It has been a couple years now that I have been a Public Mobile customer.  Over the past 2-3 years, I have been largely quite pleased with Public Mobile.

 

Useless Website Support

My biggest complaint with Public Mobile is the fact that if you need support, you must do so in person or by phone.  Although their website has a support e-mail, every time I have tried to use it, I have received a reply back (days later) stating I need to call them.  This kinda defeats the purpose of the Contact Form, NO!

Also, their phone support is during standard business days/hours.  So no support on week-ends or late at night

One thing I will say though is that whenever I have gone to a Public Mobile booth and needed any assistance the employees have always been very helpful and have always resolved my problem immediately!

 

 

Recently however, I am sad to say I have noticed ongoing problems.  I don’t know if this is due to Public Mobile sold to Telus, regardless.

 

3G vs 1x vs no Service

For years, my connection/service has been excellent.  That said, in the past months, I have been experiencing continuous connection/service problem.  At my home, where I always had 3G service, I now am getting 1x service, or worse yet no service at all!

 

Unlimited vs 1GB limit

Public Mobile whole sales pitch over the years has always been No Limits!  Unlimited Data, Texts, Telephone!  This is the main reason I originally turned to them.  I didn’t want to worry about limits (not that I actually use my cell phone a lot – 300-500MB total per month on a busy month).  It was simply nice to know I could do anything I wanted without ever having to worry about surprise bills showing up!

I am sad to say that these days are gone.  Public Mobile, I guess I should now say Telus, has unilaterally changed it’s unlimited plans and imposed a 1GB limited to all.

I was not impressed by the way they announced it by sending a simple text!

To me by doing this, they just lost their competitive edge!

 

Also, as a side note, I also find it very odd that on regular interval, I get Denied Access (should be Access Denied) when trying to access the Public Mobile page!  Talk about irony!!!

Now, I have also started getting proxy errors when trying to surf the web (not just the site below, but any site, even Google for instance)!

Update 20130317

Over the course of the week-end, I started getting the following error whenever I tried to launch Public Mobile’s Siren music?!

Disappointing.  Not a good sign of things to come.  While under Public Mobile, I never had any issues.  But in the months since Telus took over, there seems to be a steady decline!!!

 

Update 20130326

Now I am being advised in their What’s New page (after being sent a text message to check it out) that not only are their plans changing, but I will have to buy a new phone and their payments options are also changing, so no more automatic payments/withdrawals (see the highlighted sections in the image below)!?

Darren Entwistle (Telus) is truly doing a horrible job vis-à-vis his Public Mobile clientele.  Forcing people to buy new phone and spend hundreds of dollars after having already done so is despicable!  Also, once again, the approach taken to advise their clients of these changes is disgusting, a text, really!

 

Conclusion

Time will tell, but as of late, I am noticing kinks in Public Mobile’s armor.  I truly think this recent abolition of their Unlimited plans ends up killing what made Public Mobile, Public Mobile!  Now they are a standard Cell phone company like every other cell phone company!

I know that with my recent service problems and now this abolition of their unlimited plans, I do believe I will be looking over what other options are at my disposition.  There is no longer any reason to stay!

I think we are starting to see Telus’ true character come out.  They are shafting their existing clients: abolishing unlimited plans, obliging them to buy new phones, changing payment options, …  Makes you wonder if they aren’t just trying to kill Public Mobile altogether?  Well, apparently I am right:  see: Telus’s decision to shut Public Mobile angers consumers.  No doubt now that Telus doesn’t give a crap about Public Mobile or their customers since they bought it to shut it down.  Here are two more articles on the subject: Telus to close down Public Mobile’s network and move customers to main network and Public Mobile phones will be doorstops: Roseman.  What I also love is  that they are offering promotional pricing on their new phone to existing offers, but apparently people are finding the same phones cheaper, through TELUS, with no contract that with the promotion.  So lots of hot air and screwing of their clients it would appear.

I also find it amazing how the Canadian Government & CRTC have allowed this all to go down.  No one is remotely looking out for the Canadian consumer, it is all again about money and power!  Lots of talk, but once again no one actually does a thing!

What a mess!