Moderators and overcharged on self-serve

[joshorrfahey]

I just went to purchase a $10 add-on for an extra 200mb data yesterday afternoon, and when purchasing I was charged $120 (my regular renewal price) instead of the 10$ I typed in.  This is not good as a have my rent coming out very soon and will be short now, which will cost me 50$ NSF fee plus a 50$ late fee for rent, not to mention in hot water with my roomate and landlord.  I need a refund immediately.

This is on top of the fact that the 200 MB add on of data is showing up on my account, however will not work at all.  I have powered my phone on and off, and still nothing.

I messaged @CS_Agent yesterday and have not heared back from them at all.  Is this normal now?  I know they are notoriously slow compared to a functioning call centre, and have usually got a response within a few hours.  I has been basically 24 hours with no response, no service, nothing.  Is this just the new norm for Public Mobile?  I've been here for a couple years, so if they do not hire more staff, I can see how the wait times might be grow, but 24 hours seems a little excessive.  Last time around may was only a couple/few hours wait.

Judging from the forums, it seems self-serve is quite broken, and I am not the only one who experiences problems regularlily as a result.  The Moderators have always been super helpful and would manually fix any errors, and the prices are $15-$20 under competitors, but if I have to worry about being overcharged over 100$, then not given the services I paid for, on top of needing to wait days for a resolution, it's clearly not worth 15-20$ a month,  I can deal with the poor web self-serve design & functionality, but this 24 hour silence is a killer.
So is anyone else getting these type of wait times now? Has it changed that much since 6 months ago?  I'll need to make plans accordingly if I wont be getting any service for the next 24 hours too.
Thanks!!!

[ottawa]

---

@joshorrfahey wrote:

I'll probably have to switch service providers since self serve is very prone to problems, waiting for moderators is a common occurrence. I think a user who just needs simple talk & text and has auto-renew set up would not be as prone to these issues.

---

Another option you could consider is to buy PM vouchers at SDM/Pharmaprix (don't know where you're located). They're on the rack with gift cards but it's just paper. The cashier scans the barcode and something prints out that includes a voucher number. There's one for $20 and one for $40. You use that to top-up your account, then purchase the Add-On. This might be less prone to error (either by user or by website). It has the added bonus that you get whatever cashback your credit card offers for pharmacy, or you can pay with cash in the store.

I can't say this would have avoided your current situation, but it might. Of course you want to keep a credit card on file to get the $2 autopay Reward, and I haven't ordered an Add-On in a long time so I don't recall the exact steps.

=aw

[Wonder_why]

---

@joshorrfahey wrote:

Thanks, I guess I'll be expecting an answer in another 2 days. I'll have to get a small loan in the meantime then. 

Its too bad it takes so long for customer service now, I'll probably have to switch service providers since self serve is very prone to problems, waiting for moderators is a common occurrence. I think a user who just needs simple talk & text and has auto-renew set up would not be as prone to these issues. Avoiding the self-serve seems to be an important stragedy to getting the most from Public Mobile. 

Its not a reflection on the moderators at all, as I'm sure they work very hard and have always fixed problems for me.  I have always been very pleased with their service and professionalism. Unfortunately they must be understaffed and for users like me who need to add data every so often, this is an absolute headache and not worth the small amount of money saved. 

Thanks for all your responses. 

---

@joshorrfahey@ next time try to use Free WiFi instead adds-On, lots are avaliable @ Coffee Shop

[RobertQc]

---

@Dunkman wrote:

@joshorrfahey

Unfortunately, it looks like a glitch in the website.  Hopefully, the moderators will get back to you tomorrow.  Wait times have been around 72 hours + recently.  

---

@DunkmanBTW it was confirmed by Mary_M that wait times are now around 24 hours 🙂

@Mary_M wrote:

You know I'm always looking out for the community 😉 hihi the backlog is getting shorter - I would say 24 hours 🙂

 @joshorrfahey

[joshorrfahey]

Thanks, I guess I'll be expecting an answer in another 2 days. I'll have to get a small loan in the meantime then. 

Its too bad it takes so long for customer service now, I'll probably have to switch service providers since self serve is very prone to problems, waiting for moderators is a common occurrence. I think a user who just needs simple talk & text and has auto-renew set up would not be as prone to these issues. Avoiding the self-serve seems to be an important stragedy to getting the most from Public Mobile. 

Its not a reflection on the moderators at all, as I'm sure they work very hard and have always fixed problems for me.  I have always been very pleased with their service and professionalism. Unfortunately they must be understaffed and for users like me who need to add data every so often, this is an absolute headache and not worth the small amount of money saved. 

Thanks for all your responses. 

[tbark]

Yes, if they do agree to credit it, I was told it would take about 30 days.

[tbark]

Also, they generally do not issue a refund but rather credit the amount back to your account so you will not get it back in your bank or credit card account. 

[Dunkman · Accepted solution]

@joshorrfahey

Unfortunately, it looks like a glitch in the website.  Hopefully, the moderators will get back to you tomorrow.  Wait times have been around 72 hours + recently.  

[joshorrfahey]

I went to add ones, selected 200mb and went to make a payment. The screen popped up repeating the amount of $10 in which I clicked confirm & pay. 

I will confirm that my self serve reflects this and has the 200mb add on listed as bought, and it is actually now working. I'm not sure how I was charged the exact amount of $120 but my service was not renewed and the remaining 110 is still lying in the account. I only did this process once so it cannot be a double payment either. 

[srlawren]

@will13am if one were to manually make a top up (instead of doing it as part of the purchase process), there is an option of complete cost of my next renewal or pay this amount: _____ (I forget the exact verbiage, but that's the gist of it).  If one were to accidentally select the wrong option, they would end up doing a top up for their full next renewal amount.

[angeliquem]

---

@joshorrfahey wrote:

I just went to purchase a $10 add-on for an extra 200mb data yesterday afternoon, and when purchasing I was charged $120 (my regular renewal price) instead of the 10$ I typed in.  This is not good as a have my rent coming out very soon and will be short now, which will cost me 50$ NSF fee plus a 50$ late fee for rent, not to mention in hot water with my roomate and landlord.  I need a refund immediately.

This is on top of the fact that the 200 MB add on of data is showing up on my account, however will not work at all.  I have powered my phone on and off, and still nothing.

I messaged @CS_Agent yesterday and have not heared back from them at all.  Is this normal now?  I know they are notoriously slow compared to a functioning call centre, and have usually got a response within a few hours.  I has been basically 24 hours with no response, no service, nothing.  Is this just the new norm for Public Mobile?  I've been here for a couple years, so if they do not hire more staff, I can see how the wait times might be grow, but 24 hours seems a little excessive.  Last time around may was only a couple/few hours wait.

Judging from the forums, it seems self-serve is quite broken, and I am not the only one who experiences problems regularlily as a result.  The Moderators have always been super helpful and would manually fix any errors, and the prices are $15-$20 under competitors, but if I have to worry about being overcharged over 100$, then not given the services I paid for, on top of needing to wait days for a resolution, it's clearly not worth 15-20$ a month,  I can deal with the poor web self-serve design & functionality, but this 24 hour silence is a killer.
So is anyone else getting these type of wait times now? Has it changed that much since 6 months ago?  I'll need to make plans accordingly if I wont be getting any service for the next 24 hours too.
Thanks!!!

---

Unfortunately, wait times have been between 24-72 hours. As for a refund, it is very tough to get straight back into your bank account. This might take weeks to process back into your bank account. The mods will probably credit you back with credit on your account unless you want to go through the long process of getting a refund. 

[will13am]

@joshorrfahey, it appears to me that you renewed a plan instead of purchasing an add-on.  I have never heard of a situation reported where an add-on purchase led to such a large discrepancy in charge.  Sometimes the customer purchases the add-on twice maybe due to making multiple selections.  If you could post your payment history, the community can assist with troubleshooting what happened.  In the mean time if you have contacted the moderator team, they will definitely get back to you.  Their response time is in the order of about 24 hours and so expect to be contacted soon.  Hopefully, your issue will be corrected quickly.  As for refunds, I don't think those can be processed and refunded immediately. 

[RobertQc]

@joshorrfahey

The moderator team will respond, it has been confirmed that the wait time currently sits around 24 hours.