1pMobile auto-topup not working properly.

alanwsg

Any one else had 1pMobile's auto-topup system not working as usual recently?

I have a recurring boost - only 1Gb data (£3) every month.
Usually, when my account drops below £2, the auto-topup takes £10 from my bank.
This time it only took the £3 to cover the boost.

Actually, the boost has been doing strange things the whole month. If I text 'Balance' at them, it seems to reset the boost every day - i.e. every day it gets reset to 1024Mb, so I can't tell how much data I've got remaining.

PHK

Recurring boosts are separate from auto-top ups. 

Frozen_up_north

My 1p Mobile auto boost worked correctly yesterday. I don't have auto-topup enabled. The amount of data remaining looked about right over Christmas, when I used it quite a bit while out visiting friends and relatives.

FWIW, I have the £8/month, 10 GB automatic boost.

zagfles

alanwsg said:

Any one else had 1pMobile's auto-topup system not working as usual recently?

I have a recurring boost - only 1Gb data (£3) every month.
Usually, when my account drops below £2, the auto-topup takes £10 from my bank.
This time it only took the £3 to cover the boost.

Actually, the boost has been doing strange things the whole month. If I text 'Balance' at them, it seems to reset the boost every day - i.e. every day it gets reset to 1024Mb, so I can't tell how much data I've got remaining.

Was your balance between £2 and £3? In which case they can't take it from the credit and not yet time for the auto-topup, so they'd probably charge your card. 

alanwsg

zagfles said:

Was your balance between £2 and £3? In which case they can't take it from the credit and not yet time for the auto-topup, so they'd probably charge your card. 

That's not how it usually works.

The £3 boosts are taken out of the account balance,
Anytime the balance falls below £2, it automatically tops-up by £10.

Here's what their own 'Chatbot' says ...

Auto top-up is a convenient feature that automatically adds credit to your phone when your balance drops below £2. When a top-up is required, the chosen amount will be collected from your registered debit or credit card and added to your SIM/account. This can happen a maximum of once per day. You can set up this feature in your 1pMobile account to ensure you never run out of credit.

zagfles

alanwsg said:

zagfles said:

Was your balance between £2 and £3? In which case they can't take it from the credit and not yet time for the auto-topup, so they'd probably charge your card. 

That's not how it usually works.

The £3 boosts are taken out of the account balance,
Anytime the balance falls below £2, it automatically tops-up by £10.

Here's what their own 'Chatbot' says ...

Auto top-up is a convenient feature that automatically adds credit to your phone when your balance drops below £2. When a top-up is required, the chosen amount will be collected from your registered debit or credit card and added to your SIM/account. This can happen a maximum of once per day. You can set up this feature in your 1pMobile account to ensure you never run out of credit.

That doesn't answer the point. 

If the balance is £2.50, then it's not time for an auto-topup yet. The balance isn't below £2. 

If it's time to apply a recurring boost, it can't be taken from credit because there's not enough. It shouldn't apply the auto-topup before paying for the boost, because the credit hasn't yet gone below £2. As it says "Auto top-up is a convenient feature that automatically adds credit to your phone when your balance drops below £2." That hasn't happened. And it can't happen, because you can't pay for something that costs £3 with £2.50 of credit. 

It also says in the Boost help "If you do not have enough credit on your phone to apply a Boost you will need to pay for the Boost in full at the time of purchase.". So I think on a balance of £2.50 it should charge the card with the boost, rather than topup £10 first and then take it out of credit. 

alanwsg

zagfles said:

That doesn't answer the point. 

If the balance is £2.50, then it's not time for an auto-topup yet. The balance isn't below £2. 

If it's time to apply a recurring boost, it can't be taken from credit because there's not enough. It shouldn't apply the auto-topup before paying for the boost, because the credit hasn't yet gone below £2. As it says "Auto top-up is a convenient feature that automatically adds credit to your phone when your balance drops below £2." That hasn't happened. And it can't happen, because you can't pay for something that costs £3 with £2.50 of credit. 

It also says in the Boost help "If you do not have enough credit on your phone to apply a Boost you will need to pay for the Boost in full at the time of purchase.". So I think on a balance of £2.50 it should charge the card with the boost, rather than topup £10 first and then take it out of credit. 

No, that's not what happened.

There was £3.20 in the account.
The boost auto-renewed and took £3, so account now has £0.20.
Usually, auto-topup would then take £10 from my bank so account would have £10.20
But it only took £3, account is back to £3.20

zagfles

alanwsg said:

zagfles said:

That doesn't answer the point. 

If the balance is £2.50, then it's not time for an auto-topup yet. The balance isn't below £2. 

If it's time to apply a recurring boost, it can't be taken from credit because there's not enough. It shouldn't apply the auto-topup before paying for the boost, because the credit hasn't yet gone below £2. As it says "Auto top-up is a convenient feature that automatically adds credit to your phone when your balance drops below £2." That hasn't happened. And it can't happen, because you can't pay for something that costs £3 with £2.50 of credit. 

It also says in the Boost help "If you do not have enough credit on your phone to apply a Boost you will need to pay for the Boost in full at the time of purchase.". So I think on a balance of £2.50 it should charge the card with the boost, rather than topup £10 first and then take it out of credit. 

No, that's not what happened.

There was £3.20 in the account.
The boost auto-renewed and took £3, so account now has £0.20.
Usually, auto-topup would then take £10 from my bank so account would have £10.20
But it only took £3, account is back to £3.20

Don't know then, maybe with the data only boosts it wants to leave a reasonable amount to pay for a few calls/texts. The algorithm for the auto boosts probably won't be linked to the auto-topup, so when applying the auto boost it probably doesn't consider that an auto-topup is going to happen (and of course that could fail anyway). 

alanwsg

zagfles said:

Don't know then, maybe with the data only boosts it wants to leave a reasonable amount to pay for a few calls/texts. The algorithm for the auto boosts probably won't be linked to the auto-topup, so when applying the auto boost it probably doesn't consider that an auto-topup is going to happen (and of course that could fail anyway). 

Maybe, it's not really a problem, just that it's never topped up by just £3 before, always £10.

And then there's the weirdness with the data remaining in the 'Balance' text resetting every day (I've seen that reported on another forum as well).