated area (especially out West).. You can try Freedom's unlimited plans.. Data in the end is still pricey on prepaid networks. Sometimes it is easier to solve family friction by just remove the potential conflict area.

[evidia]

Thanks for the ideas. 

@MandyJ  I get what you are saying.

Usually if you leave the wifi tab on, it will switch automatically to wifi when it is available. However in my mom's case, it is very confusing for her to leave both Data and wifi on. So ideally, when she's outside, she turns wifi off and data on, and vice versa. But she forget sometimes,so...

 it's just doesn't make sense to her to leave both on 😞 can't force her too much, can't explain too much or she gets mad. Personally I think she is not that tecksavvy to use smartphones...sigh...it's not like my kid that I can set rules on watching youtube...:D

@stonechuckerShe does not read English so most app won't do. The Public Mobile warning text msg about data usage are just ignored. We do have a built-in monitoring app. I just reset it today. Hopefully she's not gonna mess around with it again. haha 

[stonechucker]

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@MandyJ wrote:

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@evidia wrote:

She does have wifi, and she has a better internet plan than we do. She just forget (or does not bother) to turn the wifi back on after she returns home. Her record was using 150G in 2 weeks, that was 12 years ago...Now it's better because she is only using her cellphone, instead of two laptops + ipad + 2 cell phone + Internet TV to stream youtube/Korean drama altogether...

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While I'm not sure about the exact steps on your mom's phone, because all phones are different, there should be a way to have her phone automatically switch from data to wifi when she's back home. I don't have to change any settings on my phone when I'm within range of a familiar connection - like my house, my mom's house, my sister's house - it just automatically switches over to the wifi and stops using my data.

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I’d suggest the IFTTT app from the app stores on both google and iOS.  It will do a lot of things for you.

Turn on Wi-Fi when you get home, turn it off when you leave.

Turn off data at home, turn it on when you leave.

if you have a smart home, it can do even more.

[MandyJ]

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@evidia wrote:

She does have wifi, and she has a better internet plan than we do. She just forget (or does not bother) to turn the wifi back on after she returns home. Her record was using 150G in 2 weeks, that was 12 years ago...Now it's better because she is only using her cellphone, instead of two laptops + ipad + 2 cell phone + Internet TV to stream youtube/Korean drama altogether...

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While I'm not sure about the exact steps on your mom's phone, because all phones are different, there should be a way to have her phone automatically switch from data to wifi when she's back home. I don't have to change any settings on my phone when I'm within range of a familiar connection - like my house, my mom's house, my sister's house - it just automatically switches over to the wifi and stops using my data.

[evidia]

@stonechucker  Glad to know. I guess it was because for me and my husband, we have never use up all data, so we always have sth in that section, so I just assumed. Thanks for the clarification.

[evidia]

She does have wifi, and she has a better internet plan than we do. She just forget (or does not bother) to turn the wifi back on after she returns home. Her record was using 150G in 2 weeks, that was 12 years ago...Now it's better because she is only using her cellphone, instead of two laptops + ipad + 2 cell phone + Internet TV to stream youtube/Korean drama altogether...

[stonechucker]

@evidia  This all looks normal, as if data has been fully consumed,  unless the phone data monitor is set to stop data at 3 GB, your mom’s data has been used up.

im on my iPad tight now, so I’m going to show small portions of the overview page of one of my accounts, and the add on usage page.

i still have data showing on both the overview, and the add on usage page.  If mine looked like your screen shots, I would know I have no data left.   

This is is exactly how it works.

Edit by stonechucker.  I see you figured it out.  I was putting together  while posted.

[MandyJ]

Falling asleep while watching Youtube... yep that would do it.

Glad we figured out the mystery. Hopefully you can find a way to stop it from happening to her in the future. Does she have wifi at home that she can set her cellphone to auto connect to so she's not using her data while at home?

[evidia]

@MandyJ 

yes that explained. Thank you.

dropped by her place and had a look at her phone. turned out she ignored the 95% data used text msg, and reset her data monitoring app to the wrong date. no wonder she insisted she only used 3G/5G. 

she was using data to watch youtube and fell asleep through the night, a few times, while at home.......I couldnt even use up my 1G while she finishes 5G in two weeks, while staying at home....I am speechless.....gonna get her extra addons. 

Also thanks to @stonechucker @GinYVR @Anonymous @sunflowershine who paid attention and offered opinions to this incident. This is a really nice community 🙂

[MandyJ · Accepted solution]

See in the final image, where you show the data usage page? Try clicking on the link to the far right that says Usage History. Is there anything in there? It should give you line by line details off all your mother's data usage.

[evidia]

@stonechucker

Hi, 

Just check with her. She used 3 G since May 25 till June 4,according to her phone's monitoring app. Since June 5 she could not get any data. 

Third picture shows the page I got when clicked "view my usage" from overview. 

No show of data or call history. 

Contacted moderator last night. No reply yet. 

1. Overview

2. Payment history

3. Usage

[stonechucker]

@evidia clear the cache and sign-in with incognito mode or private browsing mode, depending on the browser.

If you're getting blank pages, Self-Serve is either down, or possibly have an unscheduled maintenance/update.

What I've explained above, doesn't change.  Please share a screenshot of the overview page (without private/personal info) so we can see what you're seeing.

[evidia]

@stonechucker problem is most of the links in her account, like purchase add on, detail data usage page, plan detail page, gives me error message or blank page. 

my account and my husband's are fine though. 

[evidia]

@GinYVR YES her phone does have that function. I will stop by and check that later today. meanwhile her account is still acting weird....

[stonechucker]

The data has been consumed.  This is normal practise, and is not a glitch or a bug.

The same will happen with all the add-ons, when they are fully consumed, the overview page tracker will be automatically removed.

Your mom's phone will need to be looked at to turn off background data usage and make sure apps are set to not update using cellular data.

If more data is required, her options are to purchase the $30 1 GB add-on, request an early renewal of her plan by topping up the full cost of her plan and asking for Moderator_Team assistance.  The last option is to do an immediate plan change to another available plan now.

[GinYVR]

Hi @evidia Does your mom's phone has the option to track how much data she had used? you might be able to track down what happened better.

[MandyJ]

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@evidia wrote:

@Anonymous  tried IE, edge, chrome. not getting better though. Is there a number I could call in the morning?

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Public Mobile doesn't offer phone support. If the community here can't get it sorted for you, then you'll have to wait for the moderator to get back to you-but that can take around two days lately it seems.

[Anonymous]

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@evidia wrote:

@Anonymous  tried IE, edge, chrome. not getting better though. Is there a number I could call in the morning?

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No number. Check. The. Phone. NOT seeing the line of data used when all is used is normal.

[evidia]

@Anonymous  tried IE, edge, chrome. not getting better though. Is there a number I could call in the morning?

[Anonymous]

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@evidia wrote:

Thanks for the reply. 

I did.

But when I click "view my usage", it is another blank page with only the header. 

I had the experience of using up all the data, but sill the place would show at least numbers, show things like "5000MB / 5000MB". but now just gone, nothing is under My data & add-ons. 

Beside, she does not use data that much. in the past months she usually used 2.5G/5G, around that range. It's only two weeks, she could not have used up everything. 

Had been using Public for a year, I was quite familiar with the system, so I could not be clicking the wrong place. Suspecting server error though.

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Try a different browser. As mentioned check on the phone what might have used the data. What you're seeing in the overview page is normal...when the data is all gone, the line disappears. It has often been commented to show 5000/5000 but the idea never gets fulfilled.

[evidia]

@sunflowershine 

Just did that. Thank you! 

[evidia]

Thanks for the reply. 

I did.

But when I click "view my usage", it is another blank page with only the header. 

I had the experience of using up all the data, but sill the place would show at least numbers, show things like "5000MB / 5000MB". but now just gone, nothing is under My data & add-ons. 

Beside, she does not use data that much. in the past months she usually used 2.5G/5G, around that range. It's only two weeks, she could not have used up everything. 

Had been using Public for a year, I was quite familiar with the system, so I could not be clicking the wrong place. Suspecting server error though.

[sunflowershine]

@evidia It is weird. You better send a private message to the Moderator_Team in this situation. We have no access to your account but they do. Click on the Envelop icon and send to "Moderator_Team" and explain your issues. 

[MandyJ]

My understanding is that if the "data I used/total data" line is missing in your account, that means this cycle's allotment has been fully used up. Have you checked the data usage on her actual phone to see what that says? Perhaps some apps were using a lot of background data, depleting her monthly allotment faster than expected?

[Anonymous]

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@evidia wrote:

My mother has a $40 / 30 day plan that comes with 5G of data. 

Since This morning June 5, she could not use any data. 

She could make calls, receive text msg, but could not open any webpage. 

I checked her online account. Payment was made in total (autopay) two weeks ago, so she was not owing money. 

The overview page, under "My Data & Add-Ons ", it used to show "data I used/total data", but now it's gone. 

I clicked change my plan, and got directed to a blank page with only the Public Mobile header.

I click "plan details" and got directed to "server internal error" page.

Please fix the problem. Thank you! 

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It's possible that the site is in a mood but if you don't see the line about data under My Data & Add-ons then the data has all been used.