Plan expired - auto pay didn't work and manual payments failed

[Da6s]

We've been on auto-pay for months now and haven't had any issues, however, this time we got a "plan expired" message and the phone is unusable with a recording to call *611. I've called *611 and attempted to add funds three times (used both our credit cards) and they "failed at this time". I also tried to submit a payment online through our account, ALSO a no go. I even tried the "lost and found" phone trick... didn't work either.

On my profile I have a message saying:
"Please disregard this message if you have enough funds in your balance or are on AutoPay. Your account has been suspended. Make a payment to reactive your current plan. Suspended accounts are deactivated after 90 days of non-payment and you will lose your phone number and service."

BUT... the "autopay" date was last night and the phone is still giving us the "call *611" message. I can't seem to get a human to ask for assistance through *611 either.

Help?!

[normtail]

No I have not a reactivate but received your smstext saying I have paid but phone plan still does not work????

[softech]

@normtail  after you paid and the account still inactive?  

do you have a button "reactivate your current plan" on your My Account page?  If so, click on it and reboot your phone and see if service resume.

Also on My Account, do you see any Available Fund or is it showing $0?

[normtail]

My automatic payment was due June 24, 2021 at 2:00am (source telephone (855) 478-2542 message a Public Mobile phone contact number) and the automatic  did not so I paid manually online long before 1:00am and my plan was expired. This is twice Public Mobile has done this since last December my bill was due on 26 and they expired my plan on Christmas day December 25, 2020 without any valid reasons stealing my money for services paid but never rendered.  All proof are recorded and screenshots are taken with over 18 communications on this community site.

[JK8]

@kiraleanne 

Autopay does fail. To prevent this from happening in the future add money to Available Funds a few days before renewal. The renewal process will take the money out of Available Funds and you can leave the credit card on file for the $2 autopay reward. There is nothing wrong with your card. It is Public Mobile.

[kiraleanne]

I too had this issue, although I suspect it was my credit card that was causing the problem. It might not be the same cause, but the solution might work for others experiencing this problem.

I have had auto pay set up for a long time, no issue. Same problem, suddenly my service was cut off and my account suspended. I logged in online to discover it was because my plan "expired". Thought that meant they had discontinued my plan, but that wasn't it. I received the same message. So I tried replacing the credit card on file with the same credit card and it said the card was denied by my issuer (just recently received a replacement credit card after my old one expired and I have since had the occasional online retailer deny the transaction because of a card problem, weird I know).

Instead, I added my Visa debit card to my account and that took. Was able to make a payment and reactivate my service. Will be calling my credit card company demanding a new card because I called them about this before but they said there was no problem with the card and it must be the retailers. 

[cellphoneuser1]

@Da6s 

Card flagging usually happens when somebody tries to charge card many times in a row. That makes it look like stolen card.

[Da6s]

It turns out the fraud department flagged my card for some reason (too many purchases?) but failed to let me know I should contact them to validate... oops!

the immediate solution was to purchase a Public Mobile pre-paid card through my local Walmart (on the same credit card as my auto-pay). At Walmart, they seemed a little baffled as to how to sell me the card... they needed to scan the "no value" voucher then put it under "55" in the Walmart system/on their keypad. Then a 12 digit number printed out in addition to the receipt (MAKE SURE TO GET THAT LITTLE PAPER AT THE END).

I'm still waiting to hear about my credit card from PM. I'll try to remember to keep everyone updated! 😄

[Da6s]

I'm glad I'm not the only one @Barbie2!  

[Da6s]

Great questions @gpixel! The card is in good standing... turns out the fraud department flagged my card for some reason but failed to let me know I should contact them to validate... oops!

[gpixel]

@Da6s is your card expiry still valid? did it recently change? 

you can also try paying through 611 if your card is in good standing

[Barbie2]

@Da6s I do not think you are the only one, this looks like a big problem for public mobile. Maybe those last couple downtimes were because they re fixing auto pay??? 

[Da6s]

Thanks @totalUser (great user name by the way!), I've started ticket, we'll see what happens.

It's a little validating to know it's not "just me". 😉

[hairbag1]

@Da6s...have a look at reputable on-line payment service such as recharge.com or ding.com for quick renewal...then deal with cc and autopay later.

[Da6s]

I think this is all I have left to try @shep22! I started a ticket and send the moderator_team a private message. Thanks for the prepaid card idea. 🙂

===UPDATE===
I purchased a prepaid PM card at my local Walmart and loaded it using the *611. It was simple and fairly easy process to get the phone going again, thanks for the advice!

[totalUser]

Seems to affect lots of people today.

Please contact moderators

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437 

[Da6s]

Thanks @Dan, I didn't try the incognito mode trick. 

I'm thinking that going "incognito" might be something I should do more often than not! Part of the whole keep-my-privacy-my-own type idea.

[Da6s]

Thanks @Staliger, but that has failed also. I think I might go and buy a prepaid card and see if that works.

[Da6s]

Thanks for the reply @hairbag1, the plan has "expired" I have a credit balance of $4 and my account looks like it's in good standing (not suspended). When attempting to pay with credit cards, it's failed on both types of cards.

I may have to try to use the Walmart prepaid card (that @shep22 recommended) to get things going again...

as for the phone itself, the hardware is functioning normally (for the most part). Now that I'm on wifi at home I can surf the web and whatnot but can't even make phone calls over wifi.

[Danchvn]

@Da6s At times the auto pay does fail, requiring users to make a manual payment.

After a number of attempts of entering card information the system will lock you out for approximately 1 hr. At times Public Mobile will also block your card, requiring you to contact the moderators. You can do this by clicking on the question mark in the lower right of the page and raising a ticket.

What some pers have found works is waiting an hour for the system to reset and trying again using incognito mode and clearing cache in your browser.

Make sure you enter CC address information exactly as indicated on your CC bill including capitalization. Do not put anything in the apartment field if that applies to you.

[Staliger]

@Da6s Make a manual payment through self-service account and reactivate you plan. Then restart your phone. It should help.

[hairbag1]

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@Da6s wrote:

We've been on auto-pay for months now and haven't had any issues, however, this time we got a "plan expired" message and the phone is unusable with a recording to call *611. I've called *611 and attempted to add funds three times (used both our credit cards) and they "failed at this time". I also tried to submit a payment online through our account, ALSO a no go. I even tried the "lost and found" phone trick... didn't work either.

On my profile I have a message saying:
"Please disregard this message if you have enough funds in your balance or are on AutoPay. Your account has been suspended. Make a payment to reactive your current plan. Suspended accounts are deactivated after 90 days of non-payment and you will lose your phone number and service."

BUT... the "autopay" date was last night and the phone is still giving us the "call *611" message. I can't seem to get a human to ask for assistance through *611 either.

Help?!

---

No human to "talk to" at Public Mobile. Log into your account to confirm if your plan is Active or Suspended. Do you have sufficient $$ in Available Funds to cover cost of renewal ?

Is your phone features working right now ?

[shep22 · Accepted solution]

@Da6s you could try buying a voucher at your local walmart  contact the moderator  click the question mark bottom right corner to contact the moderators ask Simon the robot to speak to a human to generate a ticket mention credit card issues check envelope top right for a response they usually reply between 2-48 hours