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

[computergeek541]

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@Burwrote:

Can someone clarify for me why everyone is so concerned about this? The koodo deal is the same price but with Canada wide calling instead of province wide, so it seems like a good deal. I'm thinking of making the switch, but I feel like I must be missing something....

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Some believe that Public Mobile should be held to the promise that was made that customers can keep the plan as long as they keep it active.  The price increase goes against that.

Further, with community rewards, loyalty rewards, autopay rewards, and referal rewards, the Koodo plan is often more expensive.

There's also the issue of making customers go onto postpaid plans when everyone here is on prepaid plans.  This is clearly and attempt to please investors, but not the customers.  Carriers prefer customers to be on postpaid plans because it is easier for them to get you to spend more than the advertised plan price, and because they want the chance to sell you on a 2 year contract (despite what they call it now - tab, no term contract, etc.).

Also, let's remember that Public Mobile used to be independent.  When Telus purchase it, there was concern that Telus would just close it down and was just buying it out just to eliminate competition.  This move, an attempt to get a large user base to switch over to Koodo, could be seen as a deliberate attempt at sabotage to achieve that.

By Public Mobile offering the $40 Koodo plan and saying that the Public Mobile price will go up by $30 for 90 days, whether intended or not, that, at least to me, is a threat and says "switch or else'.  That's not how you treat customers if you want them to remain customers.    Someone at Public/Kooodo/Telus must have understood that when the decision was intitally  made.

[computergeek541]

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@Korthwrote:

@computergeek541

Yes, community discussion does cost PM money ... every dollar they Reward is one dollar less they bill us, and it does all add up.

But I think the theory is that active community sort of "pays for itself" in terms of money not being spent on a support staff, clocking labour hours, manning phone lines, etc.  The "no frills" "phone company without a phone number" leans on loyal community members - we're able answer questions, provide "tech support", offer advice, etc - so PM "rewards" us for saving them money.

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I'm not really debating that paying out rewards does cost Public Mobile money.  I was just trying to say that all these complaints about the price increase aren't going to cost any more than normal in community reward payouts.  It's just going to be different pepople getting the reawrds, likely those you spoke out most about it.  In the end, Public Mobile is still going to pay out $10 to the six oracles, $6 to the 5 or 7 0.5% members, and so on.  The total amounts likely doesn't change substantially, and all the discussion and complaints will just make the threshold to achieve each reward level all that much higher.

[Michael77]

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@dnneufeldtwrote:

Would somebody planning to not use the koodo offer private message me, I would like to use a valid phone number to acess the promotion for my wife, who uses the Canada wide all the time and did not get the fall 2016 promo. Your numnber will only be used to acces the promo code, and not for any other purposes.

Thanks!

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Please message me with your phone number. I have two family members that want to switch to Koodo too. 🙂

[smp99]

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@SD08wrote:

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@ivergewrote:

PM let me give you some advice on how to handle your next offer to migrate PM customers to Koodo. 

1) Provide 90 days notice as most people are on a 90-day renewal cycle 

2) Offer a plan comparable both in monthly price and features.

3) Free Koodo SIM card 

4) Up to a $100 credit to off-set any pre-paid add on's  

Up until now... you have not given me a reason to look at another provider, however, with the stunt, you tried to pull I will now be paying more attention to other offers in the marketplace.

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@iverge

To that I would add:

5)  Transfer positive account balances in any port from PM to Koodo (e.g. vouchers loaded).

There are customers who pay mostly by vouchers for whatever reason, and some have large balances (>$100) preloaded to their accounts for convenience.  Similar to the concept of non-expiring gift cards usable at sister companies, this should be treated like cash within the Telus family, as it all goes toward the parent company's bottom line.

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I would make it 120 days notice. It would give people who are renewing in the next few days the opportunity not to have to make a snap decision.

Make the plan at Koodo better or maybe offer a choice of plans. Offer another plan for $50 and give another 2GB of data - 6 total. Koodo basically does this in Quebec and your population is still limited to the those in the $40/4GB plan 

[everbamboo]

I'm seeing $9 referral credits...for the 3 referrals. I had $12 before...but lost one after that nasty text.

[torontokris]

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@shrimpdudewrote:

Everyone check your Refer-A-Friend reward bonuses. I know for a fact that none of my friends have switched from PM, but today they dropped to zero!

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Send a private message to  @CS_Agent and ask. Maybe just a glitch

[torontokris]

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@mcdonald1992wrote:

Can you move back to your old plan with PM after leaving for one day to Koodoo? 

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Contact @CS_Agent and ask/beg/plead nicely see what they say

[mcdonald1992]

Can you move back to your old plan with PM after leaving for one day to Koodoo? 

[everbamboo]

By people switching over to Koodo or elsewhere, it screws up our referral rewards. I had one referral left since that first text about the price increase. PM probably figured that those referral bonus is a bad deal for them...and trying to minimize that. Thoughts? 

[shrimpdude]

Everyone check your Refer-A-Friend reward bonuses. I know for a fact that none of my friends have switched from PM, but today they dropped to zero!

[Hugs29]

or how about they grandfather the plan, and leave it as it is. 

[SD08]

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@ivergewrote:

PM let me give you some advice on how to handle your next offer to migrate PM customers to Koodo. 

1) Provide 90 days notice as most people are on a 90-day renewal cycle 

2) Offer a plan comparable both in monthly price and features.

3) Free Koodo SIM card 

4) Up to a $100 credit to off-set any pre-paid add on's  

Up until now... you have not given me a reason to look at another provider, however, with the stunt, you tried to pull I will now be paying more attention to other offers in the marketplace.

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@iverge

To that I would add:

5)  Transfer positive account balances in any port from PM to Koodo (e.g. vouchers loaded).

There are customers who pay mostly by vouchers for whatever reason, and some have large balances (>$100) preloaded to their accounts for convenience.  Similar to the concept of non-expiring gift cards usable at sister companies, this should be treated like cash within the Telus family, as it all goes toward the parent company's bottom line.

[iverge]

PM let me give you some advice on how to handle your next offer to migrate PM customers to Koodo. 

1) Provide 90 days notice as most people are on a 90-day renewal cycle 

2) Offer a plan comparable both in monthly price and features.

3) Free Koodo SIM card 

4) Up to a $100 credit to off-set any pre-paid add on's  

Up until now... you have not given me a reason to look at another provider, however, with the stunt, you tried to pull I will now be paying more attention to other offers in the marketplace.

[Cindirs]

Exactly, it's a CONTRACT!!! Thanks Dave for your response, don't forget to confirm your original commitment.  

[Timewasterninja]

Or at least refund the money by prorating how long you've used it during your billing cycle, but that's highly unlikely to happen. 

[blingamo]

Would like to know when "that point" 

In fairness there should at least a 120 day warning shot and an offer to refund outstanding Add-On's credit.

[torontokris]

Won't crtc ccts just shut down the complaints since 1) there has been no price increase enforced yet (which is when they can take action) & 2) the price increase was cancelled anyway nullifing the complaints.

What are they going to investigate? 

[torontokris]

Somebody didn't check with public relations or customer survey department first. They could have offered the Koodo promo and let ppl leave voluntarily for a "deal" so win-win. Instead it felt like a forced blackmail leave or else we increase your price 25%.

[Acekiller]

At least they are listening.

[mike390]

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@Dave_Mwrote:

While all good things must come to an end at some point – that point is not today. 

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Excuse me? What your talking about are CONTRACTS not just a "good thing".  By law you must honor them. Don't feed us this bull**bleep** and act like you're doing us a favour. 

You  guys told us the price was good as long as we are active customers and that's how it's going to be. 

Telus is one of the highest charging telecoms out there right now, I'm sure you can afford to honor these plans.

[mike390]

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@jpr3wrote:

Great! Thank you.

Edit: what is this "infamous" all about?

Edit 2: He is saying that a price increase will probably take place some time in the future. So in the mean time, look for some alternative choices if you can.

"While all good things must come to an end at some  point - that point is not today." 

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That's what I got from it too. Basically " we've recieved alot of ccts complaints and bad publicity from this stunt and we have decided to wait until this cools off before attempting to go back on our promise again."

[nexusfan]

they are not listning to customers....they are listing to the government because of the number of complaints.

[nexusfan]

Whos Dave....why not give full details of  you name  / title etc

totally un professional

thx

G

[Tallguy11]

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@dnneufeldtwrote:

I went to a koodo booth yesterday to ask about it, saying I wasn't ready to switch yet, but wanted more info/ for him to look into it. He asked for my informations, said, yep, the promo code worked, now you just need to buy the sim. I said, what? im already switched? and he said yes.

Now, my public mobile account is gone with my 90 plan that renewed and was paid for Feb 9. I can't log in, I cant acces anything, and I got no response from moderators expcept referral to this thread.

I want acess to my account again please, even if I have to be re-assigned a new phone number.

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Unfortunately i think your account is gone for good... I dont see public mobile letting people back on the plan they want to kill

[007]

Thank you for clearing things out. As a public mobile lover, i was extremely upset on seeing the  msg. I respect your transparency and for seeing us customers as precious.  Plz don't ever change a deal we made together as a mandatory increase forced on us. Thankyou for your respect.  We love public mobile 

[dnneufeldt]

Would somebody planning to not use the koodo offer private message me, I would like to use a valid phone number to acess the promotion for my wife, who uses the Canada wide all the time and did not get the fall 2016 promo. Your numnber will only be used to acces the promo code, and not for any other purposes.

Thanks!

[dnneufeldt]

I went to a koodo booth yesterday to ask about it, saying I wasn't ready to switch yet, but wanted more info/ for him to look into it. He asked for my informations, said, yep, the promo code worked, now you just need to buy the sim. I said, what? im already switched? and he said yes.

Now, my public mobile account is gone with my 90 plan that renewed and was paid for Feb 9. I can't log in, I cant acces anything, and I got no response from moderators expcept referral to this thread.

I want acess to my account again please, even if I have to be re-assigned a new phone number.

[Bur]

Awesome, thanks for the help, everyone!

[CalvinW]

PM really needs to re-evaluate their risk management department. 

First, the Freedom mobile shenanigans and now this...

[MK78]

Now that I've had a chance to reflect on the initial, obviously ill advised decision by the parent company Telus to force the Fall2016 plan users over to Koodo or face a substantial rate increase, then the swift decision to reverse decision and to keep the price of the plan the same, for now, here are my thoughts.

• I feel like the company breached users trust and loyalty by going back on it's clear promise in the advertisement of the Fall2016 plan, no price increase as long as you remain a customer - No surprise.
• The company severily underestimated the price-conscious & vocal nature of its Public Mobile customer base, and felt like the heavy handed threat of price increase would cause the masses to switch over.
• Many of us have repeatedly defended PM's various shortcomings, most notably the lack of a call centre, as a reason that the prices are kept low this way.
• The Koodo switch offer, as pointed out by many, was not apples to apples $40 for $40, even if you just factor in the $2 auto pay discount you get with PM, plus many of us have other credits such as loyalty, community participation, and of course, referrals which we have worked hard for, convincing others to join PM. Those were significant savings that would NOT carry over. It's also not known if there are other fees tacked onto the base $40 Koodo deal, such as 911 fees.
• The Koodo deal also required to switch to post-paid, which many people on pre-paid can't switch to for various reasons. I'm not one of them, but many are.
• I will for now remain with the PM deal, but I will no longer actively dismiss offers from the competition. I will be looking to leave the Telus owned trio of Telus/Koodo/PM at some point when an appropriate deal comes up from the competition.
• Many of us, in hindsight, would have jumped on the $60/10GB plan offered over the holidays by other providers, including Telus, which while more expensive, at least provided a huge data bucket that we could explore if we wanted to user our mobile data more.