US Roaming add on plan

[victoriaschende]

Hello

I bought a US roaming plan 11 days ago when I travelled to Lake Placid New York for 3 day Starting March 30 2023, returning to Montreal on April 2, 2023.  I found I could not use my phone.  I had very poor service.  I tried to use my Google maps for driving and directions.  It did not work.  I could not text my friends to communicate with them to meet and connect.  It was very frustrating as I paid for a US roaming plan.  I did not get what I paid for.  I would like my money back for this US add on.  

My daughter was with me and she has a Public Mobile plan.  For Canada only.  She could communicate with people better then I could.  She did not get an add on plan.  So this was very frustrating.  I did not understand that international texting meant texting can happen from outside of Canada.  She was able to text and I could not.  Again very frustrated with this option as it did not work as it should.  In my mind it should be seamless and I should not have even notice anything.

Thank you

[maximum_gato]

@hairbag1

I'm sure many over the past year but with VoLTE now available as long as the customer has a compatible phone and it provisioned in their account there should be little reason for widespread refund/credits except for Alaska.

If only public mobile would be upfront and inform customers on the add ons page (or a link to a "read this first before purchase") with the basics like the 360 hour countdown to expiry, the 24 hour wait time to repurchase and how to troubleshoot (enable roaming, reboot phone etc...) that would educate most customers and nearly eliminate all of those basic inquiries, requests and complaints.

Then proper explanation of current roaming partners, their network(s) and access and finally a proper explanation of US network coverage and how it differs from Canadian network coverage. Once customers understand that just because you are on a highway or near civilization doesn't mean you have coverage.

T-Mobile's 110 million customers don't contact their provider everytime they pass thru Nebraska and have no service and ask for a refund. Similarly when members suggest a local Sim card such as mint mobile or tello this will not improve coverage or connectivity as both of those MVNO's use T-Mobile's network.

And no matter how Grrrreat!!! customer support is there is always room for improvement.

[hairbag1]

@maximum_gato 

with the summer travel season upon us, I guess they'll leave it to The Community Forum to tell people the pitfalls to watch for with the US Roaming add-ons.

I wonder how many travelers who buy the add-on but are underwhelmed with the experience, actually request a credit or refund. I predict a busy travel season in the next few months...( 3 hours waits at Peace Arch reported today )

Bring on spring / summer !!

[dust2dust]

And if rumours be true, stop mentioning Verizon!

[maximum_gato]

@hairbag1 

Public mobile should address the loss of AT&T as a roaming partner in their help article on US Roaming. Whether or not it's a temporary measure it would solve the issue of refunds to customers trying to roam in Alaska. It shouldn't be up to the community to supply basic info to customers.

The money spent on customer support and issuing credits/refunds to customers that could have been prevented in the first place by either the roaming add on not being purchased for an area with no coverage at all or a customer when given precious little info at the time of purchase and is used to first tier seamless roaming service returns to complain about lack of service and wanting a refund. This is not really the customer's fault?

A little knowledge can go a long way or at least the correct knowledge? But we all know how Grrrrreat customer support can be around here!!

[hairbag1]

@hycm53 

@dust2dust 

it's too bad the CSA group aren't aware that only T-Mobile will work with the PM Roaming options.

To tell customers that Verizon or AT&T will work, only create confusion and frustration.

[dust2dust]

Thanks again for the testing @hycm53 . Rumour has it that support just recently suggested that Verizon would work when volte is enabled on the device. Apparently not. When I say volte enabled I mean that volte is enabled to work for the service. Not just the toggle if available. You had said that volte is enabled for your device (adding - and service) and so it should work nicely in the states. Which you also confirmed. So...no Verizon.

[hycm53]

---

@dust2dust wrote:

Hey @hycm53 , if you're still in the states and you still have roaming left then can you try a manual connect to Verizon with your volte enabled phone?

---

I actually tried connect to Sprint, Verizon and Firstnet, but all showed up "SOS only" on screen with VoLTE enabled. And I tried to enable 3G , only T- Mobile show up for connection.

[dust2dust]

Hey @hycm53 , if you're still in the states and you still have roaming left then can you try a manual connect to Verizon with your volte enabled phone?

[dust2dust · Accepted solution]

I was typing a whole explanation but it doesn't matter. Just ask support for a credit for the fact that it didn't seem to work. No point in troubleshooting now. Let us know ahead of time the next time you're going to the states.

Your daughter might be using an iphone and connected to wifi here and there. She can send and receive instant messages (not technically SMS texts) between idevices when on wifi. That might be what you saw.

[maximum_gato]

@victoriaschende 

Well it's not quite seamless. There are a few things you need to do once you arrive in the US.  Enable roaming on your phone. If you do not connect to T-Mobile's network immediately you should reboot your phone and then check that you are connected to T-Mobile's LTE network. Sometimes you may have to manually choose T-Mobile in your settings and/or toggle airplane mode on/off.

International texting will not work in the US without the text+talk add on bundle but you will still recieve incoming pm texts messages without a US roaming add on. Are you sure you purchased the 15 day US Roaming add on? Or did you add it to your daughter's account? Log into both accounts using secret/incognito mode to see which account has the US Roaming add on in their account and in the payment history?

Edit:

For future reference read the following post and the update for more info on US Roaming add ons and how to use T-Mobile's 2G network if the recent roll out of VoLTE calling has not been provisioned yet for your account or your phone is not supported for VoLTE.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/US-Roaming-Add-ons-Decommissioning-of-US-...

[softech]

@victoriaschende the international texting is to be used to text FROM Canada to other country and definitely not to text from US.   However, you can receive text for free while in US without roaming.  But again, you cannot reply or send in US without roaming addon

When you are in US, you were able to connect to T-MOBILE?  The experience with T-Mobile really depends on its coverage and sometimes out of PM's control. 

Luckily, PM support are usually very understanding.  Open a ticket with them , share your experience and they might be able to do something to compensate.

1. Please open ticket via Chatbot (need access to My Account): click this  Chatbot Ticket Link 

Then click "Click here to submit a ticket ↗" to open the ticket submission page
Next, enter your Community login, then enter your question.  Finally use My Account login or 4 digits PIN to validate.

2. If you have trouble with Chatbot or you don't have access to My Account: Private message CS Agent at: 

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

**Monitor your Community inbox (envelope icon on the top right) after the ticket is opened.  CS Agent will reply to you there

[hairbag1]

@victoriaschende 

you have Roaming Data enabled on your phone ?

Did you see if it was connecting to T-Mobile ?

You should have been able to recieve texts even without the roaming add-on...just can send out text without it.