Upcoming Changes to our Old Rewards Program

[J_PM]

Hey Community,

We have an important announcement to share with our subscribers who are currently enrolled in our old Rewards program.

We’re making changes to our rewards program and are sharing how these changes impact some of our subscribers. Starting in May, we’ll be retiring our old Rewards program and moving all subscribers to our Public Points™ program. 

We launched the Public Points™ program in January 2022 to provide our subscribers with more ways to earn and spend rewards, with greater flexibility. As part of our commitment to continuously evolve our products and services, it's time to retire our old Rewards program and shift our focus on enhancing our Points program.

To show our appreciation for your continued loyalty, subscribers on our old Rewards program will receive a special thank you. We'll send you a text message when it has been added to your account by March 31st. 

We’re excited to continue providing you, our valued subscribers, more opportunities to earn and spend rewards with Public Points™ moving forward.

To learn more about your move to Public Points, check out our FAQ here.

The Public Mobile Team

[Stelawrat]

---

@Robotron2084 wrote:

I’m horrible math. 

With my earned Loyalty, Autopay and referral credits, my monthly plan cost drops from $40 to $32. With this new “points system” will my monthly plan fee be the same, or can I expect it to increase, and if so, by how much?

---

Since your plan cost drops by $8, then I know you have reductions for $5 loyalty, $2 autopay & $1 referral.  The loyalty & autopay bonuses will end, replaced by a points system, where 1 point = $1. 

Sometime beginning in May, every month you will receive 2 points (5% x $40.) + 1 point (1 referral) meaning your monthly bill will be $40. & you will have accumulated 3 points. 

Once per year on your anniversary date, you will be credited with 10 points, bringing your total to 46 points.

So once per year, you can use your points to offset your payment for that month. The following month, you'll be paying $40 again & you'll have 6 points left over. 

Alternatively, you can log in after 5 months, when you'll have earned 15 points, and use those to put towards your bill for that month, leaving you with a balance to pay by credit card, of $25. 

The following month, your bill would be $40. & your points balance would be 3.

NB - If your referral leaves, then you lose that referral point, losing 12 points for the year. If you downgrade your account, then the 5% reduction would be reduced as well. For example if you choose a $30 plan, then your points would be reduced from 2 per month to 1.5 points, losing 6 points for the year. Sorry.    

[Dunkman]

---

@Robotron2084 wrote:

I’m horrible math. 

With my earned Loyalty, Autopay and referral credits, my monthly plan cost drops from $40 to $32. With this new “points system” will my monthly plan fee be the same, or can I expect it to increase, and if so, by how much?

---

@Robotron2084 

You will unfortunately lose monthly loyalty and autopay rewards.  

Initially, your monthly bill will go  back to $40 + taxes. 

With the points,  you will get 3 friend referral points/month (assuming you are 5 year + customer)

5% back on the $40 plan - 2 points/month (equivalent to autopay)

Once a year on your anniversary date of sign in - you will receive 10 loyalty points

You will need to manually convert 15 points for $15 bill credit. 

Most legacy customers will be paying more with these changes.  

[hTideGnow]

HI @Robotron2084 

will go up for sure 😞

fist, you will need to pay $40 in full every time but earn the saving back in points

you will get 5% back form $40, so 2 points for that.  Luckily that offset the $2 autopay discount

But the loyalty discount will be replaced by only 10 points every year.  So, roughly 0.8 points a month

but luckily, if you have friend referrals, you will earn it the same, except in points

and one thing, you need to collect to 15 points before you can redeem for $15 bill credit

[Filou123]

Well, I'm not too thrilled having to go around shopping for another provider ... that's the worst part for me, as I don't have tons of free time to do so. But what PM just did is a breach of trust and I don't see myself getting the value I used to get.

[Robotron2084]

I’m horrible math. 

With my earned Loyalty, Autopay and referral credits, my monthly plan cost drops from $40 to $32. With this new “points system” will my monthly plan fee be the same, or can I expect it to increase, and if so, by how much?

[EslyReniery]

Horrible. This was the reason I wanted to have my whole family of four with PM. Now, I will look for a new provider. PM joins the other greedy companies that have changed their rewards program to increase their profits.

[JukeboxRomeo]

This is a betrayal of your long time customers with significant financial consequences. My mobile plan cost will increase by at least 20% with this change, and destroys the incentives that Public Mobile promised to  me as a customer.

[Leela3]

Friendly reminder. For anyone wishing to file a complaint with CCTS you must go through PM first. You will have to provide proof that you attempted and were unable to reach a resolution with PM. This step can't be skipped. We have until May so there's still time!

[Sylvestor]

Wow. A couple of friends called me about this yesterday. How many other customers are uninformed about this?

They both, also, advised they are leaving. This  hurts my reputation for recommending Public Mobile to them and also hurts my referral rewards. 

1. I will no longer give referrals or a free SIM to friends and family. 
2. I can see leaving, as I have other options through work. 

[Grinch]

So disappointing.  Was on the tipping point with Telus. I know I will be slowly but surely moving away from Telus in it’s entirety. 

[Stelawrat]

---

@Caniss wrote:

Telus is upgrading their 5G network and getting rid of the cheaper Huawei gear, which is going to cost a lot of money $$$.

TELUS to supercharge its 5G network using Samsung’s vRAN 3.0 and Open RAN solutions – improving performance, energy efficiency and flexibility for future enhancements.

TELUS’ bold approach to embrace a multi-vendor Open RAN brownfield deployment leverages other ecosystem collaborations as well. Cloud infrastructure will be provided by Wind River, tapping the company’s experience in real-time operating systems and cloud-native, distributed edge platforms. Additionally, Hewlett Packard Enterprise will deliver HPE ProLiant DL110 Gen11 servers featuring 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor with Intel vRAN Boost, that are workload optimized for Open RAN while being open and flexible, providing the foundation for a Distributed Unit (DU).

https://www.telus.com/en/about/news-and-events/media-releases/telus-partners-with-samsung-to-build-c...

---

Interesting read, especially as it indicates they've already completed testing & that implementation begins mid-2024. That's relatively soon after the full transition to the points system.

Also, the way it's described, from Telus' pov, it will be cost effective & an almost effortless deployment. They don't have to, but hopefully, this means they'll pass on some savings to their customers as a result of this improvement to their own bottom line. 

"The companies have extensively tested both the vRAN and Open RAN rollout in select Canadian markets with excellent results, validating the telco-grade performance and reliability of multi-vendor Open RAN technology, powered by Samsung’s vRAN solutions. Commercial deployment will begin in the first half of this year and a large-scale network rollout is expected to begin mid-2024.

For this expanded collaboration, Samsung will deliver its versatile vRAN software and proven Open RAN compliant solutions, including its 64T64R Massive MIMO radios, as well as the support for third-party radio integration. Samsung’s solutions include its latest vRAN 3.0 for 4G and 5G, which features enhanced capabilities for improved energy savings, optimized performance and intelligent automation via Samsung’s Service Management and Orchestration (SMO). Samsung’s AI-based SMO will help TELUS accelerate vRAN rollouts at scale by enabling automated deployment of thousands of network sites simultaneously. It will also provide TELUS with a comprehensive set of capabilities for end-to-end automation for multi-party solutions, enabling easier deployment, operation and optimization of their network."

[MAcs]

This sucks. I've been with Public for many years and there's no taking into account my loyalty? This rewards system should be grandfathered in. You're going to lose a lot of customers over this. Not only will I lose out in this situation, but I'll have to physically log in and apply the points myself?

[Stelawrat]

---

@Patrick_PM wrote:

I figure this was coming when Public Mobile launched the points reward system over 2 years ago. It didn’t make much sense for them to continue running 2 reward system concurrently. I’m somewhat surprised it took them this long.

I’m currently on their $40 plan and under their old reward system, I’m getting the following discounts each month:

$5 - Loyalty (over 5 years)

$2 - Autopay / Subscriber

$2 - Referral

So under the points system, I think I will be getting the following

2 points - 5% on $40 plan

2 points - 2 referrals

0.83 points - 10 points for anniversary

If my understanding of the point system is correct, my discount drops from $9 per month to $4.83 per month?

The largest hit under the “new” point system is Public Mobile lessened the recognition of customers who have been with them for years. You will get 10 points whether you reached your 1st year anniversary or 10th year anniversary.

Under the old system, the rewards were far more generous for “loyalty” with $12 credit after first year then $24 credit after 2 years and so on until your 5th anniversary where it is capped at $60 credit

---

Reading these posts in order, so someone may already have replied to you re: your new discount. 

It drops from your current $9 per month to $4 per month. Your 0.83 points per month are credited once per year only, on your anniversary.

So on your anniversary, your credit for that month only, will be $14, followed by 11 more months at $4 etc. for each year you remain with PM. 

NB - In order to redeem any points, for any reason, you have to log into your account to do so. They can be applied to your total bill payment once you've accumulated a minimum of 15 points. In other words, if you intend to put your points towards your bill payment of $40., you will need to log in at least 3 times. 

[public_999]

This change affects subscribers with bare bones plans the most. Holders of bare bones plans are usually seniors, low income folks, and young children.  Telus must be so proud going after low hanging fruit to increase their bottom line.

[Stelawrat]

---

@ShawnC13 wrote:

@Stelawrat If it was deleted that was a PM staff member as Oracles can't delete anything.  If it has been deleted or moved there is no way for you to see it even if a link was provided.  

Ok time to take a break from here for awhile

---

Okay thank you. o/

[hTideGnow]

hi @hendooo5 you are "Great Neighbor" now!!! Wiith more posts on this thread ,you will earn like another 1 or2 dollars or points reward for next month.

That is what couple of the heavy critics doing on this thread, they will likely earn $5 or even 10. That is how they try to continue to reduce their bill.. Complain and earn 🤣😂

[asdaas]

With the old rewards system, my $13 plan is down to $3 a month. Great value. $13, which it will go up to, is not good value. Goodbye Public Mobile, Hello Freedom Mobile. I got their annual plan, which provides unlimited Canada calling and texting as well as 15GB data for the year. Freedom also has live support. Anyway, it was a good run, and I hope the Freedom quality is ok.

[Dunkman]

---

@sigdog wrote:

Does anyone know what happens to the ongoing rewards for past referrals? I looked in the FAQs but could not find any information.

---

@sigdog 

Past referrals will give your 1 point for each friend/30 days as long as your friend continues to stay with PM.  You will not get automatic bill credit every month though.  You will need to convert minimum 15 point for $15 bill credit.  

[im2lazy]

When they started this new plan, they gave us the option to switch and we did not, that should have told them something.  Maybe we never had an option and they thought there would be less of a kerfuffle if they switched us like this than all at the start.

[hTideGnow]

---

@edeepm wrote:

Competition Bureau of Canada complaint form

https://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/frm-eng/GH%C3%89T-7TDNA5

---

hi @edeepm 

was that only a joke??  Or you really don't know what Competition Bureau does???

LoL

[fixin]

It means you haven't made a full post / reply yet.

[hendooo5]

Wth ?  New in Town ? I've been here for years🤔

[hendooo5]

Too bad our loyalty plan is being cancelled. Guess it's time to look for alternatives for our family's phones

[fixin]

---

@sigdog wrote:

Does anyone know what happens to the ongoing rewards for past referrals? I looked in the FAQs but could not find any information.

---

Your referrals (Each of them) you will now earn 1 point per referral rather than $1 off your bill per person referral.

[sigdog]

Does anyone know what happens to the ongoing rewards for past referrals? I looked in the FAQs but could not find any information.

[ninjastar]

Never. They want to show a strong balance sheet with consistent subscription that average $40, not ones that they are losing on. This will make a case for a sell off to another company. They have Koodo. They don't need PM. 

[on2wheels]

https://www.telus.com/en/about/news-and-events/media-releases/telus-reports-operational-and-financia... 

From their social media. Check out this cringey line:

“For 2024, we have established ambitious financial targets, building off our leading growth profile and operating execution excellence. Our financial outlook reflects continued healthy growth within our core TTech business as we maintain our consistent focus on profitable customer growth driven by continued demand for our superior bundled offerings over our leading broadband networks. "

ANyone who's had issues here knows the frustration of contacting support and getting something fixed, especially when it's urgent.  Will they allow CS reps here to call people now or take calls?  Is the Visa card problem fixed now?

[Shutdown]

That's only because of freedom mobile though. They were simply matching freedom plans.

[Shutdown]

I could see them reversing if they lose a lot of subscribers to freedom mobile, since telus won't want a strong 4th carrier who can compete with them and doesn't match their plans.

[sa7375]

PM! Your decision to converge everyone to the new 'Public Points program' seems firm & final. OK, but please find a way to move on, offering alternative plans — plans that make financial sense to both — the subscribers and PM. 

In an earlier post, I had recommended an annual plan of $119 for unlimited talk and text with 15 GB of data — as offered by Freedom Mobile — but there can be more annual plans offering 50 GB etc. At least make your plans competitive, if not cheaper, than the market. 

By choice, I do not want to leave PM, but at the same time do not want to pay more than the market.