New Customer - So many issues :(

[shafarrah]

I signed up for a new PM account yesterday at 5pm for my teenager (first phone for her!).

Got home setup a new phone and was able to login in to My Account to setup. 

Tried resetting VM password and it says it's been reset to the 10 digit phone number but still unable to access the VM. When you call the new number, it has the voicemail recoring for some other person!

We are not able to call or send any text as well. 

I sent a PM to the mods at 11:30pm last night and haven't heard back yet.

Pretty disappointing that a new line activataed just doesn't work as it should. No call, no text, no VM, nothing. 

Signed up for the $15 plan.

Any suggestions on what to do?

@CS_Agent 

[chukdefatey]

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@shafarrah wrote:

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@chukdefatey wrote:

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@shafarrah wrote:

Just got it resolved by the mods. Had to get a new number assigned to resolve. All seems ok  now. 

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You chose to waste your time and others that were helping you. This is exactly what I and @Shutdown  told you to do. But anyways hope everything is good and welcome to Public Mobile.

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Umm.. I had already contacted a mod. I didn't want to change it yet until I heard from them just to make sure we weren't both making changes at the same time. I should never have been assigned someone else's number in the first place. 

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Yes you should have not been assigned a number that someone has. I know for a fact this has been an issue at Telus, Koodo & Public Mobile ever since number portability came into existence in 2007/08 However when it does happen you have to give up the number no matter what because it belongs to someone else. 

[shafarrah]

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@chukdefatey wrote:

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@shafarrah wrote:

Just got it resolved by the mods. Had to get a new number assigned to resolve. All seems ok  now. 

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You chose to waste your time and others that were helping you. This is exactly what I and @Shutdown  told you to do. But anyways hope everything is good and welcome to Public Mobile.

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Umm.. I had already contacted a mod. I didn't want to change it yet until I heard from them just to make sure we weren't both making changes at the same time. I should never have been assigned someone else's number in the first place. 

[chukdefatey]

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@shafarrah wrote:

Just got it resolved by the mods. Had to get a new number assigned to resolve. All seems ok  now. 

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You chose to waste your time and others that were helping you. This is exactly what I and @Shutdown  told you to do. But anyways hope everything is good and welcome to Public Mobile.

[pamelaH]

I would take out the sim card, do a reset of the phone, and then insert it. 

If you can log into your account, change the phone number as well. This could clear up an issue. 

Hope one of these work if you try it! 

[shafarrah]

Thanks for the solution! 

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@Shutdown wrote:

Sounds like you got someone else's number? You can change your number free once a month maybe that will fix things?

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[shafarrah]

Sorry... Didn't know about the mark as solution. Will fix it. Thanks! 

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@shafarrah wrote:

Just got it resolved by the mods. Had to get a new number assigned to resolve. All seems ok  now. 

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It's kinda frowned upon to give yourself a solution. Way back on page 2 (default) user Shutdown first mentioned a new number.

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[Anonymous]

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@shafarrah wrote:

Just got it resolved by the mods. Had to get a new number assigned to resolve. All seems ok  now. 

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It's kinda frowned upon to give yourself a solution. Way back on page 2 (default) user Shutdown first mentioned a new number.

[shafarrah]

Just got it resolved by the mods. Had to get a new number assigned to resolve. All seems ok  now. 

[GR]

@shafarrah  the few times I had to deal with them they'd reply back within a few hours or so  but I've seen people post that it's a day between replies

[shafarrah]

Question... If / when a mod responds, do they kinda stay with you back and forth to sort the issue or do you keep waiting each time you respond to a question from them? 

[chukdefatey]

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@shafarrah wrote:

Should I try changing my phone number since it appears that the number I was assigned is used by someone else? When I call the PM number it goes straight to someone's VM. I tried a password reset on the VM and that didn't work either. 

Am not able to use the service at all.. 

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If you are calling that number and someone else's voice mail kicks in then you definitely have some ones active number, log into self serve do a number change, just to play it safe before you pick a new number call it from another phone just to be sure it doesn't belong to someone else. Once you have your new number reboot the phone and use that Public Mobile phone to set up the initial voice mail 

[shafarrah]

Should I try changing my phone number since it appears that the number I was assigned is used by someone else? When I call the PM number it goes straight to someone's VM. I tried a password reset on the VM and that didn't work either. 

Am not able to use the service at all.. 

[chukdefatey]

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@shafarrah wrote:

Still waiting for a response and not able to use the new phone! @CS_Agent 

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If you got someone active number then you are wasting your time by waiting for a moderator, you are going to have to change your number. Simply do that and use your Public Mobile Phone to set up the voicemail for the very first time. Yes it will use your Minutes if you are on a Plan with limited minutes. This is the only way to setup your voicemail initially. 

[shafarrah]

Still waiting for a response and not able to use the new phone! @CS_Agent 

[Master2000]

How To Use Your Phone and Plan Features

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Knowledge-Base/How-To-Use-Your-Phone-and-Plan-Feature...

[shafarrah]

Yes, I do have someone's number that was probably not released properly or something... My kid chose the number, so changing it would be a hassle.. 

Over 24hrs and no response from the mods. @CS_Agent 

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@Shutdown wrote:

Sounds like you got someone else's number? You can change your number free once a month maybe that will fix things?

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[shafarrah]

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@Master2000 wrote:

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@shafarrah  a écrit :

Tried resetting VM password and it says it's been reset to the 10 digit phone number but still unable to access the VM. When you call the new number, it has the voicemail recoring for some other person!

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You will need to setup your Voicemail with your cellphone before you can access it from another phone.

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How do I do that and does it use up minutes? 

[Master2000]

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@shafarrah  a écrit :

Tried resetting VM password and it says it's been reset to the 10 digit phone number but still unable to access the VM. When you call the new number, it has the voicemail recoring for some other person!

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You will need to setup your Voicemail with your cellphone before you can access it from another phone.

[funpig]

Gin and Jack,  IMO, the parent Telus will probably never increase the customer service of subsidiary PM. Telus counts on business customers, older customers with lots of money, dumb technology challenged customers, or very loyal customers to stay with Telus and pay their premium rates for their premium service. For the longest time, I was one of the latter (27 years!). If the subsidiary PM could offer customer service matching the parents, you would see huge transfers of customers to the cheaper option.  I tried for years to get the Telus loyalty data to give me some data on my lower priced voice plans.  I did not want to pay $60 or $70 per month for their data plans when there were cheaper options and made threats to move to a cheaper service.  Their response was always "yes, you could move but you would get inferior cellular and customer service."

I finally made the jump, but ironically to Telus' subsidiary PM.  Now I pay much less and get more features (Canada-wide talk, data, finally, etc).  I understood coming in that I will get little to no customer service and just cross my finger that nothing goes wrong each month when it comes time to renew.

Shafarrah, sorry to hijack your thread.  I called my local kiosk and told them about your problem.  If it is a bad sim, they said to bring it in and they could test it.  I asked if they would replace it for free. He said he would have to ask his manager.  Good luck.

[samanthaburton]

I agree with this assessment and believe they are at or above average.

[Shutdown · Accepted solution]

Sounds like you got someone else's number? You can change your number free once a month maybe that will fix things?

[funpig]

pm sent. The kiosk employees are paid on hourly basis, not on commission.   As long as the employee is not a jerk or busy with another customer, I  have found that they are usually very helpful.  They have the same access to the same website as the customer, but they have a lot of knowledge and experience.  If there is some trick or workaround, chances are they know about it.  However, if the problem is a technical issue with the server or service, there is litte that they can do.  One of the employees told me that they used to have a direct hotline to call for additional help. Either that number is no longer in service or the official PM policy has been changed by the higher ups not to acknowledge that there is any hotline number in front of customers and only tell customers that they should join this community and ask for help from forum or moderators.  That is the price you have to pay for the cheaper PM service.

I used to be with Telus and I do not miss them.  For a while, I used to be able to call in to Telus and leave a message for customer service to call me back without losing my place in the queue.  My last few experiences was being forced to wait on hold for up to an hour to talk to somebody. I could cook dinner and be halfway through the meal before speaking with somebody.

[JackQuint]

@GinYVR hardly conjecture. Telus already maintains significant real-time customer support operations for its landline, business, TV, wireless, and flanker wireless (Koodo) customers. They have staffed call centres and chat support with the infrastructure already in place They pay to heat, power, and maintain those offices/buildings already.

The term marginal is used in economics to describe the added cost by expanding a service. To add real-time PM support carries only the costs of any additional staff that would be necessary to provide the service. That is not a 1:1 calculation because likely their current support staff are not 100% utlized. Telus' 2017 wireless revenuws were just under $7billion. I have no idea what PM's share of that is, but 25% of that subscriber base has data plans of less than 1GB which would be mostly Koodo/PM. Let's say 15% of that is PM (and that is speculation but being conservative), that's $262 million in revenue. Even a million in added staffing costs is de minimis ... hence my comment that there's none to negligible real costs involved.

[shafarrah]

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@GinYVR wrote:

@shafarrahThe kiosks @funpig can be referenced here. They are not any stores, they are manned by Public Mobile employees.

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Thanks. First experience and extremely frustrated that it just doesn't work like it should when you activate 😔 

[GinYVR]

@shafarrahThe kiosks @funpig can be referenced here. They are not any stores, they are manned by Public Mobile employees.

[shafarrah]

@funpig Thanks for the suggestion. Went in to a store near me and they said they couldn't do anything. Didn't even try. Just said to go to the forums and wait for help... If you could PM me the number of the place you called, maybe I could call them and get help?

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@funpig wrote:

Shafarrah, do you have a dedicated Public Mobile kiosk nearby?  I am talking about one of those carts in a shopping mall that sell PM sims and plans exclusively, not a drug store or electronics store that sell all brands of sims or plans.  If so, you can go to one or even phone them to help.  

I used a kiosk to activate two plans for me and my father.  They gave me their business card and told me to phone if I ever have any trouble.  I just got off the phone and asked if they would help a customer like you even if the customer bought the sim off the internet.  They said yes, they will do whatever they can to help activate your account.  The only caveat is that if they only have the same access to the website server like any other customer and if the server is having an issue, they will be stuck.  Think of these guys as oracles working for an hourly wage instead of bravos and somebody you can talk to or even deal with face to face.

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[funpig]

Shafarrah, do you have a dedicated Public Mobile kiosk nearby?  I am talking about one of those carts in a shopping mall that sell PM sims and plans exclusively, not a drug store or electronics store that sell all brands of sims or plans.  If so, you can go to one or even phone them to help.  

I used a kiosk to activate two plans for me and my father.  They gave me their business card and told me to phone if I ever have any trouble.  I just got off the phone and asked if they would help a customer like you even if the customer bought the sim off the internet.  They said yes, they will do whatever they can to help activate your account.  The only caveat is that if they only have the same access to the website server like any other customer and if the server is having an issue, they will be stuck.  Think of these guys as oracles working for an hourly wage instead of bravos and somebody you can talk to or even deal with face to face.

[GinYVR]

@JackQuintCan you provide proof of your conjecture? I like my conjecture better to descalate the situation, but I take it you like to scorch the earth?

[JackQuint]

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@GinYVR wrote:

@shafarrahPublic Mobile prices is low because they don't have a call centre.

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 Why perpetuate this hooey in a support thread? There is no to almost no marginal cost to Telus providing phone or online chat support to PM customers. It is a marketing decision, not a cost one.

[GinYVR]

@shafarrahPublic Mobile prices is low because they don't have a call centre.. it takes a moderator up to 48 hours to get back to you.. you just have to be patient. It sounds like a provisioning error.. I would suggest enjoy the rest of the summer until the moderators get back to you.. there is nothing you can really do right now.