Public Mobile Reviews 354

Poor customer service… they weren’t able to transfer my current number, even though I was told they would be able to. Ended up paying 50$ for a month of no use, but cancelled half way through the first month, or so I thought… customer service said they cancelled my plan, told me I wouldn’t be able to get a refund, which I wasn’t worried about, nor did I ask.
Skip two weeks later, and I notice another charge from them on my card… turns out they didn’t cancel it. Now I’ve been going back and forth for a week trying to get my refund.

Unfortunately I had to reach out to the regulatory body for telecommunications… STAY FAR AWAY.

I have been using Public Mobile for almost a year. I recently relocated and wanted to change my phone number. Public Mobile allows you do this online, which seems very convenient. Unfortunately, my phone number only changed on their end and not on mine. After several attempts to fix the problem on my end, I reached out to Public Mobile customer service. This involves a Chatbot. A Chatbot that couldn't seem to understand that I was not having an issue transferring a number, I was having an issue changing it. Long story, short I attempted to "submit a ticket" three times to customer service only to be told my request could not be processed. Horrendous! Guess, it's back to Virgin.

Zero customer service (online app or 'portal', which i find confusing and unhelpful.) Public Mobile claims 5G speeds but even with 4/5 LTE+ reception bars, I can't even watch a YouTube video in 720p without it freezing to buffer repeatedly.. Reception areas on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands can be iffy and calls either dropped of long periods of Zero connectivity (Yes, even when using phone in service areas designated by their Maps of service area etc). Have been a customer for years, definitely looking into better carriers/plan providers.. If you are urban dwelling, chances are Public Mobile will work for you, but I've also found that during certain hrs (peak usage times?) data rates can be slow, even in cities or 5/5 LTE+ connectivity bar areas.
Definitely worth the price (not compared to a lot of other countries around the world) for Huge data plans and they often have promotions that you can jump on board with if you keep an eye on their website or app etc but I'd definitely say they aren't your carrier if you're looking for speed. Hope this review helps :)

It was good few years ago when all we public mobile users enjoyed old reward program. Now the prices rise without sense, just because they want so.
The most terrible is at the end when I decided to leave Public mobile, stopped subscription and asked for porting to another provider. It should have taken less than 5 days and today is a full week and I have not yet my number released from them. Also they online account sucks. every time you ask for something not in Public mobile interest (better say in smth that they don't want to answer), it shows error and make you start from the beginning... Not gentlemen at all. Low educated people on their administration board I think.
They never thought that one day I may switch back to them, but since their last behavior, this is not gone to happen ever.

This is a horrible company.. It shouldn't be legal to run a business where you can not speak to an agent on the phone. You have to screw around and joing the community to get help and when you want a refund they wont refund the whole amount if activation doesn't work.. I bet they make tones of money off failed activations .. If you offer a service make sure you can help people on the phone or F off.. and 15 to 20 days for a refund is ridiculous bs

They deserve minus 10 stars.

I tried to subscribe. The validation process failed. It is impossible to even chat with an agent, you will turn in circles on their website. It is a Babel tower . I got their phone number from a Visa agent, it rings about 10 times then it cuts off. This company deserves to go south and it will.

Avoid like the plague! My excuse is that I had a head injury and jumped on a discounted plan without doing due diligence. Lesson learned. Nothing nothing works with this company. It says it has coverage. I’ll have bars on my phone and it says no Internet service there was after a couple days trying to get my eSIM working and now I have been logged out and I can’t log back in because I’m an area without cell service and they don’t allow Wi-Fi calling of course. So now they’re trying to charge me $56 after I already tried to cancel when my original plan was $25. They are the worst the absolute worst and you will never be able to get any real help from a person.

Used to be one of the best budget carriers, with awesome loyalty rewards, but has since been gradually plundered by their flagship carrier/owner, Telus. A shell of their former self, having effectively become a vehicle to advertise for their other brands, which don't really offer any benefit. Recently threatened I'd lose service with the shuttering of 3G with my 4G capable devices unless I transfer to Telus and to a different and inferior plan. This is dishonest at best, as they simply refrain from "whitelisting" certain devices, which carriers other than their affiliates fully support. Highly questionable tactics and awful customer service, with a terrible chatbot that does little other than dissuade and filter out genuine customer issues.

Horrible customer service not set up for anything outside of Canada ever. You cannot roam, and they make transferring your number impossible, I have been trying for more than 6 months. 0/10 recommend.

Public mobile is 100% AI. If you have an issue there is no way to talk to a human. In my case I switched provider and Public Mobile kept billing me. I could not contact them. I highly recommend NOT using them.

Horrible customer service. Only help they offer is AI chat or possible chatting with a person - both are horrible.

Impossible to solve any issues. My credit card got hacked, and within days my phone was suspended without me knowing. I was not informed in any way. There is no support online or via phone, and I keep getting sent in circles as I try to resolve this. Terrible service, on top of the fact I was thinking of switching to another provider anyways due to increasingly poor quality of cell reception and random glitchy things. With Public mobile, you get what you pay for, and it really isn't much.

Can’t receive text messages in Europe so can’t use bank accounts or anything else that requires verification. And can’t access my account for the same reason. Totally useless out of the country and no support to address issues. Pathetic.

Awful service provider. Changed my card and didn't update it in time, so they blocked my service at 8AM on the day it was due, not even waiting until midnight. I paid it immediately by 9AM, it's now 5 days later without service. I messaged them immediately, they didn't respond for 3 days. Anyway, cancelled my service with them after 3+ years of using them. It has always been a problem.

I had to sign up with a US roaming plan as I would travel during the first month.
After that I wanted to downgrade as I no longer needed US roaming. They only allow you to change to a more expensive plan! What kind of mafia practice is that?! Unheard of where I'm from (Belgium). Customer service was unwilling / not allowed to fix that. So I would need to buy a new SIM (can't re-use that one that I canceled my subscription for) for $15 before getting a cheaper plan.
On top of all that, the US roaming didn't even work in the US.
I have very little trust remaining in this company. They're obviously just out to squeeze the money out of your pockets rather than providing an honest service, which is common, but to do it in such a blatant and obvious way? Wow...

I’ve been with Public Mobile for over a year. I had family members who were with them in the past (I signed them up for it) and none of us had any problems with the service. Until…

I was on automatic payment and one day for some reason, the payment didn’t go through. It shouldn’t be a big problem, but the nightmare started. I tried to pay manually, it was giving me an error. I used the same card elsewhere and it worked. But at public mobile, it didn’t work. I waited for 24 hours, tried again and it did not work. I used three different browsers on desktop, cleared cache and cookies, tried on the app on my phone, tried a browser on my phone and nothing worked. I then switched to a different card and it still didn’t work.

Then I contacted “customer service”, if you can call it that. The AI chatbot doesn’t even understand its own questions and answers. It provides me with answers, I click on an answer and it says “I only understand simple answers. Please try something else”. Yet, I only clicked on one of the answers it provided. Finally, I get through it and submit a ticket. After an hour, an agent replies. The reply was offering me the same things I’ve already done. “Please try to clear cache, cookies and if it doesn’t work, try to use a different browser.” I did all that again and told the agent it didn’t work. These are messages, by the way, so every time you send a message, you have to wait anywhere between 15-60 minutes for a reply. He then basically tells me it should work and starts being really snotty with his replies. He had no interest in solving the issue after his first reply. He’d just pick a different thing and repeat it. Like “I offered you more solutions, so try them all”. I’d answer that I already tried them all, including changing the card and nothing worked. His reply “I cannot even see that you changed your card. You told card is still in the system”. I replied “well, I see on my account that it’s my new card in the system, so your system is then broken if you can’t see the new card.” He then keeps replying with snotty answers and no solutions. I finally lost patience and told him that theyre keeping my phone number hostage and I started cussing him out. His reply was obviously “please be respectful”. I said that Public Mobile is being disrespectful by not releasing my number. I COULD NOT TAKE MY PHONE NUMBER WITH ME BECAUSE MY SERVICE WASN’T ACTIVE AND I COULDN’T PAY TO MAKE IT ACTIVE. So I was stuck. Finally, I gave up and went with a different provider. But I had to get a new number, because the old one couldn’t be ported, since the old service wasn’t active. NIGHTMARE.

The system is not accepting my already activated and non renewed sim card for a new subscription. Have to buy new simcard if I want service. I am logged in yet cant see my account information, billing history , coverage ... Its only offering me to subscribe again.
I said id give them another chance, but the customer support is useless, the website errors out at any card , if id mot know enough , suckers have my card data in their system and I get to say it failed to subscribe me but instead it fished my credit card and name and .... Waste of time !

Absolute garbage. SMS shut down when my number transferred but they only offer support if they can send you an access code on SMS which of course was not working. So no support at all. Do not use Public Mobile if you need to have a reliable phone.

All I can say is Don’t! I had transferred to Public Mobile in Jan. Was away a few times & didn’t realize that when I returned home, where cell service is hit & miss, I wasn’t receiving calls or texts. Public Mobile does not offer wifi assist calling which is absolutely necessary where I live. My bad. The insanity arose when trying to port the number back to Telus! 3 days & 15 messages & still not resolved. Public mobile kept trying to send texts to me to confirm the port out. Conundrum…I can’t receive or reply to said texts with no service. Finally “chatted” on my wife’s phone with one agent who seems to have found a work around. 🤞Maybe today…

It took 7 hours to fix my problem with installing an eSIM. The customer service is online only and so the CSR gets back to you evey 30-40 min. If their message is garbled because they are working too fast/having lunch/don’t give a d$#€!, you are screwed for another hour. Ridiculous service!