Why doesn’t autopay get processed before payment deadline

[cmartin2]

I had an autopay failure last month, and pretty much immediately lost service. I had gotten a new credit card a couple months prior and forgot to update pm since I’m on the 90 day plan. Why doesn’t public mobile process the autopay a day or two ahead of the payment deadline so if anything goes wrong there’s a chance to correct it before losing service.  As it was, pretty much the first notice I got was when my phone stopped working, but even that was pretty subtle - texts appeared to get sent, but never actually got delivered. This is a huge inconvenience and could be solved easily by processing payments a day early!

[smp99]

Sorry - but I have to side with PM on this one. This was your fault and you admitted it. When I change cards, I have a list of companies I have to deal with and that is part of the process.

On the flip side, can you imagine the outrage that would occur for those who plan to leave or let their account go to sleep for a time but got billed 3 days prior to when they thought they could remove autopay. Now the blame would be on PM. 

What could happen, maybe PM could send a text if an autopay is rejected. They do send a reminder text just before and a follow up text when the renewal has been sucessfully processed.

[stonechucker]

As for Hydro (in Ontario), the current government has floated the idea of Pre-Pay electricity service.

It would function no differently than the Public Mobile service.  Once used up, bye-bye power.

[srlawren]

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@cmartin2wrote:

I don’t buy it. Lots of service providers charge before the service is provided, but even if that is the case, pm could add a 1 or 2 day grace period for autopay transactions.  The hydro company doesn’t cut power if you are 1 day late on a payment, and increasingly cell service is an essential service. 

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@cmartin2 I understand the frustration.  The difference is, your hydro is post-paid.  Public Mobile would have no recourse to recover the grace period if you were to take advantage of the couple of days and then port out your account or just continue to not pay.  This is the trade off you make with pre-paid:  PM doesn't ask you for a credit check for some assurrance that you will pay your bill, but in exchange, you're agreeing to make sure it gets paid if you want uninterrupted service.  If you want guaranteed service with a grace period and don't mind a credit check, then you may want to explore a post-paid plan with another provider.  Or, accept the trade-off, and make yourself a checklist of all the auto payments (I'm sure this isn't your only one) you need to update whenever your card is replaced.  Easy workarounds.

[kav2001c]

@cmartin2 no cell phone providers do this

Prepay or Postpay

All Prepay services cut off immediately (no diff than a Prepay credit card)

Hydro is legally not allowed to cut power

Even if you are MONTHS behind on your bills

Not same thing since law thinks hydro is necessary service

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@cmartin2wrote:

I don’t buy it. Lots of service providers charge before the service is provided, but even if that is the case, pm could add a 1 or 2 day grace period for autopay transactions.  The hydro company doesn’t cut power if you are 1 day late on a payment, and increasingly cell service is an essential service. 

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[ShawnC13]

I have had no issue with the autopay.  I get my text message a few days ahead of renewal as a reminder.  I can't see them processing payment early.  Once payment is received the plan is renewed so if you are doing this then you are only getting 88 or 89 days instead of 90.  Adding more dates for this system to compute and figure out is not the best option. lol

[Anonymous]

@cmartin2, On one side there are the rock solid systems, and on the other extreme there are the really awful systems.  Then there is the center.  PM is probably somewhere near center.  Just not sure which side it leans towards.  

[cmartin2]

Two things:

yes, I can prepay before the autopay is deducted, but that is circumventing the autopay system.  I’m just trying to make a suggestion for an easy way to improve the system, and bypassing it is not an improvement. 

Secondly, I fully accept that there was user error here - I forgot to update cc info, my fault. But a “rock solid” system is one that does at least a little to prevent user error. I build user systems as part of my job, and mostly what I’m doing is trying to figure out the most common ways that the user is going to screw things up, and then make it a bit less painful for them when they do. 

[will13am]

@cmartin2, you are free to top up funds into the account ahead of payment day.  The auto pay reward would still be paid as long as the feature is enabled. As a customer with multiple accounts for about a year and a half, I can say with confidence that auto pay is rock solid.  It easy to blame the system, but sometimes user error has a role.

[NDesai]

@cmartin2 You have a choice to pay up front whenever you want. It is your responsibility to remember. I understand that you forgot to update your cc, but the reminder text is always sent a few days prior to your renewal. In 2+ years, i have not missed that text even though i am on AutoPay.

[twest666]

I can understand where you are coming from, it is a major inconvience to lose service. Maybe to prevent this PM could even do a small pre-authorization charge to the card to ensure the card is legit and active a couple days before they charge the full amount.

I was in one of the glitches where the auto-pay didn't go through the first time and lost service for a few hours. Till this day because of the every morning on my renewal day I log in and just check to see if my data usage has renewed. Haven't had any issues since but I check just incase.

[cmartin2]

I don’t buy it. Lots of service providers charge before the service is provided, but even if that is the case, pm could add a 1 or 2 day grace period for autopay transactions.  The hydro company doesn’t cut power if you are 1 day late on a payment, and increasingly cell service is an essential service. 

[Anonymous]

@cmartin2, I would guess that there might be a legal reason behind it.  Perhaps you are not allowed to take payment before providing the service.