Why is there no customer support?

[angry1]

I have a plan with province-wide minutes, but it won't let me complete calls to within my own city because i apparently don't have a long distance add-on.

Not only do I have long-distance minutes, the call is local.

And to add icing to the cake, there is literally no way to contact any human being that works for public, and their chat bot is about as useful as asking a brick wall for help.

EDIT: It's okay everyone, I've found the solution: Take my business to a company that isn't completely incompetent!

[hTideGnow]

HI @Anonymous  yeah, that's why you safe a bit with the Public Points rewrds  🙂

But if it is just how to use type of question, it is much quicker to get a response from the Community here than waiting on the help desk line listening to the music  🙂

[Anonymous]

True... lol I guess I figured since they're owned by Telus... and I actually switched from Koodo, their online KoodoAssist chat was no different if I recall correctly. Can't really complain though with these plan prices, and the online community is sufficient if you're good at searching people's posts to find answers to questions 😀 

[hTideGnow]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Can TELUS seriously not afford some customer support staff?

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HI @Anonymous  Telus can afford.  But this is PM 🤣

It is a fact they try to save the support cost a bit and use the savings for our rewards or Public Points

It is not the best model, that's why Telus also offer Koodo as an alternatives , for people who have different support needs

[Anonymous]

When did no human support on live chat start? I switched to PM not too long ago.. and I was able to chat with a person online. The chat bot definitely sucks. Can TELUS seriously not afford some customer support staff?

[darlicious]

@wellis 

We need your knowledge just in the right threads.....try this one.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/cellular-data-although-cellular-data-...

[wellis]

Thanks for clearing that up for me:) 

[Anonymous]

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@wellis wrote:

Public Mobile doesn't offer any person-to-person customer service, but there are many very knowledgeable members in the community that can help with many of your concerns. I hope you figure out what's wrong before switching.

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 @wellis : Great of you to jump in and start participating. Welcome to the Public Mobile Community.

A little niggle on a couple of your posts on support. There are the moderators that are the only ones that can do things in accounts. The "knowledgeable members" here can not.

I understand what you mean by person-to-person. I also understand your "help with many" not meaning all. Just wanting to clear up some possible uncertainty around wording.

Keep it up.

[wellis]

Public Mobile doesn't offer any person-to-person customer service, but there are many very knowledgeable members in the community that can help with many of your concerns. I hope you figure out what's wrong before switching.

[softech]

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@HuronBob wrote:

@angry1  needs to listen to what people are telling him/her and have a little patience. 

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His user name already tells you everything  🤣

[darlicious]

@barndoor 

Its usually a good idea to read the instructions or stop and ask for directions. It makes things go a lot smoother.....most of the time anyways.

[barndoor]

There ya go ...  need to slow down and read the fine print instead of just jumping too the live chat and then I'd know.  

[darlicious]

@barndoor 

Since I have never really looked....because I fully understood before I even set eyes on public mobile's website or the community what "all our support is online" meant I decided to fully check out what pm actually advertises on its website. 

When I clicked on "live chat" this what came up.....seems pretty clear the limited live chat they offer is for retail assistance the same as you used to get at their kiosks or if you go to one of pm's retail partners.

I also clicked on "get help" and the types of online support are clearly defined.

Those of us who are regulars don't do it solely for the monetary reward as the highest reward available to regular users ($15) is easily earned by working one hour at minimum wage. Rather its volunteer work that we do because we enjoy helping people which admittedly can be very addictive, a little bit competitive, we can sometimes be opinionated and its a safe, socially distant way of having a little fun, a few laughs, learn and share and make some new friends from across our great country with different ages, backgrounds, genders, cultures, creeds etc....people you may never meet in your regular lives, social circles, employment or otherwise with no pre-judgements that are instinctually human traits when meeting face to face. One day I hope to meet many of the friends that I have made....so far only one @gpixel when we collaborated on a food bank donation. We may even go camping one day....

And sure we appreciate the community reward to help lower our bills....as I'm sure you did with the $2 you recieved for grumbling about pm's lack of defintion of "online support".

[HuronBob]

I am really not sure what has happened on this one. I only know that when my daughter lost her service due to a PM auto-pay screw up, my monthly refer-a-friend reward disappeared from my account. After my short rant, the reward showed up on my account again. As for the actual 1 dollar in dispute, I paid PM the same amount for the past 3 months so we are good.

[Anonymous]

 @barndoor : The regulars here are well aware that the time spent is totally not worth the reward paid. There are the intangibles of some camaraderie and socializing and just good ol' feeling good about helping people. And something to do these days. Though that's becoming less with the substantially less traffic here for the last while.

[darlicious]

@HuronBob 

Nice one! Did you end up getting your $1 referral reward applied manually to your account?

[HuronBob]

I have read the first 2 pages of this thread and have come to the conclusion that it does not matter what anyone has to say to try to help him/her whether it is the general community or the moderators. @angry1 seems to be hell bent on trashing Public Mobile and it's system of operation for whatever reason he has chosen to do so. I can only say that I have been a subscriber to Public Mobile for the past 9 months and have no complaints whatsoever. Sure I have had an issue or 2 with the system but I have always got them solved in a very timely manner. @angry1  needs to listen to what people are telling him/her and have a little patience. I'm sure the competitors would love to have the account but be prepared to most likely pay more for less service than PM is providing. Cut your nose off to spite your face.

[barndoor]

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@softech wrote:

"all our support is on line "  -- It really open for interruption.  

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Oh yes...it is lovely and ambiguous  when you see after the fact what it means .  

Would a normal customers first contact not be to search out plans  ...and voila the live chat bubble  comes up in the corner and you can access someone to ask questions of almost immediately .  If that was your first and only experience why should the wording of that ad make it  so blaringly  obvious to customers  that it is a diy type of support ?? 

Is there some reason why PM doesn't take the need for interpretation out of that ad and make it clear what their version of on line support is ? 

You guys go on about the wonderful prices here  but look at the 1000's of posts you are logging to get those wunnerful prices ... as one of you pointed out ...put a price on that time and boy are your plans expensive . 

[darlicious]

@barndoor 

So you're back.....pm is not for everyone. Like @Anonymous  a nearly $0 bill or in my case two $0 bills are hard to beat. And as i said in my previous post in this thread 9 minutes from start to finish for a moderator to care of my support request is hardly lack of customer service.

Some people look at a glass as half empty I prefer to see mine as half full....of a nice cabernet!

[softech]

"all our support is on line "  -- It really open for interruption.  

As many emphasized,  this support model might not fit everyone.  From Telus points of view, they offer 3 different levels of service and different pricing , so people could choose the one they like.  

Whether I want live chat, a phone to call?  Yes, I do.  But if that comes with a "Price"??  then I think I am fine to have it stay as-is.

[Anonymous]

 @barndoor : In all my years with Telus and now with this place, I _rarely_ needed help. I can wait. As is often said around here, it's not a fit for everyone. Free is pretty darn cheap to have cell service on a main provider network. I can live with a few foibles. I can also live with a few "glitches" that go our way.

This place also seems to be fixing things or removing their error-prone ways. The community traffic has substantially dropped the last while. Are people going straight to the moderators? Maybe. With things seemingly working smoothly, their response times seem to have become shorter.

[barndoor]

LOL ... maybe the Mayors should all get together and right one post so we don't need to read the same thing over and over . 

You guys are all  blaming the customer for not knowing what they are getting in to ... so please  explain what part of "all our support is on line " should lead one to believe that  it is find it yourself  type of place ? 

When I asked questions when I first checked out PM, the live chat  was available almost immediately  ..so PM can pay for that but not pay you guys to provide live chat  to individual accounts like the angry guy .  Typical Canadian marketing crap . 

Lol ...and reading what some of you guys have experienced  and seem to tolerate in the ways on inconsistent service ,I'm starting to wonder if PM was the right choice no matter how cheap you think they are compared to others . 

[hTideGnow]

Honest, it's also part of the customer fault for not understanding what they have signed up for.   The service didn't change since they joined.   

When they joined, they were only blinded by the price.  When things didn't go the way they want, they are upset, then  they complain and make an "interesting" name to show their frustration.    

[BlueB]

@angry1 

As some have mentioned, Public Mobile tried marketing their plans to Province-only minutes but realized this wasn't good for business and switched availability back to Canada-wide minutes.  People who got "caught" signing up to the Province-only plan can switch to the Canada-wide plan.  🙂

As for 811 (and similar numbers), it's not really a standard "Local Telephone Number."  Instead, you can think of it as a special "shortcut" number that some companies/providers will offer to make things easier for people.  You can often lookup the local telephone-number equivalent if you're caught in this position.

As for taking your business to another company... this is valid.  If online-only support isn't working for you, there are other services out there that will suit you better.  As a "no frills" budget service, it works well but lacks the level of interactive support you'll find with others.

[darlicious]

@angry1 

Surely you understood public mobile's online only support business model before you signed up? It's DIY when it comes to managing your service and account. This means you can perform many actions within your account like plan changes, account suspensions or purchasing add ons on your own without having to call customer service or pay extra fees to do so or even just to talk to customer service.

Online support means you first reach out to the community to ask your question. The vast majority of questions or issues presented can be solved within minutes by the community. More difficult issues require some troubleshooting but usually can be resolved by some active participation of the OP and the community members offering suggestions. The most difficult issues that occur often hardware problems with individual phones will have some dedicated and knowledgable members doing testing and online internet searches on your behalf to locate an eventual solution. These can sometimes takes days or weeks to resolve but is service that these community members volunteer to do in their own spare time ....for you because they just want to help. If you phone another provider's customer service line with these type of issues they will tell you to contact the manufacturer of your brand of phone to resolve it.

Account related issues that can only be rectified by a moderator ( pm employee) you will be directed to contact them either via simple simon ( who I don't get along with) or by sending a private message (my preferred method). Lately wait times are about one hour but this week they have been much less than that. I had an account issue yesterday resolved within 9 minutes of first sending a message. Far quicker than the average 45-60 minutes you wait on hold when calling phone support at other providers.

The problem you are experiencing is a known glitch that crops up a few times a year ( for me at least.) Waiting 10 minutes to one hour and rebooting your phone usually resolves it along with dialing a commonly called phone number such as a friend or family member. If it persists beyond one hour or continues to occur on a regular basis then contacting the moderators and asking for your sim card to be reprovisioned/account reset is in order.

You activated during a brief 7 week period that public mobile was offering province wide calling plans. The $15 plan was the only plan that had eliminated the canada wide calling option. As suggested schedule a plan change on next renewal to update your plan to the current canada wide calling $15 plan. Here is more info on the pm update on plans....

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/UPDATE-Changes-to-Our-In-Market-Plans/t...

It is suggested that you pop into the community a couple of times a month to stay up to date on changes, promotions, contests and free gifts public mobile may be offering its custoners. You might even learn how to manage your service and account more effectively and earn a community reward for your participation something you definitely cannot do at other providers!

Here is my preferred method for moderator contact...

Contact the moderators by sending a private message and leave a detailed message explaining your issue and the info to verify your account by including the following information:

1. Full name and address on account. ( Or province and postal code for newer accounts.)
2. Email, phone # and pin #.

 If you cannot remember your pin # include at least three of the following:

1. Date of birth (n/a on newer accounts.)
2. Last payment, date, amount, type and last 4 digits.
3. Alternate phone number if any.
4. Security question and answer.
5. Plan amount, any add ons or promos on account.
6. Last 4 digits of sim card.
7. Any rewards in your account.
8. Autopay y/n?
9. Account #.
10. Frequently called/texted phone numbers in the last 30 days.

The average wait time is 2 to 4 hours but be prepared to wait up to 48 hours for non urgent requests. Current wait times are about one hour and are probably even less as I have had some very quick responses today. Keep an eye on your private message box the envelope icon next to your avatar for a little number to pop indicating a message from the moderators. Responding promptly will speed up service times.

Do not post any of this info in the community only in your private messages when communicating or contacting the Moderator_Team.

To send a private message to the moderators click below:

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

[Yummy]

So far, PM provided reliable service. I am very glad I chose this provider.

BTW, I did thorough research before choosing provided. The only thing I did not know is you can be a Community member without being PM customer. Might have asked few newbie questions but now I learn as I go...

[Meow]

We have one very unhappy customer...

Public Mobile is no frills mobile provider. You get what you pay for. For the most of us, cost is more important than live support. Anyway, superb support is provided by many PM customers lurking (24/7???) in this forum. I would not want any different as usually customers are more knowledgeable that 'official support'.

And so far support from MODs was prompt, reliable and accurate.

I am sure you CANNOT find cheaper and more reliable Canada wide plan than $15 from PM. That amount goes down with few options applied. Plus coverage area is very, very wide as it is provided by Telus. Not to mention this is no obligation, no contract, no credit check service. You do not like it, stop paying and service will eventually stop.

As for the province wide vs. Canada wide, I signed up a day or two after PM switched from CW to PW. Was not too much upset but still preferred to have CW. A month or so, PM reversed that decision and brought back CW. I scheduled plan change, got CW, end of story.

811 is - Non-Urgent Heath Care Telephone Triage Services, number available in (most likely) all area codes. I checked randomly few and number is available and the same.

[Anonymous]

 @angry1 : Yup. It was a poorly executed plans change. They tried to lead and one or two competitors did a little bit but then they all back-tracked back to Canada-wide. They had the Canada-wide plans still available looking like they were on special and intending to bump up their price by $5. But they were the same price as province-wide while on special. Then it seems there were several technical issues with the province-wide plans. So it all got abandoned. Everything's back as it was before the shamozzle.

There is customer support and there are actual people behind it. It's just all done online by typing messages similar to email.

[HALIMACS]

@angry1 

You know you're dealing with other customers on this forum, correct?

We have no idea why Public Mobile does what they do.

About a month or so ago, Public Mobile considered a price increase on their Canada-wide plans and offered Provincial wide calling at the same price point.  After much negative feedback from customers, they withdrew the provincial plans and reinstated the prior price point for Canada wide plans.

As I said earlier, you can switch to one of them and not have to worry about provincial boundaries when calling.

Here’s the process for changing plans, first login to Self Serve to this screen:

Then, click Change Plan:

Then select desired Plan:

Then choose Change on Next Renewal Date:

[LurganIeUk]

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@angry1 wrote:

@LurganIeUk 

811 is the local city-services number, it works in many, if not most, major canadian cities.

>ooks like most can be converted over to Canada Wide at no extra cost to you. Yo

if that's true, it's absurd. my plan is less than 2 months old. why would they even have offered only province-wide, if its the same price for canada-wide?

it's okay, though, i've solved the problem.  I'm switching mobile carriers to a less-mickey-mouse outfit

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You are jumping to very poor decisions!!!!!!!!! You are caught up in a PM marketing change and then pulled because of it's unpopularity and likely to remain competitive. And yes they did a poor job in not letting you know that you could change your plan free of charge to Canada Wide. So if you are on the $15 plan, Province wide, upgrade to the $15 Canada wide plan and make it happen on your next renewal. There is an option to do NOW or on next renewal. NOW will cause you to lose some money. There are many more good things about PM and once you get used to it all....you will like it. 

[angry1]

@HALIMACS 

seeing that my plan isn't even 2 months old, if there *are* canada=wide plans for the same price (or cheaper) that's even more reason not to do business with this company.

why would they even offer the province-wide plan, if the country-wide plan is the same price?  just to antagonize potential customers?