A letter from Dave on the infamous $40 for 4GB price change

[Dave_M]

Hey Community,

I am writing to you today to let you know that we will not be moving forward with a price increase on the infamous “$40 for 4GB” plan ($120 90-day Province-Wide Talk + Text + 12GB Data), contrary to the SMS that customers on that plan received yesterday.

After sending out an offer to select customers, we heard your feedback loud and clear: we said no surprises, and we surprised you. While all good things must come to an end at some point – that point is not today. As a brand, we have always been proud of our transparency, and of our commitment to our customers. We are sincerely sorry for any frustration caused and we want you to know that this has been a learning experience for us all.

We have been reminded that you, our customers, are vocal and passionate. We’ve seen how much some of you love Public Mobile and we’ve also seen how many of you like the added value that our sister brand, Koodo, has to offer. To that end, we are happy to say that the Koodo offer that our Public customers on the “$40 for 4GB” plan received still remains available for anyone who wishes to take advantage of it.

Thank you for your continued support,

Dave

[hasan_cal]

vocal or not. Consider ur self lucky Canadian public did not drag public mobile into the justice grid.

Be humble, we pay our dues and on ur end provide due services. 

Stand by ur words, and take a step back. Time to fire those who came with this idea in the first place.

have a nice day 

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@Dave_Mwrote:

Hey Community,

I am writing to you today to let you know that we will not be moving forward with a price increase on the infamous “$40 for 4GB” plan ($120 90-day Province-Wide Talk + Text + 12GB Data), contrary to the SMS that customers on that plan received yesterday.

After sending out an offer to select customers, we heard your feedback loud and clear: we said no surprises, and we surprised you. While all good things must come to an end at some point – that point is not today. As a brand, we have always been proud of our transparency, and of our commitment to our customers. We are sincerely sorry for any frustration caused and we want you to know that this has been a learning experience for us all.

We have been reminded that you, our customers, are vocal and passionate. We’ve seen how much some of you love Public Mobile and we’ve also seen how many of you like the added value that our sister brand, Koodo, has to offer. To that end, we are happy to say that the Koodo offer that our Public customers on the “$40 for 4GB” plan received still remains available for anyone who wishes to take advantage of it.

Thank you for your continued support,

Dave

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[lukevader]

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@DavidNSwrote:

Some food for thought...

https://www.chatrwireless.com/web/chatr.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PlanBrowse

for me, this is showing 4gb a month plus a bonus of 500gb at 3G speed (which implies to me the 4gb is 4G/LTE) plus unlimited nationwide and US calling for $50.00 a month.

Slightly more than Public Mobile, but food for thought.  Chatr is owned by Rogers so you can be Telus / Koodo / Public Mobile free (yes, im keep mentioning them all now for the google)

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Ya but this is in zone plans, not good for those who don't frequent urban jungles

[crtowns]

@Dave_M

Glad to hear. This price change didn’t affect my plan but deeply concerned me.

I remain concerned about the comment about how all good things have to come to an end. 

[tangmichael88]

Dear GM Dave and Telus Corp business leadership team,

Wow I can’t believe I defended this company just a couple months ago to friends and family when PM had various signup promotions. I was a perfectly content PM customer until I received that text message from yesterday. Even though the price increase has since been retracted, it left a terrible taste in my mouth for it’s bullying/ransom tactics by the Telus Corp. I’m glad the larger community of PM immediately recognized what a load of crap they were willing to shove it down our throats and expected us to comply and switch over to postpaid plans. My loyalty and trust with your company was instantly destroyed by that single text message. While I am continuing to use your product in the meantime, I will not forgive or forget your company’s bully tactics. As soon as a better product in the market comes along, I will vote with my hard earned dollars.

Yours truly,

A former loyal PM customer

[wetcoaster]

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@DavidNSwrote:

Some food for thought...

https://www.chatrwireless.com/web/chatr.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PlanBrowse

for me, this is showing 4gb a month plus a bonus of 500gb at 3G speed (which implies to me the 4gb is 4G/LTE) plus unlimited nationwide and US calling for $50.00 a month.

Slightly more than Public Mobile, but food for thought.  Chatr is owned by Rogers so you can be Telus / Koodo / Public Mobile free (yes, im keep mentioning them all now for the google)

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@DavidNS

ChatR network access is 3G only.

You also want to check your location - the offer you linked to is "in-zone" pricing. Like Lucky they are punishing you for living outside of the few major cities they deem worthy of having relatively affordable cell phone pricing (probably coincides with the places where Freedom tries to get a share of the cake...)

[DavidNS]

IMO Telus / Koodo / Public Mobile knew exactly what they were doing last fall.  This to me says Telus really didn't want Public Mobile they simply bought them to eliminate competition, and merely used it to get people to leave Bell/Rogers with a great promo.  Then after enough time passed start unwinding their position with Public Mobile (let's face it... few existing customers would not take advantage of the promo) and get as many people to move to Koodo as they could.

The more I contemplate this situation the more annoyed I get.

[computergeek541]

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@pakmodewrote:

The damage is done.

There have been an unprecedented 2500 complaints filed against PM to the CCTS in the past 30 hours.

I don't doubt that number because of the pages and pages of anger, discussion, and complaining on these forums. But out of curiosity, is that 2500 complaint number an estimate just to show the scope of the customer unhappyness, or is there a website that provides that information?   I'm aware that stuff like this is public information;  i'm just surprised that such statistics would already be that quickly be available.

[MF]

@Dave_M

While I am very glad that you are not increasing prices and attempting to force loyal customers to switch to Koodo post paid, I would like you and the powers that be to know that you have irreparably damaged the relationship between Public Mobile and its customers.

After being with Public Mobile for almost 4 years, after this debacle, I personally have no more faith or trust in your brand.

If and when a better wireless offer is available, I will not hesitate to move my business elsewhere.

[123justin]

Where's the instructions for the full refund And stopping of the port to Koodo.

Public Mobile seems like it's run by a group of inexperienced children. Think hard about your business practices.

[lukevader]

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@kav2001cwrote:

& 105 people bravo his post?

Insane

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Oh ya, thanks for reminding me, I forgot to bravo it as well..... got to go do that now.

[mjs]

This is great news... for now.

Consumers owe it to themselves and others to stand up and hold companies like Public Mobile accountable for their actions. Cosumers also need to educate themselves about their rights so that are are aware of what businesses can and cannot do. Laws, codes, acts, agreements, and regulations exist for a reason. We live in a country where businesses have certain rights but consumers have a lot more. @Dave_M post does provide a satisfactory conclusion for the current situation, but it does not provide any carification if the same predicament will re-occur or not. His statement "While all good things must come to an end at some point – that point is not today" is an ambigious and open ended statement that raises concerns whether this situation will repeat again or not and if this resolution is temprary. Public Mobile recognized the legal ramifications that would have resulted if they decided to proceed in implementing the price increase, therefore his statement is meant to be more for "damage control" than as a recognition of their accountability and acknowledgement of liability. I would encourage everybody to keep a close eye on future events and changes that may take place in order to ensure that your rights are not violated again. This event has for sure opened the door for future scrutiny into Public Mobile's practices.

[Korth]

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@antifreeze1100wrote:Considering you are admittedly not a Public Mobile customer, and yet you have lurked here ALL DAY constantly belittling the customer objections that ultimately resulted in this reversal (why?!), you might want to give it a rest with this routine. It is you who looks ridiculous. Nothing better to do?

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We must accept that Public Mobile is an open faith which embraces many ... including those among us who follow their own strange and mysterious paths to enlightenment, lol.

[DavidNS]

@koimr1well that sucks... thanks for pointing that out!

[litlkitty]

I brought two friends. I will never recommend either telus or PM anymore

[koimr1]

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@DavidNSwrote:

Some food for thought...

https://www.chatrwireless.com/web/chatr.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PlanBrowse

for me, this is showing 4gb a month plus a bonus of 500gb at 3G speed (which implies to me the 4gb is 4G/LTE) plus unlimited nationwide and US calling for $50.00 a month.

Slightly more than Public Mobile, but food for thought.  Chatr is owned by Rogers so you can be Telus / Koodo / Public Mobile free (yes, im keep mentioning them all now for the google)

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If you check the details it's all 3G, not 4G/LTE with Chatr.

[W0507636]

Previously I did thank PM for not kicking us out over to Koodo or having us find a new provider but as you think more of how ungrateful this provider is, it does make me want to move. As Freedom Mobile continues to grow and possible NAFTA negotiations open up telecom competition companies should be scared. When I say ungrateful, I refer to people who brought 24 customers to you, yes some from your own companies but others from competitors. I brought 6 people and probably 4 including myself came from a competitor. Never have I told someone to switch phone providers except for PM. 

[lukevader]

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@alby905wrote:

Finally some common sense. I don’t know how you guys come up with this stuff but understand. It affects people’s lives and also we are the customer. Let you learn most of us where going to dig ourselves in and fight this. Second most where not going to take your bribe money to jump ship. We will go to your competitors. 

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What a bunch of double talk bull. First off you complain that it will affect lives and then you say you would go to the competitor. Money talks, you would go where ever the better deal was, thats why you came here to begin with.

[antifreeze1100]

@lukevaderwrote:

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OMG!!! And there it is!! Wahhhhh, give US more money!!! 

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Considering you are admittedly not a Public Mobile customer, and yet you have lurked here ALL DAY constantly belittling the customer objections that ultimately resulted in this reversal (why?!), you might want to give it a rest with this routine. It is you who looks ridiculous. Nothing better to do?

[DavidNS]

Another site that might help you become Telus / Koodo / Public Mobile free if you're as annoyed as I am but are ready to leave...

http://www.comparecellular.ca/plans-and-add-ons/

[DavidNS]

Some food for thought...

https://www.chatrwireless.com/web/chatr.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PlanBrowse

for me, this is showing 4gb a month plus a bonus of 500gb at 3G speed (which implies to me the 4gb is 4G/LTE) plus unlimited nationwide and US calling for $50.00 a month.

Slightly more than Public Mobile, but food for thought.  Chatr is owned by Rogers so you can be Telus / Koodo / Public Mobile free (yes, im keep mentioning them all now for the google)

[litlkitty]

I also want to know how to switch back. 

[lukevader]

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@dickwongwrote:

You have done the harm and caused frustration.  Instead of just reverting your decision, Public Mobile should honor to each customer $100 credit in order to release the anger.

As your customer, I still feel betrayed and be cheated.

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OMG!!! And there it is!! Wahhhhh, give US more money!!! 

[will13am]

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@kav2001cwrote:

@will13am no because next time it will be a more legit way of forcing us to leave

The big mistake was the nearly forced migration to Koodo

I already think rewards are going soon

And more to follow

They have spoken

Its not like they didn't increase the $15 plans to $19, then $22, then $27

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@will13amwrote:

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And you think we can't mount the same response next time?  If we are going to score round 1, I would say the customer came out way on top.  The damage control of having to clean up the CCTS mess will take months.  The publicity nightmare will have an effect.

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No doubt about it, Dave telegraphed it in his response with the not today phrase.  Migrating to Koodo would eliminate all rewards and so yes we should anticipate all the perks of this service to be taken away in bits and bites.  If the desire is to bunch all of us who are effectively using the service like a post paid service into the Koodo camp, simply nudging us over with a bit of a small perk instead of a squeeze play where a 25% price increase is forced down our throat would have worked.  I would bite if they give me a slightly better offer than what I have now with the 2016 fall promo. 

I totally believe they had the legal right to do what they attempted to do.  They just didn't have the social license to do so.  This is what bit them in the azz. 

[computergeek541]

There is some good news for Public Mobile.

All those complaints to CCTS now get to be marked down as Public Mobile making a good-faith attempt to address the issues.  CCTS and Telus both get to pat themselves on the back for the stats.

I'm not exactly sure how the complaint process works, but I do believe that the carrier does get charged a fee for each complaint that CCTS investigates.  I would how much all those complaints costed Telus's bottom line.

On a side note, those who were most vocal about these price changes will likely benefit next month in higher community reward amounts.

[DavidNS]

@jairoleviI looked through my emails and couldn't find it so I plugged my sim back in but I couldn't find where the provider name was.  Sorry.  this was 5 months ago the last time I was there.

Now that I think about it, I think I went to best buy to get it, but Walmart had the same or simliar prepaid offers as bestbuy had, but bestbuy was next to my hotel.

[litlkitty]

I didn't see my 100 credit

[Korth]

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@kav2001cwrote:

@will13am no because next time it will be a more legit way of forcing us to leave

The big mistake was the nearly forced migration to Koodo

I already think rewards are going soon

And more to follow

They have spoken

Its not like they didn't increase the $15 plans to $19, then $22, then $27 

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@kav2001c @will13am

Valid arguments from both.  Price increases and disappearing rewards would be sad indicators.  I notice that (so far) PM's restructuring tends to focus on their "sweet spot" market segment, the users who have middly or high data allocations.  Data is where it's all at for them, the big money maker, the big money loser.  But what can they do in a world where everybody always wants more data, lol, you give 2GB they want 4GB, you give 6GB they want 12GB, you give 5GB they want 20GB - aside from scaling their system up to ever-higher data increments and ever-higher price structures?

[makkahn28]

I'm NOT SURE How Public can REVERSE This, as I fear that ONCE Switch was made, ALL went down the Drain

UNLESS PM wants a Lawsuit THEY NEED TO COMPENSATE for this Outrageous and Callous act

I would label the act as Treason, My Opinion

[Frustratedwitch]

Same here.  How do I switch back to PM and keep my plan that I had paid in full up to May 12?

[computergeek541]

I like the fictional version of the letter to the community that I posted better, the one that dodged around the issue and emphasizing how great these changes were for customers because of the Koodo offer and how Public Mobile is committed to providing great value.  I'm just kidding, of course. 

It is good to hear that Public Mobile has reversed the decision on this, at least for now.

I am concerned however at the comment on how all good things must come to an end, but not today thing.  Does that mean that the change will happen at a later time?

I really do believe in my comments that I've made earlier saying that I do not believe customers really have a widescale expectations that prices will always stay the same.  I consider that to be unrealistic, and think that people were just using that as a point of debate to bolster the argument of why this price change should not happen.

Here's where I think Public Mobile and Telus got it wrong:  Public Mobile customers are all on prepaid plans with no overages.  Sometimes, that is by choice, and sometimes, it's because of credit check requirements.  Sending an offer to switch these customers to a postpaid plan, while advantageous to Telus as a whole, is of little to no benefit to the customer.    I know it's not quite the same, but if you walk into the grocery store and ask where they keep the cantaloupes, why would the employee try to sell you a box of cereal?

If Telus really wants Public Mobile customers to switch to Koodo that badly, the offers should be made to switch to Koodo prepaid plans, and not postpaid.  I know that Telus would much rather have us all on postpaid for the greater sales opportunity in both hardware and for overage charges.  But by pushing that, they have forgotten their demographic.  Public Mobile customers don't want to have to go to the store, possibly be given a sales pitch.  For the most part, I believe that Public Mobile customers want the sim card mailed to them (to avoid the attempted upsells), and to go home and activate the service without the need for any credit checks.

I'm skeptical what would have happened in the next few weeks if Public Mobile went ahead with this price increase.  It would have been comical if Chatr, Lucky, and Freedom all came out with a prepaid plan equivalent or similar to Public Mobile's $40/4GB (for 30 days) plan and customers started leaving en-masse to those.  Could you imagine if Public Mobile then brought back the Fall Promo plan again for new customers?  That would have just made them look really silly.

Another issue that comes to mind is what to do for people who have already left but want the old plan back.