BE PREPARED

[Luddite]

UPDATED Apr/2020 In French below courtesy of  Iorieux

While, based on my experience, the Public Mobile will pay off long run there is no subsitute for  being prepared for the worst case. 

What is the worst case you say? There are two basic scenarios: general, and unusual.

        GENERAL: This situation is 24 - 72 hours without service. Because the moderators support retail activations and do not work 24x7 you must be able to cope with bugs that affect your service for up to 72 hours . Even though they work every day it may be longer than this.

         UNUSUAL: Rarely, you can get multiple days (14) with no service from Public Mobile, or your original carrier if you request a port-in. 

Truly, it matters not if it is only 0.1% of the population if you are one of them. So here's my personal suggestion for getting started with the least risk.

A. Porting during activation is possible but can lead to stress if mishandled, so I suggest  reading the following post BEFORE you begin activating your new SIM:

http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/The-Guide-to-Headache-Free-PM-Signup/m-p/99...

NOTE: currently if transferring from Koodo/Telus, you must first activate your account then contact the moderators to request the transfer.

B. If something goes wrong DO NOT pay more than once but do submit a service ticket to the moderators to explain your problem. To get a ticket click the ? on the lowerr right of this page, enter "ticket", then click "Contact us", then click "Submit ticket", and follow the directions to do so.

C. Be ready to get phone service of some kind to tide you over:

- any carrier's prepaid service that just meets your emergency requirements (for me that's giffgaff.com, a UK pay-as-you-go carrier, but I've also used speakout7eleven.com. And https://www.knowroaming.com looks ok too. 

- a voip app (fongo.com, Textnow, and Google Hangouts are "favourites" here) for free calling while on wifi.

You can be pretty sure it’s worth the wait for PM to resolve your problem. 😎

******************************************************************************************

MISE À JOUR du janvier 2021
 
Alors que, selon mon expérience, Public Mobile sera rentable à long terme, il n'y a pas de subsistut pour être préparé dans le pire des cas.
 Quel est le pire cas  vous demandez-vous? Il existe deux scénarios de base: général et inhabituel.
        GÉNÉRAL: Cette situation est celle qui dure de 24 à 74 heures sans service. Parce que les modérateurs soutiennent les activations de vente au détail et ne fonctionnent pas 24x7, vous devez être en mesure de faire face à des problèmes qui affectent votre service jusqu'à 72 heures. Comme ils travaillent tous les jours toute l'année, cela ne sera généralement pas plus long que cela.
         INHABITUEL: Rarement vous pouvez être plusieurs jours (jusqu'à 14) sans service de Public Mobile, ou de votre opérateur d'origine si vous avez demandé un transfert de numéro.
 
En vérité, cela ne compte pas si ce n'est quand vous faites partie de ces 0,1% de la population. Voici donc ma suggestion personnelle pour commencer à avoir le moins de risque.
 
A. Le port pendant l'activation est possible, mais peut entraîner des contraintes physiques, donc je suggère de lire le message suivants AVANT de commencer à activer votre nouvelle carte SIM:
 
http: //productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/The-Guide-to-Headache-Free-PM-Signup/m-p/99 ...
  

REMARQUE: actuellement si vous effectuez un transfert depuis Koodo / Telus, vous devez d'abord activer votre compte puis contacter les modérateurs pour demander le transfert.

B. Si quelque chose ne va pas, ne payez pas plus d'une fois, mais soumettez un ticket de service aux modérateurs pour expliquer votre problème. Pour obtenir un billet, cliquez sur le bouton? en bas à droite de cette page, entrez "ticket", puis cliquez sur "Contactez-nous", puis sur "Soumettre le ticket" et suivez les instructions pour le faire.
 
C. Soyez prêt à obtenir un service téléphonique d'une autre sorte pour pouvoir faire vos appels:
- le service prépayé d'un transporteur qui répond uniquement à vos besoins d'urgence (pour moi, c'est giffgaff.com, un transporteur Pay-to-you-go au Royaume-Uni, mais j'ai également utilisé speakout7eleven.com. Et https://www.knowroaming.com semble trop bien.
- a voip app (fongo.com, Textnow, et Google Hangouts sont des "favoris" ici) pour les appels wifi gratuits.

Vous pouvez être sûr qu'il vaut la peine d'attendre que PM résolve votre problème. 😎
 

[JackL]

How do you use “giffgaff” in Canada? The pay as you go roaming rate from that company is cheaper than 711?

[Luddite]

@Lieux Merci.

[Luddite]

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@Lieux wrote:

@Luddite Can I suggest you some modification in your french translation message? It will be my pleasure to help you with the most difficult language in the world!!!

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Yes, please. Just post it here & I will modify my post. Feel free to make suggestions on any others as well. Just be sure to tag me so that I see them.

[Lieux]

@Luddite Can I suggest you some modification in your french translation message? It will be my pleasure to help you with the most difficult language in the world!!!

[Someone_here]

Great summary @Luddite!

I would only add "Textnow" as a suggested app, free calling AND free texts 😃

[oilblue99]

@MVP

As others have mentioned, activated SIMs are half the battle (if not more). 

Following the tips Luddite highlighted should lead to successful ports. That said, totally understandable if you'd prefer to wait until Mods have dealt with the backlog.

FWIW, our household had two trouble free ports (from Rogers to PM):
- one in late September (forum was not overrun with issues, so helpful posts were easier to find)
- one on November 20th (final day of promo; forum issues galore but research done; SIM had been activated a few days earlier, as suggested in the forum)

Careful data entry cannot be emphasized enough as resubmit of the port request requires Mod intervention. Note: Mods are asking for Account #, so that's a clue to use that one (and skip PIN and IMEI).

While the ports went fine, I can speak to the hazards of not looking closely at the screen: my SIM order included an address typo. A couple weeks went by (during which time I contacting Mods...but they were swamped). Eventually I noticed the typo in the "SIM order" confirmation email and ordered an new one. Oddly enough that one arrived promptly. [smh]

Good luck!

[Rockdaddy22]

Yes, they are staying in limbo forever @SCoker

[oilblue99]

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@SCoker wrote:

Where did you get 2-3 weeks?

Are all accounts in limbo staying there or are they still processing ports and other fixes?

And your account of 0.1% would be 100 people out of 100,000 having issues. Is 0.1% accurate or just some number you pulled out?

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@SCoker

I don't think Luddite was attempting to assign an actual number. My read of Luddite's post is that even if problems are rare (such as 0.1%), if issues happen on your line, it's a big deal. So be prepared with options, just in case.

[KK]

@MVP I ported over 3 accounts with no problem. One from koodo and two from telus. I used transfer number feature under self serve. I do, in fact, have same email from koodo. I used the account numbers and made sure that my name was the same as on the accounts. (matters for my parents). I rebooted phones. Almost instantaneous.

[Rockdaddy22]

Once solved most just don't come back, which is their choice I guess

[clavijo]

you are right , and is very hard to know exactely how many people has problems , because it seems that many never used a forum and instead of opening a new topic the go with the" me too" witch creates a lot of problems for the MODS, another thing that i see not many members closed their topic when solved

[Rockdaddy22]

I've personally never had a problem porting my own number. Just use the correct account numbers and names. Only a small percentage have problems, and a lot of those are user error. That said, you do need to be prepared for the worst, just incase.

[stwsimon]

The only issue I see with this advice is who looks at it before they have a problem?

Personally I'd never heard of Public Mobile before reading about the promotion last weekend  - it coincided with me thinking about how to lower my phone bills.  The instructions were basically - go pick up a sim card and then activate it online.  This was confirmed by the folks who sold me the sim card (orange capes, standing in the cold).

I love the pricing and am lucky that the port that failed is still active on Rogers, but I'd sure like to give them the boot.

I think Pm could do themselves a great service by just responding to all requests, if even just to say:  we've received your request.

[stwsimon]

I did 2 phones from the same Rogers account last weekend (the 19th/20th).

1 worked, 1 didn't.  No response to pms or support tickets yet.

50% success rate?

[imm1304]

@SCoker, 2-3 weeks is a worst case scenario estimate.  Many people did however wait over a week as we saw a number of posts from people waiting.  

0.1% would probably be a conservatively estimated frequency of a system error/glitch.  

However, the real number of people who sent in help requests are probably over 5000... with the largest number of customers requesting help with stuck port requests.. majority of these stuck/failed port requests are expected to be due to user/input errors.  

[stonechucker · Accepted solution]

I truly have no idea how many people are having issues.  I know from reports from new members, some have worked without issue, and some haven't worked due to various issues.

if I've read your original post correctly, you have already activated 3 SIM cards, without porting your lines yet.  If this is the case, you've already made a great first step as @Luddite mentioned.  Follow his other steps, and you should have no problems porting in.

im a was a new member twice.  Once in December last year for a 10 day experiment.  I had all the problems with activating my line, and required help via email.  That was my only issue then, as I didn't try porting.

in August, I joined activating another sim without issue on a temporary number.  Waited for full service to work, then did my fully successful port using the tips previously provided.

This should be a non-issue.  If there is a problem, generally according to a message in the Anouncement forum, the errors are from user input.  Ensure porting information is exactly a match from port source account.

[MVP]

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@Luddite wrote:

@MVP When you notice that moderators are regularly responding to "tagging" in this forum you can be confident they are back to "normal". 

I kow it's worrying but many port-ins are quick; I did three right in the middle of the promo.

---

If  it were only for myself,  I would not care,  I can circumnavigate my way through the glitches,

 using voip etc, it would even be a  sort of fun. I like PM and would support them  through the glitchy times ...

but ...  my folks just require their texts and  facebooks  etc to work  day to day without any interruption!

Even if i understand that we signed up for PM accepting its customer support  model through

forum moderators only,  but the ETA  of the services to become usable again

is something that one can still reasonably expect from such a model, is not it? 

[SCoker]

Where did you get 2-3 weeks?

Are all accounts in limbo staying there or are they still processing ports and other fixes?

And your account of 0.1% would be 100 people out of 100,000 having issues. Is 0.1% accurate or just some number you pulled out?

[Luddite]

@MVP When you notice that moderators are regularly responding to "tagging" in this forum you can be confident they are back to "normal". 

I kow it's worrying but many port-ins are quick; I did three right in the middle of the promo.

Here's a post worth reading and some "pointers":

http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/The-Guide-to-Headache-Free-PM-Signup/m...

"Do nots” for port-ins

- if coming from Koodo do not use the same email address for Koodo and Public Mobile

- do not request the port-in during activation; take a temporary number, log out, confirm all services are active, log back into your account and select Transfer Number under Change Phone Number

- do not use any identifier except your account number EXACTLY as shown on your bill; it is the best item for any port-in request

- do not make any errors in the Authourized User; this must be EXACTLY as it appears on your bill

- do not use your number as the Alternate Number; use someone else's

- do not forget to click "I am authourized ...." BEFORE you entering your number (courtesy imm1304)

- do not cancel your account; that will happen automatically

[Jeffry]

I have been waiting almost 2 weeks too..

and havent heard anything from them @Jeremy_M..

I received a message from mod last week saying the process will take 24 to 72 hours

[MVP]

Hmmm...

I've  already  activated 3 "promo" accounts for myself and family,

I am sitting on the fence of porting in three numbers, 

but now I'm concerned actually...

I want  to have an assurance of completely seamless porting...  Is not it natural? 

I cannot expose my folks to such an inconvenience as failed ports, weeks-long waiting etc...

Can Public Mobile comment when it is safe to port!?

Let us define "safe" as when  both a response from  a  moderator  and a fix

in the case of a glitch during porting can be obtained within 24 hours maximum.

If we have such an ETA from Public mobile, I presume we can then  at least request

an adjustment for the first day of  our  90-days plans?

@Shazia_K | @Mary_M | @Saray_O | @Caroline_D