caught between two partial accounts

[John_G1]

I have been working for some weeks - on and off, but several full days - to rectify confusion about an account created in May but used by someone else in July. 

After several days in late August, I persuaded a C_S agent to deal with me - lots of authentication of SIM and user and phone etc - but then missed the note, about a week later, where the agent said to sign in to look at response. Now I can't log in so I have no idea what was said.

I put in my email and could not remember the new pwd I created two weeks ago, so created a new one - though PM said it could not email me an access code because the email address was not recognized. So I got an access code by phone and changed the password - at which point i was locked out.

An hour later, I tried again, and it said that the email and the (new) password did not match.  I tried to create a new one being the one I had created an hour earlier and was told it was an old pwd for the account so I could not use it - though it had not been recognized, the first and only time I tried it.

So I dreamed up a new one and created it (having got an access code by phone again) - and now it's locked me out again.

in August, it took me three days to persuade a  C-S agent to deal with me. Now I can't log in under the name the agent was dealing with - and last time, I got my knuckles rapped by an agent because I tried to use the file number from a different user log-in (the other one intermittently failing....)

This is SUPER frustrating. It's hard to credit just how user hostile Public Mobile is, if things are not going well.

I guess I will look for the link to contact an Agent again and throw myself on his/her mercy - why am I not optimistic?

Meanwhile the phone at the centre of this works from time to time and stops from time to time. I don't want to interfere with the service that is being provided - but when the user logs in under his name, all he gets is Resume Authentication - and then he is taken to a log-in screen where the pwd he just used to log in is flagged as not matching the email.

In other words, Public Mobile offers a dead end to three different people - all with all the authentication info needed - to resolve the confusion.

[John_G1]

Hooray! Problems have now been solved, with several agents over several weeks - but the phone is working and the account is accessible, and the back-up number is now mine, not my daughter's (good for family dynamics), and the system is sending the access code to the main phone, not the back-up number.

I appreciate the helpful input from various members of the Community here. I understand how the system works better than I did, and I (and a few others) could vent about its frustrating elements. Thanks all! 

[hTideGnow]

HI @John_G1 

oh, I thought you already have one

Yes, you will need to set it up in US.  And you will need to register with a US phone number that can receive 2FA (this is more for Google to confirm you are really from US and not using VPN or so)

[John_G1]

yes, as it turns out, Google Voice won't let me sign up for it. "not available in your country"....

[John_G1]

I tried to open a Google Voice account and was told it was not available in this country - though Google tells me that it has been available in Canada since 2020. So ... ????

I may try to go to the site and try 'did not get code' and see if it will let me do email.   The C-S agent did not suggest that, though we were going round and round today about why he could not just remove the unwanted number from the PM system.

I guess once I am in, then I can go to Eversafe and change the number if I can think of one.

[hTideGnow]

Hi @John_G1 

you are lucky you get a Google Voice account, it is trouble to get one if you don't have an actual US number for them to register

[dust2dust]

Google Voice doesn't charge. It needs to link to a US number initially and maybe that could lapse but it doesn't charge.
The key is - unique to Eversafe.
Clearing storage allows logging in to another account. I mostly use the web site anyway.
The 2fa text goes to the registered number anyway but then you can click didn't get code and send it to the registered email.

[John_G1]

thanks - that may work, though thinking of a unique number that one has access to but has not used already is a challenge. I have a voip number but it can't receive text messages, so far as I know.  Google Voice will cost me  - so far as I can tell - $10 a month. I'd rather not...

I guess clearing the storage on the PM app will NOT change what's in Eversafe, though, and that seems to be the problem.

Is there a way to get them to do 2FA to email not phone?

[dust2dust]

If you were able to login then go to the profile screen and manage eversafe id and in there you can change the number that the 2fa goes to. It has to be a unique number and that unique number can only be used once in any account. I have an account that I manage where I set that number to a voip app number (Google Voice - not the popular Textnow as they don't take 2fa codes without paying).

Clearing the storage will not affect your account. I have 3 accounts. I came across this problem the other day and found that I could clear the storage to be able to log in to another account.

I generally don't use the app. When I want to verify something I'm writing here then I go in to it.

[John_G1]

It does not matter if I try to log into the account by normal browser or incognito - in ether case it sends an access code to an alternative number I put in last week because PM insisted on a number not already in its Eversafe directory - but the person who gets it does not want to keep getting it. But PM seems completely incapable of changing that number (yes, the 2FA number) on its own.

If I get the access number from that phone  (it's my daughter) then I can log in fine - but I can't change the 2FA number from wihtin the account, or have not yet figured out how to do so, and the C-S agent can't either.

Fortunately the phone itself continues to work, and I live in fear that the agent is going to suggest something that will mess that up...

[hTideGnow]

@John_G1 are you still trying to login and have problem? Don't use app, use Incognito/private/secret mode on your browser, it works better

and what you want to do to change alternate number? you wand to change the number to receive 2FA?

[John_G1]

In fact I don't have the PM app on my phone, I guess because my account dates from before they started this nonsense of needing the app to subscribe.  My friend does, but I am not sure his tech skills or English are up to the task of finding the cache and emptying it.

[John_G1]

I am a bit afraid that if I clear the cache of the PM app, it will cut off my access to my account...

They seem completely unable to change the alternative access number for the account, which at present goes to my daughter, who quite reasonably does not want to keep getting access codes every time anyone wants to log into the account. but the CS agent says he can't do it - she has to take the SIM out of her phone, which she can't or won't do - but it's in the PM system. They seem to have no control over their own system. Frustrating!

[dust2dust]

I generally have no problem (other than the interminable wait and the server caching) with the web site.  But my browsers seem fine with it. But I also have the setting to clear browser stuff upon exit. I don't save credentials in the browsers.

[John_G1]

I don't try any of this on my phone - too small to handle.... though I use a Samsung myself these days, as a phone. But i am trying to manage this stuff on my Lenovo i.e. PC laptop. I will try  clearing the cache just for that app on my phone and, if possible, on my laptop. (I hate clearing the cache on my browser generally because it wipes out all the access numbers - not the passwords, but the codes one needs like account numbers.)

[dust2dust]

On my Samsung, it might be a little different with your device, - settings, apps, find Public Mobile, storage, at the bottom clear cache/clear data.

[John_G1]

where are the 'storage settings' you refer to? On the PM app? I don't know how to use it - I find it intimidatingly user-hostile. On the phone?  On my computer? I use an Android and the phone I am currently struggling with is an Android, but I have had to set up a couple of iPhones that eventually worked, but with a lot of struggle because of that app.

[John_G1]

"outstanding glitch" continues to stand out.  Now working with another agent to eliminate it, I hope. 

The wife and three siblings, and father, of the person I am trying to help have all got PM accounts without a ton of difficulty (except the serious hassle of having to downloand the $%#(**$# Public Moible app to an iPhone), but this one person's phone has been a ton of trouble for over a month now. Getting better, though... and the phone is at least working while we worry about being able to administer the account.

[John_G1]

Eventually a agent managed to solve most or all of the issues, by allowing us to set a new email address (newly created for the purpose) on the account. It needed pretty sustained attention over several hours, but it worked. There is one outstanding glitch, or was last Monday. We need to do a final test to see if it is resolved. Meanwhile, though, the phone, texts and mobile data all work.

[John_G1]

I am not giving bravos to my 'other identities' - just to people who have been helpful! I don't use the app - i think the app is a HUGE distraction when setting up a PM account - it has cost me hours to set up iPhone acounts because of the need for an Apple ID and a credit card, for people who did not have them at the time. So I have been using a Chrome browser, and while I was in the deep swamp in late August, also Firefox and even Bing, incognito or not. Nothing worked.

Trying for an agent...

[dust2dust]

I suggest not admitting that you're bravoing other identities that you're "related" to.

Are you using the web site or the app? The app shells out to whatever default browser is set on your phone for some functions. Maybe you have some settings in that browser that are tripping things up. Or maybe it's a "non-standard" browser.

[John_G1]

I forgot a new pwd I invented two weeks ago - in fact I think I just mislaid the page where I had written it down. But the attempts today to create a new pwd have failed for independent and so far mysterious reasons.

I definitely need an agent's help. The situation baffled several agents two weeks ago, but maybe the final notice was a solution, if I could only log in with the account it was sent to, to see what it was.

The notice of the agent's response was sent to the email address that PM sometimes says does not exist or is not associated with the account...

[John_G1]

The only upside to this chaos is that I and the other identities trying to resolve the mess are earning a bunch of Community badges for raising topics and commenting and giving Bravos to the responses we get that make some sense, even if no one has solved it yet.

[hTideGnow]

HI @John_G1 

how can you forgot the login

your case is a bit complicated, only agent can help  Please continue working with them, try to provide them as much info as possible