Seemingly erroneous billing errors

[Brayr]

Yesterday, I received the following by text message:

• "Public Mobile here. Your account has been placed on hold due to an unresolved issue with your payment. To resume your services, simply log in to the Public Mobile app or My Account online [link provided] and update your payment details."

My service was still working fine, and I confirmed that everything was ok.

Today, I received an email that said the following:

• "Oops. It looks like we didn't receive your payment. Your service has been put on hold while we await your payment."

Again, I still have service, and everything seems to be fine in my account.

If I go into Payments, it shows that I was billed and my Subscription will renew on Sep 04,2024.

If I click on Manage Payments, I was successfully billed.  It shows "You are currently subscribed!" and that my Subscription will renew on that same date.

I've searched online, and this seems to be a recurring problem ... for many, many years.

I don't want to get locked out of my account. This happened with one of my kids' accounts, and it was a royal pain to get everything working again. (In the end, it was an internal error and nothing was wrong on my end. After years of recurring payments, something just went wrong on their end.)

While I appreciate the very active and supportive Community here, I would like an official response from Public Mobile to make sure nothing is wrong with my account, that I won't keep receiving these (now, for the second day), and I would like to be assured that my service will keep working as it should.

[hTideGnow]

thanks @Brayr for sharing.

I am glad PM did the right thing , would be better if they react faster 

[Brayr]

For all those looking for PM to acknowledge the issue and provide assurance that it was an issue on their end, they started sending out texts to all affected (as they said they would on the announcements page).

I just received mine:

——

Public Mobile here.

You may have recently received an email and/or text message incorrectly stating that your account is in suspended status.

Rest assured, your account is in good standing. At any time, you can verify your account status by visiting Public Mobile My Account online at https://myaccount.publicmobile.ca or the Public Mobile app.

We apologize for any confusion this may have caused and appreciate your understanding.

[computergeek541]

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@Alian0401 wrote:

My wife and I both recently subscribed to Public Mobile and in the past 2 days both of us received those exact emails.

The toughest part of this is contacting Public Mobile! I too would simply like confirmation that my account is up to date.

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Contacting Public Mobile is fairly easy.  I beleive that what customers don't likely has to do with the delay in receivng a response.

[Alian0401]

My wife and I both recently subscribed to Public Mobile and in the past 2 days both of us received those exact emails.

The toughest part of this is contacting Public Mobile! I too would simply like confirmation that my account is up to date.

[Brayr]

Thanks everyone, especially @hTideGnow for posting the link.

When my daughter's account had previously been locked (as noted), I was stuck in an endless loop of trying to get it fixed.  I couldn't send a message because she didn't have a PM Community account (I couldn't create one because I was unable to create a Nickname for her to progress further) , I couldn't log into her account or submit a ticket because she couldn't receive a text message to validate her login, etc.  Endless loop.  I eventually went to a Telus/PM store, and they sent an internal message to get someone to contact me.  It was a nightmare that I didn't want to repeat.

I'm happy to ignore this one.

Again, thanks everyone!

[hTideGnow · Accepted solution]

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@Jo-Anne1 wrote:

Yes I would like to hear fro Public Mobile directly. I don’t know these messages are from them at all actually

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hi @Jo-Anne1 

you asked and they listen:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/ONGOING-Important-Update-Regarding-Recent...

[hTideGnow]

hi @VanIsleBex 

from what we understand, this is not spam nor phishing but just some email/text sent out by mistake, more like a glitch

[VanIsleBex]

Hi everyone,

I just received the same text message today and logged in to see there is no lapse in my billing and payment history, everything looks perfectly up to date and functioning normally. I have not received any emails, just the one text. Is this some sort of spam? It gives a link to go to, which I did NOT click because there is so much spam and phishing going on these days.

[Jo-Anne1]

Yes I would like to hear fro Public Mobile directly. I don’t know these messages are from them at all actually

[hTideGnow]

HI @Jo-Anne1 

since the email and text are both from PM, this is not considered as a data breach.  

We don't have words from PM yet, but from experience, look like just a glitch of some kind, maybe some people press the wrong button or feed the wrong list to send

so, should not have to be worry.  But if you want, you can ask PM support to confirm

[Jo-Anne1]

I got the same email message yesterday as well and today I got a text message saying the same!

Was there a data breach of public Mobile???

Everything is fine with my subscription and my payment was taken. That is now my concern!!! Funny …my renewal date is also Sept 4… 

[hTideGnow]

HI @anilimco 

pretty sure they monitor the Community here, they just response slow

if you like to open ticket, use the ways I presented earlier in this thread

[anilimco]

First time getting these messages for the past 3 days.  Tried the chat - no use. Just AI and no live person doing the chat. Then saw a lot of posts here about this topic.  Same thing, checked everything. Everything's OK. I guess the only thing to do is ignore.  But who is sending these messages? Bug in the system or hackers? Do they even monitor the community?

[Chalupa_Batman]

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@MBN98 wrote:

Hi @Chalupa_Batman 

I've had multiple accounts with PM for over 3 years now and have never encountered this error message.  I'm sure you'll be able to point me to dozens of threads to the contrary, but for the OP @Brayr and myself this was not a known issue.

While I appreciate the "your phone it working, don't worry" instructions, I think it's only far to ask for an explanation direct from the provider, hence the tag to the CSAgent.  We have few options to get any support from this provider.

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Hello @MBN98  I myself have received these emails in the past 5 years. I've come here and seen they were sent in error. And you're right, we SHOULD be hearing directly from Public Mobile with issues like these. This is why there is an Announcement section. If and when they are ready to "announce" it, I'm sure they will. Being on these forums for a few years now, it does take PM time to announce things. Sometimes not at all which is very poor communication since this forum IS their primary point of communication with their customers. On a side note, we've been asked by Oracles here NOT to use the CS Agent tag on these forums. Hence the reason why we use the chat bot. I also would like to point out that sometimes CS Agents don't realize they are replying to an open forum and may accidently ask you for private information about your account which is open for all to see. It has happened but thankfully a lot of members here will voice their concerns before anything is shared.  
Public Mobile is a self serve service and use the chat bot as their contact. So, go for it. Use the chat bot and contact them if you want "answers". Have at it. 🙂 

[hTideGnow]

HI @MurielleS 

if you paid but got the email or text out account suspension but you have no problem with the services, you can ignore the email/text

but if you have other payment problem and need PM support agent to help, it is as easy as couple clicks:

please submit a ticket with CS Agent using this Chatbot link:  https://widget.telus.tiia.ai/publicmobile/publicmobile.html  Type the question "Submit ticket", Then click the following in order: "Contact Us" ,  "Other",  "Log In".  
If any issue with ticket submission, you can  submit by direct message:  
      https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437        

[MurielleS]

I have exactly the same problem, it s a pain to try to connect to someone. 

[MBN98]

Hi @Chalupa_Batman 

I've had multiple accounts with PM for over 3 years now and have never encountered this error message.  I'm sure you'll be able to point me to dozens of threads to the contrary, but for the OP @Brayr and myself this was not a known issue.

While I appreciate the "your phone it working, don't worry" instructions, I think it's only fair to ask for an explanation direct from the provider, hence the tag to the CSAgent.  We have few options to get any support from this provider.

[hTideGnow]

hi @Chalupa_Batman 

system failure = system down, which is different from a glitch or even manual mass email send out error,  you have some insider news to confirm?

(example of system failure, blue screen from Crowdstrike issue on July 19 was an example of system failure caused by software bugs)

[Chalupa_Batman]

Please note that Public Mobile often experiences system failures which result in an unauthorized email/notice/text with incorrect information on it which leads the customer to believe there are issues with their accounts resulting in mass confusion. As long as your services are working like making and receiving calls, text messaging and data, please disregard this email. Please do not tag a CS Agent or send them any messages. We do not need to fill the help box with unnecessary messages. This is a known error.

[hTideGnow]

HI @MBN98 

yes, look like it is an error 2 days in a row.  Let's hope PM will fix it and come out and make an apology

[MBN98]

I've encountered the same issue this week for the account that I manage for my daughter's phone. Only difference is that I received the email you noted above, yesterday in my case, but the text notification only came through today.  As well, her phone appears to work just fine and the latest payment has been successfully charged out to my credit card.  I too would like some reassurance that it's a glitch and not a set up for disconnection.

Tagging a Customer Service Agent could help us both, hence the tag to @CS_Agent .  If you could review the thread and reply to both of us, that would be great!

[will13am]

@Brayr , totally agree.  Unfortunately it is not usual for bugs to be reported until after it is resolved.  Humility is somewhat in short supply.  

[Handy1]

@Brayr  Yes last 24 hours been system issue . But If your services are still working . You can ignore this error message . A lot of complaints about this over the last 24 hours of error messages  to customers . Some sorta system glitch . And yes PM should make message up announcement section of site 

[hTideGnow]

HI @Brayr 

Sorry, no official response from PM yet

if your PM services have no problem  at all, then  please ignore the message about the overdue issue.  It looks like there was a system glitch and those email were sent wrong, sent to the wrong group of customers

if you are concern and like the official answer,  you can also  submit ticket with  support agent:

please submit a ticket with CS Agent using this Chatbot link:  https://widget.telus.tiia.ai/publicmobile/publicmobile.html  Type the question "Submit ticket", Then click the following in order: "Contact Us" ,  "Other",  "Log In".  
If any issue with ticket submission, you can  submit by direct message:  
      https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437