Some criticism on Public Mobile

[hsungje]

This is more of a rant, but I hope PM takes this as an opportunity to improve your services.

I activated my account last Friday, but with the Public Mobile SIM card inserted in my phone, I quickly realized that my phone is still locked with the previous mobile provider. In the process of unlocking the phone, I ended up having to enter a PUK code. I contacted the PM moderator team for the code, but the PUK code I received did not work (I'm still not sure why). I reached out to the moderators regarding the issue multiple times, but was returned with a simple copy and pasted answer circling around the issue back and forth. Finally, I was left on Saturday night with no replies to 3 DMs I sent... and I still haven't received anything as of Monday morning.

I couldn't afford to not have my phone number working as I need to make some business calls today. I have now switched back to my previous provider and have my phone number working again.

I am now left with $45 plan + 2 x SIM card purchases (total of roughly $73 after tax) out of my bank account, and did NOT even get to use 1 second of Public Mobile service (0 minute, 0 data). I asked for a refund on the plan payment of $45 through another DM, but once again no reply on this (even if I do get my DM answered, PM will probably say something about "pre-paid services, cannot refund.. blah blah blah").

I understand that you advertise yourself as a phone company without a phone number, which is fine with me. However, I also expect my messages to be answered within a reasonable time frame with someone technically knowledgeable to answer these hardware issues when needed. You haven't done anything for me other than simply stealing $45 from me.

[mtfolks]

That sucks that things didn’t work out and sorry you had to switch back to Bell. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with constructive criticism.

Hopefully, PM can use it to provide even better customer service than they already do. 

[will13am]

@hsungje, sorry that things didn't work out for you.  Generally, customers have little difficulties with setting up the service.  The moderator team service is as good or better than any call center IMHO.  To simplify things, I suggest not using the SIM lock feature in the security setting.  The screen lock should be sufficient.  

[hsungje]

Thanks, but that's exactly what I did.

I don't exactly wanna go through the whole process of what I went through over the weekend... I don't really care anymore tbh.

Just to briefly sum up, I did receive the unlocking code from Bell. The PUK code that my phone is asking for (this is different from PIN/unlock code that Bell provides) is a SIM specific code, which Public Mobile provided for 2 different SIM cards. The PUK code is the part that's not working, hence why I'm putting this on Public Mobile not Bell.

[stonechucker]

I'm sorry you've had the frustration this past weekend, and I did see what I think was your thread regarding this.

I believe your issue was that your BELL locked phone had not yet been unlocked.  I just went through an unlock with Rogers, with no problem at all on Friday, using the 8 digit code provided by Rogers, and using my current PM SIM card.

Every bit of information I can find tells me to unlock a locked device, you must get a code from the locking carrier, and use another SIM from a different carrier, not associated with the locking carrier.