Top up question when plan change is needed

[death_ak]

Hi guys,

i just have this question when i saw my credit card bill. I activated my account, chose my plan and made the payment for the next 3 months on April 2. I also set up the auto payment on my credit card. unfortunately I realised I chose the wrong plan right the way. I wanted to change my plan and it prompted that I had to top up with another 3 months payment. I immediately did it and changed my plan successfully. Now 2 payments were made but my balance is still $0 and next payment is due on June 30. I am just  a little confused because I did make 2 3-month payments. I felt like I just made a double payments.

[srlawren]

@stonechucker I'm thinking up to once per 30 days.  So if you sign up you can change up to once between days 1 and 30 of your cycle, once between days 31 and 60 of your cycle, and once between days 61 and 90 of your cycle.  This would align with the typical restiction of one plan change per calendar month at most carriers.

[stonechucker]

@srlawren, my apologies, I have no issue when at the start of service.  I've seen many folks forget to add the txt to get the same price as the plan without the discounted price.  That's a no brainer.

And yes, 90 days is a long time, and plans can seem out of step depending on circumstances, but where do you draw the line?  I'd suggest that the customer could maybe do this once in a year of service, otherwise this could happen as often as weekly.  An exaggeration I'm sure, but who knows.

[Samianauman]

Really agreed with @srlawren
Both points make sense to me
👍

[srlawren]

@stonechucker I see what you are saying, but I think you are being a bit too rigid.  The fact is that people are error prone.  It's actually more ongoing work for the moderators to have to help out in special cases than it is for them to just offer this up to work on its own in self serve.  And by choosing 90 days, I think of it more as you are committing to stay with PM for at least 90 days, and willing to give up any remaining $ if you leave early.  If you think about traditional cell service, you're usually signed onto a 2 year contract, but even then you are usually allowed to make 1 plan change every month if needed.  So if you think of the 90 day plan as a short 90 day contract to stay with PM, why not have that same flexibility?  What if it were limited to once per 30 days of your 90 days?

Two scenarios:

1) User error.  We have seen many, many cases in the community of people accientally picking the wrong plan when activating.  Why not allow them to fix it themselves without losing 90 or nearly 90 days worth of service in the process?  Does this really seem unreasonably to you?

2) Circumstances change.  Yes 90 days is a lot less than a 1 or 2 year contract, but a lot can change in 90 days.  Why not allow the user to scale up (while paying the difference, prorated) or down (with getting an account credit, prorated, torward their next renewal) to suit current needs?

[stonechucker]

I have to disagree on the ability to change mid-plan, and here is my reason.

we are given a great discount over the 30-day plans, when we choose a 90-day plan.

by choosing 90 days, I'm saying I do not want to change my plan until at least my next renewal, and so PM doesn't have to do any work in the mean time on my account, they give me 3 30-day pkgs at once.

if I pick a 30-day plan, it's because I don't know what's going to happen in the next 30-90 days, so just in case, I'm going to spend a little more, so I have the added flexibility to up or downgrade my package.

i started on 30 day, prov, txt, and 1gb data for $42.  I wanted to ensure I wanted to continue the service, before picking the 90-day.

i then switched to the same plan on 90-days, with the 6 go of data, essentially doubling my 30 day data.  That was priced at $40/30-day, or. $2 savings with extra data over the first plan.

Developing for a mid plan change in my mind, takes away from the savings, and we may not get these discounts.

[srlawren]

@death_ak sorry you had to learn that one the hard way, it doesn't matter if you're on day 1 or day 89, if you apply a plan change right away you forefeit whatever was left in your current cycle.  The text you quotes sounds like my writing?  🙂

If you don't like this and think you should be able to change any time like I feel, then please take a moment to look at this idea and click the bravo button to vote it up:

http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Public-Lab/Ability-to-just-change-your-plan-right-away...

[Samianauman]

Gods to hear that you received credit back
That's why I suggested to contact mod on my first response to you it's doesn't cost to contact or try
But it's good that you received your almost money back what you paid extra

[death_ak]

I got response from one of the MOD, Shazia.

She decided to credit me back $120 since I was fresh to the self service and did not familiar with the terms.

I really appreciate the outcome and also the help from the community. This is a good lecture to learn in a good way.

[Samianauman]

Yep they will look after u
Update us when your issue gets resolved by mod dept

[death_ak]

yea, I am not rushing anything.

[Samianauman]

It's take some time

[death_ak]

I guess the mod is still busy.

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[Samianauman]

We got the best mod team let's hope for the best let's see if they can offer any help about this issue

When you new I know it's hard to know everything but I guess that's how you learn by mistakes right

[death_ak]

Yes, now i am learing my lession. I am very new to public mobile.

I have just sent a pm to Mary.

Thanks

[Samianauman]

If you made a payment and then realized you pick a wrong Plan then you still make s payment again because that's how system works you should have contact mod before you made a payment that's why it's always good to make any changes to plan when ur renewal date is due

But I would say still contact mod send a details explanation maybe they will do something since they have a access to your account

[death_ak]

Thanks.

Top up was literally on the same date that I activated my account.

[Samianauman · Accepted solution]

If that hapen I would still say try send a private msg to mod dept maybe then can do something manually since your account too up was not that old
Here how you contact them
In your private message to any moderator include whatever bits of the following info you have:
* PM account email address
* PM phone number
* PM SIM card number
* Detailed explanation
* Community Moderators are available from Mon-Thursday 9am(EST) to 9pm(EST) and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 9am(EST) to 5:30pm(EST)
Here is the link for how to contact moderators
http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Knowledge-Base/Updated-Contacting-our-Community-Modera...

[death_ak]

I think i got the answer from below,

For future reference if you need to change your plan again in the future:
PM is a fully pre-paid model, and does not typically offer any refunds or credits on unused portions of your plan.  What this means is, when you go to change your plan online, you will be given two buttons.  One of them is to schedule the plan change for your next renewal date.  This means, you carry on with your current plan until it ends, and then your next cycle starts with the new plan you've just chosen.  This is what you will typically want to do.  The other option is to do the plan change right away.  What this does is to end your current plan/cycle, and forfeit any remaining days/$ that would have been left.  If then starts a new cycle on the new plan you've chosen, and charges you the full amount for that cycle.  Use this only if you desperately need the new plan options and can't wait unti the next renewal date.  For example, if you are 20 days into a 90 day cycle for, say, $90, and then choose to immediately change your plan to a new 90 day plan that's $120, you will pay the full $120 at the moment, and this is on top of the $90 you paid 20 days earlier.
 
Hopefully this was clear but let me know if you have any follow up questions.  

But i do feel a little unfair, for the first plan that i got, the text msg was checked off somehow. so for the second plan i wanted, I added text msg. It was the exactly same price.

I was new to Public Mobile, i did not know top up & change plan means I will waste the original plan right way. I am just wondering if any PMs can do anything about it? I was just like threw $120 in the water without any splash. 😞

Thanks