Nervous to leave current phone company!

[LS72]

I set up a new phone for my daughter, with PM a couple days ago. I’m thinking if porting out my number from virgin, who I’ve been with a long time! A better plan with PM with save me $20/ month. What, is any, have been the negatives with PM? Kinda nervous to leave virgin mobile. Thanks for the input!

[3s_Plenty]

I think the negatives will vary somewhat by your expectations and needs/wants. For us, it's been a great transition and saved us money( my husband an I are both PM customers)

We've been with the "big" guys before one in particular for years. We do run pretty basic plans though, i know our kids are with the bigger companies but have more elaborate plans.

The only negative i have found is the lack of say a number to call a human, but overall i can't really say the response times have been bad nor the help with the forum, just takes an adjustment to a different method of contacting. Don't miss the long holds on the phones lol.

[srlawren]

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@JenL wrote:

@srlawrenthere are people online at PM who are connected to PM and are very knowledgeable. I'm sure if you needed and tried hard enough you can reach an actual person not a chatbot. Sorry about any difficulties you may have encountered. 

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@JenL , just so you know @srlawren was an Oracle he knows about PM and is just giving a very honest statement that everyone should give to any potential referrals they are going after so they know what could possibly go wrong and how long it could take. 

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@JenL I have not personally had much issue at all, but after 4+ years in the community, I've certainly seen my share of them!  As @ShawnC13 mentioned, I'm just trying to provide some balance.  Yes, the savings here can be great, but they can come at a cost.  It's good to know what that cost is, and join with eyes wide open.

[JenL]

@ShawnC13 ok, I think I see the big picture. No hidden agenda. You're right, it is better to be aware of details that could affect service in any way. Thanks for helping me see your point. 

[ShawnC13]

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@JenL wrote:

@ShawnC13  thanks for the info. I have personally spoke to someone who assisted me through a process I needed to complete and it was very fast. I'm not doubting people have more experience and knowledge with PM than me but, I reached out and got a human not robot. 

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@JenL yes totally understand that just saying that if it was when there were looking waits you wouldn't have had the fast resolution.  That is all we are saying that you have to be prepared because it is possible to be without service for 72 hours or more when things get bad

[JenL]

@ShawnC13  It was via private messages not the question mark, to be clear. 

[JenL]

@ShawnC13  thanks for the info. I have personally spoke to someone who assisted me through a process I needed to complete and it was very fast. I'm not doubting people have more experience and knowledge with PM than me but, I reached out and got a human not robot. 

[ShawnC13]

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@JenL wrote:

@srlawrenthere are people online at PM who are connected to PM and are very knowledgeable. I'm sure if you needed and tried hard enough you can reach an actual person not a chatbot. Sorry about any difficulties you may have encountered. 

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@JenL , just so you know @srlawren was an Oracle he knows about PM and is just giving a very honest statement that everyone should give to any potential referrals they are going after so they know what could possibly go wrong and how long it could take.  I wouldn't count on being able to contact a moderator directly and get a quick resolution during a busy time for them.  If people here are telling you that they could get it done quickly they haven't been around PM very long.

[JenL]

@srlawren there are people online at PM who are connected to PM and are very knowledgeable. I'm sure if you needed and tried hard enough you can reach an actual person not a chatbot. Sorry about any difficulties you may have encountered. 

[mongupo]

I'm very happy with service from PM. Previously with Bell and Rogers. PM is great and paying much less.

[Sarlye]

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@will13am wrote:

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@srlawren wrote:

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@Sarlye wrote:

No other phone company gives you free gigs or long distance minutes just for the holidays or gives you referral for telling your family and friends to join. Less $2 for autopay on something you normally set up anyway.

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@Sarlye actually this part isn't entirely true.  In fact, Freedom Mobile gives a $5-per-month "digital discount" for setting up AutoPay, which is 250% more generous than Public Mobile's $2 AutoPay discount (though I don't believe they have loyalty or referral rewards).  There could be others with similar deals, I have not done any exhaustive searching recently.  🙂

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Freedom also has a BTS (better together savings) for multi line accounts.  You can save up to $5 per line which is pretty substantial.  Their pre-April 2015 rules were a lot better but even the new rules are pretty good.

https://www.freedommobile.ca/docs/default-source/default-document-library/better-together-savings-te...

This is the conditions for the digital discount which is a pretty odd name for auto pay reward. 

https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/support/what-is-digital-discount--generic-phone--en--0--1?respons...

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@will13am that is an amazing answer!

@srlawren I was just trying to share my perspective from my past experience with Rogers that never gave me any incentives.. thanks for sharing about Freedom mobile. I never looked back or at anywhere else after I switched to PM. 🙂

[will13am]

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@srlawren wrote:

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@Sarlye wrote:

No other phone company gives you free gigs or long distance minutes just for the holidays or gives you referral for telling your family and friends to join. Less $2 for autopay on something you normally set up anyway.

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@Sarlye actually this part isn't entirely true.  In fact, Freedom Mobile gives a $5-per-month "digital discount" for setting up AutoPay, which is 250% more generous than Public Mobile's $2 AutoPay discount (though I don't believe they have loyalty or referral rewards).  There could be others with similar deals, I have not done any exhaustive searching recently.  🙂

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Freedom also has a BTS (better together savings) for multi line accounts.  You can save up to $5 per line which is pretty substantial.  Their pre-April 2015 rules were a lot better but even the new rules are pretty good.

https://www.freedommobile.ca/docs/default-source/default-document-library/better-together-savings-te...

This is the conditions for the digital discount which is a pretty odd name for auto pay reward. 

https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/support/what-is-digital-discount--generic-phone--en--0--1?respons...

[srlawren]

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@Sarlye wrote:

No other phone company gives you free gigs or long distance minutes just for the holidays or gives you referral for telling your family and friends to join. Less $2 for autopay on something you normally set up anyway.

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@Sarlye actually this part isn't entirely true.  In fact, Freedom Mobile gives a $5-per-month "digital discount" for setting up AutoPay, which is 250% more generous than Public Mobile's $2 AutoPay discount (though I don't believe they have loyalty or referral rewards).  There could be others with similar deals, I have not done any exhaustive searching recently.  🙂

[Sarlye]

No need to be nervous.. I was with Rogers for over 20+ years and had some good service but mostly bad service and the longest time I waited for a life person to help me there was 4 hrs 17 minutes. My brother had been with PM for over  years and refer my mother to PM and they have not had any problems that couldnt be solve by asking the community and/or the moderators.

Initially, you feel weird by not calling and waiting on line to speak with a live person but at the end of the day, the stress free feeling of joining PM and engaging with this community is well worth it.

No other phone company gives you free gigs or long distance minutes just for the holidays or gives you referral for telling your family and friends to join. Less $2 for autopay on something you normally set up anyway.

Takes time for change but once you do, you will slowly change all your household phones to PM. I have ported my land line to a small plan on an old cell so that we keep the number for emergencies or visitors. My mother in law who hates using her phone now gave up her landline to just use her cell with PM.. 

Good luck and enjoy your time with PM..

Cheers and Happy New Year!

[petesinfloor]

I have been with Public Mobile since June 2019 and have had Zero issues! Only saving lots of money. I have referred 30 people to sign on with PM. I have used the Moderators and it was Painless!

Try it if you hate it go back to another company.

[will13am]

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@srlawren wrote:

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@will13am wrote:

The only fear is that associated with change.  This service runs on the same network and so there should be no discernable difference.  

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@LS72 I hate to disagree with @will13am but have to in this case.  There may be no discernable network difference, but Public Mobile is a bit of a different beast than mid-tier Virgin.  For one thing, all support is done here via the community (and via PM's mostly-useless chatbot named SIMon).  There is no phone number you can call when you're having issues or questions.  Renewals work well for most but can be gltichy at times, leading to temporary loss of service if they fail.  If you need to reach out for support, if they are busy your turnaround time may be measured in days rather than minutes or hours; if you can't live without your phone service active (e.g. you need it for work, or if you care for frail family members, etc) I would not recommend using Public Mobile.

EDIT: here is a non-exhaustive list of other issues and gotchas you should be aware of before you sign up: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/The-Lounge/Public-Mobile-Rocks-Reply-yes-if-you-agree...

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I am in violent agreement that this service has many long standing account related bugs that frankly are unacceptable and really should have been dealt with already.  I would stop way short of linking the presence of these bugs to a phobia that would get in the way of considering the service.  

[srlawren]

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@will13am wrote:

The only fear is that associated with change.  This service runs on the same network and so there should be no discernable difference.  

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@LS72 I hate to disagree with @will13am but have to in this case.  There may be no discernable network difference, but Public Mobile is a bit of a different beast than mid-tier Virgin.  For one thing, all support is done here via the community (and via PM's mostly-useless chatbot named SIMon).  There is no phone number you can call when you're having issues or questions.  Renewals work well for most but can be gltichy at times, leading to temporary loss of service if they fail.  If you need to reach out for support, if they are busy your turnaround time may be measured in days rather than minutes or hours; if you can't live without your phone service active (e.g. you need it for work, or if you care for frail family members, etc) I would not recommend using Public Mobile.

EDIT: here is a non-exhaustive list of other issues and gotchas you should be aware of before you sign up: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/The-Lounge/Public-Mobile-Rocks-Reply-yes-if-you-agree...

[DOA]

I left Virgin in September after 12 years to join PM, and I was also a bit nervous.  But everything turned out fine.

Virgin and PM use the same (Bell/Telus) towers, so you won't notice any change in service.  You'll just be paying less money.

[will13am]

The only fear is that associated with change.  This service runs on the same network and so there should be no discernable difference.