auto pay / plan expired / no warningI

[BH28]

I have auto pay set up which has been going smoothly for quite some time but the payment was not debit from my credit card and service expired. Since I'm at home all day I didn't need date as my phone was connected to wifi. I had sent texts and was wondering why no one was answering when my neighbor messaged me (facebook) to ask if I was ignoring her. That's when I clued in that something was wrong........the story could get longer but I ended up paying with my debit card to get service again,

2 questions:

why was I not warned by text that the payment wasn't made and service will be cut off..........

I still don't know what happened - so will I have to go thru this every month............there is nothing wrong with my credit card, other items have been charged.

Public mobile is great til something like this happens and you can't get info fast enough to fix it. Took a lot of trial and error to get it going again. Saw a lot of suggestions but none applied.

Thanks!

[Naepalm]

@BH28 

I totally understand your frustration. I would top up your account 5 days before then you know that it will work. Although, I would suggest just as you have that PM works through the bugs of autopay and accounts should not be suspended when their service is the one that failed. 

We will see what PM does. 

cheers

[mpcdesign]

@rkwT, this is an automatic reminder that your account is due for renewal. They want to make sure you have autopay set up or pay your plan, or else your account to be suspended. And if your account gets suspended, your phone or data won't work at the wrong time that you need it most! 

For example:
Public Mobile here. Just a heads up, your payment is due on Apr 14. If you're on AutoPay or have already paid, please ignore this message.

When I see this text message from Public Mobile, I make sure I have sufficient funds in my account. With my luck, I need my phone at the right time and without a phone or data, I could be hoop such as ordering that pizza for delivery! 

[Triguy]

Usually when you get a new bank card it will have the same number and only the verification code and expiry date are changed.

[rkwT]

@BH28 

I have the same problem as you do, i.e. autopay will expire. However, I've received the text message "Hey, it's Public Mobile. The card registered for AutoPay on your account will expire in 7 days. Please visit https://selfserve.publicmobile.ca/ to make an update to ensure uninterrupted service." from Public Mobile two weeks before my balance due day. 

At first, I don't realize what's wrong with my credit card. It's like what you've mentioned that my card can pay every payment successfully. After all, when I found that my account is really suspended, I remember that my bank had sent me a new card to replace my expired card one month ago. Therefore, I need to replace my expired credit card with the new one, even both of them are carrying the same card numbers.

I hope my experience can solve your problem.

[gpixel]

@BH28 honestly it's not really a big issue in my opinion. one thing they could improve on is probably just writing a disclaimer with bold letters when you are registering for auto-pay that it does have a small opportunity to malfunction and to avoid this problem just add funds to the account ahead of time. it really isn't that bad. you can always just pay for multiple months in advance. I'm not sure if it would calculate the rewards in to the payment. I mean everything is at your fingertips nowadays, it only takes a couple minutes if that.

[BH28]

Thànks, useful info to get a in touch with a moderator. Every one suggested I use the manual pay option to avoid being cut off in the future and I get that but would rather not have to think about making payments. They give $2 monthly reward for being registered you would think that this would be a major issue that Public mobile would want to fix???? 

[Staliger]

@BH28 Autopay can sometimes fail. So it is better to do manual payment even with enabled Autopay. Just to prevent suspension issues.

[Luddite]

@BH28 Shouldn't but some does happen. It's a bug that impacts the odd account; not necessarily an odd person. Humour aside, in normal circumstances I would suggest submitting a ticket, however moderators are short staffed during the COVID-19 quarantines, so please keep detailed record of your problems for submission once systems are normal (I'm thinking June). I'm owed some Rewards but am holding off. 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Customer-support-during-COVID-19-situat...

To alleviate the worry, perhaps, make a manual payment as suggested and get the TextNow app as backup for wifi calling/texting.

[geopublic]

@BH28  As you found out the hard way Auto-Pay will eventually fail. Hopefully Public fixes this issue soon. In the meantime your only option to avoid this situation in the future is to makr a manual payment 2 days before your renewal. That gives you a couple of days to fix the issue before your account gets suspended.

[gblackma]

Sorry to hear that this happened to you @BH28  sometimes autopay fails. The warning would be not receiving the 611 payment thankyou text message on the day of your renewal. To prevent this from happening you could deposit the funds 2 days in advance of the payment cycle due date.

[will13am · Accepted solution]

@BH28 , those renewal notification texts are not 100% reliable unfortunately.  If you are in a situation where you are unable to restart your service manually, you will need to seek moderator team support.  The moderator team can be reached via private message using smartforms which is initiated by clicking on the ? on the lower right corner of the webpage or try using this link. The guided process will facilitate documentation of the issue or concern and the required resolution which will be submitted to the moderator team. Refer to this announcement link for additional details on smartforms and the ticketing system for moderator team interactions. If use of smartform brings no joy, then use the following direct link to private message the moderator team. Refer to the following knowledge base article for additional information on the moderator team.