What does one sacrifice in switching to PM?

[helloPM]

I thought that the 'cost' of moving to PM was that you had to get all of your C/S and T/S via the website, which could entail some small delays.  And I was fine with that.

I've now moved 4 cell numbers to PM and its been a terrible experience, such that now I'm thinking that what we are getting in moving to PM is a lack of resources allocated by Telus, such that they are understaffed and their systems are terribly buggy.

This could well be a brand segmentation strategy by Telus - if using PM is too smooth an experience then higher paying Telus customers could move - but I sure hope not because it is insulting to treat your customers' time as worthless.

And that is how this last experience felt.  In the end they found that it was a problem on their side and they seemed to find it and fix it quite quickly once T/S tried.  But to get there I had spend 20-30 hours of my time over a week, endless messages with the reps, 3.5 days with no service at all, 5 trips across Toronto because this activation was for my neice, and most of all frustration!  

I recognize that I have just a few data points (and I don't know what was happening behind the scenes) so I'm resisting drawing a conclusion, and I'm not blaming any of the PM reps I dealt with, but I'm very scared about what I've got myself into now.

Do you believe that PM's backend systems and self-serve portal are worse then the other carriers?  And that their customers are expected to endure more?

[Vickel]

@stonechucker

You are correct if PM has a new promo offer. Future dating the plan is a good way to do it.

However if there is a better offer from another company at the beginning of mid of your 90 day plan you give up all or half the up fron cost. I guess, you would have consider the future savings before switching.

All that being said, I dont think there will be a better plan for my needs coming up in a while.

[stonechucker]

@Vickel, you are not locked in to anything.  If a new plan comes along, you future date your plan change, and away you go.

This exactly what occurred in the Fall Promo 2016.  My plan renewed prior to the promo period, and would renew afterwards.  I was able to pre-program my plan change during the promo period, and when renewal came, the plan was changed as promised by Public Mobile.

also, if you really want an immediate change, you can forfeit your current plan and what is remaining, and apply the change immediately, paying full cost at that point in time.

[Triton72]

The only thing that is not the same is the fact you cannot call a person for issues. All done through email. If no issues, it's great. Cheap price for great service. Ask yourself how many time you actually called you old service provider. If never, no issue

[Vickel]

I would say the biggest sacrifice is being "locked" in for 90. If a better plan comes around it would be hard to switch if you just renewed.
That being said, I don't think there will be a better plan than the 90 day $120 12gb plan.

[helloPM]

>  yes the program has bugs, but if your FORTE is not computers that is the BIG problem

Hey, we've been having a productive conversation here.  If you don't like people saying negative things about PM then that's fine - but please just ignore this thread. 

If you read some of the thread you would see that those bugs you mention make it so that nothing the customer does will help - they need T/S to fix the problem.  I started this thread and I'm a software developer with extensive experience with phones, but less technical customers should be welcome too - no need for you to dump on them.

Again, please just ignore this thread.

[clavijo]

hi, PM community

It is sad to hear the way that many people complaint about PM , yes the program has bugs, but if your FORTE is not computers that is the BIG problem , when i moved 3 accounts to PM i knew what i was getting into , me and a computer , mediated by a forum of ordinary members like me, where the main part is read, read and read more, not only the negative posts but also the ones that make sense , so that i could do good when moving to PM , i had not problems signing ,porting or opening accounts yes i have 3, one of my phones was having problems the signal was cutting a lot so i took the chip out cleaned with an eraser ( because chips get a kind of rust on the surface, learned when sattellites were programmed) then my next thing was waiting for my first renewal, i monitored very closely , but it went very smoothly.

i'm very happy i have a phone that works nicely at work and at home have 12 Gb of data and one of the phones just used 5 Gb the other 7 GB  mine 10 Gb , NO extra charges for data , that was my problem with Fido even if i was 20 kb over was a$10 charge

now every phone is about $38 a month  with a savings at over $100 a month

did i sacrifice  by switching to PM ? i don't think so , actually i'm very happy with it 

my next task will be in the summer when i will go to the US and get an add on US plan, hear a lot of bugs just have to go to niagara falls and do a test make sure it works then go to my destination.

just my 2 cents , thanks PM

[jchan]

I ported over from Telus when they had the 90-day deal plan going on last year. Went from a $60 plan with limited minutes, no text and only 500gb a month to unlimited talk/text and 12gb bucket for 90 days, and only $38 a month. 

The sacrifice for me is as everyone including the OP mentioned and that is the system behind actually signing up for service and porting my number over.

I think I must have hit every single issue that exists (though at the time I think PM was getting flooded with new members because of the deal). To list them off:

• Couldn't activate my SIM.
• Couldn't create/access self-service account
• phone number didn't port over 
• phone couldn't make calls
• phone could make calls but had no data

About the only two things that worked right off the bat was ordering my SIM card and creating a community account which allowed me to get the help I needed, eventually. Took a week to resolve all of my issues but now I'm one renewal cycle in and so far, no more issues. 

To summarize and perhaps echo all the other posts, the sacrifice is a buggy sign up system and lack of real live customer support. I think it's worth it though, if I called Telus every month with problems maybe I'd think it'd be worth paying for but the fact is I was on that plan for years and never really found myself needing anything from them so saving money this way is well worth the one-time pain of signing up. I suppose the other nice thing about Telus was that I could still make calls/texts whereever I go even if my plan didn't have it (they would just ding me an arm and a leg for it later but I could do it). On prepay I have to be intentional about it and buy an addon (which I did just so I can make international calls if I need to).

[helloPM]

@TheOldVR

Well, they would know that I was without service because they were in an ongoing dialog with me and I had told them that I was without service.

But like you, I'm not blaming them.  They were quick to respond and engage with me, and to provide helpful suggestions.  If they are very hesitant to escalate an issue even when a user is without service and has already tried all the obvious solutions then it is because that is how they've been instructed, most likely because the T/S resources just aren't there.

And that's what this discussion has been about - what are Telus' plans for PM as evidenced by their resource allocation, and the most hopeful thing I've heard in this thread is that they are hiring.and that there is talk of them implementing features such as OCN that would give their users more options.

Anyway, I think this thread has run it's course - good to leave it on that hopeful note.

[Noosh]

Oui, I understand they can't necessarily help you, that's why I said they can give you peace of mind in letting you know that a mod will get back to you. (Your header was what do you sacrifice, I was merely giving input)

If you still think it's you.. well that's your thing. A bug in the system here clearly is quite rare and it's unfortunate that you had to go through it, and then at that point, if being a software developer doesn't help, then this company isn't right for you.

Can't win em all.

[TheOldVR]

Thanks for the shout-out @helloPM... I hear what you're saying too.

I want to be clear that I think the MODs do their best and that they are awesome.

The forum though becomes a room with 1000 people all with their hands up.... how could a MOD know that the person 7 rows in, 6 peeps to the right has had no cell service for 3 days while everyone else is concerned about a billing issue or a general inquiry?

If I were a MOD I would want the forum to give me a tap on the shoulder anytime a sev-1 type issue came up... automatically. This of course means that the forum needs to allow OPs to tag their posts when related to an outage etc.

Either way - good things ahead!!

[helloPM]

Well said @TheOldVR

I wouldn't be nearly so bothered by them having an issue in their systems if it didn't take a week to fix and half of that with no service at all.   I would have thought that, when they have a very motivated customer who has no service at all and who tries every suggestion as soon as possible, that would get escalated (or escalated sooner).

If I'm just asking for some account change, I"m perfectly happy to be treated as low priority (as long as the high priority ones are actually making an effort on their end).

[TheOldVR]

I jumped ship from Rogers along with three individuals who I dragged along for the ride.

Unfortunately, one of them was caught up in the service challenges that PM had through the last months of 2016.

I don't miss anything about Rogers - including the ability to call in for service.

I will say that for now, you do give up on service as PM still seems to still be figuring out how to prioritize and manage the order and urgency in which customer requests are received.

In other words, with Rogers if my phone died I could call in 24/7 and get through to someone who would immediately to get things working. PM does not have an online model to support this yet.

So - PM get's slammed with people asking questions about their billing.... and your service stops. In this case you are stuck in line behind the others including the person that might just want to add on a roaming package for a trip 3-months away.

It's a weakness that hopefully gets addressed before the next surge hits PM.

I'm good here though... although it is important (for certain things) to place a higher degree of trust on what the MODs are saying in these threads over community contributions that are offered without actual knowledge of what is happening at PM.

It is cool to see how many queries are closed without anyone from PM ever looking - great job to all the contributors for that!!!

[helloPM]

But the community can't help you if the problem is a bug in PM's systems (which is what we've been talking about).

In which case, it is still worse if are not technical because you keep thinking it is your fault when it isn't.

For me, I'm a software developer so I had a fair bit of confidence in what I was doing but that didn't save me in this case.

[Noosh]

I know my mom ported over 3 phones and had issues with all of them. But the pros outweighed the cons in the end for her. I had.. absolutely no issues. Phone off, old sim out, new sim in, phone on, voilà!

If you are not very savvy with technology or need the face to face/phone call experience with a rep (in my experience older people prefer this) then I feel you'll have somewhat of a harder time, especially with issues with networks and porting and if you have to adjust certain settings.

But the community here is really what grabbed me because they are all knowledgeable in one way or another and can help you, or give you peace of mind that the mods will get back to you.

[helloPM]

@hk1380

But if buggy systems or lack of resources makes the activation problematic, then it is likely that making account changes and payment will have problems too.

I'm assuming that its not just their activation systems, but everything other then network/operations that they are doing independently (of Telus & Koodo).

I agree that everything on the cellular side should work fine and you get the advantage of using Telus' network (which is why a lot of poeple are here in the 1st place) but we haven't even gotten into features.  Eg. will PM get voLTE and WiFi calling when Telus customers do?  What about visual voicemail or at least OCN support like other carriers?  And the roaming options seem very poor compared to other Canadian carriers.

So I can't agree with a sweeping statement like "...Public Mobile has no disadvantages" once past the activation.

[hk1380]

I think the only problem most people have is with porting their number over. Afterwards it's pretty much smooth sailing so if you can get past that initial bump, Public Mobile has no disadvantages

[Smakboy]

Understood, thank you for clarifying.

Hope things get sorted then it is smooth sailing for you. 

[helloPM]

@Smakboy

I think you're missing the point of this thread... all the issues I've talked about were problems with PM's systems.

I went through all of the suggestions and user advice and back-and-forth with reps, over and over and over and over.   But these do no good when their systems are broken.

After a week of this and 3.5 days without any service and endless frustration because everything I tried didn't work it went to T/S and they fixed it in the backend. 

[helloPM]

@Chaos_Scorpio

I agree that there are advantages to PM's way of doing support - like one, I'm the type that is happier doing things by text & e-mail and not sitting waiting on the phone.

But I'm not happy with inadequately staffed/funded systems because a little bug in the back end can cause a vastly disporportionate pain for customers.  Consider my example of the password reset that didn't work - eventually someone at PM has to fix it cause lots of poeple use pw reset.  The time during which it is broken, with no notice to users, is an innefficient waste: PM isn't saving any money and users are wasting their time.  It's a little thing but a good example IMO.

I have no problem with companies trying to save money but past a certain point it is inefficient (and insulting to the customers to treat their time like it is worthless) and looks suspiciously like brand segmentation and not running lean.

I'm not saying that is the case here - that is my experience so far but I'm reading and absorbing the experiences of the others in this thread.

[Kokanee08]

The only thing I really feel like I am "sacrificing" is the live chat option. Rogers did a pretty good job (waaaay better than Telus) at keeping live chat queue times low. 

However, I am now saving $45 a month. Is it really worth paying an extra $45 a month so that I can use live chat to solve a problem a few times a year? Not at all.

Meanwhile these forums may as well be called "live chat" because responses and help come through so fast. Everyone is so helpful and mods are so quick to respond.

[Smakboy]

I ported two phones and had only one minor issues which was quickly resolved on my own end with a reboot of the device.

Not saying it is PM or your fault, but did you read all the user advice. I followed the porting advice and it worked just as the community said it would work.

[will13am]

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@helloPM wrote:

@will13am

Yes, you are right that once it's all setup it isn't so bad, but it was a nuisance setting it all up.  And I was planning to bring over more accounts before the troubles I had with #4.  It certainly would be easier to manage activation and payment if I could do it all in one account.

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I had some high maintenance friends that I looked after.  For some, we did the activation together and I used my community forum to communicate with the moderators.  There was a lot of back and forth phone calls about setting up the APN.  Through all this, people learned from the experience and it makes them more knowledgeable and independent. 

Apart from having to wait during the promotion period for a response, I have nothing but good experiences with the customer service.  The important factor in all this is patience.  You see me mentioning this over and over again.  Just because you can't yell at a live human being right away, it does not mean the problem is not in the queue and will be dealt with.

For all the people that I have referred and helped with this service, nobody has had any regrets.  I am looking forward to the next promotion so I can shill this service to more people. 

[helloPM]

@dohadotahmed

No, the main problem occurred over this last week.  And I did have problems on the other lines that showed that their systems are buggy (as described above) just not as bad as what I experienced this last week.

[helloPM]

@will13am

I certainly agree that speaking to a human is way over-rated, and I've bad experiences and been annoyed at time waiting in the queue.

The more important issue isn't how exactly you get your support, but the quality of the support you get and the systems backing it up.

I will say though, in my experience the other carriers would have taken things more seriously once I'd completely lost service on the line.  It wouldn't have taken another 3.5 days of assuming that the problem was on my end and getting me to make repeated trips to visit my neice, try new things, and bang my head against the wall.

[helloPM]

@will13am

Yes, you are right that once it's all setup it isn't so bad, but it was a nuisance setting it all up.  And I was planning to bring over more accounts before the troubles I had with #4.  It certainly would be easier to manage activation and payment if I could do it all in one account.

[Chaos_Scorpio]

To voice in here... ROGERs is not that great either... I have them working on an issue where I cannot see my home internet usage online. Everytime I ask for a follow up for the case I get "we closed it because we do not see an issue" ... I want them to bloody contact me via email and I will show them a picture of their **bleep** website. But no. I get it works for us tough **bleep**. 

(so I complain a lot with rogers and would moved on but I've haggled my price with them to be stupid low because of their issue). 

With the case here, I just dont bother looking at my tracking. If I go over my usage in any way the service stops and I Am not overcharged like any other company Ive been with :D. If I want it back on I just go top off services. the only thing I would ever see topping off is long distance minutes addon (which I only use if I really have to... otherwise I do long distance calling over the internet). 

PM imo is better than the big three. Yes there are issues but the big three has issues too. They may have people you can voice your pain on a phone but they are just there to pat your back. They do not care to fix it half the time (Unless you get a sweet old lady ... those are the BEST because they want to be there working! ... young males are the WORST... either I hang up on them or they hang up on me... #@%@#^%@#)

[mjagadeesh]

I used to pay about $110 to Rogers and i am paying $38/month with PM, so sacrificing $70 

NO more calling to retentions and begging for discounts, so sacrificing hours of talk with unknown person. (pun intended) 

[will13am]

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@canucks4life wrote:

I would be going a bit nuts trying to manage 4 seperate accounts...PM really needs to make multiple lines on account a reality soon.

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I don't understand the hardship?  I manage the same number of accounts.  Now that they are all set up, it all about auto pilot. 

[will13am]

Definitely one of the sacrifices with joining Public Mobile is losing the ability to speak to a live human being to resolve issues.  That said, I am not sure this sacrifice is that significant.  I have dealt with Rogers and affiliates for a number of years.  More than half of the reps I speak to are clueless and do nothing to resolve my problems.  When I look back at the number of hours I spend on the phone listening to elevator music, having to deal with call centre staff is not the panacea. 

Admittedly, Public Mobile has a small number of staff and when issues pile up the line up wraps around the block a few times.  At least when an issue is brought to their attention, they know what they are doing and efficiently deal with the problem the first time.  I have no problem with recommending others to this service. 

[dohadotahmed]

Hi, sorry to hear about the troubles you had in the past. I believe it was during the promotion time. In that time there was a backlog but now everything went smooth. The mod usually reply within two hours.
You mentioned that you have 4 lines and only 1 line got the problem. So this is really the case only a few percentage of customers are getting problem because pm online system is very smart to handle the database. Because this is an online self serve system and it's designed to handle the work.
There is always need of improvement for every system and I believe the pm is working hard for that.