left 0$ in account b/c on holidays but $ withdrawn from credit card

[Christine77]

I was set up on auto pay. Every month I made sure my account  had enough money to auto pay my monthly charge. I went on holidays and made sure I had 0$ in my account so P.M.could not charge me the monthly fee. The surprise was P.M.took the money  directly from my Visa card when my account had 0$.

This is not my wish.

Not happy as I paid for 1 month of service when I knew I would be overseas. If P.M. does not reimburse me for the month I will change provider. i dont think it is fair to take monthly charges from credit card when I thought 0$ available funds in account would ensure my plan would not be renewed while on holidays.

[Anonymous]

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@kav2001c wrote:

@Christine77

Serious question

What exactly did you think autopay did?

From reading your posts it sounds like you were manually topping up each month and were surprised when funds were withdrawn

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I wondered the same thing.

I wonder if they thought autopay meant that it automatically paid from Available Funds. Deposit funds into it and then it auto-pays from there.

Obviously not making the connection that having to put in their credit card to so much as enable autopay, didn't click with them that autopay would use the credit card.

I can kinda see it.

But we'll see what if anything the OP says.

[kav2001c]

@Christine77

Serious question

What exactly did you think autopay did?

From reading your posts it sounds like you were manually topping up each month and were surprised when funds were withdrawn

[popping]

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@mimmo wrote:

Not going to repeat what was said but we are pretty lucky here that PM lets people suspend accounts and keep the same plan for up to 90 days.  you might not be so lucky at other providers.

koodo for example lets makes you get a holding plan $15/month and then makes you get take an in market plan.  not sure about other providers.

hopefully you will get some goodwill from mods.  

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I agree. PM treats subscriber very well vs other providers. 

Another example, Cityfone has a $10 plan for subscriber can switch to for a few months as long as the subscriber is on month-to-month.  Otherwise, subsciber has to pay off the phone account balance first.

[mimmo]

Not going to repeat what was said but we are pretty lucky here that PM lets people suspend accounts and keep the same plan for up to 90 days.  you might not be so lucky at other providers.

koodo for example lets makes you get a holding plan $15/month and then makes you get take an in market plan.  not sure about other providers.

hopefully you will get some goodwill from mods.  

[oliviabondy]

Hi Christine, 

That is unfortunate that this happened to you. Unfortunetly, the concept of autopay is that is will "automatically" deduct from your account regardless if the money is there. 

Your visa and sometimes debit accounts have the ability to go into overdraft so the charges are covered to the provider attempting to charge for services that are due. Additionally, you are often charged an extra fee for the bounced payment. 
https://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/overdraft-is-another-way-banks-win-and-you-lose

There are lots of google articles out there on overdraft and how this works with our banks. 

I am just a fellow customer I do not work for Public so I cannot speak to the refund. 

Thanks & I wish you all the best. 

[ute1978]

Everything has been said already. Just one more hint. Autopay works the same at other carriers, not just PM. The credit card gets charged if you have autopay on.

[popping]

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@srlawren wrote:

@Christine77 I'm not sure what you thought Auto Pay did, but this is pretty clearly your mistake, not Public Mobile's (to be blunt).  The moderator team is generally pretty forgiving and will usually make it right for you out of good will, but they are not required to do so given that the error is yours (to be blunt).  If they won't do anything for you, you are of course within your right to leave for another provider--but I suggest when you get there you do some research before you go off on your next overseas vacation, to avoid getting yourself into this situation again.

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@Christine77

If you decide to leave PM, please disable your autopay and delete your credit card from your account before porting your phone number to the new mobile provider.  

BTW, your PM account must be active before your can port your number out.  Therefore, you should do it before your current cycle ends. Better starts the porting process a few days early just in case something happens. Otherwise, you need to pay another month of service in order to keep your account active to port your number out.  Also, PM service is prepaid service.  In Canada, there is no refund for prepaid service.  

Now, you know the details.  Decision is yours - stay or leave.

[Christine77]

Hi Jessica

I sent a message to the moderators and hope they will be kind and understanding.

Thank you for your response

[Christine77]

Thank you for your advice. I emailed a moderator to assist and hope they understand the situation...Your very kind to offer so much info

[srlawren]

@Christine77 I'm not sure what you thought Auto Pay did, but this is pretty clearly your mistake, not Public Mobile's (to be blunt).  The moderator team is generally pretty forgiving and will usually make it right for you out of good will, but they are not required to do so given that the error is yours (to be blunt).  If they won't do anything for you, you are of course within your right to leave for another provider--but I suggest when you get there you do some research before you go off on your next overseas vacation, to avoid getting yourself into this situation again.

[RobertQc]

@Christine77Sorry about the trouble. As Jessica has explained, the system was doing what it was designed to by your preference of enabling auto-pay.

If today was your payment due date, then here's what to expect:
1. Expiration of completed period. Account will show "plan expired" sometime before midnight tonight.
2. Conversion of all rewards (including autopay reward) to available funds at midnight; rewards reset. Payment not collected yet at this point.  Account will show "Your account has been suspended" in big red letters.
3. In early hours of the morning, available funds will be used (if any), credit / debit card will be charged (if necessary by means of the auto-payment system), plan will be renewed. Account status will then show "active."

The best thing to do is call upon the moderator team and request a refund, they are usually very accommodating....but remember BE NICE as they technically do not have to give refunds with a pre-paid service and you agreed to the terms when you hit the submit form after entering your credit / debit card information.

 Click this to send them a message When interacting with the moderator team, it is important to identify yourself with account PIN code, phone number / account number and provide as much information about the problem in question as possible so that the moderator team can work on the issue without having to ask for further information.  Each interaction causes further delays to problem resolution. Send only 1 message, multiple messages will slow down the process. Be patient, it takes a couple days for a response.

[Jessica_T]

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@Christine77 wrote:

I was set up on auto pay. Every month I made sure my account  had enough money to auto pay my monthly charge. I went on holidays and made sure I had 0$ in my account so P.M.could not charge me the monthly fee. The surprise was P.M.took the money  directly from my Visa card when my account had 0$.

This is not my wish.

Not happy as I paid for 1 month of service when I knew I would be overseas. If P.M. does not reimburse me for the month I will change provider. i dont think it is fair to take monthly charges from credit card when I thought 0$ available funds in account would ensure my plan would not be renewed while on holidays.

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@Christine77You have to disable auto-pay, otherwise it will use auto-pay. Having a balance in your account means the payment process will first take funds from that account, whatever is not covered in account balance will go to auto-pay. Unfortunately you did not understand how auto-pay works, but it's not fair to blame public mobile in this case, as far as they were concerned you requested them to take the payment. Most users around here keep a balance of 0 and auto-pay takes care of everything for them, its an extremely convenient system.

If you have not used your service, you can contact the moderator team and explain the issue and maybe they will refund it to you. The moderator team can be reached via private message using this link.  Please include in the private message account number and PIN code along with a detailed description of the issue and the required resolution. This will speed up problem resolution significantly.