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What has happened to the quality of PM customer support?

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@J_PM 

What in the heck has happened to the quality of Public Mobile's customer support? This is not to say public mobile does not still have good customer support agents but in the past 11 days of dealing with various agents on a variety of issues for several of the accounts I manage I have gotten to the point of hair pulling frustration trying to get basic tasks or credits applied to accounts.

 

I have had different versions of the policies told to me, had to point out several times the correct RAF credits I am asking to be applied, correct the dates, been told the holiday gifts been applied when they haven't been. I have run into 5 separate accounts that I have activated that the 4 digit account pin # is wrong when I have the screenshot to prove its correct and it has not been changed. Been asked the verification questions in lieu of the account pin # and answered them to be told this is against the security policy and the agents asking me the questions have been reprimanded for straying from the account security policy?!! I've been told only the account holder can contact them.....to ask for their $5 RAF credit to be applied?

 

The amount of contradictory info, policy and pure misinformation fed to me by various agents in the past year is astounding!! In some cases its taken up to 4 months to get a basic promotional credit applied. It's taken hundreds of private messages and countless hours of my time to deal with customer support to sort out basic support requests. And I come into this with a careers worth of customer service experience and 3 1/2 years of providing community help and support to have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing, asking for and what the end result should be? I know many of my referrals and their accounts that I manage would just give up the first time they would have to deal with level of customer support....if they managed to get so far as to get access to the internet, create a community account, figure out how to contact customer support....I won't even mention what they would do with SIMon....and manage to get a reply from an agent and respond in time before their support ticket is closed. And then they would have to deal with what I've had to deal with?!!

 

No where do I see disclaimer that says we only deal with tech savvy, healthy customers who manage their own accounts only and can jump thru all of the hoops, navigate by all of the glitches, shortcomings and unworkable failings that public mobile has and take an agent that they deal with at their word even when they are clearly wrong and still remain a public mobile customer? Why has it come to on several occasions that I have to threaten a CCTS complaint to get a basic issue resolved? Why have I been promised that misinformation and poor conduct of (I hope) a minority of agents will be rectified when I hear from the community or directly from regular community members or customers seeking help dealing with agents spreading the same misinformation months after its been promised that the agents would be corrected?

 

If I cannot act on behalf of my referrals that need additional help to manage their accounts and provide them with support by dealing with customer support so that they remain happy public mobile customers (which they are because I deal with this sugar show) they will just up and leave. Which means I lose out on my hard earned rewards that affects my $0 bill(s). And if I have to pay for the service or lack there of....then I'm not a happy customer!! Bringing me to my other point that I am now going 12 days of having no ability for customer support to see any kind of message, report, ticket or cry for help from me. And apparently they have no ability to contact me on my community account. I cannot access my other community account because it won't recognize the reset password. Dealing with customer support by proxy or thru the bf's community account has obviously not met with much success other than getting his support issues fixed.

 

Something has got to change because public mobile is finally living up to its previously inaccurate reputation of having no support or lousy customer support. I've had to threaten again to file a complaint with the CCTS to get my very ill friend his $5 credit. I have a list of support issues from other accounts that need to be addressed. Do I need to file a complaint with the CCTS for each one of them? And even more seriously do I need to file my own complaint for the inability to recieve customer support myself? That according to one of the agents today can only be done by the customer contacting them on their own community account? This would be a breach of the code since I have been denied access for 12 days and counting now.....?

 

I strongly suggest if public mobile wants to resolve these issues that they contact me on my community account through the correct method of my private message box. No reason to thank me for my patience in this matter....I no longer have any!!!

54 REPLIES 54

Korth_
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@Priority wrote:

Chiming in late, I agree with alot of points here when it comes to managing accounts for Referrals. 


Chiming in even later.

I applaud those here who have dared to be candid, thoughtful, and forthright with their observations. It's foolish (and childish, and arrogant) for Public Mobile to pretend that problems don't exist, to simply refuse to acknowledge them, to make it obvious through their active and conspicuous inaction that they have no intention of fixing or improving things.

But I see a lot of commentary which condemns Public Mobile's CSAs. Describing them as "incompetent", "unprofessional", "power hungry, power trip", "dishonest", "gaslighting", and other insults.

So I'd just like to comment that the CSAs (as a group) are not responsible for Public Mobile's many bugs and issues and failings and problems. They're just the front line folks who endure the endless barrage of customer complaints and frustrations and raging and rants and threats and abuse. They get paid hardly more than min wage (you'll see if you search their job postings). To be sure, some of the CSAs are basically bad and half-useless at their jobs and thus get shuffled into the lowest positions where all they have to do is "solve" issues from a script or pass "unsolvable" problems up to someone else who's actually good at their job. The majority of the CSAs are probably competent and knowledgeable, and a few are probably experts, but they're all limited by Telus procedures - the days of people like Mary_O or Shazia_K on the workfloor are gone because Telus systems are specifically designed to hobble employee initiatives and lock them out from circumventing normal protocols.

The real villain is Telus. They've gutted Public Mobile, they're trying to automate Public Mobile, their apparent objective is to turn Public Mobile into a fire-and-forget self-maintaining puppet brand which grabs more value-conscious customers from Telus's third-tier "competitors". They view Public Mobile as an expense. They view Public Mobile's subscribers as an obstacle between them and "their" money. They install managerial layers to implement Telus directives to the "Public Mobile" CSAs on their payroll. They don't particularly care if they damage the Public Mobile brand because they consider it a testing ground for new (sometimes good, sometimes bad) ideas and a stepping stone to securing increased revenue streams (attract more subscribers then migrate subscribers up the ARPU chain).

Priority
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

Chiming in late, I agree with alot of points here when it comes to managing accounts for Referrals. 

Tsawwassen
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@maximum_gato wrote:

@Tsawwassen 

Yes that thread has been decimated. I'm sure @darlicious wouldn't want an unsuspecting community member to bravo themselves into oblivion.


?

maximum_gato
Mayor / Maire

@Tsawwassen 

Yes that thread has been decimated. I'm sure @darlicious wouldn't want an unsuspecting community member to bravo themselves into oblivion.

Tsawwassen
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@softech wrote:

@Tsawwassen wrote:

he is in Poland and responds to questions on his cell phone. 


 

@Tsawwassen  the Poland part does not surprise me a lot, but the cell phone?  So, they are not even hired to work in an office? 🤔


I'm surprised at your assumption. I'm certain that you must be aware that presently thousands of government employees are on strike demanding that they be allowed to work from home at minimum 2 days a week. These are the same people that during the Covid lock-downs were complaining of mental health problems and asking for compensation, because they had to work from home. 


@Tsawwassen wrote:

he is in Poland and responds to questions on his cell phone. 


 

@Tsawwassen  the Poland part does not surprise me a lot, but the cell phone?  So, they are not even hired to work in an office? 🤔

Tsawwassen
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Since PM plans and features  are the least expensive ---I doubt that there would be an exodus of accounts. Also it seems to me that the CS agents are more like free lancer students. I have never encountered a rude or not willing to help agent - on one occasion I asked the agent where he was located and he advised that presently he is in Poland and responds to questions on his cell phone. 

Tsawwassen
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Hi Darlicious -  I think that the response time and knowledge of our Customer Service reps remains the same. However you may have overwhelmed them with more complex problems than are beyond their level. With regards to RAF credits, I have encountered si similar situation where the CS agent advised that they don't have the power power to handle the problem and did escalate my case to a supervisor. It did take a few days before I got a response from a supervisor that did satisfactorily solve my problem.  

PS. love your dinner suggestions.

maximum_gato
Mayor / Maire

@darlicious 

Here I am....the cat is out of the bag!

 

Test#3

Tsawwassen
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Sorry about your frustrating experiences---------  BUT I very much like PM customer service set-up.  You submit your question in writing and receive the answer in writing and not have to hold on line for sometimes hours and if you patient then finally speak to usually a les then knowledgeable agent.

Hi @LitlLdy   you want to make a formal complain?  I think you should get @J_PM  involved if there is such an unprofessional agent in the team

 

statusquo
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Litllady that should not happen and it would be bordering on unprofessional behavior from support staff to keep messaging you after you have asked them to stop.  These posts almost confirm that public mobile is not training their staff very well which is not good for customers or public mobile and customers will start leaving if they keep receiving poor customer support.


@darlicious wrote:

@LitlLdy 

No that is not acceptable behavior from an agent. Once a ticket is closed or requested by the customer to be closed it should be.....with perhaps the exception of a supervisor or management with the authority to resolve your issue to your satisfaction reaching out to make amends on behalf of pm for the poor customer support you recieved. Texting which is a rare form of support to recieve but exists if your issue meets certain criteria....but it seems the agent was overstepping their bounds by texting you after you requested the ticket to be closed and turned off your private messaging.

 

Edit:

We can use an alternative means of communication but I cannot pass that along by any other means than private message?


@darlicious , some people get on a power trip, they believe they have the authority other others, they make threats, bully, harass & whatever they feel like at the time & live to have the last word by all means & at all costs! It will catch up to them & come back at them when they least expect it!

 

 I will send you a message in a minute!

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@LitlLdy 

No that is not acceptable behavior from an agent. Once a ticket is closed or requested by the customer to be closed it should be.....with perhaps the exception of a supervisor or management with the authority to resolve your issue to your satisfaction reaching out to make amends on behalf of pm for the poor customer support you recieved. Texting which is a rare form of support to recieve but exists if your issue meets certain criteria....but it seems the agent was overstepping their bounds by texting you after you requested the ticket to be closed and turned off your private messaging.

 

Edit:

We can use an alternative means of communication but I cannot pass that along by any other means than private message?

@hTideGnow , you were not involved in the message so you do not know what occurred in the messages unless you were one of the CS_Agents that I asked to stop messaging me & then also proceeded to text my cell phone after being told to stop. If you were one of them that was very unprofessional of you, disrespectful, immature, drama & turned into harassment. Once a ticket is done it’s done. Once help is not given, doesn’t do their job or incapable of doing so pass the support ticket on to one that is capable of doing it. It’s always the same CS_Agents that behave the same way every time! Again, were you one or them? If not do not assume you know what occurred. Simple!

 

Edit: to add to this @hTideGnow the message you replied to was addressed to @darlicious not you!

HI@LitlLdy  but if you don't open ticket,  agent won't send you message

 

and if you have a ticket and you want to stop, just tell them to close the ticket and they will be happy to stop it, all they care is to close the ticket.  LoL

 


@darlicious wrote:

@LitlLdy 

When you decide to turn your private messaging back on send me a message. Thx. 😀


It’s not that I don’t want to message you back & forth, I really don’t want to leave it on due to the huge lack of respect from the CS_Agents! I’m tired of the drama, lies & huge lack of help from too many of them! Along with doing the same by texting my phone! After awhile it becomes harassment when they’re told to stop, which is not ok for anyone to harass another person….

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@LitlLdy 

When you decide to turn your private messaging back on send me a message. Thx. 😀

@Luddite you are so right,  some 0f those rejected posts do not make sense at all

@darlicious  Must be my tunnel vision, but more likely simply once out of sight it's out of my mind. Similar to forgetting painful experiences and remembering only the good ones.

 

PM's road, eh?PM's road, eh?


>>> ALERT: I am not a CSA. Je ne suis pas un Agent du soutien à la clientèle.

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@Luddite 

Wow you've been here all this time and you never knew that you too had been bitten by the **poof** the magic dragon eating post bug? It's too bad you only discovered it now as you could have been cured by Mary the moderator back in the day but alas pm fixed the fix long before I came along and first posted about my posts going **poof** 3 years ago this month.


@softech wrote:

@LitlLdy check if your posts are stuck here 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/premod/moderationitemspage/tab/rejected

 

sometimes it is not really censorship,  This automated thing always blocks my post with network bands info, maybe too many numbers and it thought some personal phone number or credit card number 


@softech Did not know that link but found some "moderated" posts. Pretty much a joke. What's actually worse is lack of notification indicating relegation. PM has spent far too much time and $ developing SIMon at the expense Community functionality.

 

I think this is my favourite reject: "@Jeremy_M Man, PM really needs a few better "alpha" testers so that we "beta" guineas pigs don't give up."

 


>>> ALERT: I am not a CSA. Je ne suis pas un Agent du soutien à la clientèle.

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@CountyDownIeUk 

This is the conundrum.....once telus fully merged public mobile under its corporate management stripping away its independence and all but eliminating its executives, upper management and it's individuality it took some of the money saved paying high Canadian salary standards (relative) to increase the size of the outsourced customer support team latching onto the idea that long customer support wait times at public mobile was the biggest hurdle to overcome to increase profitability. 

 

As wait times shrunk so did all of the individualistic characteristics that made public mobile so appealing to its fiercely loyal customer base who were willing to act as psuedo employees encompassing the customer support team, marketing and sales force for mere pennies back in referral promotions, rewards and innovative plans. As we bemoaned the lack of promotion that benefitted both new and existing customers we were surprisingly pleased at the lack of wait times for support.

 

But in the last year as telus rolled out "improvements" for public mobile that were in fact aimed at cost cutting and increasing profitability with the fine art of distraction. With every new roll out.....the Community, Self Serve Accounts, 4G LTE Plans, Promocodes, Bonus Referrals and the piste de resistance "Public Points" the new customer support agents started to outnumber the veterans and the level of customer service dropped percipitively.

 

Combined with the snowballing amount of new glitches, non-functional Self service accounts, a more confusing and cluttered community layout that created a less effective community with individuals out for themselves rather than the greater good telus has managed to make public mobile into a poor, broken neighborhood rather than driven by community its the dtes of telus's global reach and they have become public mobile's slumlord.

 

While telus international sells itself as a global leader in customer service, AI and IT solutions for outsourcing customer support for major brands around the world it doesn't seem to practice what it preaches to the world at home with public mobile.

 

“We will put our customers and fellow team members first by simplifying and digitizing our processes, reducing customers’ effort in their interactions with us and giving where we live to improve social outcomes in our communities.”

 

This certainly isn't my experience in the last year with pm's customer support? I find it hard to believe the CEO of Telus International  Jeffrey Puritt when he says....

 

......that “customers first” is the corporate strategy, but “where the rubber meets the road, we must bring out the best in our employees” because “they are critical to the implementation of strategy”  That’s why the firm invests heavily in human skills, technology, training, and career development — to the tune of millions of dollars per year."

 

It's time telus invested a little money in public mobile so it functions for its customers and actually invest in recruiting CSA's and training them to be effective agents.....and highlight the knowledge and skills of the few senior agents that remain with pm and have them mentor the new hires and develope a strong, knowledgeable and efficient CSA team.

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@LitlLdy 

Read my thread and you'll get my entire history with **poof** the magic dragon eating post bug! I thought I was cured and it started up again a little more than a year ago and I didnt notice for about 4 months until pm tinkered with the spam filter to look for phone numbers. Mostly the porting department but other numbers like the frequency bands would trigger it and I noticed because I tried to post the Roger's porting authorization phone number for a customer and my post would disappear as soon as I left the page so I went looking and lo and behold about 20 new posts were in there!

 

I can tell you this....avoid the "wall of text". Break up a post into small paragraphs with good spacing  and try not to make a bunch of quick edits (although I tend to edit at least once since typos or spelling/autocorrect mistakes drive me nuts!!) Maybe he jealous that you're moving in on his colour purple he's very protective of his purpleness?!! Well him and Prince....😈👑🎶🎸🎵💜

@LitlLdy 

 

This would be a perfect post to let @J_PM take a look at as well. I am surprised that you did not tag her. 

LitlLdy
Mayor / Maire

Now I see several of my messages (from looking at the link provided) have been removed in the years I have been here! No warnings of it happening so I never knew! No personal info was in those messages!

LitlLdy
Mayor / Maire

@darlicious , @softech , I will try again!

 

I wish I had the energy to post all the issues I’ve had with Public Mobile service, my account & the CS Agents! The constant fight/begging to have points added, phone refund, working service, holiday bonuses & so on! I’ve been fighting for over 3 years here! If I didn’t have poor health & had the energy maybe I could keep doing it & post issues! All I can say is that I won’t be with Public Mobile much longer! I just don’t have the energy to constantly fight/beg with them for things! This definitely isn’t for everyone & some of us really need no drama, simple easy cell phone service with a company that provides better working service & much better customer support! Some customers have the time & energy to be on here a lot to try to fix issues & be customer support for free for other customers looking/needing help but I can’t! This is what we get to receive lower priced phone service! Sometimes it works, a lot of times it doesn’t! Unfortunately I need my phone service to work due to my health, especially for emergencies & my life alert!
I am sorry I am unable to get the words out the way I need/want to make enough sense for all of you!

@LitlLdy one more advise,if you see the post got trapped there, there is no point to copy and paste the exact message.  It will got trapped again.  

 

but a trick  take a screenshot of what you typed,  then post the screenshot instead  🙂


@softech wrote:

@LitlLdy check if your posts are stuck here 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/premod/moderationitemspage/tab/rejected

 

sometimes it is not really censorship,  This automated thing always blocks my post with network bands info, maybe too many numbers and it thought some personal phone number or credit card number 


@softech , There’s no personal info on it! No clue why it disappeared but I will try again! I don’t have the energy for this!

Edit: I looked at your link & it says my reply was marked as spam & removed!

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@softech 

Aw....geez I like members to work for it a little....

 

@LitlLdy 

Lol.....😉😀

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