topic Re: Charging people for E-SIM?? in Get Support

Charging people for E-SIM??

Anonymous — Thu, 25 May 2023 00:26:58 GMT

I just noticed when activating for a new customer the E-SIM Feature Is there.. however they want $5? Is that a joke?

Bell, Telus, Roger's and every other provider give that free with the plans or service.

Your charging us $5 for what? The E-SIM is non existent. That should be free considering we paid for the E-SIM feature in the cost of our device compatible with it should it not be? $5 is not justifiable. I've been working with providers for 4 years and Public are the only ones charging for that.

Re: Charging people for E-SIM??

CheezyPenguins1 — Thu, 25 May 2023 00:31:31 GMT

They charge it because they can. It's a total money grab, it should be free, but its a way for PM to make money.

Re: Charging people for E-SIM??

Lovespainting — Thu, 25 May 2023 00:34:13 GMT

Just charging because they can. Maybe referral bonus is still $10, so no net cost anyway.

Re: Charging people for E-SIM??

Lieux — Thu, 25 May 2023 00:39:28 GMT

@Anonymous False.

Re: Charging people for E-SIM??

softech — Thu, 25 May 2023 00:44:55 GMT

@Anonymous the usual charge for eSIM is $10.

The reason sometimes you get it for free (and you can get free physical sim card too), because when you activate in a store, the sales person would be "kind" enough to give that to you for free so they can earn the activation commission.

PM has no sales channel (everyone is done online by yourself) and hence no salesperson here to absorb the cost for you 🙂

Re: Charging people for E-SIM??

Dunkman — Thu, 25 May 2023 00:47:05 GMT

Also, the big three companies charge an activation fee. Public mobile eSim is $5 while buying a physical SIm card is $10. I briefly searched and Rogers also charges $10 for eSIM.

The friend referral code is suppose to cover cost of SIM card anyways.

Re: Charging people for E-SIM??

DennyCrane — Thu, 25 May 2023 00:50:29 GMT

In fairness the backend infrastructure costs money to develop and maintain.

That said, it's an acquisition cost that I wish the Canadian carriers would absorb.

Re: Charging people for E-SIM??

Korth — Thu, 25 May 2023 04:07:50 GMT

@Anonymous

Public Mobile had free ($0) SIM cards in the beginning. For years. Free for years. They'd even pay the postage.

But all sorts of scams and cons developed around this, people reselling (free) Public Mobile SIM cards at a profit. And all sorts of questions appeared from other people who were confused by this. And all sorts of SIM-jacking frauds appeared. And Public Mobile claimed that the majority (roughly two-thirds or three-quarters) of all their SIM cards were never activated, a wasteful business expense which had to be stopped or passed along to customers. Too many SIM cards floating around meant too many problems.

So PM made SIM cards cost $5. Then $10. (Then $15. Then $20. Back down to $10 now, except when on sale for $5.)

Like anything and everything else online - a price of $0 free will attract all sorts of people and all sorts of problems from every corner of the internet. While a price of even just $1 will force people to submit valid personal and payment information, it will automatically deflect the 90% or more who just grab free things because they are free things.

I suspect it's the same deal with Public Mobile eSIMs. Unlike "Bell, Telus, Roger's and every other provider", Public Mobile lacks any physical stores or kiosks where a phone can be seen, an ID can be seen, a payment can be made in cash. They only have an online presence. So they put a price onto their eSIMs to deflect an endless barrage of internet problems.