Welcome to London Change-makers
We're in London for a few days before heading to Cambridge for a month of pet sitting, followed by our permanent residence for the coming year. Today's challenge: how to log into my VanCity bank account.
The problem is two-fold: I had set it up to use an SMS text-message to send me the six digit two-factor authentication code. On arriving in London I learned that my Canadian mobile operator, Public Mobile* refuses to send text messages to England. And Vancity doesn't do what other companies do and offer to switch to an e-mail message.
Why does Public Mobile do this? How the heck would I know? They're a Canadian cel phone company, and consequently are very expensive and have lousy service.
(* chosen strictly because they were cheaper than the big three of Telus, Rogers, or Bell)
We have European two-SIM phones. Our second SIM card is from Free Mobile, in France. I pay 19,99€ a month ($32.12 CDN) and get:
- 350 gigs of data in France, or 35 gigs in Canada each month
- unlimited calls AND TEXT MESSAGES to any country in Europe or North America, except for 800 numbers.
No matter how you look at it, it made sense to keep the French plan going even after we were back in Canada. Our "cheap" Public Mobile account gives me:
- 50 gigs of data each month in Canada or the US
- "Unlimited Canada & US minutes and messaging plus unlimited international text and picture messaging²"
Do you see that little "²" at the end? It's not clickable, so who knows what it would link to.
But I found it, I think:
Unlimited Canada-wide minutes include calls made and completed within Canada. Roaming applies outside of Canada. Long distance rates apply to calls made from Canada to outside Canada. International picture and text messaging includes text messages that are sent from or received in Canada. Excludes premium and subscription-based messages, and texts sent while roaming outside of Canada.
To me that reads that text messages from VanCity should arrive on my phone?
Their chatbot says:
Here is the most relevant information I found for you. Hope this helps!
To receive incoming SMS while roaming, you need to ensure that you have the appropriate roaming add-on that includes the SMS feature. If you are experiencing issues with receiving SMS from your bank in Canada while in the UK, it might be due to network compatibility or the specific roaming add-on you have. Additionally, there could be restrictions or limitations on the type of SMS messages that can be received while roaming.
To contact one of our Customer Support Agents you can type ‘agent’ in the chatbot to start submitting a ticket.
I typed "agent" and got:
Our support is all online. If the chat or help articles didn't answer your question or you need account-related support, you can connect with a Customer Support Agent.
Several steps later I have been promised that some day, someone, somewhere at Public Mobile will contact me. I think on their web site? My bet is that a text message from Canada will cost me another $20 a month.
And I have wasted the better part of an hour and half - so far - trying to solve a simple problem.
Later today, when VanCity's offices open, I guess I'll call them - using my French Free Mobile SIM! - to try and get them to switch me to e-mail for two-factor authentication.
In all honesty, days like this are how I know that Canada will never be the economic powerhouse that Mark Carney promises. The kind of sloppy, inadequate service that I'm struggling with isn't limited to just the bottom-most, retail customer facing tiers. These attitudes are present throughout these organzations, and ultimately keep us small and second-rate.
