Phone cut off even with $20 on account. I want credit for that!

[caroldboater]

I bought roaming for 10 days for $20 to us my phone in Hawaii.   When I got there, my credit card didn't work with one of the scan machines, and I did not know it is was stopped then, so when my regular account renewal tried to go through the next day, it did not and my account was suspended.  I could not use my phone and no one else in my party had active phones, and I could not find any phone number to call toll free to fix the problem (my card worked again the next day!), so I had the whole 2 weeks with no cell service at all!  My account had the $20 already on it, so I feel that Public should have let the account stay open and communicate with me via e-mail before suspending my account, or trying the next day to process payment.  I got home today and was able to do self serve on my laptop.  Could not do that on my phone, as  when I went to check the email code, the app dumped me out of my sign in every time.  I'm very frustrated, and want my $20 credited back to my account, as I was unable to use my phone at all on my vacation, causing all sorts of problems including being unable to park in some pay lots, limiting where I could go.

[darlicious]

@caroldboater 

I'm sure if you explain the situation pm customer support will issue a credit to your account. But it's important to understand how prepaid service works and the issue stemmed from your end. This way you can avoid this situation from occurring in the future.

The entire problem was initiated when you failed to inform your card issuer that you were traveling. Commonly a card issuer will block transactions from a foreign country until the customer confirms that they are responsible for the charges and/or where they traveling. As you discovered and once you informed them they restored use of the card.

Unfortunately it was bad timing as far as your pm account renewal. At that point you should have reactivated your account by making a payment either online thru self serve or thru the 611/IVR system which can also be reached by calling 1 855 4PUBLIC and entering your 10 digit phone number (your 4 digit account pin# is required for payment card transactions or to purchase add ons from available funds in the account balance). There is no phone support for public mobile.

Prepaid service is just that....prepay to have service. Other than sending a text that your renewal has failed before suspending service 6 to 12 hours after your service renewal occurs at midnight eastern with a minimum 4 hours of grace period to make a manual payment if your payment method failed there is not much more pm can do with a prepaid service model and is more than most prepaid providers will allow when you don't pay for your mobile services beforehand.

Autopay or the now renamed pre-authorized payments (PAP) which is really a misnomer is not like real pre-authorized payments where you give a business authorization to charge your card at anytime for an outstanding balance or make more than one attempt to push thru a payment. Public Mobile is only allowed to attempt one payment charge per 30 days for your plan amount minus any available funds. After that it's up to you to reactivate your account services.

As mentioned by @CountyDownIeUk  to avoid this in future making a manual top up payment before renewal to ensure an autopay failure cannot occur and your account will remain active. If you minimized the window/tab you were using to login you could have accessed your email to retrieve the 2FA verification code or use browser such as Chrome. You can also disable 2FA on your profile page to avoid the verification process to log into your account.

Downloading a voip provider app such as textnow while on wifi would have given you some phone/text services and getting a local Sim card for service especially in every other international destination other than the US where pm has no roaming service would have been an alternative and much cheaper than Canadian mobile service prices nearly everywhere in the world. 

Well now you know.....to contact customer to ask for your $20 credit submit a ticket via SIMon in the post below or send a private message but read the spoiler in the linked post to send a more effective private message.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/Get-Support-Contact-Customer-Support/td-p...

[hycm53]

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@caroldboater wrote:

I bought roaming for 10 days for $20 to us my phone in Hawaii.   When I got there, my credit card didn't work with one of the scan machines, and I did not know it is was stopped then, so when my regular account renewal tried to go through the next day, it did not and my account was suspended.  I could not use my phone and no one else in my party had active phones, and I could not find any phone number to call toll free to fix the problem (my card worked again the next day!), so I had the whole 2 weeks with no cell service at all!  My account had the $20 already on it, so I feel that Public should have let the account stay open and communicate with me via e-mail before suspending my account, or trying the next day to process payment.  I got home today and was able to do self serve on my laptop.  Could not do that on my phone, as  when I went to check the email code, the app dumped me out of my sign in every time.  I'm very frustrated, and want my $20 credited back to my account, as I was unable to use my phone at all on my vacation, causing all sorts of problems including being unable to park in some pay lots, limiting where I could go.

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"  When I got there, my credit card didn't work with one of the scan machines, and I did not know it is was stopped" You should call your credit card company immediately, because credit card company suspend your card using in unknow location where you didn't use it before and want to protect you.

"My account had the $20 already on it" What plan do you have? The $20 can cover your plan? Do you have auto pay?  If you have auto pay, I don't understand why PM can't charge from your CC even if you were not at Canada.

You can chat with Simon for help, if Simon can’t help, he would let you open a ticket.
https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help

[CountyDownIeUk]

Sorry to hear. Has happened to me too. 

1. No computer to use in Hawaii like hotel?

2. Lesson learned options for future:

a. Prepay your lifeline, phone, 30 in advance before leaving

b. Consider hybrid auto pay   <== is best solution for future consideration 

c. Have a voip app on phone to use over wifi. 

d. Use your secondary or third least preferred card to pay PM 

3. Did you eventually catch on after being denied use for another 

Sometimes we have to set up precautions as not always, everything works properly.  

[Quigley · Accepted solution]

@caroldboater 

You'll have to use the Chatbot Simon to get a service ticket started first.

Then you can ask a CSA for that $20 credit.

You'll find the link for the Chat Bot at the bottom of this page.