US roaming and add ons

[Johanney1]

Every single time my partner travels from Canada to US (alaska) the US add ons and roaming doesn’t work properly.  The “Community Service” to create a ticket and try to receive help is SOOOO convoluted for another person to assist him (while he’s travelling) it’s impossible to receive help.  Although he may be getting peace a serenity he needs his phone to connect for multiple reasons.  We will be switching over our service now - as we don’t save any money buy multiple add on’s to try to make this work.   Public mobile is okay if you don’t leave home…. Otherwise it’s a nightmare so if you are a traveller - for business or otherwise DONT USE THIS SERVICE.

[darlicious]

@Johanney1 

Yes I think it would be more than fair that if the talk and text bundle had been purchased multiple times since the end of February for roaming in Alaska to ask for a credit of the talk portion of the bundle. Priced separately the text add on is $8 ($15-$8=$7) so a $7 credit for each bundle and $8 for any stand alone talk add ons.

Whereas voice/talk was working fairly well (with pm having 2 roaming partners) up until the last couple of weeks in the lower 48 with only At&t serving Alaska as a roaming partner of pm and it's coverage being half of the other two dedicated Alaskan providers this wasn't taken into consideration with the warning on the add ons page. At this point pm should just credit back the talk portion of any add ons since its essentially usable except in the odd spot with 2G or 3G not eliminated yet.

[dust2dust]

Click on plan details to get the plan details page. How many roaming talk components are there? Buying multiple talk components are a known problem. You would need the support people to get down to one talk and they would credit your account balance with the extras.

[softech]

@Johanney1 open ticket with PM support.  Depends on if he was able to use some services or none at all, PM support might reverse the transaction fully or partially to the account.   Discuss with them

[Johanney1]

He can text but there’s no Talk installed even when he is within wifi access.

[Johanney1]

Will his account be reimbursed the multiple charges for attempting multiple times to have talk & text installed as an add on?

[darlicious]

@Johanney1 

Ok this explains things a little better....traditional US network coverage is pretty much non existent with Verizon arriving 2 years ago with coverage of about 25% of populated areas, At&t has about 50% and CGI has 97% coverage of populated areas.....maybe check them out. I dont think any of the big three have roaming agreements with them.

https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Guides/Best-Coverage-in-Alaska-USA

[darlicious]

@Johanney1 

I'm sorry to hear this but there have been issues with receiving service in Alaska and is now compounded with the decommissioning of the 3G network in the US compounds the problem. Your roaming choices are pretty much limited to first tier providers Rogers, Bell and Telus. ICE Mobility has decent roaming pricing for the US but outside of their service area in the North you are then roaming in Canada. 

You may want to consider keeping pm for the $15 plan and using mint mobile for the US. Combined $15+$20(US$15)=$35 for the pm $15 plan and the mint mobile $15/4gb plan. Using a voip provider app like textnow to forward your pm number to while in the US would allow for incoming calling to reach you (or your partner). This would work out cheaper than the $12+/day Roaming charges the big three charge.

[Meow]

Even though Alaska is part of USA, I doubt they have strong cell coverage so your US add-on might not work as expected. Particularly now when US is slowly shutting down 3G.

If there are any WiFi he can utilize voip apps to keep in touch with you.

Maybe you can present his US - Alaska experience when he is back; what US people use there, how they communicate, service cost, etc.

[softech]

@Johanney1   Not sure before, but definitely there has been roaming issue in Alaska.  

However, it could be more a AT&T and T-Mobile coverage problem there.  Couple members confirmed that they cannot find AT&T and T-Mobile network there.  So, if you are leaving PM for another provider, you might end up with the same problem in Alaska if they partner with AT&T and T-Mobile

[MrSpock · Accepted solution]

@Johanney1 I have to agree the roaming packages are terible lately with 3g shutdowns in the US if you need a refund 

 you will need to open a ticket, to speak to a customer service agent    Click here or if you are having issues with Simon you can send private message to a CS Agent here:  https://bit.ly/2GGCJzH