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

[mimmo]

@Jonavin when pm first introduced 3g they basically "doubled" (don't know exact numbers) the LTE prices.    There was a huge backlash and they lowered them a couple months later.

If the whole idea of 3 different brands it to upsell from one to the other then there needs to be clear benefits of going from one to the other. 3g vs full LTE with koodo.

Or another idea might be that LTE is say 5$ less /month at pm than at koodo. But the net revenue is probably more since pm has much less overhead (store staff etc)

Again all we can to is theorize.

[torontokris]

Remember it's not 3G it's 3G speeds under a capped LTE. So they aren't trying to get ppl to 3G it's more getting them to a capped 2.5MBPS LTE.

[Luddite]

Thanks to @sbreakin for reminding me of this great post of mine  https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/A-letter-from-Dave-on-the-recent-change...

trying to forewarn David_M.

Ah, the good old days. 😎

[Jonavin]

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@mimmowrote:

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@PhoneSeekerwrote:

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@themisfitwrote:

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@PeterHwrote:

Telus either wants to phase out Public Mobile or drive up numbers for Koodo to boast about subscriber numbers.

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Just got off the phone with a Koodo Rep. I was considering moving over to Koodo, just had some questions about their service and want to make a informed decision. The rep told me that they are trying to transfer everyone to Koodo, because they are working towards shuttering Public Mobile.

As this was just a phone rep, I'm not sure how accurate it it, but it sounds about right to me.

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That's what Koodo reps have been saying for the past year.....and it might finally happen after this PM debacle.

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I do not think PM is going to be shuttered,  especially since  bell just launched lucky to compete with chatr and PM. 

 I believe the 3g introduction was meant as a way to be different than koodo and that PM will eventually get rid of full LTE plans. this way it does not compete directly with koodo.  this way they are similar to the data offerings of lucky and chatr  and so they upsell  pm customers to koodo by offering lte plans instead of 3g.

but i am just a customer and have no insights to the working or plans of PM, just like everyone else.

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I don’t buy the switch to 3G only as a reason. They can easily just stop advertising the LTE service today and don’t allow any new signup, then grandfather everyone.

[slavitch]

All class action lawsuits are started by firms betting they will win 30% of the proceeeds.  They make the bet.  This one is a good bet.

[Korth]

Pocket lint can pay off, lol.

Lawyer does his math ... say, $1M total damages?  He collects signatures, he takes the case to court, he wins, he collects his 30% off the top, he distributes the balance among all the signatory petitioners.  $300K (minus expenses) available for the Lawyer's son to go to college.  Justice is served!

[DavidNS]

Whether or not its worth the time is not the same question as whether or not they form a class.  They are two different questions.

[will13am]

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@DavidNSwrote:

I wonder if those who switched to Koodo before the "oh, yeah, our greed got the better of us, nevermind" text form a class under which action can be taken.

I'm not one of them (I decided to "wait and see" and was going to trade privacy of my phone for a subsidy from work if push came to shove), simply curious.

All I can say is I'm glad I left text messages on.  Since I know there is tons of room on my card I never bother logging in to check anything except for the occasional long distance minutes buy.  Had they not sent me a text mesage I probably would have missed this and dealt with the rate increase after the fact had it gone forward.

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Seriously, what law firm works for pocket lint?  What is the size of the affected group?  What are the damages?  What are the chances of winning when they rescinded the change after two days? There's negative chance of any lawsuit.

[will13am]

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@Korthwrote:

But nothing lasts forever, lol.

I prefer to focus on the great deal I've already gotten (and still get) with PM over the years.

I expect it'll continue being a great deal for a while, but not forever - sooner or later the day will come when prices will go up or I'll be unable to renew without changing my plan details.  Inflation, subscription, monetized service.

I'm a cynic, I question everything, but that doesn't mean I have to be a pessimist, assume the worst, be suspicious and accusatory.  I'd rather enjoy the benefits of being in a "good relationship" than dwell overmuch on how ugly the end of a "bad relationship" might be.

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Totally agree.  "Lovers quarrels” will happen from time to time.  Once the decision is made to stay together, then it's time to work as a team again. 

[DavidNS]

I wonder if those who switched to Koodo before the "oh, yeah, our greed got the better of us, nevermind" text form a class under which action can be taken.

I'm not one of them (I decided to "wait and see" and was going to trade privacy of my phone for a subsidy from work if push came to shove), simply curious.

All I can say is I'm glad I left text messages on.  Since I know there is tons of room on my card I never bother logging in to check anything except for the occasional long distance minutes buy.  Had they not sent me a text mesage I probably would have missed this and dealt with the rate increase after the fact had it gone forward.

[will13am]

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@MVPwrote:

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@diamondshopperwrote:

Thats nonsense, I was told I would get a prorated refund by kodoo as well. This would only seem to be the right thing to do as we were basically bullied to switch. Can any moderator weight in on this, I would 100% take this matter to the CCTS if they are not refunding the unused portion.

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One thing they can do is to extend Koodo offer to the full 90 days span. 

This will certainly lure more Fall2016 customers to Koodo, especially those with few or no rewards.

There is no point for them to cut-off Koodo offer anymore on March 15, because price increase is not happening (for a while).

In fact, if I were a PM manager planning this, I'd make Koodo offer ongoing, and tweak it from time to time,  gauging by the number of PM customers jumping ship per month 🙂 

E.g. if the Koodo offer were $35/4GB/month, fiasco would not have happened, and the exodus would be pretty massive 🙂

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+1!  I know hindsight is 20/20.  The people who came up with this ill conceived plan sure didn't apply any critical thinking.  If they want a desired outcome, positive reinforcement is far more effective than a negative one.  Had they simply offered something with Koodo that is a bit better than the 2016 fall promo, customers would happily migrate and Telus would achieve the desired objectives plus gaining all important customer trust.  By using scare tactics by way of a draconian 25% increase, they increased our resolve to fight back collectively.  The end result is massive failure to meet objective plus a huge impairment in customer trust.  

I would expect Telus to learn from past mistakes and do a little better next time around.  I am fairly confident future exit terms will be more favorable.  

[Korth]

But nothing lasts forever, lol.

I prefer to focus on the great deal I've already gotten (and still get) with PM over the years.

I expect it'll continue being a great deal for a while, but not forever - sooner or later the day will come when prices will go up or I'll be unable to renew without changing my plan details.  Inflation, subscription, monetized service.

I'm a cynic, I question everything, but that doesn't mean I have to be a pessimist, assume the worst, be suspicious and accusatory.  I'd rather enjoy the benefits of being in a "good relationship" than dwell overmuch on how ugly the end of a "bad relationship" might be.

[will13am]

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@PhoneSeekerwrote:

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@Hugs29wrote:

Well Telus should keep public mobile open because as as soon as they shut it down or pull another “surprise” I’ll be switching to just about anything that isnt related to TELUS. Why not just keep it open and lock in the competition?

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Telus/Koodo/Public Mobile employees seem to be possibly shilling all over the Redflagdeal forums the past couple days making brand new accounts and trying their darnest to convince people to switch to Koodo and calling PM customers entitled whiners, and that they should be grateful to be allowed to use Telus/Koodo/PM at all.

I knew PublicMobile/Telus/Koodo were run badly, but not like a third world organization full of rats. Not even Rogers/Bell/Shaw employees stoop to that level. I might have to contact the Canadian Competition Bureau.

Koodo rarely, if at all, raises the rates on their customers but Telus thinks they can get away with regularly raising the rates of low-to-mid income working class Canadians that have resorted to using Public Mobile for affordable service.

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I must not be looking hard enough, I didn't see anything that looked like Telus staff posting nonsense on RFD. Do you have any examples to share?  

As for Telus targeting low and middle income working class Canadians, I don't share with your views.  Telus doesn't know what our income levels are.  In fact prepaid is the hardest for any provider to gain insight.  We don't have to submit to a credit check.  How do they know whether I would pass or not?  Don't equate product price to customer income level.  A better correlation is to customer's savviness  at shopping the deals.  We all work hard for it money and spending always rises to income level.  So why shouldn't we be wise shoppers?

[DavidNS]

@mikeyferrercan you post or message me who the competitor is so I can keep an eye out?

[kuzi]

I didn’t switch to the 10GB/$60 plan because I thought we were safe with PM as long as we were active customers. If they’re gonna force us to change at some point I would appreciate if there were multiple offers to choose from including the 10GB plan. I like the flexibility that PM allows us to spread the 12GB over 90 Days and I have taken advantage of that especially when going on mini vacations where I would use 8GB in 1 month and 2 each in the next 2.

PM if you’re listening, the next time you try and pull these shenanigans, give us more choice to incentivize us to switch including the 10GB plan for $50 instead of penalizing us.

If we are forced off this plan in the future and there is not a competitive offer, I for one will be switching to a competitor, not Koodo or Telus...fool me once with a promise, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me.

[MVP]

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@diamondshopperwrote:

Thats nonsense, I was told I would get a prorated refund by kodoo as well. This would only seem to be the right thing to do as we were basically bullied to switch. Can any moderator weight in on this, I would 100% take this matter to the CCTS if they are not refunding the unused portion.

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One thing they can do is to extend Koodo offer to the full 90 days span. 

This will certainly lure more Fall2016 customers to Koodo, especially those with few or no rewards.

There is no point for them to cut-off Koodo offer anymore on March 15, because price increase is not happening (for a while).

In fact, if I were a PM manager planning this, I'd make Koodo offer ongoing, and tweak it from time to time,  gauging by the number of PM customers jumping ship per month 🙂 

E.g. if the Koodo offer were $35/4GB/month, fiasco would not have happened, and the exodus would be pretty massive 🙂

[sbreakin]

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, glad that the rather large (25%) increase was rescinded and "While all good things must come to an end at some point – that point is not today."

This evening I went back & read the previous letters from Dave and the insightful comments from the community. Go back & read some of your comments where many of you worry about increases and the end of grandfathered plans.

It does seem to suggest that there was a turning point last summer when the 3G lite & more expensive LTE rates were brought out and to me seems like a strategic move to increase revenues/ prices despite this being a simpler, leaner, lower expense company. 

Previous letter here: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/A-letter-from-Dave-on-the-recent-change...

President and CEO Darren's comments regarding the most recent earnings reports about higher ARPU & post-paid mix (Reference: https://www.telus.com/en/about/news-and-events/media-releases/telus-reports-strong-results-for-fourt... )

PM's 120/12/90 plan is still here & has many advantages (fixed pre-paid cost, flexible 90-day data, rewards, great community, save money now). 

I am still looking at the Koodo offer as it adds phone discounts (& we could 1 amongst us every year or 2), $100 or possibly $150 credit if referrals can also be added but while sacrificing the 90-day flexibility & costing about $6/mo more & increasing assuming the 120/12/90 makes it to the 2yr loyalty.  ($6 is $2 prepaid + $1 loyalty & we use call forwarding so +$3). Another thought is they may try a carrot approach next time with a tempting plan to get folks to move to Koodo so they get counted better in revenue reports to shareholders. Where's my crystal ball? 

[PhoneSeeker]

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@Hugs29wrote:

Well Telus should keep public mobile open because as as soon as they shut it down or pull another “surprise” I’ll be switching to just about anything that isnt related to TELUS. Why not just keep it open and lock in the competition?

---

Telus/Koodo/Public Mobile employees seem to be possibly shilling all over the Redflagdeal forums the past couple days making brand new accounts and trying their darnest to convince people to switch to Koodo and calling PM customers entitled whiners, and that they should be grateful to be allowed to use Telus/Koodo/PM at all.

I knew PublicMobile/Telus/Koodo were run badly, but not like a third world organization full of rats. Not even Rogers/Bell/Shaw employees stoop to that level. I might have to contact the Canadian Competition Bureau.

Koodo rarely, if at all, raises the rates on their customers but Telus thinks they can get away with regularly raising the rates of low-to-mid income working class Canadians that have resorted to using Public Mobile for affordable service.

[Hugs29]

Well Telus should keep public mobile open because as as soon as they shut it down or pull another “surprise” I’ll be switching to just about anything that isnt related to TELUS. Why not just keep it open and lock in the competition?

[mimmo]

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@PhoneSeekerwrote:

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@themisfitwrote:

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@PeterHwrote:

Telus either wants to phase out Public Mobile or drive up numbers for Koodo to boast about subscriber numbers.

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Just got off the phone with a Koodo Rep. I was considering moving over to Koodo, just had some questions about their service and want to make a informed decision. The rep told me that they are trying to transfer everyone to Koodo, because they are working towards shuttering Public Mobile.

As this was just a phone rep, I'm not sure how accurate it it, but it sounds about right to me.

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That's what Koodo reps have been saying for the past year.....and it might finally happen after this PM debacle.

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I do not think PM is going to be shuttered,  especially since  bell just launched lucky to compete with chatr and PM. 

 I believe the 3g introduction was meant as a way to be different than koodo and that PM will eventually get rid of full LTE plans. this way it does not compete directly with koodo.  this way they are similar to the data offerings of lucky and chatr  and so they upsell  pm customers to koodo by offering lte plans instead of 3g.

but i am just a customer and have no insights to the working or plans of PM, just like everyone else.

[NDesai]

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@diamondshopperwrote:

Thats nonsense, I was told I would get a prorated refund by kodoo as well. This would only seem to be the right thing to do as we were basically bullied to switch. Can any moderator weight in on this, I would 100% take this matter to the CCTS if they are not refunding the unused portion.

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I would say that whoever told you didn't know anything about PM being pre-paid service. 

[diamondshopper]

Thats nonsense, I was told I would get a prorated refund by kodoo as well. This would only seem to be the right thing to do as we were basically bullied to switch. Can any moderator weight in on this, I would 100% take this matter to the CCTS if they are not refunding the unused portion.

[PhoneSeeker]

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@echasketchwrote:

I private msged the mod team - this is their BS reply.

As of the pro-rated amount promised by the Koodo agent, I'm afraid that we cannot process/transfer any credit to your Koodo account in addition to the $100 as that was not part of the deal. As a prepaid company, we do not refund unused days.

Basically they're saying we're SOL if we'd switched. I only switched based on the fact that the Koodo rep told me I'd get my pro-rated amount transferred.

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Time to file a CCTS complaint against both Koodo and Public Mobile.  

[echasketch]

I private msged the mod team - this is their BS reply.

As of the pro-rated amount promised by the Koodo agent, I'm afraid that we cannot process/transfer any credit to your Koodo account in addition to the $100 as that was not part of the deal. As a prepaid company, we do not refund unused days.

Basically they're saying we're SOL if we'd switched. I only switched based on the fact that the Koodo rep told me I'd get my pro-rated amount transferred.

[PhoneSeeker]

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@diamondshopperwrote:

For those of us that did switch, will we be refunded the prorated portion of our plan that was already paid to publicmobile.

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Finally some good news.

[diamondshopper]

For those of us that did switch, will we be refunded the prorated portion of our plan that was already paid to publicmobile.

[PhoneSeeker]

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@Kalymwrote:

Whoever Dave is, and I have no clue, sorry but I don’t even care to know.  

What have ave we Won? Nothing.  Telus could not win this as to force this through would question their very fibre of being in business - everyone will question their billing going forward.

we are all keeping our plan, and, accordingly will keep it as long as we are in good order, unless they close down PM, and who will honestly go to Koodo after that?  The wound is open.

 The only thing they (telus) can do is to take away the referral and bonus for autopay etc.  That will happen no doubt and it sucks to those early enough who have 30+ referral bonuses.  

Hope you can absorb that cost and keep PM going.

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Well said! Sickening behavior on Telus/Public Mobile's part.

[Kalym]

Whoever Dave is, and I have no clue, sorry but I don’t even care to know.  

What have ave we Won? Nothing.  Telus could not win this as to force this through would question their very fibre of being in business - everyone will question their billing going forward.

we are all keeping our plan, and, accordingly will keep it as long as we are in good order, unless they close down PM, and who will honestly go to Koodo after that?  The wound is open.

 The only thing they (telus) can do is to take away the referral and bonus for autopay etc.  That will happen no doubt and it sucks to those early enough who have 30+ referral bonuses.  

Hope you can absorb that cost and keep PM going.

[NDesai]

@PhoneSeeker As i said, we cannot delete your post even if we wanted to. However, the community has a spam filter so it might have got caught in it and was deleted automatically. 

[PhoneSeeker]

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@NDesaiwrote:

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@PhoneSeekerwrote:

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@NDesaiwrote:

@PhoneSeeker Thank you for for your detail post but you are pretty late to say all this. So i moved your post to an ongoing discussion. 

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Why was my post deleted? It is gone, and cannot be found anywhere. This will be documented in my CCTS complaint as an act of contempt on behalf of Telus and Public Mobile. Mark my words.

More snakes and mirrors from Telus/Public Mobile Inc.

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I moved your post to this topic, not delete. 

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You moved my post to this topic, but it has now been deleted completely by someone.  It can't disappear into thin air. A quick scan of the previous few pages shows that it is missing now.