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Frustrating activation experience

equintana
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Hello,

 

I received my SIM card on September 8th. Only today, after a great deal of problems, my phone number was successfully ported to PM. It took 10 days from my first activation attempt until my line ported successfully. In the process, my ported number was down for 4 days.

 

I had been reading the Community forums, so right from the beginning I knew PM was having system issues, but I would never expect a problem that wouldn't usually take longer than an hour to be fixed, would take them 4 days. I'm sure if I hadn't reached out to a PM community member, my phone would still be disconnected.

 

My overall experience with PM's Customer Support was mostly frustrating, and occasionally infuriating. Despite my ported phone number being down, there was never a sense of urgency nor any desire to keep me updated. On top of that, the two Customer Suport reps I dealt with didn't seem to know what they were doing.

 

Most people would have given up much earlier in this process. That's why I think PM needs to step up and definitely provide a better Customer Support experience.

 

Below, I'm posting a detailed report of what I had to go through in order to get my line activated.

 

I hope guests and PM members, after reading my (long) post, have a better sense of what to expect and most importantly what needs to be done in order to improve customer experience.

 

Thanks,

 

E. Quintana

 

---

 

*** WED SEP 09

 

Tried unsuccessfully to activate the SIM card using a new phone number as recommended by several people in this community. None of my credit cards went through. Tried one AMEX and 2 VISAS. I was lucky I never got charged.

 

*** THU Sep 10

 

I sent a message via Contact Us website, after several activation attempts failing due to issues in PM's payment system.

 

*** FRI Sep 11

 

Customer Support rep replied advising me to use vouchers instead, and asking what plan and features I had selected.

I replied to Customer Support rep saying I was going to try to activate the SIM card with vouchers as per his recommendation. I provided the information on the plan and features I had selected. I also asked him to check what was happening with PM's payment system in order to prevent it from happening again in the future.

 

** SAT Sep 12

 

Tried to purchase PM vouchers at several local places, but none of the indicated merchants had ever heard of PM.

 

*** SUN Sep 13

 

I purchased $200 PM vouchers after seeing a message from other community member advising to ask for PBLMBL vouchers, instead of Public Mobile ones.

 

I was also able to finally activate my SIM card using the purchased vouchers. My self-serve account was successfully created, and the temporary number was working flawlessly. No issues making/receiving calls, sending/receiving texts and transferring data. Even the data/APN was automatically populated.

 

*** MON Sep 14

 

I logged-in to self-serve and initiated the port of my Wind number. Twenty minutes later I received the following text message: "Public Mobile here: Your transfer request has been completed successfully. Welcome to Public Mobile and thank you for joining us!"

 

I rebooted the phone and noticed it was already using the ported number. A few minutes later, received a regular text message from a friend (sent to ported number). Everything was working as expected and I was a very happy customer.

 

About 2 hours after I started the port, I received an email from the same Customer Support rep saying that he tried to complete the activation on his end, but the system kept refusing it. He then said, it was not possible to activate new lines in BC and apologized.

 

I was surprised because (a) I thought my case was closed and (b) I had never asked him to have my line activated in any way. The only reason I opened a Support Case was to find out why my payments were not going through, and he had already told me to use vouchers, which I told him I would.

 

To my horror I noticed my phone wasn't connecting to Public Mobile's network anymore, or any cell network for that matter. I power cycled it a few times and also tried Wind's SIM with no success. Access to self-serve had been disabled too.

 

I immediatelly replied saying I had just activated a BC line the day before, and successfully ported my original line. I also mentioned that my phone stopped working after receiving his message. In addition, I sent another message via Contact Us website.

 

As I wasn't hearing from Customer Support, I reached out to a PM community member about an hour later. The PM community member acknowledged my message and mentioned he and the Customer Support rep would be tring to resolve the issue asap.

 

*** TUE Sep 15

 

Sent messages to both Customer Support rep and PM community member, asking for an update. Got no response from either. My account and phone remained dead.

 

*** WED Sep 16

 

PM community member replied saying he had sent another email to Customer Support in order to get the status of the issue.

 

A few minutes later I received a reply from the original Customer Support rep, saying on Monday Sep 14th my account was showing as "draft" in PM's system and that's why he had to take steps to "re-activate" it. He then asked me to open a new account on self-serve, using the same SIM card, a different email address and a temporary (random) phone number. He would then credit the account and have my ported number assigned to it, once I had successfully activated the new account.

 

In the meantime, the PM community member replied asking for my address, saying he would send me a new SIM card and have my ported number assigned to it afterwards.

I replied to the PM's community member providing my address and asking my case to be assigned to a different customer rep as the original one didn't seem to have a clue.

 

I also tried activating my SIM card, but PM's system wouldn't take my credit cards as expected. I then went purchase a new $25 voucher after work, and successfully activated the SIM card a second time. I then replied to the Customer Support rep, stating the SIM card was activated again and provided all the information on the new activation (i.e. new phone number, plan, username, etc.) I also asked him to expedite the resolution as my phone I was down for over 2 days.

 

*** THU SEP 17

 

Sent messages to both Customer Support rep and PM community member, asking for an update. Got no responses.

 

*** FRI SEP 18

 

Got a message from a different Customer Support rep asking me to go purchase another voucher so he could activate my account. I couldn't believe what I was reading, I was flabbergasted!

 

I immediately replied to the new Customer Support rep, saying my account I was already activated and I was waiting for them to reassign my ported number, original plan and credits.

 

I also sent a message to the PM community member asking for his help.

 

About an hour later they finally restored my phone number, plan and credits. My ported phone number was fully operational again.

 

5 REPLIES 5

tabishgowhar
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I will give you a free advice.

Just throw away their SIM card , and stop using their service.

Your issue will never get resolved.

TaranPat4Evr
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

Same thing happen to my wife and I last week. Both got PM sim at a local store and bought pm voucher and got the store to activate our account. Everything was working fine when leaving the store untill a few days later my SIM card was showing that there was no service then a few days after that same with my wife’s SIM card. Now we both have no phone with no possible way to get our account info with no number to get a confirmation code sent to our line. It is extremely frustrating not being able to talk to customer service”human on Phone” ! There for we are going to call this a lost and never recommended PM to anyone due to there poor costumer set service.

 

TroyDaBes
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@imm1304 Yeah, I agree with that. The registration is the only pain in the ass. After that, it will be a smooth service you will get from PM. I never had any problem since I registered and created an account. Hopefully it will be the same to you and future customers. 

imm1304
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

Hey @equintana

Thank you for sharing your experience.  I hope your willingness to persist despite frustrating few days has contributed to improving customer service.  

 

After this initial hiccup, you can look forward to what has been very reliable cellular service for the rest of us.  Welcome aboard 🙂 

deltatux
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@equintana wrote:

Hello,

 

I received my SIM card on September 8th. Only today, after a great deal of problems, my phone number was successfully ported to PM. It took 10 days from my first activation attempt until my line ported successfully. In the process, my ported number was down for 4 days.

 

I had been reading the Community forums, so right from the beginning I knew PM was having system issues, but I would never expect a problem that wouldn't usually take longer than an hour to be fixed, would take them 4 days. I'm sure if I hadn't reached out to a PM community member, my phone would still be disconnected.

 

My overall experience with PM's Customer Support was mostly frustrating, and occasionally infuriating. Despite my ported phone number being down, there was never a sense of urgency nor any desire to keep me updated. On top of that, the two Customer Suport reps I dealt with didn't seem to know what they were doing.

 

Most people would have given up much earlier in this process. That's why I think PM needs to step up and definitely provide a better Customer Support experience.

 

Below, I'm posting a detailed report of what I had to go through in order to get my line activated.

 

I hope guests and PM members, after reading my (long) post, have a better sense of what to expect and most importantly what needs to be done in order to improve customer experience.

 

Thanks,

 

E. Quintana

 

---

 

*** WED SEP 09

 

Tried unsuccessfully to activate the SIM card using a new phone number as recommended by several people in this community. None of my credit cards went through. Tried one AMEX and 2 VISAS. I was lucky I never got charged.

 

*** THU Sep 10

 

I sent a message via Contact Us website, after several activation attempts failing due to issues in PM's payment system.

 

*** FRI Sep 11

 

Customer Support rep replied advising me to use vouchers instead, and asking what plan and features I had selected.

I replied to Customer Support rep saying I was going to try to activate the SIM card with vouchers as per his recommendation. I provided the information on the plan and features I had selected. I also asked him to check what was happening with PM's payment system in order to prevent it from happening again in the future.

 

** SAT Sep 12

 

Tried to purchase PM vouchers at several local places, but none of the indicated merchants had ever heard of PM.

 

*** SUN Sep 13

 

I purchased $200 PM vouchers after seeing a message from other community member advising to ask for PBLMBL vouchers, instead of Public Mobile ones.

 

I was also able to finally activate my SIM card using the purchased vouchers. My self-serve account was successfully created, and the temporary number was working flawlessly. No issues making/receiving calls, sending/receiving texts and transferring data. Even the data/APN was automatically populated.

 

*** MON Sep 14

 

I logged-in to self-serve and initiated the port of my Wind number. Twenty minutes later I received the following text message: "Public Mobile here: Your transfer request has been completed successfully. Welcome to Public Mobile and thank you for joining us!"

 

I rebooted the phone and noticed it was already using the ported number. A few minutes later, received a regular text message from a friend (sent to ported number). Everything was working as expected and I was a very happy customer.

 

About 2 hours after I started the port, I received an email from the same Customer Support rep saying that he tried to complete the activation on his end, but the system kept refusing it. He then said, it was not possible to activate new lines in BC and apologized.

 

I was surprised because (a) I thought my case was closed and (b) I had never asked him to have my line activated in any way. The only reason I opened a Support Case was to find out why my payments were not going through, and he had already told me to use vouchers, which I told him I would.

 

To my horror I noticed my phone wasn't connecting to Public Mobile's network anymore, or any cell network for that matter. I power cycled it a few times and also tried Wind's SIM with no success. Access to self-serve had been disabled too.

 

I immediatelly replied saying I had just activated a BC line the day before, and successfully ported my original line. I also mentioned that my phone stopped working after receiving his message. In addition, I sent another message via Contact Us website.

 

As I wasn't hearing from Customer Support, I reached out to a PM community member about an hour later. The PM community member acknowledged my message and mentioned he and the Customer Support rep would be tring to resolve the issue asap.

 

*** TUE Sep 15

 

Sent messages to both Customer Support rep and PM community member, asking for an update. Got no response from either. My account and phone remained dead.

 

*** WED Sep 16

 

PM community member replied saying he had sent another email to Customer Support in order to get the status of the issue.

 

A few minutes later I received a reply from the original Customer Support rep, saying on Monday Sep 14th my account was showing as "draft" in PM's system and that's why he had to take steps to "re-activate" it. He then asked me to open a new account on self-serve, using the same SIM card, a different email address and a temporary (random) phone number. He would then credit the account and have my ported number assigned to it, once I had successfully activated the new account.

 

In the meantime, the PM community member replied asking for my address, saying he would send me a new SIM card and have my ported number assigned to it afterwards.

I replied to the PM's community member providing my address and asking my case to be assigned to a different customer rep as the original one didn't seem to have a clue.

 

I also tried activating my SIM card, but PM's system wouldn't take my credit cards as expected. I then went purchase a new $25 voucher after work, and successfully activated the SIM card a second time. I then replied to the Customer Support rep, stating the SIM card was activated again and provided all the information on the new activation (i.e. new phone number, plan, username, etc.) I also asked him to expedite the resolution as my phone I was down for over 2 days.

 

*** THU SEP 17

 

Sent messages to both Customer Support rep and PM community member, asking for an update. Got no responses.

 

*** FRI SEP 18

 

Got a message from a different Customer Support rep asking me to go purchase another voucher so he could activate my account. I couldn't believe what I was reading, I was flabbergasted!

 

I immediately replied to the new Customer Support rep, saying my account I was already activated and I was waiting for them to reassign my ported number, original plan and credits.

 

I also sent a message to the PM community member asking for his help.

 

About an hour later they finally restored my phone number, plan and credits. My ported phone number was fully operational again.

 


@equintana, that must have been frustrating to say the least. While I understand that Public Mobile is in beta testing, this one looks like the reps performed the wrong task and made the situation worse. Glad to hear that resolved, hope the service redeems itself for you.

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