Switching Providers need phone number account unactivated

[johnhenry1]

Hey! 

Yesterday when my monthly renewal day came up I got a message saying:

"Public Mobile here. Your plan did not renew because we did not receive your payment. Make a payment at https://selfserve.publicmobile.ca. If you have recently made a manual payment, please ignore this message."

I thought nothing of it because I'm on auto-pay and there are sufficient funds in my bank account. But then I went out and realized my service really wasn't working which I found quite frustrating. I checked that I was still signed up for auto-pay, I checked my card on my account and my bank account and there was no reason it shouldn't have worked.

So, I decided well I don't need 10 gb of data anymore so this is the perfect time to switch providers. Unfortunately I didn't realize I needed to have an activated account to carry my phone number over, and now it seems the only way for me to switch my phone number over is to top up my account. 

I have two questions;

1) Is it possible to activate my account for just a day or so without paying the $45.00 it says I owe?

2) If I were to switch to the $15 plan would I then owe $60 or would it just switch plans and cost $15 as I haven't really started this month?

Thanks!

[darlicious]

@johnhenry1 

Well you must have discovered your services are working by now?!! However if you are curious and for the sake of other customers trying to understand similar messaging in their accounts this is a relatively common glitch that occurs when reactivating a plan. 

A top up payment is taken and is replaced with an amount due of $10. If you click on reactivate you will be brought back to the the payment page prompting you to pay the amount due of $10 but not allowing you to actually pay that amount by indicating  your amount owing is $0. This is where a little investigation can pay dividends.

Checking for working service on your phone and rebooting if necessary will reveal your services are indeed reactivated and working. However your overview page often will still display an expired account status, the suspended warning at the top and dates you need to top up or face account cancellation and deactivation and the date your " current" expired yesterday or more days ago. But your data or minute counters are reset and metering any current mobile data usage or any call you may have made to check if your services are working on a limited minute plan.

For absolute confirmation go to your transaction history. There you will see your manual top up payment with todays date and your 30 DAY PLAN.....$10 charge and/or your 100 MINUTE....$5 charge or 1GB(?) DATA AT 3G SPEED.....$15+charge debited from your account balance also with todays date. 

At this point you can log out and get on with your day. In most cases the incorrect messaging on your overview page will correct itself and return to normal with active status showing on your account a few hours later.The odd time it remains with the incorrect messaging. I have allowed an account to remain in this state for entire week before I couldnt stand it anymore and suspended the account via lost/stolen. Logged out/in. Resumed service and the overview page had corrected itself.

Using lost/stolen to correct this glitch does trigger the rewards glitch and after the following renewal contacting customer support to apply the rewards manually is a must. One step forward, two steps back.....welcome to public mobile! Or goodbye.....one of the two.

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

[johnhenry1]

No, my services aren't working either! It does say I have the $15 plan on my account now (under the account status banner stating "Plan Expired") though so the change must've worked in some ways 🤔

[HALIMACS]

The key question @johnhenry1 ,  is do your services work?

Can you make/receive both calls and texts?  (remember, on the $15 plan, you only have 100 outgoing minutes and part minutes count as a full minute rounded up ... even if it's only a 5 second call it's counted as a full minute..)

[johnhenry1]

Hey, so it worked and was only 15 dollars as you all said! Thanks!

But, now it still says this

• Your plan expired on Feb 9, 2022.
• Top up before May 10, 2022 or your account will be deactivated.
• Current Balance: $10.00
• Amount Due: $0.00

And it still says my account is suspended/expired and that I have to pay in 90 days to keep my account even though I paid and have a positive balance on the account. 

[hTideGnow]

HI @johnhenry1   your account is already suspended at the moment (as the expiry date was Feb 9)

No worry, change the plan first. 

Then you will need to manually put in $15 for reactivation.  

Once you pay, reboot your phone and it should be good 

[HALIMACS]

@johnhenry1 

The "current balance" is a $5 credit on your account.

You should only have to add $10 to get up and running on the $15 plan.   Some have found that you might have to further add an additional $1 to get the account to reactivate.   But try just the $10 first and then reactivate/resume service.

You won't be charged for anything over and above what you pre-pay.   If you pay more than is necessary, the 'excess' funds go into your 'Available Balance' to be utilized against future renewals (or add-on purchases you may choose to make).

[johnhenry1]

Haha, yeah I didn't elaborate on that but I've found the 3G speeds to be a bit too slow at times!

[johnhenry1]

Thanks! I think I'll do that, but first I'd like to confirm. It says this on my account:

"Please disregard this message if you have enough funds in your balance or are on AutoPay. Your account has been suspended. Make a payment to reactive your current plan.Suspended accounts are deactivated after 90 days of non-payment and you will lose your phone number and service."

It also says this:

• Your plan expired on Feb 9, 2022.
• Top up before May 10, 2022 or your account will be deactivated.
• Current Balance: $5.00
• Amount Due: $45.00

And then when I go to switch plans it says this:

• Should you choose to change the plan now ahead of your next renewal date, no refund or credit will be given for any unused portion of the plan. You can also choose to have your plan change come into effect on your next renewal date by clicking on “Change on next renewal date”.

All this is a bit concerning so just hoping you could confirm that once I switch to the $15 dollar plan it won't charge me on top of what I "owe".

Thanks again!

[HALIMACS · Accepted solution]

@johnhenry1   

You asked:

I have two questions;

1) Is it possible to activate my account for just a day or so without paying the $45.00 it says I owe?

2) If I were to switch to the $15 plan would I then owe $60 or would it just switch plans and cost $15 as I haven't really started this month?

1. I recommend you reactivate on the cheapest plan, the $15.00 plan, then perhaps take your time finding a provider which best suits your needs (you'll have about 29 days)
2. You are quite fine to switch to the $15.   You would only have to pay $15 (plus tax) every 30 days, then you'd have what goes with that plan.  250MB data with auto-pay enabled + 100 outgoing Canada-wide calling minutes + international texting + unlimited incoming calls from anywhere in the world.

[pkaraa]

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@johnhenry1 wrote:

I decided well I don't need 10 gb of data anymore so this is the perfect time to switch providers.

Thanks!

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Option 2 .. You can top up manually and get a plan suitable for you if you choose $15 plan it will be only $15, not $60.

I can not understand this one line in your post though..

10 GB data is not needed so I thought to change the provider 😄 as if PM only provide plans of 10GB or more.