topic Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans in Announcements

Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

Brooke_C — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 14:43:43 GMT

Hey Community,

Public Mobile is continuing our evolution to an online-only brand with the goal to provide customers more choice in a clear and uncomplicated way. Along this journey, we are making some changes. On April 1, 2017, all Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans will increase by $3 per month.

If you are not on a Legacy rate plan this increase does not apply to you.

You are considered a Legacy/ Pioneer customer if you are currently on one of the following rate plans that was available prior to January 27, 2015:

$19 Province-Wide Talk
$25 Canada-Wide Talk + Text
$40 Canada-Wide Talk + Text + 1GB Data
$45 Canadian & U.S. Talk + Text + 1GB Data
$60 Canadian & U.S. Talk + Text + 2GB Data

To learn more, click here.

Thanks,

Public Mobile Community team

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

CalvinW — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 15:19:26 GMT

This is cool and all, but when are the next promos coming?

That will definitely keep them staying with PM.

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

swz5005 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 15:33:52 GMT

Some how I see some people are going to be un-happy, but it make sense as company need to adjust rate due to inflation and other stuff....

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

CaNuCk07 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 15:36:28 GMT

@swz5005 Some people might be unhappy but they should keep in mind the big 3 do this stuff all the time, for much more than $3, and more over they don't offer an opprotunity to keep the plan with a sister company. So although might cause a little hassle, still pretty good deal.

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

ShawnC13 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 15:40:18 GMT

@Brooke_C thanks for this announcement. For those on Legacy/Pioneer plans might be a really good time to look at the Koodo offer to keep your pricing and still maintain your phone/kiosk support. Still amazing pricing on those plans!!

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

SD08 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 16:57:44 GMT

@swz5005 wrote:
Some how I see some people are going to be un-happy, but it make sense as company need to adjust rate due to inflation and other stuff....

This is not so much about inflation as it is about encouraging legacy/pioneer
customers to migrate to an in-market plan so they will no longer have access to the call center available only to those customers. When enough customers have migrated, then the call center will be eliminated and PM will truly be an online support only carrier.

I see that at least the first two of the legacy plans have a way to go before the equivalent in-market plans are competitive enough to be enticing, considering the loss of access to live support. Customers on the last plan on that list should immediately switch if they rarely use support, as the savings would already be substantial ($13/mth or $156/yr).

Monthly price comparison in brackets include updated pricing using current 90-day plan rates:
$19 Province-Wide Talk ($22 legacy vs. $25.33 in-market)
$25 Canada-Wide Talk + Text ($28 vs. $40.33)
$40 Canada-Wide Talk + Text + 1GB Data ($43 vs. $42)
$45 Canadian & U.S. Talk + Text + 1GB Data ($48 vs. $47)
$60 Canadian & U.S. Talk + Text + 2GB Data ($63 vs. $50)

EDIT: However, as @CaNuCk07 mentioned, customers are also being offered the chance to move to a sister company on the same plan, so that along with this price increase might be enough encouragement to move a lot or even most of them.

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

ShawnC13 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 17:04:33 GMT

Monthly price comparison in brackets include updated pricing using current 90-day plan rates:
$19 Province-Wide Talk ($22 legacy vs. $25.33 in-market)
$25 Canada-Wide Talk + Text ($28 vs. $40.33)
$40 Canada-Wide Talk + Text + 1GB Data ($43 vs. $42)
$45 Canadian & U.S. Talk + Text + 1GB Data ($48 vs. $47)
$60 Canadian & U.S. Talk + Text + 2GB Data ($63 vs. $50)

@SD08 great breakdown, and for those on Legacy plans remember with the pricing up above that is a 90 day plan and you would be now eligible for rewards. So with you being a legacy customer you could take an additional $2 Loyalty reward (atleast) off of the price and setup autopay and there is another $2. So the only deal really worth staying on as a legacy plan would be the $25/$28

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

kav2001c — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 17:11:50 GMT

The only way it makes sense to hold onto an old plan is if you don't want/need data

Otherwise inmarket plans are better anyways

I think this is more about shutting down the Public call centre than anything else

And there is still the Koodo migration offer out there

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

SD08 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 17:40:51 GMT

@ShawnC13 wrote:
Monthly price comparison in brackets include updated pricing using current 90-day plan rates:
$19 Province-Wide Talk ($22 legacy vs. $25.33 in-market)
$25 Canada-Wide Talk + Text ($28 vs. $40.33)
$40 Canada-Wide Talk + Text + 1GB Data ($43 vs. $42)
$45 Canadian & U.S. Talk + Text + 1GB Data ($48 vs. $47)
$60 Canadian & U.S. Talk + Text + 2GB Data ($63 vs. $50)

@SD08 great breakdown, and for those on Legacy plans remember with the pricing up above that is a 90 day plan and you would be now eligible for rewards. So with you being a legacy customer you could take an additional $2 Loyalty reward (atleast) off of the price and setup autopay and there is another $2. So the only deal really worth staying on as a legacy plan would be the $25/$28

@ShawnC13

That's a good point about the loyalty and autopay discounts. When I think about it, even the $25 Canada-Wide Talk + Text plan would not be worth staying on with PM, because they would only be getting that rate if they transferred to Koodo. Why stay with PM at $28 if you can go to Koodo for $25 with live support, right? While the transfer offer is in play, there really is no sense for any legacy customers to stay on their current plan at PM. This transfer offer (carrot), along with the price hike (stick) is the real kicker (no pun intended).

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

pakmode — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 17:55:55 GMT

Thanks for the analysis @SD08 - made it easier to understand the price differences.

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

zmh1175 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 18:14:00 GMT

Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans are soooooo bad. So ppl still keep those suck plans?

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

stonechucker — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 19:43:22 GMT

@zmh1175 wrote:
Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans are soooooo bad. So ppl still keep those suck plans?

I'm sorry, but why are we using such language as a 'suck' plan?

Whether the plan is good for you or not, someone or many someones, do like their plan, and may not have a reason to change. My dad just cancelled hits mobile data on his smart phone, and only uses WiFi for it. He loves it, and it costs him less to continue using his device.

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

Shutdown — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 19:52:41 GMT

If they can change the rates like that then why don't they just change the plan so it no longer has call center support?

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

CaNuCk07 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 19:56:23 GMT

@Shutdown Curiously, one wonders why they didn't leave the plan costs the same and remove phone support, rather than assuming the $3 to cover increased costs of phone support.

But then i guess maybe the people keeping the legacy plans enjoy the call center part, hence offerring them call center support through koodo.

I guess i dont have an opinion on this lol.

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

Shutdown — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 19:59:31 GMT

@CaNuCk07 if the people hop on to koodo, then the call support cost is the same. Since they will just keep the same number of call center employees but have more customers to deal with. Maybe they are going to merge the call center for PM/koodo in order to reduce cost.

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

will13am — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 20:07:52 GMT

Being a noob to Public Mobile, this thread has been rather informative. Thanks @SD08 for providing the excellent comparison. The old plans are obviously call centric as compared to the new plans which are data centric. It is interesting how Public Mobile appears to have intentionally weakened the call offering in the 2016 fall promotion. The legacy plans pretty much all include Canada wide calling, plus US calling option. Most plans offered these days are doing away with long distance, yet the fall promo went in the opposite direction and included only province wide calling. I am sure a lot more customers would have signed up had the fall promo included Canada wide calling as it would placate to both those who make a lot of phone calls as well as those who focus more on data use. I sense this approach isn't going to change any time soon, considering that Telus would rather migrate legacy customers to Koodo instead of keeping them under the Public Mobile umbrella. Here I thought the next promotion would top the last one by including Canada wide calling with a large data bucket. Nice pipe dream on my part.

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

makkahn28 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 20:23:52 GMT

It's not the end of the World

$3, as long as it's not a constant thing, then I'll be OK, since My Mother is on my Former Legacy $60 Plan

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

ShawnC13 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 20:38:00 GMT

@makkahn28 wrote:
It's not the end of the World
$3, as long as it's not a constant thing, then I'll be OK, since My Mother is on my Former Legacy $60 Plan

@makkahn28 your mother would be better off getting on a new plan. She can get Can and US calling. global texting and 6GB of data over 90 days for $150. That is $50 a month and still have 2GB. Even with just autopay and loyalty reward she would save around $168 a year*

*Based on $150 90 day plan with autopay $2/month and loyalty reward $2/month

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

computergeek541 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 21:26:55 GMT

@Shutdown wrote:
Maybe they are going to merge the call center for PM/koodo in order to reduce cost.

How do we know that they haven't already? Making a comparison to Rogers, I've had a bunch of times the CSR say "thank you for choosing Fido' when I was a Rogers Wireless customer.

Re: Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

imm1304 — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 21:45:36 GMT

@Shutdown, PM is being nice and going the extra mile to honor their commitment to the pioneer/legacy customers. Koodo migration is simply amazing because not only do they get the phone support, but also get customer service via retail stores nationwide. As a bonus, they can even start buying new phones on Koodo tab.

I agree that there are easier options for PM on how to deal with this. But, its great to see that they continue to treat the customer right.

Legacy customers have excellent and very fair offer on hand at the moment.