Refund of credit or unused plan when porting out?

[F_F]

Hi folks,

i recently ported my phone number out from public mobile and im wondering if it is possible to get a refund for the account credit ($12) I had left in my public mobile account and for the remaining days of my $40 monthly plan (my renewal date was nov 20, I ported out on the 4th nov)?

Thanks.

[computergeek541]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@F_F wrote:

Reply I got from the mod...

"...there are no refunds for the prepaid services as per the service terms nor pro-rating. When you port-out a phone#, the account gets deactivated automatically and any balance left of the account gets deleted. "

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That is the answer I expected you to receive.

I do agree with this policy. As it is a month to month service PM agrees to provide service for the 30 or 90 days.  If you choose to leave early that is your choice to end the service.  I compare it to a lease or rental of a house on a month to month basis.  If you leave mid month you won't get a refund for unused portion.  I understand it is a utility service like hydro (power) but that is usage dependent.  

Maybe a better comparison is a pay per view movie through your cable provider.  You pay for the movie upfront and they give you access to the movie.  If you only watch half the movie you won't get any refund for the other half of the movie

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I also expected that answer as well.

I certainly understand your point of view.  However, I believe Public Mobile should be forced to still provide the service upon a port out.  The customer may be choosing to leave Public Mobile, but I do not believe the carrier should be able to keep the funds without providing the service.  I'm fully aware about the port out procedures and rules that require the service to be terminated for the phone number, but there's nothing saying that Public has to close out the account entirely and that they can't still provide service on a new phone number for the remainder of the paid for billing cycle. 

I know that a lot of the time, a customer porting out doesn't actually want to keep using the old carrier's service, but when the carrier won't refund it, they should still provide the plan already paid for.  There are times when a customer would find a use for the remainder of the month on that new number or for someone else to take it over without needing to set up a brand new account and purchase a new sim card, etc.

[Anonymous]

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@mimmo wrote:

@Anonymous  the op could have requested and done a funds transfer for the funds sitting in available balance, before porting out, which seems to be now allowed.   And they could have ported out closer to their renewal date.  

I have always  both of those before making these kind of desisions

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 @mimmo: Thanks for the reminder. Of course y'gotta know another Public Mobile customer to do that.

Depending on how much he needed it and depending on any signing bonus...it was only $12 in this case.

Near renewal date would "use" spent money but it wouldn't help the excess balance unless one renews to use the funds and then figures out how many days those funds were worth and THEN port out. Sure. Could do that. But maybe there was a screamin' deal on offer. Or just put the port on hold until the next renewal. Or if the funds were just rewards then you're not really out your actual money.

[dumbdobie1]

Thanks for the update. Sorry that you were not able to get your credit back.

Good luck in your new place and hopefully you will return one day 🙂

[mimmo]

@Anonymous  the op could have requested and done a funds transfer for the funds sitting in available balance, before porting out, which seems to be now allowed.   And they could have ported out closer to their renewal date.  

I have always  both of those before making these kind of desisions

[ShawnC13]

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@F_F wrote:

Reply I got from the mod...

"...there are no refunds for the prepaid services as per the service terms nor pro-rating. When you port-out a phone#, the account gets deactivated automatically and any balance left of the account gets deleted. "

---

That is the answer I expected you to receive.

I do agree with this policy. As it is a month to month service PM agrees to provide service for the 30 or 90 days.  If you choose to leave early that is your choice to end the service.  I compare it to a lease or rental of a house on a month to month basis.  If you leave mid month you won't get a refund for unused portion.  I understand it is a utility service like hydro (power) but that is usage dependent.  

Maybe a better comparison is a pay per view movie through your cable provider.  You pay for the movie upfront and they give you access to the movie.  If you only watch half the movie you won't get any refund for the other half of the movie

[MoreYummy]

To the OP :   What plan did you get over there at the new provider?

[Anonymous]

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@F_F wrote:

Reply I got from the mod...

"...there are no refunds for the prepaid services as per the service terms nor pro-rating. When you port-out a phone#, the account gets deactivated automatically and any balance left of the account gets deleted. "

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Thanks for the update. I hope you got a nice signing bonus wherever you went. The no refund sounds about typical for these kinds of services. (although I agree with the other poster that really one should be able to)

[F_F]

Reply I got from the mod...

"...there are no refunds for the prepaid services as per the service terms nor pro-rating. When you port-out a phone#, the account gets deactivated automatically and any balance left of the account gets deleted. "

[mimmo]

Do let us know what happens. 

[dumbdobie1]

Good luck with getting your refund. I found the moderators pretty helpful and reasonable to deal with.

[F_F]

thanks for the replies.

well i pm:ed the moderator_team and they reply back asking me to provide a bunch of account info so they could look into the refund. luckily, i still had it as i can no longer log in to my account after porting account.

[computergeek541]

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@srlawren wrote:

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@computergeek541 wrote:

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Ironically, they wouldn't refund unused balances added to the account, but would provide refunds on 3/6/12 month plans (minus a one month regular plan price penalty).  But adding to the strangeness of that policy was the fact that if you were on a month-to-month plan, there were no refunds for partially used months.

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@computergeek541 actually this makes a ton of sense--if they charge a full month's penalty, then your partially used month would be entirely consumed by the penalty charge leaving you with nothing to be refunded.  

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I understand what you're saying, and that penalty was really to compensate the carrier for the discount that you received for those multi-month plans.

The part of Mobilicity's poclies I'm questioning have to do with the fact that they tried to have more customer friendly policies about refunds, yet would not refund unused account balances that had not yet been applied to plan fees.  And why no partial month refunds?

When it comes to prepaid plan refunds, those old Mobilicity policies were a step ahead of other prepaid carriers, but it still wasn't perfect.  Perhaps some day, carriers will be forced to refund unused portions of months for prepaid plans as well, bringing things in line with postpaid plan refunds.

[srlawren]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

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Ironically, they wouldn't refund unused balances added to the account, but would provide refunds on 3/6/12 month plans (minus a one month regular plan price penalty).  But adding to the strangeness of that policy was the fact that if you were on a month-to-month plan, there were no refunds for partially used months.

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@computergeek541 actually this makes a ton of sense--if they charge a full month's penalty, then your partially used month would be entirely consumed by the penalty charge leaving you with nothing to be refunded.  

[computergeek541]

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@Effort wrote:

The only prepaid service company I've used that has prorate in the TOS is Teksavvy. It often gets posted how surprised they are when it happens because no one expected it.

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I know that they no longer exist, but Mobilicity used to offer service refunds on some plans.  Ironically, they wouldn't refund unused balances added to the account, but would provide refunds on 3/6/12 month plans (minus a one month regular plan price penalty).  But adding to the strangeness of that policy was the fact that if you were on a month-to-month plan, there were no refunds for partially used months.

[Effort]

The only prepaid service company I've used that has prorate in the TOS is Teksavvy. It often gets posted how surprised they are when it happens because no one expected it.

[computergeek541]

As said earlier, there won't be any refund.

I really don't understand why there aren't and how carriers get away with it, but the only reason that carriers don't refund for unused portions of prepaid plans is because they don't have to.

For postpaid plans, the carriers must issue these refunds. 

Until someone successfully challenges these kind of prepaid plan terms and conditions in a court of law, or pressure is placed on the CRTC to make adjustments to the Wireless Code of Conduct and such changes are acutally made, carriers are not going to be any hurry to offer such refunds.

There really is no logical reason that I can think of why customers of postpaid plans are given preferential treatment in terms of consumer rights and rules that the carriers need to follow.

Until such day that carriers provide refund for prepaid plans, they should be providing the service for the duration of time already paid for, even if they have to open up a new account and assign a new phone number, although they're very unlikely to actually do that.

[popping]

@F_F

For prepaid plan in Canada

- There is no refund on unused portion of a billing cycle

- There is no refund on any fund left in account after it is closed

[mimmo · Accepted solution]

Once ported your accont is closed and credits are gone. 

And No refunds for unused time.

So no on both counts