Nervous about switching...

[rob79]

I'm currently a Koodo Prepaid customer. My rollover date is coming up, I have a PM SIM card (2 actually, I ordered one for me and one for someone else, but didn't give it to them yet), so I want to switch.

All that said, I'm *really* worried something is going to screw up after reading all the forum posts.

Have any of you switched in the last few days? Is porting from Koodo Prepaid still a major headache?

The price seems almost too good to be true, and there are plenty of horror stories here, so I'm worried. I can't go a week without my phone...

Thanks.

[ladycandy]

Hell Telus/Public Mobile you know how cheep you are? Even the USA NoFrills service has a Customer & Technical Support line for consumers who are on their Free and $15 plan that BTW offers more then what you offer plus you also get a little bit of data.

If this is the service Telus/Public Mobile wants to offer by charging you almost the same price as all regular Pre-paid with no Customer service line or technical support line then you do not deserve any of your consumers $ & business. They work hard for their money and they should not have to go online to and wait for a reply just to get Customer service that 1.) Is most likely not even in canada ans that is in the Philippines who gets like $25/day in wages.14,500.00 PHP = 416.426 CAD
https://www.glassdoor.ca/Salary/TELUS-Manila-Salaries-EI_IE8006.0,5_IL.6,12_IM995.htm?&countryRedire...

[Bigmac]

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@rob79 wrote:

I'm currently a Koodo Prepaid customer. My rollover date is coming up, I have a PM SIM card (2 actually, I ordered one for me and one for someone else, but didn't give it to them yet), so I want to switch.

All that said, I'm *really* worried something is going to screw up after reading all the forum posts.

Have any of you switched in the last few days? Is porting from Koodo Prepaid still a major headache?

The price seems almost too good to be true, and there are plenty of horror stories here, so I'm worried. I can't go a week without my phone...

Thanks.

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So far to me everything is perfect... I even haven't met any issue since I switch to PM!! 🙂

[makkahn28]

I am content with PM, and very pleased with service so far

[ladycandy]

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@Rockdaddy22 wrote:
Please don't use Wind as an example, barely anyone can get service with Wind.

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And who is to blame for that? I'll tell you who is to blame. The BIG 3 Rebelus is to blame. Being cheap greedy mofo's who has no issue stealing money from their consumers by charging SAF/GRRF. I don't know about you but since they lied about the fees thet should have no say when it comes to Wind Mobile wanting to use Rebelus's towers and sould offer the towers free of charge. 

So Rebelus why lie about the SAF/GRRF? ALSO since the fee did not go to the government as you 3 first told users where did it go to? Thats what i like to know you greedy low life's who does not even deserve all the users who are sticking up for you greedy low life's.  

To all who are sticking up for telus. Mark my words.  They will eventually screw you up the you know what. So be prepared to bend over.

[Rockdaddy22]

Please don't use Wind as an example, barely anyone can get service with Wind.

[7789849803]

I don't see the point in arguing or talking about any of this for a number of reasons:

(1) Neither one of us has access to actual figures (even ballpark) for what it costs to plan, deploy, advertise, sell, provision, service, and maintain the Telus 3G/4G network.

(2) The link you provided references costs for an additional GB of usage (as it relates to overage charges, none of which are charged by PM as a prepaid brand) based on some data from Bell. The costs for advertising, sales, provisioning, servicing, and billing are not factored in when discussing overages (because those costs are fixed, not varying with the amount of data consumed). Prima facie, it's preposterous to say that all of these fixed-per-account costs are merely in the range of a few cents per month.

(3) I'm not familiar with Wind rate plans - but a look at the plans on their website showed $35 as their absolute cheapest plan with data included. If you're factoring in special one-time discounts available to you from Wind, then you must also factor in the $10 beta discount that Public Mobile has offered in the recent past, the upto $10 community reward, the $2 autopay reward, the unlimited referral reward, and the unlimited loyalty award as well. Besides, as you yourself have claimed, Wind may have inadequately invested in their infrastructure both nationally as well as within their core urban markets - plus they're 3G-only. Which in turn means Telus' costs would necessarily have to be significantly higher than those of Wind.

(4) As I already said, you are welcome to claim that the service is more expensive than you'd like to pay for (indeed, I'd love for the service to be cheaper myself!). Then again, you're welcome to not use the service. But badmouthing the brand as deceitful while simultaneously being a customer looking to switch to the brand is rather odd - especially in a community of a lot of experienced customers.

I don't know what you're trying to achieve in these discussions, aside from being hostile, argumentative, and attention-grabbing. What's the point of it all? If you feel PM/Telus is unfair, or provides a bad value for your money, please don't use it! Let others make their own decisions without input from your propaganda, however.

The only information of value that you can provide in this situation is information about cheaper/"better" alternatives to PM service - which I would welcome you to do if you're so inclined. We've had numerous other revealing discussions in this community from time to time involving the comparing PM's rate plans with those of other carriers.

I, for one, am going to choose to ignore further posts on this topic because I don't see this conversation going anywhere productive.

[ladycandy]

( www.michaelgeist.ca/2011/04/cost-to-send-a-gb/ says $0.08/GB ) still lets say its $0.10/GB if the did $5.00/GB thats still a 490% Profit for them that proves it's Corp greed. So you ask me to prove myself again? I dare ya. Lol

[ladycandy]

No proof of price gouging? Ha are you joking me? Proof is all over the Internet. Oh wait lets see look at wind 3GB for $10.00 that right there is proof. And cant use excuse that has been said so many times. "Well look at the size of Canada compared to the other countries that's why our prices seem high." Ok then well lets use Wind Mobile who has less subscribers then Bell, Telus, Rogers. Yet Wind can provide better price plans.

Also do your research on how much DATA costs and you will see where came up with $0.01/GB

Also who in the hell do you think paid for the equipment, deployment, maintenance, and support costs? I can take a guess ( Users who paid SAF/GRRF fees are the ones. I say this because both charges were Misleading charges for for profit gain. For the longest time we were led to believe that the fees where government fees and that was going to the government. But they did not. So where did the fees go to?? Rebelus created their networks under false/misleading/deceptive advertising and that my friend is called fraud. The proof is all online and experts also would/will/have backed up my claim and you can also find that online if you you know how to do research.

[7789849803]

@ladycandy I don't appreciate your tone. And most of your posts are purely rhetorical in nature, with nothing to back the facts you come up with. Your observation that providing 1GB of data costs Telus $0.01 is obviously based in ignorance. Wireless spectrum, equipment, deployment, maintanance, and support costs are all VERY high. The costs for wireline (cable/DSL) networks for 1GB of service (when including acquisition, provisioning, servicing and billing costs) are in the range of several dollars. Let alone wireless which obviously has added costs over the wireline infrastructure. If you want to manufacture numbers from your imagination, then I simply have no tolerance for such arguments (or, more pricisely, non-arguments).

It's one thing to think that prices are unfairly high (which is an observation you're welcome to make here if you like). But it's a different matter altogether to accuse an entity of criminal mischief or price gouging. You clearly have no rational basis for your uninformed opinions and I really wish you wouldn't keep posting your blunt ideological propaganda in our community.

[ladycandy]

personal greed? How so? Asking for a fair price to pay is called personal greed? When 1GB costs Telus/Public Mobile $0 01 to get and then they sell it to us for $30 is not corporate greed? On top of that they are including all Pre-paid mobile providers are taking advantage of users who 1.) Have no credit 2.) Users who have bad credit due to job loss, divorce. If you think of it prepaid users should get the same as postpaid if not more due to the fact they they got the money up front so there is no need to track down for non payment.  

So yes charging $30 for a block of 1GB of data that costs telus $0.01 is called corp greed. Asking for fair price like $5.00/1GB is not called Personal greed. HELL THEY WOULD STILL MAKE A 499% profit of that 1GB that they only paid $0.01 for.

[Martin]

@ladycandy,

The flip side of your argument is that no one put a gun to your head, forcing you to become a customer.

You knowingly became a customer with PM in Beta, but now want free or half-priced service. Are you not receiving the same wireless coverage and signal strength as Telus customers do? Just as you accuse PM of corporate greed, I respectfully submit that you are suggesting personal greed.

Please remember that, if being a PM customer is so odious, you are free to switch carriers.

Food for thought.

[ladycandy]

If service is still in Beta why are users paying market Pre-Paid prices? Dont ya think like in any other beta's they'd get ether 1.) Free Service until beta is up 2.) Service Half Price sinces its in beta? I Mean the users are Beta users who are Beta Testing the service so the Heads of TELUS and the Shareholders can get profit off of you human guinea pigs.

Again Corporate Greed at its best.

[Rockdaddy22]

When I've had problems they've been solved quickly also with financial goodwill. I've been so happy since switching from Fido, I even signed my grandma up with PM.

I promise you'll be happy and well taken care of 🙂

[Martin]

@rob79,

I'm a grandfathered customer, having been with PM since August 2013. As for problems, I've been double-billed, which was resolved the same day with financial goodwill added.

BTW, the advice from youbme and 778 is spot-on. Port! You've made the preparations to do so, and now you want a quasi-guarantee that all will go well. No one can realistically give you one, even if PM were not in Beta. I can assure you that, if a glitch occurs, youbme, 778 and others will do their utmost to help you!

[rob79]

@7789849803

The reason I'm spending time is because I've *had* time to think this over. I had a bunch of credit on my Koodo account to use up before I pulled the trigger. This has given me the chance to dot my i's and cross my t's before switching.

As for energy, a couple of forum posts isn't exactly exhausting lol.

We all know that *all* carriers suck one way or another. Whether it's long term contracts, hidden charges, service problems, or billing problems. 

Basically what it boils down to is that I'm willing to pay $50/month for solid service vs. $30/month for service that sucks. Koodo has never let me down, I get what I pay for. I just want to make sure that I can expect the same from PM before I switch.

[Martin]

Hi @rob79,

Without keeping stats from internal records, to which none of us has access, it's impossible to say if porting is still a problem. First, this is a forum for problem resolution. Who in this forum knows how many ports occurred without a problem? The answer is none, because rarely does a customer spend time posting that one's port was error-free. Secondly, due to unexpected glitches, Person A can port without a problem, but 5 minutes later, Person B will encounter problem after problem. That's the nature of Beta. Sometimes all is perfect, and sometimes you can start to develop an ulcer.

[youbme]

Hi @rob79,

I've been with PM for just over a month, I activated and ported at the same time from Virgin without any issues - up and running in about an hour. Since then, I've been getting involved in this community and trying to help out new activations, etc.  What I've noticed is that there seem to be consistently fewer issues coming up since I joined - and in the last week it seems that the number of big crises reported on the community forums have dropped even more (compared to a couple of weeks ago during the self-serve upgrades).

So, as already mentioned by @Martin and @7789849803, though we can't promise things will go smoothly, if they don't, response times and resolutions are certainly improving. If I were you, go into it with the expectation that you may go a day without service and plan accordingly -  most likely everything will go smoothly.

[7789849803]

I don't think it's accurate analysis that the porting problems have been specific to Koodo customers or customers of any particular entity.

I just don't understand why you're spending such large amounts of time and energy planning over something you really can't predict when you've already said you're prepared to deal with the worst case scenario.

If I told you that your odds of porting problems were 20%, how would it affect your decision versus if your odds were 40%? If it wouldn't affect your decision you're wasting your time and energy by worrying about these things.

[rob79]

@Martin I actually changed my Koodo Pre-Paid email address a couple of weeks ago to a temporary "made just for this purpose" email after reading about that problem. I plan to sign up for PM using my "primary" email to avoid problems.

How long have you been using PM? Have you had any problems with them?

Thanks!

[rob79]

I totally get the "nobody ever comments when everything is working so it looks like everyone has problems" mentality. I actually tell people to be careful about that all the time, "confirmation bias".

What it comes down to is that I know there have been REAL problems with the Koodo Pre-paid/Public Mobile porting in the past which makes me suspicious.

Just trying to get recent feedback. I'm still going to switch as soon as my boosters are used up (with a week left on my base plan to account for porting problems). I just want to know if the Koodo Pre-Paid to PM problems are still as much of a problem as they have been in the past.

Thanks for your replies either way, I appreciate it!

[Martin]

Hello,

The recent spate of problems that affected PM has been minimized, but not eliminated. Since PM first entered Beta, there have been glitches, which have given the tech specialists practical experience in resolving them. The current major problem is inaccessibility to accounts due to latency. The problem with porting from Koodo or Telus is that PM shares the same back-end servers, which necessitates that you change your Koodo email address. In so doing, the servers will not be "confused" by what appears as a Koodo to Koodo port. If a glitch does occur, bring it to this community to see if the problem can be resolved. If it can't be solved here, you will be directed to send webmail to customer assistance. Depending upon the problem, it will probably be resolved, ON AVERAGE, in 1 to 4 days. If having phone service is crucial rather than just convenient, it's best that you consider the above before making a final decision to become a PM customer.

With regard to the prices, what you see is what you get. PM uses the same network as Telus, and is wholly owned by the latter. As a result, a phone, which is compatible with the Telus network, is fully compatible with PM, and does not require any unlocking.

[7789849803]

@rob79 I really feel you're overthinking it all and becoming paranoid. Remember that this is a help forum, so the posts are not representative of the average experience. Some people do post their positive experiences - but I'm betting most don't feel the need to do that when everything goes as smoothly as it should have in the first place.

Sort of like why, when you hear the news you may feel the world is such a terrible place...when statistically these are the most peaceful years of human existence on this planet (longest average lifespan, least deaths in wars, least number of wars, least deaths by hunger, most accessibility to healthcare on a global level, the list goes on...).

And remember, WORST case scenario, PM support is still there to help. You just have to wait for it for a few hours or at most a couple days (but never even half a week, let alone any longer).

[rob79]

Thanks for the reply.

There is a huge thread right now about *general* problems as well. People getting messages when they try to call out saying that their plan doesn't support it (even when it does), getting double/triple charged, etc, etc. 

I can go for a couple of hours without service on the day I switch, but ongoing problems like that are not cool.

How long have you been with PM? What's your experience been?

**EDIT**: Yes, I've been planning it for a while. I have 2 SIM's in case the 1st one messes up, I've just been waiting to use up all my Koodo Prepaid credits. That deadline is approaching. Still nervous after monitoring this forum for a month... 😕

[7789849803]

@rob79 I have nothing to gain by you signing up for PM service - and still I'd highly recommend that you do. Yes, sometimes the porting process has got stuck for some people. But a lot of times it has gone through within minutes without a problem.

If you're really particular about not wanting to miss a day of service or be without your phone for a few hours, I would sign up for a new phone number and get it completely activated. Once the activation is processed, try to put the port through through self-serve. If you face any problems, email PM support at once.

Yes, the price is great - but you'll find that the service issues (though numerous), can all be dealt with at the time of sign up. And once you get going, there's usually no recurring problems.

I see that you've been planning this for a LONG time. Just do it, buddy 🙂