Public Mobile locked my phone “Lost/Stolen”

[folgerrd]

Hi, 

Im wondering if anyone knows what I can do about this:

Roughly 2 months ago I decided to terminate service with Public Mobile after they were unable to resolve a technical issue. Public Mobile was kind enough to reimburse me a month of service because of their error and instructed me how to terminate my service. But they would not release my phone number (even though I have had it 10 years and brought it with me from Rogers), so I got a new number. I switched over to Lucky Mobile and things have been fine. Randomly two weeks ago my service with Lucky randomly stopped working, after much work with Lucky Mobile, Bell Canada (their parent company), and Apple Support we were able to (finally) uncover that essentially the phone was locked to Public Mobile because they reported it as a lost/stolen phone (even though I have never reported it as such). Public Mobile is denying they have done this, even though I have a screenshot of my public Mobile account which actually says “Phone Lost/Stolen.” Bell/Lucky can’t unlock it without Public Mobile’s permission, which they will not grant. Does anyone have any idea how I can escalate this beyond the private message-ticket function? 

[folgerrd]

Thank you so much, you’ve been really really helpful 

[Dunkman · Accepted solution]

---

@folgerrd wrote:

okay, thank you so much. they so far have now conceded a little and have said that the “request to unlock is being processed” but I am still trying to figure out what that means, why is it being processed? I’m not sure why they don’t just do it

---

@folgerrd 

I am not certain about the exact process to blacklist or unblacklist a phone.  It is a national registry, so carriers likely need to sent a request into the registry to either blacklist or reverse a blacklist phone.  Not sure whether it is an automatic or manual process.  May take 1-2 days???

The good news is that your CSA was able to send the request in.  

After your phone is returned to service (unblacklisted), as a side note, if you really want your old Roger's phone number back, you can still do it.  However, you will need to pay for one month of Public mobile service.  Then ask Lucky mobile to port your old Roger's number from the active (not suspend/lost state) Public mobile to your Lucky mobile account.  

---

[folgerrd]

okay, thank you so much. they so far have now conceded a little and have said that the “request to unlock is being processed” but I am still trying to figure out what that means, why is it being processed? I’m not sure why they don’t just do it

[Dunkman]

@folgerrd 

---

@folgerrd wrote:

I used the link you provided and it confirmed it has been blacklisted due to it being reported lost or stolen 

---

And Lucky mobile and Apple confirmed that Public mobile blacklisted the phone. Interesting. Not a common occurrence.  

In your PM self service account, the lost/stolen function is different from blacklisting a phone. PM's lost/stolen function just stops PM cell service.  PM would have need to blacklist on the national registry for some reason. 

You will need to escalate via customer service agent then.  

[folgerrd]

The agent has now confirmed it was locked and they “processing the request” to unlock it, so I hope that works.
What is chargeback? 

[folgerrd]

According to PM, accounts cannot be deleted (they just messaged me this now) not terminated, they just suspend accounts after 90 days of nonpayment, but you are still able to at any time log back in just in case you want to deactivate and continue service with PM

[folgerrd]

I used the link you provided and it confirmed it has been blacklisted due to it being reported lost or stolen 

[dust2dust]

I had a couple old phones stolen (along with a bunch of other stuff) a couple few months ago. I asked support to blacklist them. They seemed hesitant to. Then one of them went ahead and did it. What was nice was that he gave me a full list of all the IMEI's that had seen the couple active sims I have.

He almost got around to blacklisting the Telus SmartHub that was also taken but another agent took over the case as they often do and didn't and that was that. I may also have talked with an actual Telus agent on the phone if I remember right.

I got into a bit of a conversation with him about blacklisting and he said they simply don't. They would sooner send it off to collections and let them deal with it than going to the trouble of blacklisting.

I don't suppose you did any chargeback at the end of your time here?

[folgerrd]

I bought it from Apple and brought it with me to Public Mobile 

[folgerrd]

Trust me, I initially thought that as well. But after a three-way call with Lucky and Apple we were able to uncover that it is locked to Public Mobile, and that Public Mobile reported it as stolen to Lucky, and Lucky cannot undo it until Public Mobile or Telus allows it. 

[Dunkman]

@folgerrd 

When and where did you purchase your iPhone? From Apple directly? From a different carrier?  2nd hand on Kijiji, Facebook marketplace, Craiglist?

Public mobile does not usually blacklist phone since they don't see new iPhones.

[Metal1967]

@folgerrd  If you’ve had good lucky service for a few months. Seems like a lucky issue.

[folgerrd]

1. I can log into it, but it does say the account and number is inactive

2. I will continue to try to get in touch and hope they will help

[folgerrd]

I definitely did not ask for this, I have been happily with my new carrier and using my phone fine up until two weeks ago. On my new carriers end it says it was done by the carrier, and that it was done two weeks ago, I left Public Mobile two months ago.

[folgerrd]

I was refunded because I went a whole month without service… Not sure why you don’t believe that.

As for lost/stolen, both Apple Support and Bell Canada can see on their end when provided with IMEI that it was reported lost/stolen by the carrier and locked to them and have confirmed many times only the carrier can undo this. 

[Metal1967]

@folgerrd  chances are .. you reported it lost / stolen. Then forgot your passwords…😂

[hTideGnow]

Hi @folgerrd it's normal inactive line cannot be ported, every carrier doing this 

PM does not blacklist phone unless the owner asked.   The reason they won't do that is that they don't sell phones like others carriers.  Other carriers blacklist phones because customers don't finish paying the leased to own phones, this won't happen here

[Metal1967]

@folgerrd  No phone  is locked to pm

[Metal1967]

@folgerrd . 1 no refunds.. 2 . pm doesn’t report lost/ stolen You do.. so what’s happening AlthAlthough it sucks it’s probably your fault

[Meow]

---

@folgerrd wrote:

1. Mobile account which actually says “Phone Lost/Stolen.”

....

2. Does anyone have any idea how I can escalate this beyond the private message-ticket function? 

---

1. Are you saying you can still log in to your PM account to see that message? Then your account is not closed!?

2. To escalate you can try to contract one of PM staff who lurk in Community or just ask agent to connect you to manager/supervisor.

[Dunkman]

@folgerrd 

Is your phone blacklisted?

https://www.devicecheck.ca/check-status-device-canada/

The lost/stolen function in your self service account does not blacklist your phone though.  If you still have access to your PM account, you should still be able to report your phone found, but that activates your PM account. If blacklisted, that would not unblacklist your phone. 

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/lost-or-stolen-phone

As for escalating your concern, you can tell the customer service agent that you want to deal with a supervisor or manager.  Unfortunately, there is no phone number or live chat function with Public mobile.