POTENTIAL PM MEMBERS

[Carld123]

great service..great prices...but..before you decide and spend your money do a little research..are you comfortable with no live support?..tech savy enough to set up and monitor your own account?..PM is prepaid and works great if you can handle the Self serve aspect of it...help is Always here but not instant..and suggestions do not always work...but all here try to the max to help...👍..happy new year to all

[CellAid]

Its totally worth it if you're comfortable doing the set up on your own.  And you're never really on your own because the community is awesome because everyone's trying to help out to get their bills even lower, lol.  So glad I made the switch to Public Mobile, my only regret is not signing up sooner.

[ShawnC13]

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@hzmy wrote:

Just want to say that, I am not a new customer to public mobile, and I have had 3 accounts already with PM over last 2 years. I am fully aware of their customer service model trust me. And I know within the community, most of the issues could be resolved in a timely manner.

What I am trying to say is, there is always something a community can handle versus something that only PM or internal employees can do. When there are some issues beyond what a community can handle, like activation is currently overly backlogged, PM could have stepped out and notify there expected delay or we have some other issue undergoing. It helps the prospective users who want to sign up PM plans, as well as who are current suffering from the issue.

I am not here to bash the company, I am here to voice my concern.

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@hzmy, totally agree with you and that is why there has been a HUGE push for a ticketing system or even a banner at the top of the main page saying current response time estimated at XX hours. I know many in the public have asked for a long time and it is something that the Oracles bring up on everyone one of our conference calls.

[hzmy]

Just want to say that, I am not a new customer to public mobile, and I have had 3 accounts already with PM over last 2 years. I am fully aware of their customer service model trust me. And I know within the community, most of the issues could be resolved in a timely manner.

What I am trying to say is, there is always something a community can handle versus something that only PM or internal employees can do. When there are some issues beyond what a community can handle, like activation is currently overly backlogged, PM could have stepped out and notify there expected delay or we have some other issue undergoing. It helps the prospective users who want to sign up PM plans, as well as who are current suffering from the issue.

I am not here to bash the company, I am here to voice my concern.

[ShawnC13]

Here is a link to a similar post I made about 18 months ago.  https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Public-Service-Announcement/m-p/167693

Sorry I had no idea as to what to call this thread. With the recent promo from Freedom Customers it has shown that the updates and maintenance to the system since the Fall Promo has not really improved the activation process when there is an influx of new customers and yes I know it is very frustrating for people and to be without a phone is unacceptable to some.  Yes this system needs to get fixed and have smooth transactions for it's customers.  But this thread isn't about bashing Public Mobile.  I love the company it has saved me so much money.  This is to new and potential new customers, you MUST do your research PM isn't for everybody.  If you need the comfort of being able to call someone (be on hold for hours as well there) or walk into  a crazy busy store front operation those are avaialble to you.  Just not with PM.  If you are a customer here and then complain that a phone company has no phone number to contact them by then you really didn't do your research as PM makes it very obvious what the customer service model is.  If you get frustrated with community members spending their own time trying to help people get through the process this might not be for you.  I know some have had issues that have lasted for days but a little research prior to a switch would have seen that during the fall promo there were soem who had ongoing issues for weeks and you must be prepared or have a secondary plan on how you would deal with this.  It is unfortunate but that is a risk we as customers take by using a low cost provider.  if it is a risk you can't take the Big 3 will gladly take more of your money and may provide you with better service.

Now a heads up for all new customers on autopay and try to prevent some headaches for you.  At renewal time your account will say expired or suspended (I can't remember) the day before your renewal if you have autopay set up let the process do its thing.  Trying to top up only seems to create issues as we have seen in the past from the Fall Promo time.   I find the date in my rewards section to be the day the payment is made,  Please do not worry about the wording in your account UNLESS your service has been interupted then you must notify the MODS right away with the standard infro; email and phone number.

Sorry I guess that was more of a rant but I just want people do their research and to know that Public Mobile isn't for everyone.  For those of you who are willing to assume the associated risks (and be prepared with a back up plan if an issue arises) of a low cost provider please enjoy the benefits and cost savings and be active in the community forums.

Plus @Moderator_Team thank you for all of your hard work during these stressful times for the customers and yourselves.  You are all doing amazing jobs and we thank you for committment to making PM a great service.

[Carld123]

Transparent from the day you sign up....it is what it is ..what is offered is what you get...

[hzmy]

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@Carld123 wrote:

@hzmy

Live support isnt an option and probably wont be...anyhow....enough said.....life is like a box of chocolates...and thats all I have to say about that...😀

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If there is no Live support, that's fine. Transparency of the information is what's important. If you send MOD some message, or if there is an system issue, it's better to know someone is working on it or about to. I don't care about the means of the communication, via live support, via homing pigeon, via a hot air balloon. Anything is fine.

But the point is, if there are some issue happen, there should be a way to know what's going on especially if multiple users are impacted.

[Carld123]

@hzmy

Live support isnt an option and probably wont be...anyhow....enough said.....life is like a box of chocolates...and thats all I have to say about that...😀

[hzmy]

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@Carld123 wrote:

great service..great prices...but..before you decide and spend your money do a little research..are you comfortable with no live support?..tech savy enough to set up and monitor your own account?..PM is prepaid and works great if you can handle the Self serve aspect of it...help is Always here but not instant..and suggestions do not always work...but all here try to the max to help...👍..happy new year to all

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Idea is neat.

For one thing, like enrolling for plan, check usage, change a plan. Those are not technically difficult, and easy to work on if instructions are properly provided. Like, disable your ad-blockers, uorigin, or Ghostery when enrolling. Or, design a better page to do in time validation with back end.

But from my current experience is, they need a live technical support, or even a call back service would be suffice. Like the recent activation issue a few users including me are experiencing now, as system level troubleshooting is not something an average user could do or even have the access to, I really would be dying to call someone to fix the problem if possible. Also if there is a system level issue, solving one issue from one customer could potentially save all of the customers having the same issue. 

Talking about savvy, the self serve could come with a bit more information like system alerts, a better usage page, also current queued up backlog from the MOD like you are #35 of the current 150 queue up MOD items, we will deal with your request in X hours. At least something to expect or even a simple acknowledgement from MOD would be nice. For now, I am just refreshing my email, or the community page every 10 minutes to see if MOD has responded me.

Also, if they do have live support, live support agent can call back on the user's alternative number if required, or just message back the solution to prevent call center abuse. I know schedule calls could be fraustrating, but it would definitely help resolving the issues like what I am having now and people will definitely be grateful.

In all, over 99% of the time, activation and all services are fine. But once that 1% happens, it's a total pain in the butt that no one can support you in time, while you hope in vain the MODs can see your messages and act upon it. This definitely is not a good practise.

[will13am]

Great advice to prospective customers.  We need to strike a balance with the warning though.  This forum is obviously a one side representation of the service.  Essentially everyone with a problem comes here.  Very few with no problems will report how great the service is.  My suggestions to potential new customer is to take their time filling in the activation screens, check all entries twice before proceeding.  As wonky as the activation portal may seem, I have yet to fail to successfully complete an activation.  I have activated more accounts than I can remember, using every browser imaginable, including Internet Explorer.  I always double check each entry and do a third check of the entire screen before proceeding to the next.  Being the great typist that I am, I have caught a lot of typos.