Outgoing talk usage billing seems incorrect

[moonlightgrower]

Checked 30 days usage which should cover all my line's usage since started. I counted only 22 outgoing calls and almost but 3 are under 1 min, and 3 between 1 and 2 minutes, even with round up, the sum shouldn't be 66 min. What went wrong?

[computergeek541]

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@saharding wrote:

Will I lose all of our add ons that we have accumulated with the free data, minutes, etc if we change to the new plan?

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Add ons are unaffected by plan changes.

[saharding]

Will I lose all of our add ons that we have accumulated with the free data, minutes, etc if we change to the new plan?

[darlicious]

@saharding 

Going by your community account creation you joined pm when they first started offering the old $15 plan. Looks like a schedule a change plan on next renewal is in order. You can add funds and purchase the $5/500min add on to supplement your plan for the rest of this cycle. It's a one time purchase that does not expire and rolls over each month til completely depleted. At $0.01 per minute it is a bargain.

[softech]

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@saharding wrote:

How do you know if you are on the old $15 plan or the new plan? It says that we have used 99 minutes of our 100 but when I go through it does not add up.

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how much the difference?  If you are comparing the Usage History, please note that the usage history is around 6 hours delay.  So, you might have to wait 6 hours for the latest update

Also, keep in mind that calls are round up to the next minute, ie, calls that shows 1:03 will be counted up to 2 minutes.   It hurts if you make short calls a lot

And, checking VM from cell counts towards your billable minutes as well.

[Nezgar]

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@saharding wrote:

How do you know if you are on the old $15 plan or the new plan? It says that we have used 99 minutes of our 100 but when I go through it does not add up.

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Login to your self-serve account. Click "Plan Details" in the main/middle area, or "Plan and Add-ons" at the top - the current plan looks like this:

$15 per 30 Days - This plan includes:

• 100 Minutes Canada-Wide Talk + Unlimited Incoming Minutes
• - 250 MB at 3G speed
• - Unlimited International Text

If you don't see "Unlimited Incoming Minutes" then you have the old version of the plan, and can choose "Change Plan" and select the current $15 plan. I recommend you choose "change on next renewal date" and NOT "change plan now" otherwise you will lose the value of the remainder of the current plan as it will not be pro-rated.

[Anonymous]

 @saharding : How long have you been here? If you click on Plan Details, the details should say unlimited incoming. Remember to round up to the next minute.

[saharding]

How do you know if you are on the old $15 plan or the new plan? It says that we have used 99 minutes of our 100 but when I go through it does not add up.

[LovesToPM]

@moonlightgrower Thanks for your update.

If you need more talk time, you can always buy the $5 add-on for 500 minutes of Canada-wide calling.
The add-on minutes never expire and the add-on remains on your account until fully consumed. That works out to 1 cent per minute of calling. Works well as a backup to your plan minutes.

Or you may opt to upgrade/change your plan (at your next renewal).

[moonlightgrower]

Update: the moderator opened a ticket and support counted database entries and confirmed my usage is matching and accurate. I accept it as truth. But I am still baffled at my phone dialer logs don't have that many calls/minutes... Anyways, sort enough time already... Cut lose 🙂 thanks everyone for helping. Awesome community!

[dabr]

@moonlightgrower  wrote:

I thought dailing 800 should cost airtime, no?

@moonlightgrower  Officially dialling 800 (or other toll free) numbers should consume airtime, however, as pointed out by @Nezgar and tested by other users (including myself), 'unofficially' right now it doesn't deduct from your available outgoing minutes on plans without unlimited minutes.

But of course this can change anytime, so my adivice would be to check your account before and after making any toll free calls to see how those minutes are being treated.

[Nezgar]

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@moonlightgrower wrote:

Very detailed and informative. Tks.

I thought dailing 800 should cost airtime, no?

Incoming calls shows up as calling out to voicemail is new to me. Tks.

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Incoming unanswered calls. Similar to if you 'unconditionally' forward your phone, say to your office or home, incoming calls will show in the log as "from" your phone, "to" your forwarding destination. (not consuming minutes)

Traditionally with most cellular plans, 800 calls would not incur long distance, but consume minutes, but no airtime is currently consumed with the current $15 plan - noticed by astute community members here. Of course this could change at any time since it is not an official feature of the current $15 plan. (But I suspect unlikely to change soon)

[moonlightgrower]

Very detailed and informative. Tks.

I thought dailing 800 should cost airtime, no?

Incoming calls shows up as calling out to voicemail is new to me. Tks.

[Nezgar]

Some things already covered here... for the $15 plan that includes incoming calls:

• Calls are always rounded up to the next minute. 1 second call = 1 minute. 1m1s call = 2 minutes
• Outgoing calls where you hang up before the other end answers, or are busy, network error, etc. will not use airtime. If the person you called answeed after 15 seconds of ringing, that 15 seconds will count as airtime, using up the 1st minute at the 45 second mark.
• Calls to voicemail from your mobile DO consume minutes.
• When others call you and go to voicemail, it will also show in usage history as a call from your number to the voicemail number (xxxxxx4001). Both will be indistinguishible in the usage history, but these calls do not consume mintues.
• Outgoing calls to toll free numbers do not consume minutes
• By default, the usage history in self-serve only covers the last 7 days. Change it to either 30 days, or specify the actual start date of your current plan.

Personally, I find the best way to figure out what uses minutes and what doesn't is to log into self-serve and look at the overview page immediately after each call (or refresh if already logged in) and see if the usage next to "100 Minutes Canada-Wide Talk" has increased, and by how much.

[Daps]

Lookup your call usage history on your account. Ask for the last 30 days.

Lookup the calls made by you since your plan renewal. Scroll through the pages and add up the minutes. They should add up exactly to what you see on the overview page under my data and add-ons.

[moonlightgrower]

Thanks. I know the rule of round up by 1 min.

But maybe the question changed to HOW TO count all the calls completely and accurately?

The usage webpage, sorting by column header is surprisingly failed, every sort would bring different quantity of calls (I found using "duration" column to bring up minutes works better than using other columns, but still, not a complete sort). 

Then I gave up the webpage and went with the phone. I counted (already rounded up) 55 minutes if count "cancelled" calls. and 39 minutes if do not count cancelled calls.

Still, not the 67 minutes billed.

I am concerned and I think the concern is legit.

I am in $15 incoming free 100 outgoing plan. And I didn't count any incoming calls in above numbers. And voicemail calls were counted in.

I  have submitted a ticket.

Thanks guys. Appreciate it.

[LovesToPM]

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@moonlightgrower wrote:

Checked 30 days usage which should cover all my line's usage since started. I counted only 22 outgoing calls and almost but 3 are under 1 min, and 3 between 1 and 2 minutes, even with round up, the sum shouldn't be 66 min. What went wrong?

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Also the timer starts as soon as you dial out or hear the ringer. So your 50 secs of talk time may well be counted as 2 minutes.

If you're on a limited talk plan, you can use another phone to check your voicemail. It is free to do so and doesn't count towards your minutes.

If you need more talk time, you can purchase 500 minutes of Canada-wide calling for $5. This calling add-on does not expire. The minutes will remain on your account until they are fully consumed. It's a great backup for when you run out of your regular plan minutes.

[dabr · Accepted solution]

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@moonlightgrower wrote:

Checked 30 days usage which should cover all my line's usage since started. I counted only 22 outgoing calls and almost but 3 are under 1 min, and 3 between 1 and 2 minutes, even with round up, the sum shouldn't be 66 min. What went wrong?

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As already noted earlier voicemail retrieval will also use up minutes and yes all calls are always rounded up so a call lasting 1 min and 10 secs will count as 2 mins.

However, there was another user recently who also felt that calls being deducted were in error, so there's always a small chance that there's some glitch affecting the way your outgoing calls are being counted.  This is concerning for anyone on the limited minutes plans.

BTW are you on the $15 plan? If you are is it the old $15 plan with only 100 mins for both outgoing and incoming, or are you on the current $15 with 100 outgoing and unlimited incoming mins? Just want to clarify that both incoming and outgoing calls are being counted if on the older $15 plan.

But if you feel there is an error you need to submit ticket to moderators via SIMon here: https://publicmobile.ca.ada.support/chat/

Type your issue and select 'contact us/contact moderators' then 'submit ticket' when these options appear and follow the rest of the prompts to finish submission.

[zblackma]

The calls are done by rounding up to the minute .  So I'd you make a call for 1 minute and 1 second.  You have essentially used 2 minutes.  Hope this helps.

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@moonlightgrower wrote:

Checked 30 days usage which should cover all my line's usage since started. I counted only 22 outgoing calls and almost but 3 are under 1 min, and 3 between 1 and 2 minutes, even with round up, the sum shouldn't be 66 min. What went wrong?

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[popping]

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@moonlightgrower wrote:

Checked 30 days usage which should cover all my line's usage since started. I counted only 22 outgoing calls and almost but 3 are under 1 min, and 3 between 1 and 2 minutes, even with round up, the sum shouldn't be 66 min. What went wrong?

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< 1 minute = 1 minute charge

> 1 minute and < 2 minutes = 2 minutes charge

> 2 minutes and < 3 minutes = 3 minutes charge

Calling from your phone to get your voicemail will count as outgoing minutes

Are your 22 calls include get the voicemail calls?

Is there any calls between 2 minutes to 3 minutes?