Order of usage for add-ons

[dabr]

I thought I would post this as a more of FYI as I remember a lot of users ask in what order their add-ons will be used. 

So I made an international call this morning and then I logged into my self serve account to see where the mins would be deducted.  I must admit I was surprised to see the minutes being deducted from the current holiday gift and not from my own international mins add-on purchased a couple of years ago prior to any gifts given by PM, or even last year's holiday mins gift.

This seems to imply the last add-on (gift or purchase) is being used first.

[Jb456]

@dabr  Thanks for the update 🙂

[dabr]

@Jb456   Sorry for the delay in updating this but I wanted to see which talk add-on (gifted or bought) would be used once plan mins were exhausted and the only one I could test was the account that is inactive for most of the time but which had received all gifts from PM inc.1000 Canada wide mins (for some in BC) plus the two international add-on mins gifted in 2019/20 and also has 500 Can. mins purchased sometime in 2019.  None of these domestic add-ons had mins used prior to today's test.

After using up the 50 plan mins, I can confirm that mins got deducted from 500 CW add-on (purchased 2019) and not from the most recent 1000 Can. mins gifted last summer. 

So to recap the order for usage seems to vary depending upon whether the mins are international or domestic.  Domestic uses the oldest domestic add-on available, but for international calling the order is the most recent int. mins add-on.  Data usage seems to take from the older data addd-on too, especially one that had already had some usage deducted before.

Anyhow, it seems that last added, first used only seems to apply to the international mins add-ons, which I've been able to confirm is true on two different accounts now... 

Apologies if this is all is a bit confusing!

Edit:  Forgot to mention that for some reason MMS doesn't get deducted from available 50 outgoing texts, that was suggested on another thread recently which makes the $10 plan with limited 50 outgoing texts more useful too.

[dabr]

@Jb456wrote:

Things that make you go hmmm. 

Haha, that about sums it up right?  😂 

Thanks for testing that part @Jb456   👍

I think I'll try to use up my plan minutes before the next renewal cycle (won't be for a couple of weeks at least) and see which add-on gets used first, ie: PM's gift of 1000 mins (as mods' suggest) or one of my older purchased 500 mins (domestic) which already has minutes used from it. 

I guess so far we've established that there is no particular rhyme or reason as to how PM's add-ons get utilized between the various purchased and gifted add-ons.. 😂

[Jb456]

@dabr 

It continued to use my old add-on.

Had 1 minute left. 

Did a call for 2 minutes. 30 day minutes went away and it used the other minute on the old add-on.

First screenshot. 400 min promo was at 25 of 400. Below screenshot it's now 26 of 400.

Things that make you go hmmm.

[Jb456]

@dabr  Understood 😃.. and yes since I don't have Canada wide add-on. We'll see if it continues to use the 400 min add-on or (as mods are saying) the new holiday one.

[dabr]

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@Jb456 wrote:

@dabr  that screenshot was posted before this year's holiday gifts came out 🙂

Here's new one from today. It's using last year's holiday add-on which it's been using probably since Jan or Feb of this year.

 

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@Jb456  Sorry I should clarify my earlier post a bit, I should have said that you don't seem to have the 500 Canada wide add-on mins in your screenshot.   I do have that purchased add-on so I know if I deplete my plan minutes that add-on will be the first to be accessed.  For this discussion it's useful that you don't have that add-on to see which gifted add-on gets utilized first.  Thanks 😊

[Jb456]

@dabr  that screenshot was posted before this year's holiday gifts came out 🙂

Here's new one from today. It's using last year's holiday add-on which it's been using probably since Jan or Feb of this year.

 

[dabr]

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@Jb456 wrote:

@dabr 

Used my 250mb up today....no new data add-on was used. It continued to use my old data add-on that I have been using for months now.

Still have a reminder set for end of month to check call minutes.

Have a good evening!

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@Jb456  Thanks for updating.  So that seems to confirm what happened with me which doesn't follow what is supposed to be the official policy of last added and first used, except for the international LD mins so far.  It'll be interesting to see which add-on your mins get deducted from since I don't see an add-on of the 500 Canadian mins in your screenshot.

[Jb456]

@dabr 

Used my 250mb up today....no new data add-on was used. It continued to use my old data add-on that I have been using for months now.

Still have a reminder set for end of month to check call minutes.

Have a good evening!

[Jb456]

@dabr  interesting! Definitely PM quirks lol. My renewal is only Dec 31st. I have a reminder set to run out my minutes and data before renewal to see what happens. Keep you posted.

[dabr]

@Jb456   Thought I would test what happened if I used up my plan data (250mb) as it's close to my renewal. 

After turning off WIFI and browsing the internet until I noticed my plan data line disappear from the overview page and browsing a little more to see where the data would deduct next. It turns out not to be from any of the newer add-ons gifted by PM but instead it got deducted from my original purchased data which had already been partially consumed.   Which is the order I'd have expected except that didn't happen with the international mins add-ons as mentioned earlier.

It would seem there really isn't a hard and fast rule about which add-on will get used first or perhaps it's just different for the different add-ons?   Oh well it's PM and it's quirks after all and nice to have the free add-ons to test it a bit! 😊

Just another note that there was also bit of discrepancy in the total number of minutes being recorded for my international call between the PM overview page and my phone.  PM overview/usage notes the call lasting 14mins and 5 secs for a total of 15 mins deducted from the most recent gifted mins whilst my phone log shows the call lasting 23 mins and 59 secs. 

[dabr]

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@Jb456 wrote:

@dabr  this is really interesting now.  Below is my add-ons.  The first 400 minutes that are being used were around 14 minutes when I first got the add-on a long time ago.

 

Then after that add-on I got last year's holiday gift of 400 international minutes. 

Before my last renewal that was Dec 1st and before this year's gifts were given out I went over my 100 plan minutes. I made a few calls (Canada) and now my 14 minutes went up to 25 minutes of the original 400 minutes.

When technically it should have used last year's holiday gift. According to what's happening to you and mod said.

So maybe something recently changed in PMs system??

If I don't reach the 100 minutes for next payment due date. I'll run a test and deplete those minutes and see if the system uses my original 400 minutes that it has been using or if it bypasses all of them and starts with the new 500 holiday gift.

Weird, very weird lol.

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@Jb456   Hmm...oh boy that kinda throws out the theory (or official policy) of the most recent add-on being used first.  Honestly, it's hard to keep up with how PM does things around here as it all seems to more ad hoc rather than something more logical.

Weird alright! 😂

Let us know what happens when you get around to doing that test.. 👍

[Jb456]

@dabr  this is really interesting now.  Below is my add-ons.  The first 400 minutes that are being used were around 14 minutes when I first got the add-on a long time ago.

 

Then after that add-on I got last year's holiday gift of 400 international minutes. 

Before my last renewal that was Dec 1st and before this year's gifts were given out I went over my 100 plan minutes. I made a few calls (Canada) and now my 14 minutes went up to 25 minutes of the original 400 minutes.

When technically it should have used last year's holiday gift. According to what's happening to you and mod said.

So maybe something recently changed in PMs system??

If I don't reach the 100 minutes for next payment due date. I'll run a test and deplete those minutes and see if the system uses my original 400 minutes that it has been using or if it bypasses all of them and starts with the new 500 holiday gift.

Weird, very weird lol.

[dabr]

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@Jb456 wrote:

@dabr  oh 💯 confusing around here at times lol.

I'm curious, and do have a question for you. 

The old add-on you have. Have you ever used a few minutes on it? And now it's using holiday gift minutes also. That would be weird. If you did use some on the old one. I think system should continue to use that untill all used up and goes away. Then again, at the end of the day, it all adds to the same minutes. Just a bit messy and not clean under add-ons if it is that lol

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@Jb456   Yes and that's why I was kind of surprised because I would have expected my very first add-on (purchased) which has already had minutes used from it to be the one where mins get deducted first for international calls, which includes the same list of countries that can be called.  

Have to agree it's kind of messy with how all the add-ons get added to the overview page!

[Jb456]

@dabr  oh 💯 confusing around here at times lol.

I'm curious, and do have a question for you. 

The old add-on you have. Have you ever used a few minutes on it? And now it's using holiday gift minutes also. That would be weird. If you did use some on the old one. I think system should continue to use that untill all used up and goes away. Then again, at the end of the day, it all adds to the same minutes. Just a bit messy and not clean under add-ons if it is that lol

[dabr]

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@Jb456 wrote:

@dabr   it appears to be. @JoyLuck was kind enough to provide the below link to me last night where a moderator confirmed what you said.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/What-order-are-add-ons-used/m-p/613624

She provided it to me on another topic where the OP had 1000 LD Canada minutes & holiday gift international 500.

So that one the system should use the Canada 1000 before 500 international if people on $15 plan run out of minutes. I believe anyways as that's how it worked in the past as international is a add-on that's more worthy.

Anyways maybe something else changed. Je sais pas! Lol

Thank you for confirming it used your newest add-on and not the older one. It validates what moderator said on that other thread.

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@Jb456  Thanks for the link (thanks to @JoyLuck too).  I hadn't seen that but yes that does seem to confirm that the most recent add-on is being used first which I think is a bit curious as I would have expected the oldest add-on to be used first, and I'm talking about the same add-on in this instance, i.e. the original international mins. 

As long as it's clear about what order these add-ons will be accessed it's all good, it's just that sometimes it can get a little confusing how things work around here. 😊

[Jb456]

@dabr   it appears to be. @JoyLuck was kind enough to provide the below link to me last night where a moderator confirmed what you said.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/What-order-are-add-ons-used/m-p/613624

She provided it to me on another topic where the OP had 1000 LD Canada minutes & holiday gift international 500.

So that one the system should use the Canada 1000 before 500 international if people on $15 plan run out of minutes. I believe anyways as that's how it worked in the past as international is a add-on that's more worthy.

Anyways maybe something else changed. Je sais pas! Lol

Thank you for confirming it used your newest add-on and not the older one. It validates what moderator said on that other thread.