charged twice for activation fee, phone not transferred over

[Cconstantine]

Good Morning,

I was at Walmart on Saturday February 12th, 2022 to transfer my sons phone from Virgin to Public Mobile.  The Walmart representative stated that he was having troubles with the transfer and stated that he would try again from a different browser.  He then told me that the activation went through ok on both browser's, until he entered my Credit Card info for Pre-Authorized Payment..  While he was checking a few other things I went and checked my Credit Card and noticed that in fact I was charged twice for $40.25 on the same date for 2 Activation Fee's.  I do have the SIM Card from the store for public mobile, and I'm wondering what the process would be to get credited for 1 of those activation fee's, and to get this transfer process completed?

[darlicious]

@softech 

If the OP had noticed the two charges at Wal-Mart they can easily process a return/refund to the card for the customer. They can do a few days later as well but its easiest on the same business day. The employee being inexperienced made this common error of a double sctivation resulting in the creation of a "ghost" account but like any retailer if you charge the customer twice for only one purchase the customer is fully within their rights to demand a refund to the card on the spot.

The reason retailers fob customers off to the community to find out how to get a refund is they don't want to do that work themselves to obtain a refund from pm. To me it's a shocking lack of customer service for their customer.....why is it as soon as they recieve the payment and their commission you are no longer their customer you are public mobile's?

Can you imagine if you bought a new car and the dealership accidently charged you double and when you ask for your money back for the extra car you didn't order or recieve the salesman tells you to contact Ford?

Retail partners of pm still physically run your card thru the pos system. Those authorized charges are not remitted until the end of the business if then.....as we often advise customers if there is a pending charge vs a posted transaction. Some businesses don't total out their pos system every night or do it first thing in the morning. Regardless the employee can process a return (vs a refund which is after the credit transactions have been remitted when they normally close out their pos system at the end of their business day)which removes the transaction. The retailer then requests a payment return from pm for their own accounting.

That's called providing good customer service. A perfect example of this is how CCS handles complaints or issues with its customers although CCS has surprisingly few because the owner makes the effort to resolve the issue immediately by returning or refunding the customer and requests refunds from pm or the provider in question himself rather than put the customer through that process.

@Yummy 

You are correct the retailer should be issuing the return or refund to the customer if it's within a reasonable time period and always if the transaction has occurred on the same day.

To contact customer support click below:

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

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin 

[softech]

@Yummy   No, OP has the chase PM Agent.

Walmart staff do have phone access to activation department.  That department can see and confirm what happened but they won't be able to process refund on the spot.    

I was in the exact situation and gone through the process myself.   

[Yummy]

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@BKNS27 wrote:

@Cconstantine 

As @softech noted, the sales rep at Walmart activated your account twice as he indicated to you.

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So in this case should not walmart staff (I doubt they are walmart staff, most likely 3rd party renting walmart space, same as photo guys) CORRECT that error instead of customer to start chasing PM agents?

[softech]

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@Cconstantine wrote:

As well, I am currently a Public Mobile account holder, and I have a referral code to add to my account. Its 

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@Cconstantine   Kindly remove the referral code from your original message.  Just go back to the post , click on the down error on the top right of your message and click modify

To confirm if referral code was added properly, please have your Son (the one who joined new) to open a ticket with PM Support (Your son might need to create his own  Community account for this purpose and for future support issues) 

1. For faster response (2-48 hours), Click on the bubble in the lower right to request CS Agent assistance, or use this direct link: https://publicmobile.ca/chatbot.

Start with typing "Submit a ticket", click "Contact Us", click "Other" from the choices, click "Click here to submit a ticket". Then follow to complete the ticket submission.

2. Or you can Send a private message to the CS Agent here: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

**Monitor your Community inbox, envelope on the top right, after ticket is opened.  CS Agent will reply and work with you  via messaging there

[pkaraa]

Community is great for any question/concerns and for this account related issues, contact support agents which can be accessed by creating a ticket through chatbot or by sending them a direct msg at CS_Agent.

[softech]

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@Cconstantine wrote:

Thank you, I will keep an eye on that.  I have contacted the Portal Team, they have sent the confirmation text and my son has answered YES to it.  He will swap the SIM card out once he gets home, 

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Cool.  It should be done shortly.  Within 2 hours.  Put your PM SIM back to the phone , from another phone, try to call your number and see if your PM phone rings.  Not worry if not, just reboot every 30 mins for an update

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@Cconstantine wrote:

, however I'm wondering how to setup pre-authorized payment for the $35.00 plan on his phone, and any bonus Free Data Plans, to come off of my VISA?

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Just login to My Data, Payment Tab and click Automatic Payments and enable it there

[BKNS27]

@Cconstantine 

Please note it is against rules and regulations to post your referral code on this Community.

Suggest you edit and remove it. 😉

BTW, your refund will take up to 30 days so you may just keep the amount a credit in your son’s account.

[Cconstantine]

As well, I am currently a Public Mobile account holder, and I have a referral code to add to my account.

[Cconstantine]

Thank you, I will keep an eye on that.  I have contacted the Portal Team, they have sent the confirmation text and my son has answered YES to it.  He will swap the SIM card out once he gets home, however I'm wondering how to setup pre-authorized payment for the $35.00 plan on his phone, and any bonus Free Data Plans, to come off of my VISA?

[VIP_Tech]

Hi @Cconstantine 

Sometimes multiple pending charges will show during activations, but when the payment is cleared, the incorrect amounts disappear and then the real one remains.

on your Credit card is show two charges then get in touch with  Customer Support Agent (publicmobile.ca)

CSA Hours Of Operation (publicmobile.ca)

Verify your identity (publicmobile.ca)

[BKNS27]

@Cconstantine 

As @softech noted, the sales rep at Walmart activated your account twice as he indicated to you.

Contact a CS_Agent by private messaging by click on the envelope icon on top of this page for a refund.

Since you were charged, this means that the porting was completed as long as your reply to the SMS text (with the Virgin SIM in the phone) from Virgin that you are porting over with YES within the 90 minute window.

If not, the CS_Agent will restart the porting process and help you with this too.

Did the sales rep power off the phone when he swap the SIM?

Give that a try…this happened to a friend of mine and when he reboot his phone. Everything worked fine.

[softech]

@Cconstantine   the Walmart rep has accidentally activated 2 accounts.  One real one, one "ghost" account.

No worry, open a ticket with PM Support and they can trace the 2 accounts and cancel the "ghost" one and refund you.

For the porting (phone number transfer) issue,  Did the rep requested for you during activation ?  If so, you should have got a text from your previous provider and you need to reply YES within  90 mins.  

No worry if you missed the text.  There is a porting support team you can call and talk to live person to ask for porting status.   I will send you a phone number via Private Message.  Check the Community inbox on top right, envelope icon

To open ticket with Pm for the refund and cancelling of the ghost account:

1. For faster response (2-48 hours), Click on the bubble in the lower right to request CS Agent assistance, or use this direct link: https://publicmobile.ca/chatbot.

Start with typing "Submit a ticket", click "Contact Us", click "Other" from the choices, click "Click here to submit a ticket". Then follow to complete the ticket submission.

2. Or you can Send a private message to the CS Agent here: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

**Monitor your Community inbox, envelope on the top right, after ticket is opened.  CS Agent will reply and work with you  via messaging there