Plan has run out, but I have available funds!

[hb3l122]

Texts on my wife's phone:

• Jun 29 - Public Mobile Here. Thank you for your payment. Your plan has been successfully renewed.
• Jul 5 (Yesterday) - Public Mobile here. You have 10 minutes left in your plan.

An now when she dials a local number she gets: "Sorry - we cannot complete your call. You don't have an active long-distance add-on."

What ?!?!?

First, she can't dial a local number because she doesn't have an active long-distance plan? That's pretty stupid.

But more important - a few months ago I put enough funds on her Public Mobile account to last until August. I go online July 5th and see:

Available Funds: $30.00

Payment for next cycle: $15.00

Amount owing: <blank>

Pay your amount due by 11:59PM on this day in order for your plan cycle to re-start.

Translation: Pay nothing by Jul 28 (25 days from now) to re-start the plan.

This is complete, utter, infuriating nonsense.

Fix this fast or am moving to another carrier (that actually has customer-service and not some stupid robot) and filing a complaint with the CRTC.

[Psygineer]

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@hb3l122 wrote:

Ok, well maybe that's it.

BUT WHY ON EARTH DON'T THEY SAY THAT?

I don't really care. A company that is this confusing to deal with is going in my rear-view mirrow immediately.

Thanks for the replies, but I'm gone.

---

So basically you buy a plan with limited minutes, use up all the minutes and wonder why you are out of minutes? The plan states clearly that there is only 100 outgoing minutes for 30 days. on the plan you are on. Every 30 days it will bill you and give you another 100 minutes. That is what you requested of Public Mobile to do for you by picking that plan. Public Mobile did exactly what you asked of them. They gave you 100 outgoing minutes, you used them. They did what they owed you. Now maybe you didn't plan ahead for the eventuality that you would use more than 100 outgoing minutes. That's fine, these things happen. There is a very nice $5 add on that gives 500 minutes that will stay on the account until they are all used (and as a bonus, they only get used once the initial 100 minutes gets used up, so as soon as your new 30 days starts the left overs from the 500 minute addon would wait for those new 100 minutes to get used up first again. That in my opinion is way better than getting the overage charges you seem to desperately want. I would hate the idea that I could look at my next bill and see that I owe $120 because I was billed by the minute for my overage. To each their own, all prepaids are like this though, so skip Lucky and all the other prepaids. Go with Virgin or Koodo or one of the other postpays, they love to bill you for extras you never meant to ask for.

[geopublic]

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@hb3l122 wrote:

Texts on my wife's phone:

• Jun 29 - Public Mobile Here. Thank you for your payment. Your plan has been successfully renewed.
• Jul 5 (Yesterday) - Public Mobile here. You have 10 minutes left in your plan.

@hb3l122  This is a notification that you have used up 90 of the 100 outgoing minutes provided with your plan. So in 6 days you are averaging 15 minutes of outgoing call per day. That means you need a plan that will provide you with at least 450 minutes of outgoing calls per 30 days.

An now when she dials a local number she gets: "Sorry - we cannot complete your call. You don't have an active long-distance add-on."

What ?!?!?

Means minutes have all been used up. 

First, she can't dial a local number because she doesn't have an active long-distance plan? That's pretty stupid.

But more important - a few months ago I put enough funds on her Public Mobile account to last until August. I go online July 5th and see:

Available Funds: $30.00

Payment for next cycle: $15.00

Amount owing: <blank>

Pay your amount due by 11:59PM on this day in order for your plan cycle to re-start.

Translation: Pay nothing by Jul 28 (25 days from now) to re-start the plan.

This is complete, utter, infuriating nonsense.

Fix this fast or am moving to another carrier (that actually has customer-service and not some stupid robot) and filing a complaint with the CRTC.

The way you fix it is to buy the 500 minutes add-on for $5.00 each 30 days. So your plan cost goes from $15.00 to $20.00 per 30 days and instead of 100 outgoing minutes you get 100 + 500 (never expire until you use them) minutes.

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[dabr]

@hb3l122   As others have already said, this really is about your wife's account depleting the alloted plan minutes.  This can easily be mitigated by adding on the extremely cheap Canada wide $5/500 mins that will roll over every month until all the minutes are used up, in fact you can add multiples of that add-on which will stay with the account until used up. 

BTW I should have added that one of the downsides of PM is that when one of a limited plan's features (data/minutes) runs out, PM doesn't show full comsumption and instead opts to remove that line from your overview page which is how you would know that the minutes/data is depleted which is part of the confusion for customers.

It has been suggested that this may change in the future but not when.

[computergeek541]

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@hairbag1 wrote:

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After your current plan expires, you have 90 days to reload it and come back. At 90 days...account is closed for good and you'll need a new sim card and start a new account all over.

Good luck wherever you go. We'll likely be here when you return !

---

This is true unless the person ports the phone nubmer out, at which point the balance is wiped out immediately, and the Public Mobile sim card and account could never be used again, even if it's 5 minutes after port out.

[computergeek541]

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@sunflowershine wrote:

@hb3l122 You still have available fund for your wife account to use. It may take a while to get the refund from PM. Just get the add-on of 500 minutes calls first. 

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Unfortunatley for the customer, I can't see Public Mobile giving a refund in this type of situation. The funds can be used to either buy more minutes or to pay for a different plan at renewal time or now if an immediate plan change is done. 

[sunflowershine]

@hb3l122 You still have available fund for your wife account to use. It may take a while to get the refund from PM. Just get the add-on of 500 minutes calls first. 

[hairbag1]

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@hb3l122 wrote:

Ok, well maybe that's it.

BUT WHY ON EARTH DON'T THEY SAY THAT?

I don't really care. A company that is this confusing to deal with is going in my rear-view mirrow immediately.

Thanks for the replies, but I'm gone.

---

After your current plan expires, you have 90 days to reload it and come back. At 90 days...account is closed for good and you'll need a new sim card and start a new account all over.

Good luck wherever you go. We'll likely be here when you return !

[krazykiwi]

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@hb3l122 wrote:

Texts on my wife's phone:

• Jun 29 - Public Mobile Here. Thank you for your payment. Your plan has been successfully renewed.
• Jul 5 (Yesterday) - Public Mobile here. You have 10 minutes left in your plan.

First, she can't dial a local number because she doesn't have an active long-distance plan? That's pretty stupid.

---

With PM there are no "Local Calls", there are Province Wide, Nation Wide and Canada & US, so whichever option you choose will give you some type of long distance ability, hence the warning worded the way it is. Pretty straight forward when you calmly think about it.

[ShawnC13]

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@hb3l122 wrote:

Ok, well maybe that's it.

BUT WHY ON EARTH DON'T THEY SAY THAT?

I don't really care. A company that is this confusing to deal with is going in my rear-view mirrow immediately.

Thanks for the replies, but I'm gone.

---

Autopay and available funds are there for your RENEWAL date not when your plan just runs out of minutes.  If your plan ran out of minutes in 7 days I think you have chosen the wrong plan and if it was to autofill like you had thought you would be spending more than if you picked an appropriate plan.  Not sure how PM is confusing but yes if it doesn't work for you no point in sticking around

[geopublic]

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@hb3l122 wrote:

Ok, well maybe that's it.

BUT WHY ON EARTH DON'T THEY SAY THAT?

I don't really care. A company that is this confusing to deal with is going in my rear-view mirrow immediately.

Thanks for the replies, but I'm gone.

---

@hb3l122 Take care!!

[RossN]

@hb3l122 ok see ya it's not Public mobiles fault you ran out of minutes 

[krazykiwi]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

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@hb3l122 wrote:

Ok, well maybe that's it.

BUT WHY ON EARTH DON'T THEY SAY THAT?

I don't really care. A company that is this confusing to deal with is going in my rear-view mirrow immediately.

Thanks for the replies, but I'm gone.

---

You're going to run into problems with any carrier if a plan is chosen that isn't appropriate for the amount of usage.  It's just that some carriers will charge you extra after using up all of your minutes. I would consider a plan with unlimited calling.

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Yes, some will go ahead and charge your CC or remove funds without you knowing it until bill time....not I surpise I like getting!

[computergeek541]

---

@hb3l122 wrote:

Ok, well maybe that's it.

BUT WHY ON EARTH DON'T THEY SAY THAT?

I don't really care. A company that is this confusing to deal with is going in my rear-view mirrow immediately.

Thanks for the replies, but I'm gone.

---

You're going to run into problems with any carrier if a plan is chosen that isn't appropriate for the amount of usage.  It's just that some carriers will charge you extra after using up all of your minutes. I would consider a plan with unlimited calling.

[krazykiwi]

---

@hb3l122 wrote:

Ok, well maybe that's it.

BUT WHY ON EARTH DON'T THEY SAY THAT?

I don't really care. A company that is this confusing to deal with is going in my rear-view mirrow immediately.

Thanks for the replies, but I'm gone.

---

Sorry to hear you are leaving but this is a minor inconvience that benefits you by never taking funds/charging you unless you know and agree in advance. Very convient for most.

[hb3l122]

Ok, well maybe that's it.

BUT WHY ON EARTH DON'T THEY SAY THAT?

I don't really care. A company that is this confusing to deal with is going in my rear-view mirrow immediately.

Thanks for the replies, but I'm gone.

[krazykiwi]

---

@hb3l122 wrote:

Texts on my wife's phone:

• Jun 29 - Public Mobile Here. Thank you for your payment. Your plan has been successfully renewed.
• Jul 5 (Yesterday) - Public Mobile here. You have 10 minutes left in your plan.

An now when she dials a local number she gets: "Sorry - we cannot complete your call. You don't have an active long-distance add-on."

What ?!?!?

First, she can't dial a local number because she doesn't have an active long-distance plan? That's pretty stupid.

But more important - a few months ago I put enough funds on her Public Mobile account to last until August. I go online July 5th and see:

Available Funds: $30.00

Payment for next cycle: $15.00

Amount owing: <blank>

Pay your amount due by 11:59PM on this day in order for your plan cycle to re-start.

Translation: Pay nothing by Jul 28 (25 days from now) to re-start the plan.

This is complete, utter, infuriating nonsense.

Fix this fast or am moving to another carrier (that actually has customer-service and not some stupid robot) and filing a complaint with the CRTC.

---

Hi, sounds frustrating but the good thing is you do not get charged unless you have paid for it in advance.

Which plan does she have?

[RossN]

@hb3l122 hi sounds like you ran out of outgoing minutes if no minutes show up in data and addons section thats the issue you can buy a 500  minute add on for 5 bucks

[computergeek541 · Accepted solution]

@hb3l122, having funds in the account does not mean that the service will continue working if the plan has run out of minutes.  The solution is to either add more minutes to the account with an add-on or to swtich to a plan that might be more appropriate for the amount of usage.  500 minutes can be added to the account for $5.