Canada Post Work Stoppage- SIM Order Process has Changed

[David_J]

Note: As of October 18, 2016 the below process is no longer in effect. To check out the new process, click here. 

___________________________________

Hey Community,

As you know, in order to be prepared for the possibility of a Canada Post work stoppage, we made some changes to the SIM card ordering process. The change to charge customers $10 (with a rebate upon activation) for a SIM card was initiated by the strike possibility, however we discovered something very interesting. When the SIM cards were available without charge, only 60% were being activated after they were received. When we changed the process and started to charge and rebate the $10 for the SIM card, the percentage being activated increased significantly. There’s something to be said about having a bit of skin in the game which is why we have decided that, for now, we will continue to charge $10 per SIM with a rebate upon activation.

As a reminder, here is a summary of how the new process works:

• Order the SIM card online (as per the usual process).

• There will be a charge for courier shipping. However, the shipping charges will be rebated to the method of payment you used to pay the shipping charges. Please note that we now offer PayPal as a payment option.

• To request your rebate, email rebate@publicmobile.ca with your SIM order number and your Public Mobile phone number. We’ll issue your rebate to the same method of payment for the shipping charges within 7 days of the email being received.

For any other questions, please contact us here [https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help] or message one of our Public Mobile Moderators here on the Community.

Thanks!

Public Mobile Community team

[lostinspace]

When mine was shipped, i got email stating that order was on the way. and i think  same morning i received my SIM card. for me it was 3 days exactly. 6th to 9th. so you should have it by now..!!!

[Zeegor]

I received an email on September 6th stating my SIM card has been shipped. Any way of tracking the courier shipping?

[Peabody]

@lostinspaceso very true! That's why I'm hoping that Canada Post is deliverying my new PM SIM card...

[lostinspace]

Canada Post strike situation is long finished. Canada Post never were on Lockout or strike.. it was all discussion and potentiality. Never actually happened. BTW, Canada Post is the winner over all the other couriers and delivery systems. THE BEST..

[Peabody]

So... Are SIM cards actually being shipped via courier service right now?

At the moment I'm still getting regular postal delivery from friends, corporations and even Revenue Canada.

I bring this up because courier - UPS, Fedex, etc - companies never seem to actually deliver to our building despite our modern intercom system. They just fill out a tag, stick it to our front door and drive on.

We are obliged to pick up packages from a 'hub' miles away.

So I'm hoping Public Mobile is still using our super efficient and friendly Canada Post!

[DvAbCanEh]

Great, PM will be getting a new subcriber when the card arrives, he is picking up the phone today.

[Chaos_Scorpio]

the refund will go to whatever was used to pay for it... so you will get refunded. 

[DvAbCanEh]

Question:

I am ordering a SIM for a friend using my PayPal and bringing him over to PM.

When I help sets up his own account and plan, can he get reimbursed for my $10 SIM charges and then pay me cash?

[kav2001c]

@felchi80 I suspect there are more SIMs activated now than at nearly any time in Public's history

But I doubt the SIM card fee has anything to do with it. It is plans that make the service

[felchi80]

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@helikvar wrote:

Are the sims now no longer free . I was going to order 2 of them for 2 of my relatives(my wife and my mother). I told them both about the better rates and that they could order a free sim anytime and then activate it when ready.One has a home phone that shes thinking of getting rid of the other is with Bell and thinking about switching.I think I had mine about a month before I activated it with PM.I really liked the fact that the sim was free and though I could have changed my mind and gone with some other service I already had the sim and the rates looked good so signed up.So now I must tell these two that this is no longer true(if you still have to pay for shipping). This decision in my opinion may be good for PM in the short term but down the road it may cost you.You will no longer stand out and above the rest with your payed sim approach.I will hold off ordering the sims for my wife and my mother.  They both asked me to order one for each one of them after I had informed them they were free.It gave them a choice but now that it sounds like they have to pay upfront for them .I read the percentage of people activating their sim cards went up significantly after charging for them but nnow they would have too register their sim with PM if theytruely wanted a free one.I know they both would have switched to PM  but for now I will hold off until they know for sure .The rates are still better than most but even Rogers will rebate your cost for the sim once you sign up.I find it odd that PM is using this opportunity(POSTAL STRIKE) to change their philosophy on free sims and even odder that its nothing more than a money grab.MY 2 CENTS

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I agree.

Being totally free is not the same as asking for reimbursement after activation.

Although the end result is the same, it just doesn't sound great.

I just wonder... if sims activated vs sims shipped percentage went up, what about the actual number of sims activations now vs before? Because that's what really counts.

I feel would be like... I'm going to print and hand out less flyers so that the percentage of ppl vs flyers coming to my store goes up. Rather i'm going to print and give out has many flyers as I can so that the total number of ppl coming in goes up.... lol... oh well....

[Mary_M]

Hello fellow PM users & community members!

We understand your concern regarding the charge for the shipping of our SIM cards. Even though the strike may/will not occur, PM will continue charging 10$ for the shipping. 

This charge, however, will be fully reimbursed upon activation to your original payment method. All you have to do is send an email to rebate@publicmobile.ca including your Shopify Order Number and Public Mobile Phone Number. The refund will be processed within 7 business days.

The good news is that the SIM card is still free ! 🙂

Cheers everybody,

Mary

[pckku]

@helikvar, Please be aware that the sim cards are still free as the shipping costs will be fully refunded once you have activated the new sim card. This is clearly stated in the sim ordering page. The only thing is you have to initiate the request for the refund by dending them an email with your account info.  Hope this helps.

[helikvar]

Are the sims now no longer free . I was going to order 2 of them for 2 of my relatives(my wife and my mother). I told them both about the better rates and that they could order a free sim anytime and then activate it when ready.One has a home phone that shes thinking of getting rid of the other is with Bell and thinking about switching.I think I had mine about a month before I activated it with PM.I really liked the fact that the sim was free and though I could have changed my mind and gone with some other service I already had the sim and the rates looked good so signed up.So now I must tell these two that this is no longer true(if you still have to pay for shipping). This decision in my opinion may be good for PM in the short term but down the road it may cost you.You will no longer stand out and above the rest with your payed sim approach.I will hold off ordering the sims for my wife and my mother.  They both asked me to order one for each one of them after I had informed them they were free.It gave them a choice but now that it sounds like they have to pay upfront for them .I read the percentage of people activating their sim cards went up significantly after charging for them but nnow they would have too register their sim with PM if theytruely wanted a free one.I know they both would have switched to PM  but for now I will hold off until they know for sure .The rates are still better than most but even Rogers will rebate your cost for the sim once you sign up.I find it odd that PM is using this opportunity(POSTAL STRIKE) to change their philosophy on free sims and even odder that its nothing more than a money grab.MY 2 CENTS

[leouk]

THAT IS FAIR ENOUGH, NICE MOVE

[Korth]

Yes, PM obviously has to pay for each PM SIM card, and the cost does add up when dealing with bulk quantities, before even considering postal/shipping charges - but providing them to the end-user for free was basically an up-front investment in long-term revenue - they would make enough money from the first payment to easily cover the cost of the SIM card.  Every other carrier charges a nominal fee (ranging from $10 to $25 or more) for their SIM cards - kind of ridiculous since they can't charge you for any service until your hardware can plug into their service.  Imagine buying a new car and then learning you can't actually drive it until you pay for an ignition key.

So I think it was the aftermarket vendors (like the guy on ebay) who killed the notion of free PM SIM cards.  PM is a business, not a charity, and the bottom line is that regardless of what they might offer or how awesome they might be they're still looking at the bottom line.  I think this up-front (returnable) fee is primarily intended to insure that every PM SIM card ordered is intended to hook up a PM subscriber.  No more hoarding piles of unused SIMs, no more making money off (or misleadingly advertising) Public Mobile.

It's always possible that PM will revise their SIM policy or offer a better compromise if they see a real decline in new customers or enough existing customers present realistic reasons why these SIM cards need to be free again.  For my part, I don't actually hoard piles of PM SIM cards (and I certainly don't sell them) but I do find it handy to have one or two unused spares on hand when bringing people over to the Dark Side.  Not having a PM SIM card ready (and being forced to ask for ten bucks then wait a few days to a week for one to arrive) introduces barriers to the process and deflects interest right away - my friends get skittish and ask "if this company (I've never heard of) applies so many little charges before even activating, then what am I getting into?"

[pckku]

I am new to the PM community, about 13 days old.  The first impression I have is how "generous" PM is treating the dispense of free sim cards. Surely for a company that must watch out their bottom lines, giving unlimited sim cards free to anyone with an email account, does puzzle me. Some may argue that sim cards are cost next to nothing. But there is still a cost, coupling in the postage, all of a sudden every sim card will cost the price of local postage stamp (about $0.80 + tax) and the sim materials. Going with courier services will undoubtly cost more than regular mail. So, here's the likely conclusion, PM must have discovered their initial unlimited free sim strategy has becoming to impact their bottom line. Say, assuming, PM has 250,000 existing subscribers and one third of them want a spare sim card, that's close $66,700 in postage (for simplicity, no postage tax included, and no sim card material costs).  Imagine, existing customers will order more than one sim cards since they are free. So, if 50% of existing subscribers order one extra sim card, That becomes $100,000 paid by PM with no new activation, thus would not generate any revenue. This becomes an expense. If 50% of subscribers orders 2 sim cards, then the expense becomes $200,000.  One has to factor in the extra manpower to handle the ordering and shipping activities. What happens if customers order 5, 6 or even 10 or 20... sim cards with PM paying all costs? I support PM to charge sim cards for $10 each, using regular mail delivery option, refund the cost upon activation with a service guarantee of 5 business days. Number of PM subscribers may not be accurate, but one can see the logic here.

[kav2001c]

I am also torn on this

I have a stack of SIM cards which I have used (6 referals so far & counting) in the past

But in general I have always griefed carriers about charging for SIM cards; ironically Koodo being the only one I have found difficult to get a free SIM from. I have had no issues getting free SIMs from every other carrier (Bell, Solo, Virgin, Rogers, Fido, Mobilicity, Chatr, Wind, Telus, PC Mobile & Public)

I can see the issue if Public feels alot of SIMs being unactivated but I think there must be a deeper reason than people wanting a spare SIM.

After all why order if you don't have a plan for it?

[imm1304]

Hi @ute1978!

I am indifferent to this debate.  Haven't made up my mind yet about whats better.  I understand that PM is a company and its doing what seems to be working better for PM. 

However, just want to point out the critical difference between those carriers you list and PM.  We are spoiled for choices when we wanna go to a local place to purchase a sim card for all those other carriers.  One can reasonably expect to get a replacement card instantly from them.

Purolator delivery times have varied and more than a handful of people have waited 10+ days.

[kav2001c]

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@ute1978 wrote:

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@chreds wrote:

Not sure how you agree with Public's decision since it adds only inconvenience to you with no benefit.

---

As simple as this: Every other carrier charges for sim cards orders. Just to mention a few sim card prices:

Telus $15

Rogers $9.99

Bell $10

Fido $10

Will you get the charge refunded from those carriers upon activation? Nope.

Is it inconvenient for me to spend 20 seconds to write an email asking for the refund? Nope.

---

To be fair though

Most other carriers have an official and unofficial policy

eg Wind says they must charge for a SIM, but every dealer I have ever seen will quickly waive that to make his commission

Bell says must charge for a SIM, but then internal departments (such as SMB, BCC and even Source) will happily give it for free

In addition most prepay carriers (BYOD) will always waive the fee

[NDesai]

Guys, the sim is still FREE. The reason they are doing this is to simply not give sims for free and that doesn't even get used up. As per the actual percentage, it looks pretty bad. And by charging, percentage increased so, definitely its a good idea to keep the charge. As mentioned by @ute1978, where else you get the sim for free. Even if you loose it, you still have to pay and you don't get your money back. 

If you want spare sim to give it to your friends, you can still get your money back by emailing. If not by emailing than for sure by earning refferral rewards. PM is not stopping you to pay and get as many as you want. 

Aside from this, i believe PM will continue to offer promos like the SwimSwap that provides an opportunity to grab free spare sim to keep. 

[stonechucker]

The guys on eBay or any other service are committing fraud.  If PM offered SIMs at no cost, the people on EBay are getting people who don't understand the are free, to pay money they don't need to.

Of course, this means nothing now, as currently all SIMs are $10 refundable on activation.

maybe I won't recommend PM again.

[ute1978]

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@homer wrote:

I like the idea of charging for $10 shipping, then provide email-in-rebate. In this case, people won't be profitable if they sell PM sim cards on eBay 🙂 (I don't understand those people...) 

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Believe me they will find a way to make money out of it. Instead of $6.50 they will probably ask for $15 or something like that.

[homer]

I like the idea of charging for $10 shipping, then provide email-in-rebate. In this case, people won't be profitable if they sell PM sim cards on eBay 🙂 (I don't understand those people...) 

[stonechucker]

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@ute1978 wrote:

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Will you get the charge refunded from those carriers upon activation? Nope.

Is it inconvenient for me to spend 20 seconds to write an email asking for the refund? Nope.

---

Why should PM charge Afro a refundable payment upon activation.  If they're giving the money back, don't ask for it in the first place!

Too many complications as it is right now reading the forums, why add another possible crack in the screen?

[ute1978]

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@chreds wrote:

Not sure how you agree with Public's decision since it adds only inconvenience to you with no benefit.

---

As simple as this: Every other carrier charges for sim cards orders. Just to mention a few sim card prices:

Telus $15

Rogers $9.99

Bell $10

Fido $10

Will you get the charge refunded from those carriers upon activation? Nope.

Is it inconvenient for me to spend 20 seconds to write an email asking for the refund? Nope.

[jheili99]

I agree with removing the 10.00 shipping charge for the following reasons:

1. since I live in Vancouver, replacement cards take a while to arrive here thus I always keep a spare card just in case ( my family has 3 lines @ 120.00 each ) as there is no store where I quickly could get a card if something would happen to mine

2. refering a friend would be much easier if I already have a few cards to give to them and help them to activate it.... if you have to ask them first to order to card themselves they will go somewhere else because mostly people need an activated card quickly

3. not many people have heard of PM yet ( especially in the Greater Vancouver area )...explaining them that there will be no phone tech support makes them already being scared a little....asking them to go online, pay with a credit card to order a card, having to wait 5-10 days for the card and then using again a credit card to prepay will change most people's mind very quickly especially when readingin this forum about multiple failed activation attemps from other users.....

in short: charging a refundable 10.00 might increase your activation % but will not increase your customer base because probably 60-80% of potentially new customers will have 2nd thoughts thus costing PM more then the cost for a sim card......

[chreds]

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@ute1978 wrote:

I personally understand the reason and agree with the new decision about keeping the charge for sim cards. The printing and delivery of sim cards is not free for PM but costly if people keep ordering sim cards and not activate them.  Imagine the guy on Amazon, who orders sim card after sim card to make profit of something that used to be free.  But maybe nobody buys them....This decision now will hopefully put the brakes on this unfair venture on Amazon.

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There are ways to address that concern-- limit # of SIM cards per address per year or something. Even the current method of only shipping one at a time limits this to an extent.

60% activation rate seems quite reasonable. I imagine many would eventually become activated.

The "unfair venture" on Amazon does nothing to hurt Public. If they gain a customer at the cost of mailing + shipping a SIM they've accomplished what they wanted to-- they activated a new customer. This is worth much more than the cost of shipping 2 SIMS even if one goes to waste.

Whether that person paid for the SIM on Amazon or ordered it from Public is irrelevant if your main goal is to gain new subscribers. If people can't find Public's SIM cards (the reason they are buying on Amazon when they were had free at publicmobile.ca?) that's a different fault of Public's.

Not sure how you agree with Public's decision since it adds only inconvenience to you with no benefit.

[ute1978]

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@chreds wrote:

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@David_J wrote:

When we changed the process and started to charge and rebate the $10 for the SIM card, the percentage being activated increased significantly. There’s something to be said about having a bit of skin in the game which is why we have decided that, for now, we will continue to charge $10 per SIM with a rebate upon activation.

---

Of course the percent would be higher. But you really should be looking at total activations not %. And you'd need to adjust for other factors such as your new price points which would have increased activations.

I think this is a very poorly thought out decision by Public. I also like to keep a spare SIM for giving to friends, etc. but will not be doing this anymore.

Very poor activation process IMO to be collecting $10 and requiring manual process to get the $10 back.

Please re-think this through-- you're making the wrong long term decision. You WANT your SIM cards to be as accessible as possible to encourage new activations... Free is what will do that.

---

I personally understand the reason and agree with the new decision about keeping the charge for sim cards. The printing and delivery of sim cards is not free for PM but costly if people keep ordering sim cards and not activate them.  Imagine the guy on Amazon, who orders sim card after sim card to make profit of something that used to be free.  But maybe nobody buys them....This decision now will hopefully put the brakes on this unfair venture on Amazon.

[chreds]

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@David_J wrote:

When we changed the process and started to charge and rebate the $10 for the SIM card, the percentage being activated increased significantly. There’s something to be said about having a bit of skin in the game which is why we have decided that, for now, we will continue to charge $10 per SIM with a rebate upon activation.

---

Of course the percent would be higher. But you really should be looking at total activations not %. And you'd need to adjust for other factors such as your new price points which would have increased activations.

I think this is a very poorly thought out decision by Public. I also like to keep a spare SIM for giving to friends, etc. but will not be doing this anymore.

Very poor activation process IMO to be collecting $10 and requiring manual process to get the $10 back.

Please re-think this through-- you're making the wrong long term decision. You WANT your SIM cards to be as accessible as possible to encourage new activations... Free is what will do that.

[stonechucker]

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@David_J wrote:

Hey Community,

As you know, in order to be prepared for the possibility of a Canada Post strike, we made some changes to the SIM card ordering process. The change to charge customers $10 (with a rebate upon activation) for a SIM card was initiated by the strike possibility, however we discovered something very interesting. When the SIM cards were available without charge, only 60% were being activated after they were received. When we changed the process and started to charge and rebate the $10 for the SIM card, the percentage being activated increased significantly. There’s something to be said about having a bit of skin in the game which is why we have decided that, for now, we will continue to charge $10 per SIM with a rebate upon activation.

As a reminder, here is a summary of how the new process works:

• Order the SIM card online (as per the usual process).

• There will be a charge for courier shipping. However, the shipping charges will be rebated to the method of payment you used to pay the shipping charges. Please note that we now offer PayPal as a payment option.

• To request your rebate, email rebate@publicmobile.ca with your SIM order number and your Public Mobile phone number. We’ll issue your rebate to the same method of payment for the shipping charges within 7 days of the email being received.

For any other questions, please contact us here [https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help] or message one of our Public Mobile Moderators here on the Community.

Thanks!

Public Mobile Community team

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Okay... So it was edited on Friday... Very hard to find when *most* people when reading multi page forums only look at new posts.

i will be suggesting going back to regular postal service mail, or removing the requirement altogether for the $10 payment, if PM continues to ship via courier.

it obviously doesn't concern PM about whether a SIM was activated or not previous, why the concern now?

i want to suggest my friends switch to PM, and I want to be able to give them a SIM right away.