(I am posting this same report both to the Community, and as a private one for mods.)
In my first month as a PM user (July 16- August 16, 2018), I was hit with 2 downers, which
consumed many hours of my time (as well as the mods').
Situation: I received a 5-year old LG 440 flip phone, given to me by my sister-in-law, when
she got a smart phone. As an almost never-user of cellphones, I was happy to sign up for
PM's cheapest plan (c/o Walmart), $10/mo. for 50 min., which I reduced to $8 for
AutoPay, and later, to $7 for referring my mother-in-law.
So far so good.
Then it went off the rails. On Aug. 1, my MasterCard was stolen, and I called MC to get it
replaced the same day. Every business and recipient accepted the card's new number —
except PM, which said they could not "verify" it, and discontinued my plan. Aargh. Long
story short: after much delay and back and forth, mod Ashley was able to set things
straight. Many thanks and bravos to her, if mods collect them.
Then came the second problem: I noticed that my minutes were evaporating, even though I
only had one incoming and one outgoing call, 15 minutes in toto (+ some quick negligible
test calls). Turns out that each of ten times PM sent me a text message or a promo, it went
to a voice mail at PM, 9025804001, and was deducted from my minutes.
Another long story short: after much searching in the PM community, and on the Web, I
reached mod Abdallah, who tried to smooth things over, and gave me some extra minutes
and more incoming texts. Bravo to Abdallah. But perhaps more significantly, I was able, in
the latest promo text from PM (re $25 bonus for referrals), to discontinue such messages
from PM, after some difficult keystrokes. (Hey: I'd rather get these through desktop Gmail, not on my flip phone!)
So far so good.
However: second problem, phase 2. My girlfriend phoned me yesterday, Sept. 2 when I was
at an old-car show. My phone was on and charged, yet I heard no ring or vibration; and she
says she heard no ring, but that her call went straight to the [PM] answering machine, so
she promptly hung up. She tried again in case she'd dialed the wrong number, and the
same thing happened.
My LG 440 flip phone temporarily showed that I missed one call yesterday, not two, but
now has neither in the list of missed calls. Today, we made a test call, which I did not
answer (it rang and vibrated, but I promptly hung up the land line), and the LG 440
does list that as a missed call.
I turn next to my PM account, "View Usage History". For Sept. 2, it lists two outgoing (!)
calls from my (!) number, which of course I never made, to that good old PM number
9025804001, and of course are charged at a minute each for those 2 "calls": 12 seconds and
7 seconds: which I never received, never made, and are not listed in my flip phone list of
"Missed Calls", of which there are 4 since my start date of July 16: of those, 3 are test calls.
Meanwhile, my LG's list of "Received Calls" shows a grand total of 2 since my July 16 start
date, both in August.
To say the least, there is a technical problem here. My LG 440 usage list does not sync with
PM's "My Usage History".
Let's get this bug fixed, for me, and for PM's user base. Let's get rid of the involuntary
9025804001. (But not with a complicated workaround which only suffices for smart
phones, not flip phones.)
TIA. —Gene Keyes (esperanto41)
