05-03-2017 04:42 PM - edited 01-05-2022 02:01 AM
Dear Public Mobile owners/management,
Here is a summary of my story.
On May 01, 2017 my call was interrupted all of the sadden and I had no service since then. My account has been suspended. After two days of communication with two moderators I figured out (eventually) that my CC issuer recalled autopayment on March 02 !!!
Why I was never informed about this issue during two months? Instead the service was simply cut off and I was asked to repay the amount by a certified cheque or money order mailed (!!!) to Ontario (I live in Vancouver BTW) to release my account from hold. Thank you guys you did not ask me to bring it in person along with my fingerprints J. I did not mind to repay the amount by other ways however PM has not decided to be flexible with their client and insisted on last-century method of payment.
May be it’s a big secret for you guys but mobile communication designed, first of all, to allow people communicate and respond immediately. So it’s really bizarre and ridiculous to mail (especially with Canada Post) a payment to bring a cellular service back to operation. How long would it take, a week, two weeks? No one knows.
Anyway, very next day I had to buy another plan from another provider and hopefully will never get back to Public Mobile.
Sincerely yours,
Former PM customer.
Alex.
05-04-2017 01:06 PM
Thanks @imm1304, I appreciate the comments - I try my best ! 🙂
05-04-2017 01:04 PM
05-04-2017 12:28 PM
Hey @Alexlis,
Thank you for your reply!
I'm sorry to hear that you feel this way - however this is how the payment department proceeds. Once a payment has been reversed, the account becomes suspended until the payment is received. The reason why we do not accept CC payments for this type of issue is because the CC is the root cause and we want to ensure that there are no other unauthorized payments.
Thank you for your understanding,
Mary
05-04-2017 12:21 PM
@Mary_M wrote:Hey everyone,
thank you for sharing your thoughts and comments!
When a payment is cancelled with your credit card issue, this is called a chargeback-.
Hello Mary_M
It does not matter how you call it.
The main idea I'm trying to convey to PM people is “Please be flexible with your customers and look for a consensus rather than just loose them”
If it was an alternative way to pay off the ”chargeback” I would do so immediately. But following the policy seems the most important goal here.
Oh well, be proud of your policy and keep losing customers.
Good luck,
Alex.
05-04-2017 09:26 AM
Hey everyone,
thank you for sharing your thoughts and comments!
When a payment is cancelled with your credit card issue, this is called a chargeback-. A chargeback is basically a cancelled payment, or an 'unauthorized payment". Once PM receives this, the account is automatically blocked until that cancelled payment is made.
On the other hand, for security purposes, CC payments will not be accepted for this - only certified cheque & money order. At Public Mobile, we want to ensure that everyone's account remains safe but to be fair, we always need to ensure that their services are paid for (we are prepaid).
If you need any further clarification @Alexlis, please don't hesitate to send me a private message. We could discuss this if you'd like.
Respectfully,
Mary
05-03-2017 09:40 PM
This is rather odd. Why on earth would cheque be the preferred method of payment? A voucher would be as good as cash?
05-03-2017 09:04 PM
Hey @Alexlis,
Sorry to hear about the negative experience. The mods do their best to help us while working within the system that is handed to them. Hopefully this feedback will provide PM an opportunity to improve. When cc payment is reversed, PM should act much earlier and send sms and an email for such rare situations in future. (Attn @Jeremy_M)
Its also strange that your credit card company recalled a payment without talking to you. So, it sounds like both the credit card company and PM dropped the ball on this one. Take it up with your credit card company as well.
Its quite understandable that you moved on to another carrier as I wouldn't be happy with the prospect of losing cell service for more than a week either.
I hope you have a good experience with the new carrier. If you decide to come back to PM, know that what you just experienced is extremely rare and odds are still in your favour as far as getting a hassle-free service is concerned.