US Roaming not working (on island of Hawaii)

[Dank_ferret]

Per the chat support app, I was instructed to address this post to @CS_Agent

I was recently on the island of Hawaii and had activated my US Roaming add-on.  I made sure my Data Roaming was switched on.  For whatever reason, I was unable to use the calling function at all - and this was exactly what we needed the add-on for, so we could make reservations, book activities etc.  Only the data function and SMS functions worked.

Unfortunately our honeymoon is now over and I barely used the add-on during our trip.

Can I be reimbursed for the reward points that were spent on this add-on?

[Magex]

Customer support here believes "Consistent recorded usage" is 40mb out of a 3gig data package. It's laughable they used the word CONSISTENT here, when cleared this is the result of not being able to receive data: 40 mb is like nothing. 

This forum is public and I literally can't understand what kind of CEO would think it's a good idea to have policies that refuse a refund to someone who could use only 1.5% of data add-on because the coverage was 99% inaccessible.

[Magex]

If it was a setup issue, it wouldn't work anywhere on the island, right? That's what was so annoying, there were clearly spots where it did not work at all, but sometimes while driving i would find i was able to get sms again. 

Public Mobile isn't cheap enough to justify complete self help or lack of refunds, the amount I pay for data is same on Virgin mobile or some other stores too, so I feel like it would help if they were more customer orientated and not like "oh too bad you got screwed and couldnt use the data you bought.  

You can see on here that only 40 mb of data was passed and only one msg was able to be sent (tho i received msgs sporadically while driving when it passed an area that had coverage).

So this is Public Mobile literally refusing to refund a package that was only 1.5% used!

[DennyCrane]

@Magex Cool. Have a good night.

[Magex]

This is exactly what i just said, for data i need to select one service, but for calls i CAN receive from either, obviously i can only talk to one caller at once anyway, but theres nothing stopping the phone from receiving calls and msgs from both numbers.  It's not like you said about "SMS on one", im getting SMS from both numbers, i do not need to "switch".  It's the SENDING where i need to specify which number im sending SMS from. 

I know you are trying to help. I'm just saying the line of questioning about my phone isnt causing the "what happens when u dont have VoLTE" issues.  The coverage is literally missing in most places and on the page where they sell the package, it mentions blackout of coverage in Alaska and not here, and it has no mention that you need VoLTE and not just regular LTE.   So someone buys it and has no warning about how awful the coverage is around Oahu and then Public Mobile won't refund and make it a point to say all their addons are non-refundable, rather than to say "hey we are trying to be a reliable brand that people can trust, and if our service or product is dysfunctional to a point of being practically useless, we are happy to provide a refund".  Just awful business practice and customer service. 

[Dank_ferret]

@Magex That doesn't sound right, Oahu is way more developed than the Big Island, it theoretically should have better coverage. When I was in Kona, Hilo, and most of the small in-between towns, my Samsung S10 (only one SIM...) had 3 - 5 bars, so not terrible - there just wasn't any voice service. It sounds like a set-up issue? Regardless, I'll agree customer service was poor; started with the chat-bot, chat-bot referred me to ticketing system, and of course ticketing system was not working. I complained to PM that as helpful as the community pages are, the average cellphone user is not going to understand the finer details of network connectivity. Granted, PM's modus operandi is that customers need to self-help themselves as much as possible so PM can provide the least amount of direct customer service, but getting add-on products to work should be a little more intuitive (and ideally not require troubleshooting in the first place)

[DennyCrane]

@Magex Dual sim phone does not mean dual sim simultaneously. You can only run 1 sim at a time per service, as I explained. If you have your European sim active for data, you can't also turn the PM sim on for data. You could do SMS on one and data on the other, for example. Or you could jump back and forth between sims for a single service, but you can't run the same service on 2 sims at the same time.

I'm just trying to help. You're making blanket statements that are not the experience that most have. There is something else going on, and I'm trying to help you get to the bottom of it.

[Magex]

It is a literal dual sim phone, i can receive calls and texts from both sim cards from different services, what do you even mean here?  The data obviously has to be from one selected service only, but my calls and texts come from either number for receiving, and obviously i have to select which number to send out a text from every time i send one.

I'm not sure how this is relevant to what's happening to public mobile not receiving any bars.  I only mentioned it because its not the lack of BANDS available since the other sim card is able to get 4 bars in the same location. 

The data is set to Public Mobile. Xiaomi 12x 

[DennyCrane]

@Magex Gotcha. I'm sure you thought of this, but just to be sure, you know you can only run 1 sim per service at a time, right? I.e. you can only pick 1 sim to use for data service, 1 for phone calls, and 1 for SMS.

What type of phone is it?

[Magex]

 it isnt the phone because my phone is dual sim and the card from Europe got reception in the place i was at, but not the card from Public mobile. Where i was staying it was 0 bars on every possible setting, 5g, 4g, 2g etc for Public mobile, while it was 4 bars for my european sim card.

[DennyCrane]

@Magex Coverage in Hawaii is great. Something else is going on for you to have such poor service. I certainly don't want to downplay your experience, but I wouldn't say it's common.

What phone were you using? Was it a phone from overseas?

[Magex]

The Customer Service here is abysmal.  Instead of admitting to the fact that it doesn't work in Oahu, they blame it on needing to "manually select" to connect. I have ofcourse tried that too, 5g, 4g, 2g, all of it didnt connect.  There are simply many locations on the island that DONT connect, or conversely put, there are VERY FEW places on the island where it connects at all. 

Then the CS agent tries to redirect blame again saying "why did you not contact while in the US" when i have literally been submitting those tickets from Hawaii with my LAPTOP on WIFI.  WTF is wrong with the customer service at Public Mobile, it's just appalling.

[computergeek541]

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@Magex wrote:

The CS Agent actually said it's non-refundable so I think this is a poor roaming addon for anyone heading to Hawaii and possibly other locations and to AVOID like the plague.  Barely works anywhere here.  

Disappointing customer service from Public Mobile that won't refund money on a service that doesn't even work.   They even blamed the weather when it's not working in sunshine clouds or rain, it's obvious that Public Mobile know it barely works anywhere on OAHU HAWAII, so why does Public Mobile only warn about Alaska blackout zone under the information for the add-on?  There were only a few places where it connected at all to anything, whether SMS or calling.

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Please open another ticket.  While I understand that Public Mobile wouldn't be issuing refunds to customers who simply change their minds, Public Mobile has a duty to ensure that serfvices/add-ons that are sold to customers work correctly.

[Magex]

The CS Agent actually said it's non-refundable so I think this is a poor roaming addon for anyone heading to Hawaii and possibly other locations and to AVOID like the plague.  Barely works anywhere here.  

Disappointing customer service from Public Mobile that won't refund money on a service that doesn't even work.   They even blamed the weather when it's not working in sunshine clouds or rain, it's obvious that Public Mobile know it barely works anywhere on OAHU HAWAII, so why does Public Mobile only warn about Alaska blackout zone under the information for the add-on?  There were only a few places where it connected at all to anything, whether SMS or calling.

[Magex]

Yeah, for me it was even worst, even the DATA part didnt work in most places.  I couldn't use the internet, so no maps no browser searches etc. It was ridiculously useless, I would not even market that as a package to anyone without VoLTE, it's like have to get lucky to even send a text msg somewhere.

[Dank_ferret]

@Magex I stayed on both sides of the Big Island and did day trips to the north and south - reception was definitely non-existent / spotty in some places. You can download an off-line map of Hawaii (using Google Maps); I used the "TextMe" app to make a US phone number. This allowed me to make voice phone calls wherever I had data reception (uses your data so don't go talking for hours!)

[DennyCrane]

@Magex Yeah, there was a time when that warning was more relevant, but it badly needs updating. All of the US has shut their 3G networks down; it's that simple, and they should just say that.

[Magex]

The problem with this warning is it only mentions ALASKA needing VoLTE, nothing about HAWAII.  It doesn't mentioned any other blackout zones when it's quite clear I can't get anything in the location im in right now (the only reason I got any text msgs is that android chat/text msgs uses WIFI when available, not SMS, to send each other text msgs.  I have a dual sim phone and one of my sim cards from Europe gets 4 bars of reception here in my location and the public mobile one gets NO SERVICE, 0 bars, so UNUSABLE.  

[Dank_ferret]

@DennyCrane - I'm still rocking a Samsung S10, and not the 5G variant. Yup - it's old, but it works well and meets my needs. Unfortunately, it's not on the list of devices with VoLTE (honestly just found out what this was today), and I don't see a "Preferred Network" selector under my phone "Connections" menu, only the ability to choose between "LTE/WCDMA/GSM - autoconnect", "WCDMA/GSM - autoconnect)", "WCDMA only", etc.... I now realize WCDMA = 3G and GSM = 2G, but in the middle of my honeymoon my brain was just not in that zone. I totally appreciate that PM provided a more detailed explanation on how the roaming add-on should work and the necessary conditions, but this information really should have been front and center when I went to activate the add-on, rather than something to discover after digging through white pages or the PM Community. It totally didn't help that their ticketing system was not working (wouldn't be the first time). Still, my data and SMS worked - so I met halfway with the PM agent and they agreed to a partial refund.

@Magex - I feel your pain lol

[DennyCrane · Accepted solution]

@Magex VoLTE does not impact text or data. It means "Voice over the LTE network". You had initially said you just didn't use text or data much; if it didn't work, that's another issue that isn't VoLTE related. My guess is you were connected to AT&T 5G, which doesn't work. Best to set your phone to 4G/LTE preferred when roaming.

There are warnings about VoLTE, though I agree it's confusing.

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/bc/get-help/articles/roaming-add-ons

In any case, I am not the decider. If you feel it's warranted, contact customer service via direct message to ask them for a full refund.

[Magex]

There is nowhere written at the time of purchase of the data that it can only work on VoLTE! How can Public Mobile as a company, sell roaming packages that don't work without any disclaimer inside the details of the package that it won't work?

How can you say it's not fair to ask for a refund?  Both SMS and data were SPORADIC and unreliable, meaning it hardly worked and hardly had reception.  What is the point of data and voice package that I can't use reliably?  im standing in a location and now i cant call or text.  I had to knock on my friends window because I couldn't call them!  It's ridiculous to say that's a functional roaming package to sell to someone, when Public mobile knows it won't work without VoLTE??? 

It's my 9th day, there was maybe a couple of places I was at where i could text or call, and not at the place where i mainly stayed at, so it was basically worthless.

[DennyCrane]

@Magex Set your Preferred Network to 4G instead of 5G.

[Magex]

Same issue for me: 0 coverage in Kailua even tho on AT&T website it shows its covered.  My phone supports 5g, LTE, 3g, 2g etc.

My phone card from europe finds a signal but zero signal with my public mobile sim even when i paid for roaming before i flew to the US! 

[DennyCrane]

Sounds like your phone doesn't have VoLTE, which is a problem because the US no longer has 3G networks to fall back in for voice calling.

https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/volte

What phone are you using? If it's not in the VoLTE whitelist, your only hope of being able to place a call in the US is if you managed to find a 2G T-Mobile connection.

As SMS and data did work, I don't think it's reasonable to ask for a refund on that simply because you didn't end up using it much. It's completely reasonable to ask for a partial refund for phone calls not working though. You'd have to contact @CS_Agent via direct message to ask.

[BKNS27]

@Dank_ferret 

Yes, just reach out to an Agent. PM service is great in the lower mainland. I am in East Van.

PM utilize Telus and Bell towers.

[Dank_ferret]

Thx BKN, I did try manually connecting to specific networks.  When I clicked on the different carriers, I either got no service at all or the connection didn't allow for voice.  I'm not super technology-inclined and so I kinda left it at that and had to find other means to get the job done.  Would've been nice to rely on Public Mobile though, as I've generally been quite satisfied with my service (at least in Burnaby).  Kona Hawaii appears to be a challenge though.

[BKNS27]

@Dank_ferret 

Did you manually connect to AT&T or T-Mobile network?

You can private message a CS_Agent for a credit to your account but be warn that it may take up to 30 days to process.

They can be reached at:

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

Staff hour are from 9:00am to 10:00pm EST.