Talk is not included in your plan"!!! I could not make a voice call at all.

[hyT]

@Catherine_T 

Unfortunately, NOT SO MERRY for me! 

I have never had any trouble with my phone service since I started with PM in March this year.

Then I got this free gifts offer yesterday. Claimed the 2 free gifts last night. Checked my self-service portal. Free add-ons are there OK. Also entered the 'contest', but had to use my last name only because my full name was not accepted as a valid name.  I thought it was because my first name had a hyphen in it.  It accepted my lastname-only entry and I got a confirmation on screen followed by an email confirmation shortly after.

Then today, when I tried to make a voice call, I got an announcement that said "Talk is not included in your plan"!!!  I could not make a voice call at all.

Got onto my self-serve portal and checked again. My Plan is active!  It is one of the grand-fathered plans with unlimited Canada-wide talk. 

Turned off my phone. Took out SIM - checked that the SIM number is the same as listed in my self-service account.  Reinstalled the SIM. Restarted the phone. Still cannot make voice call.

Chatted with SIMON, submitted a ticket. Now waiting for Moderator to respond.

It looks as though by claiming those free gifts and entering the contest, I have triggered something in the system to not recognize my valid phone plan which has never been suspended or changed by me.  I have plenty of available funds in my account. Something has been fouled up. I hope this gets fixed soon. Otherwise the free gifts are not worth the interruption of my phone service.

hyT

[darlicious]

@hyT 

We have all done that! You should see the gobbly-**bleep** i have to fix when typing on my phones keyboard!

[kb_mv]

@hyT It is great that you came back and and let everyone know what happened. This allows everyone to learn from this. Thanks for that!

[hyT]

Hi @dabr @darlicious @AE_Collector @Luddite and whoever have read this thread,

My sincere apologies to everybody.

I have done some testing this afternoon and have come to the conclusion that I created my own problem to start with!   Apologies to PM and the Moderators too.  I have wasted everybody's time.  @darlicious , you are right.  It had nothing to do with my claiming the free holiday add-ons at all.  It was all probably just from my finger inadvertently touching the asterix * key right after I keyed in the 1 XXX-XXX-XXXX phone number!.

To demonstrate, I have attached a screenshot here.

As you can see, the ~Time Signal Canada number shows up in two different ways.

The top one is what shows when I dial the number correctly. The dialer app puts in the space after 1 and the hyphens between the different parts of the number automatically. It dials through without any problem.

The second one is when I deliberately touch the asterix key after keying in the phone number.  The asterix prevents the dialer from putting it the space and hyphens in this case.  When I dial with that, the PM system could not tell me it was a wrong number.  Instead, it triggers the message "Hi Public Mobile here. Sorry, talk is not included in your current plan …".   The PM system could not recognize that it was a wrong number!

I suspect if you experiment with that asterix *, you will probably get the "...talk is not included …" message too.  

Lessons learned:

1. Be careful when dialing. Not to touch an extra key.

2. Don't rush to blame it on PM too soon if encountering problems.

3. The PM Moderators are gracious and willing to help anyway even if it was my fault.

Hope some of you would try it and let me know what you think of my analysis and conclusion. 

Happy holidays and happy PMing.

[darlicious]

@hyT 

I should clarify my post I often get that message when I call voicemail from my phone dialing ( 1 ). I will hang up and test dialing a local number. Its generally a 50/50 chance whether that call will go thru.

[hyT]

Hi @dabr ,

My apologies. I did not make myself clear in my last post. 

By saying that the NRC number (1 613-745-1576) is long distance for me, I meant to say that I have to dial "1" before the number to avoid hearing the "Long distance may apply ..." message.  It is as opposed to dialing 416 or 647 numbers which I do not need the leading "1".  I find it useful for testing my phone and also checking the accurate current time.

I do have a plan that includes Canada-wide talk. So there is no need for the add-on minutes.  Thank you for your astute observation and kind suggestion.

[dabr]

---

@hyT wrote:

One phone number I have found useful for testing purposes is the National Research Council (NRC) time signal number. It is available 24/7. It is in Ottawa and so it is long distance for me. It is a recording that gives me the accurate current time. I don't have to bother any friend or family member when testing my phone.

---

@hyT   When you say the NRC number is long distance for you, does that mean you're on an older provincial calling plan?  All of the current plans offer Canada wide calling so that maybe something to consider or it might be a good idea to purchase the $5/500 mins add-on as a cheap alternative for any long distance calling. 

Anyhow good to hear your calling issue has been fixed, even if you didn't get an explanation as to what the problem was.

[hyT]

One phone number I have found useful for testing purposes is the National Research Council (NRC) time signal number. It is available 24/7. It is in Ottawa and so it is long distance for me. It is a recording that gives me the accurate current time. I don't have to bother any friend or family member when testing my phone.

[hyT]

Hi @darlicious ,

Outgoing voice calls are working now. So are all the other services of my account.

The moderator told me there was a "little issue" with my provisioning and it had been fixed. No specifics, and no explanation of why the two ways the phone number was recorded in my out-going call record. 

I shall continue to pay attention when dialing out from now on. Hope the problem won't reappear.

My account has never been suspended. It didn't appear after a voicemail call either.

[darlicious]

@hyT 

 I dont think adding "more the merrier" gifts caused the problem but its an interesting observation with the asterisk/symbols added to the number. This is a common enough message recieved by some users on occasion (myself included.) I most commonly get it when i dial voicemail and it can then affect all calling for a few minutes to a several hours. Ive also been told by a moderator that its often after renewing after suspension that the issue will appear. If it does not clear after trying to call a couple of frequently called contacts and an hour or so it is best to contact the moderators to reprovision your sim card.

[AE_Collector]

Never a lack of excitement around here! If it works now all is good.

AE_Collector

[dabr]

---

@hyT wrote:

Hi @dabr 

Although I had already contacted the Moderator Team when you responded to my post, you did point to the right action to take and I appreciate your attention.  As you say, it is frowned upon to give oneself the solution.  Plus, Luddite moved my post to this new thread and I really do not know how to edit away the solution.

There is a new twist to this issue. See my reply to @AE_Collector above. It may not be something I should have bothered the moderators about. It may be something of my own doing. If you or someone else can explain the cause of the same phone number appearing differently and one of them causing the problem, he or she should deserve the solution.

---

@hyT   First how to remove/edit a solution, just click the the three vertical dots top right of your post and you should get an option to undo the solution there.

Unfortunately I have no idea why your dialer is listing your calls twice and one with an asterisk.  Haven't personally experienced that or even read about it on the forums.  Hopefully, you've messaged the moderators about it and maybe they can tell you what is going on or perhaps other users may know why that happens. 

Please keep us posted if you get an answer from the moderators about this.  Good luck!

Edit:  @Luddite   If you have a few minutes can you please reassign OP's solution to his follow up post as it seems he was unable to undo the wrong solution.  Thanks.

[hyT]

Hi @dabr 

Although I had already contacted the Moderator Team when you responded to my post, you did point to the right action to take and I appreciate your attention.  As you say, it is frowned upon to give oneself the solution.  Plus, Luddite moved my post to this new thread and I really do not know how to edit away the solution.

There is a new twist to this issue. See my reply to @AE_Collector above. It may not be something I should have bothered the moderators about. It may be something of my own doing. If you or someone else can explain the cause of the same phone number appearing differently and one of them causing the problem, he or she should deserve the solution.

[hyT · Accepted solution]

Hi @AE_Collector 

I did dial 1 before the phone number to avoid hearing the standard message that says 'long distance charges may apply'.  Yes it is a long distance number which I often call. 

An interesting observation today:

When I look at the 'All calls' list in my dialer now, I notice that there are two different entries with that same phone number. 

One lists the number as 1xxxxxxxxxx* with no space, no hyphens and an asterix at the end. That is the one giving me trouble.  It instantly gives me the 'Hi Public Mobile here. Sorry. Talk is not included in your current plan....' message.  In fact, it still does!

The other lists the number as 1 xxx-xxx-xxxx with no asterix at the end. It allows the dialing to go through normally.

I think I have dialed the number in the same way each time. The space and hyphens appear automatically.  What could have happened which caused the same phone number to appear in 2 different ways is puzzling.  

So it may not be Public Mobile's fault after all!  It seems that I might have done something to cause the problem.

Anyway, the moderators have sent me a message today saying that they have 're-provisioned' my phone.  I have restarted my phone and tried calling different numbers, both local and long distance, and everything seems to be working fine at this time.  Shall pay special attention to my dialer from now on. May be someone knowledgeable in this phenomenon may enlighten me.  

[As, correctly, requested ........ Luddite]

[dabr]

---

@hyT wrote:

@dabr @Luddite 

My ticket was responded to by a Moderator within half an hour asking for specifics. I sent a couple of private messages explaining the problem. No response since then.

Phone line is working again this morning.  Moderator(s) must have fixed my problem overnight. May be too busy to send a follow-up all-done message.

I am OK with that. All I want is uninterrupted service. Thank you for the attention.

Happy holidays.

---

@hyT   Thanks for updating your thread and good to hear that whatever the issue was with you not being able to make calls has been fixed.

However, I don't think it was necessary to mark my response as a solution as you already had taken the step of contacting moderators and I didn't give you any other helpful suggestions.  In fact, I think your last post should be the solution.  You can edit your post and take off the solution and I think in a few days @Luddite can mark your post as the solution since I know giving yourself a solution is frowned upon here.

[AE_Collector]

Out if curiosity have you tried dialling “1” before the number you are calling to see if that gets around the problem? Sometimes it does. And this IS a number you have regularly called before? 

AE_Collector

[hyT]

@dabr @Luddite 

My ticket was responded to by a Moderator within half an hour asking for specifics. I sent a couple of private messages explaining the problem. No response since then.

Phone line is working again this morning.  Moderator(s) must have fixed my problem overnight. May be too busy to send a follow-up all-done message.

I am OK with that. All I want is uninterrupted service. Thank you for the attention.

Happy holidays.

[Luddite]

@hyT  You're welcome. Hope tomorrow is better.

[hyT]

Thank you @Luddite for moving my message to where it should be.

I put the original message where it was to see if it has been a common experience after claiming the free holidays gifts.  So far it looks like I am the only unlucky one.

I am patiently waiting for the Moderators to fix it for me after submitting the ticket. 

[Luddite]

@hyT  FYI: made separate topic and changed title for you. Always best to begin your own topic/thread rather than tacking onto a current one.

I'm sure the moderators will be able to sort this. In the meantime checkout then TextNow app for free calling/texting with wifi (or cellular data); it's a good backup for this type of situation. I use a similar product from fongo.com.

[hyT]

@dabr 

I sent a ticket already. I am working with a moderator now through private messages.

[dabr]

@hyT

Edit:  Sorry didn't read that you've contacted the moderators.  Hopefully you get a fix soon.  Good luck.