Introducing Public Points ™

[J_PM]

Hey Community,

We have some exciting news to share with the Public Mobile Community. We wanted you all to be the first to know we’re launching a new Rewards program soon - Public Points. 

Joining Public Points is optional for all existing customers. 

Your current rewards will remain the same. You’ll continue to earn in the same ways, and save the same amount. 

Once we launch the new program, all new customers will earn their rewards through Public Points.

If you’re interested in learning more about Public Points, and how you can join, we’ve provided some information below.

Why Public Points?

With Public Points, there are more ways to earn and spend rewards, making the program more flexible than before. Now you can earn and spend points how you want, when you want. You’re in control.

How does Public Points work?

Earn Points

Get rewarded in more ways than ever. Earn points just for paying your bill – for every dollar you spend, you’ll make 5% of it back in points.

Redeem points

We like to keep things simple. 1 point earned is valued at 1 dollar when redeemed - that’s it! 

Start saving

Redeem points on things that matter to you – like money off your bill, free add-ons or the chance to win awesome prizes.

Our Rewards Program has and continues to be our unique super power, by giving our customers the chance to earn even more!

Stay tuned for further details soon!

- Public Mobile Team

[coolman78]

I got an email over the weekend about this new reward.  But I never sign up or asked to be on the new reward system.  How did this happen?  How do I revert back to before?  thanks

[AE_Collector]

So I don’t know what’s going on with the new referrals numbers list either! I have had EXTREMELY low churn on referrals in my first three years here. Just the one loss at the beginning of January.

Each of my two accounts has ONE more number on the list than what it should have and the total referral credit reflects that irregularity by showing $1 less total than the number of listed referral numbers.

My last referral in my WIFE’s account (December) was starting with a new number and then going to port in an old number from a different carrier in awhile. I don’t know if that has happened yet or not but I have the original (new) 4 digit number almost at the top of the list with a new unrecognized number now appearing right above it. So maybe new and old numbers are showing for this referral customer. All other numbers listed are known as I kept careful track of all referrals.

On MY account I also am showing one extra number that wasn’t there before but I seem to recall 1-2 years ago a referral doing a number change so maybe that’s where this extra number is from.

It would be nice if they showed status or just removed the invalid stuff. And while at it… (here I go again) can we get a 20 digit field beside each referral number that we can write in what we want and it will stay attached to that referral even if they do a number change etc? We can put the full number there if we know it or the persons name or whatever we want to put to help keep track of our referrals. A couple of number changes amongst our referrals and we no longer know who is who.

AE_Collector

[darlicious]

@Korth 

Lol...you were here yesterday weren't you? Ah well you got a VIP reply!

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

[CS_Agent]

Hi @Korth,

Thank you for reaching out.  We’ve been alerted that an email was accidentally deployed to some customers in error. If you received an email confirming that you’ve joined our new Rewards program Public Points, please disregard it. 

We can confirm that joining Public Points is completely optional for all existing customers, and you have not been switched over to Public Points automatically. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Public Mobile Team. 🙂

[Korth]

In my email today ...

"Congrats, you just earned 5 points. Thank you so much for switching to our Public Points™ Rewards Program."

Excuse me?

No.

My understanding is that this was optional. An option that I certainly did not (and likely will not) ever make.

[Anonymous]

I still predict this place will fold with the on-rushing decommissioning of UMTS.

[darlicious]

@ottawa 

It's a bit like a ponzi scheme....pm didnt anticipate so many more lower plan customers $10/$15/$25 compared to higher plan users $35+ sticking around and that they are more motivated to capitalize on the other two rewards to reduce their bill even further.

With a conservative estimate of 400,000 subscribers in 2016 all due to earn the maximum loyalty reward in this year that represents $2,400,000 of incoming revenue in 2016 is now an outgoing expenditure a net loss of $4,800,000 on overall lower priced plans. If you factor in a 10% percent growth rate of 40,000 subscribers each year following this year adds $240,000 of lost incoming cash flow the net loss just continues to grow at $480,000 per year.

As per my previous post based on subscribership growth at 5% the change to the loyalty rewards to the points program combined with autopay points now a 5% rebate these two changes will offset the rewards programs revenue losses by half with 5% growth and break even if new subscribers match the 10% average growth over the last 5 years or so....keeping public mobile profitable for telus and it's investors.

This allows the other two reward categories to remain relatively untouched and still allow customers to earn substantial rewards if motivated and not affect the importance of these rewards categories and the role they play in increasing new customer activations with referrals (to pay for the ponzi scheme we enjoy the benefits of) and the community's vital role in keeping overhead and labour costs as low as possible by providing an incredible amount of customer support for pennies on the hour.

Without this drastic change in how half of the rewards are paid out so that the vast majority of pm's customer base get to keep their lucrative rewards and cheap plans on Canada's best network for longer than 5 years.....and beyond? Is the price new customers will have to pay rather than current customers having to pay more at a different mobile provider after public mobile files for bankruptcy.

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

[ottawa]

That's how I read it. There is absolutely no reason to switch from the existing rewards program to the new (which is why it's optional*). (One exception: if you're planning to bail really soon anyway since you'll get the one-time payout and wouldn't be getting a decent Loyalty Bonus anyway, but I assume no one is) If my relative switched today, breakeven would be some time in late 2023 (<2yr), and after that they'd be worse off. They're on the $25 plan, 5yr Loyalty bonus and $92 one-time Loyalty points.

I take it as a given that the Points can be redeemed to pay your bill, same as credit card Rewards programs (e.g. TD Rewards can redeem to pay your bill, or for gift cards, experiences, etc.). And I'm also 100% sure that any existing credit balance on the account will be carried over, that's different from the "bill credits" that they refer to disappearing (that's Loyalty Rewards, etc.).

*I have no inside info at all but I assume at some point they'll evict us from the existing plan; my over/under is 5 years but I could see it being sooner like 3 years.

[LeePublic]

So what does that mean? No ongoing 1pt per month, but you'll get a 10 pt anniversary reward? Wow, that's even worse than I thought. I will definitely not switch to this PM Points for as long as the old rewards system is in place.

[ottawa]

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@pm-smayer97 wrote:

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So they hopefully learned to grandfather plans/programs better. That was just from ONE plan. Could you imagine the backlash from all the people that signed up because of the current/old Rewards program only to be switched automatically? Not likely to happen. That would likely erode confidence in PM irreparably.

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IMHO, not so much learned to grandfather better, as learned not to over-promise. The problem with the $40 issue was that they promised "it will never change". Like with the new program, where we have 30 days to correct any errors, but they give themselves forever.

[ottawa]

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@pm-smayer97 wrote:

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Almost correct: Loyalty is now broken into 2 parts.... $1/mo + $10/yr... both fixed.

 Though the $10/yr is ongoing and the $1/mo is one-time.

[ottawa]

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@pm-smayer97 wrote:

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You got it mostly right, except not sure where you get the $92 one-time Loyalty Bonus. And not sure if PM will be giving out fractional points. That part is not clear to me yet.

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I got the $92 from my relative's account (same as the screencap of $10 Anniversary bonus in May 2022 I posted upthread). Telus counts them as a member since May 2014 and the one-time Loyalty bonus is months with PM. For them it's $92. Here's a screen capture. It also shows the 1.25pt (5% of $25) which I infer means they're tracking fractional points. 

[softech]

Be positive.. maybe the reward catalogue is great and the a daily iPad draw   🙂

[darlicious]

@DMC 

No you have it right. The new customer gets 0 one time loyalty points+5 start up bonus points +  the 10 loyalty points after one full year + 10 points every year after so a total of 55 points at 5 year anniversary where as you would have 58+55=113 points. Where as in 5 years and two months or rather in two months you will have collected $180 in loyalty rewards and will collect a further $300 in the next 5 years=$480 If you switched in two months after 5 years $$ rewards will give you $185 more than your points would at 115 and $250 more in the next 5 years vs 50 points.

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

[DMC]

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@pm-smayer97 wrote:

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@DMC wrote:

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Hmm, if it really is only a fixed $10 a year now for loyalty, then that's an awful and drastic change because I'm about to hit 5 years in March to earn $60 a year.  Losing $50 a year by switching is not worth it at all.  I guess the one time switching points is supposed to entice you of which I would earn 65 points, so would be temporarily ahead, but it'll be wiped out too fast losing $50 a year.

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Yes, it is only a FIXED $10/yrs Anniversary bonus and fixed $1/mon Loyalty. So switching is not really beneficial for anyone that has been with PM for more than 22 month...If you have one of the plans over $40, then the numbers change a little but not much.

See my analysis here: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Introducing-Public-Points/m-p/777931/hi...

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So I'm a little confused on your analysis because I see the loyalty part differently.  You say loyalty is broken up into 2 parts of $10 a year for anniversary and $1/month.  However, I don't read it that way.  I only see the fixed $10 a year anniversary plus a ONE TIME loyalty bonus for every month you've been with PM for existing customers.  Currently for me that's 58 months, so I get a one time $58 bonus if I switch today.  However, this $1/month doesn't exist for new users and they will only get $10 a year for anniversary, so I'm confused where your $22/year comparison comes in.

[darlicious]

@AE_Collector 

Loyalty is the biggest loss leader so this is how pm (telus really) claws back what it has to pay its most loyal customers. Pay $10 in points after each full year. Saving $50 a year on what they would have to give up on incoming monthly cash flow per customer that they retain at the 6th year mark. If public mobile attracts 25,000 customers per year losing 1000 (4% churn rate/1.9% average)in the first year and the same in each following year that by the 6th year the 20,000 customers retained on the new points program will save pm $1,000,000 per year in loyalty reward payouts and add that to incoming cash flow along with the net gain of $600,000 in cash flow in the first 5 years of the loyalty points replacing rewards cost savings.

If on average these same customers earn on average $1 per month in autopay points with 5% in rebate points saving $20,000 and increasing cash flow by the same amount to $240,000/year and $1,200,000 after 5 years. By year 6 pm will have saved/increased cash flow by $2,040,000 and going forward will add $1,240,000 each year rather than lose that amount making it a net gain of $2,080,000 per year if they retain 20,000 of the original 25,000 customers based on double the industry average churn rate.

By increasing profitability pm can maintain the current referral rewards with an equivalent payout (referrals being an essential part of marketing, sales to gain new customers) and maintain the community reward badge $$ amounts and increase the number of badge level recipients so that earning a community reward increases slightly overall but more members can earn a higher reward making the possibility to earn those rewards seem more achievable to more members off setting the very real loss of value in autopay and loyalty rewards for new customers.

Increasing the community reward payout pool amount by as little as $100 per month ($1200/year or $6000 over 5 years) which really is a drop in the bucket when you see the increase in profit margin the trimming of the autopay and loyalty rewards achieves. So much so we may see the return of a once or twice a year bonus referral credit drive to keep attracting new customers and showing new members that they can still achieve a $0 bill it will just take a little more willing participation on their part to earn those rewards.

The revamping of pm's rewards program also puts a real value on accounts that are to be "cancelled" by way of 90 days of suspension for non payment vs accounts closed via porting out.

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

[pm-smayer97]

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@hTideGnow wrote:

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@pm-smayer97 wrote:

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 I think they learned their lesson from an incident a few years back with the $40/4G plan.

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HI @pm-smayer97   mind to share what happened?

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They tried to drop the 4G plan from LTE to 3G data after stating in the sign-up for this plan that nothing would change. There was a HUGE backlash right into the media and PM reversed course. So they hopefully learned to grandfather plans/programs better. That was just from ONE plan. Could you imagine the backlash from all the people that signed up because of the current/old Rewards program only to be switched automatically? Not likely to happen. That would likely erode confidence in PM irreparably.

[hTideGnow]

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@pm-smayer97 wrote:

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 I think they learned their lesson from an incident a few years back with the $40/4G plan.

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HI @pm-smayer97   mind to share what happened?

[CountyDownIeUk]

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@darlicious wrote:

The listed friend referrals and phone numbers are much clearer and accounts suspended via lost/stolen are listed as well. That should answer your question in regards to whether or not you lost a referral. 

@CountyDownIeUk 

This should help you with your referral that doesn't always get applied upon renewal.

To contact customer support click below:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

To pre-verify your account include your full name, address, email, phone # and 4 digit acct pin #.

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@darlicious @ae_collector and others

Things must have improved (not) in the last 9 hours. 🥴

My list has 21 numbers. 

21

-12 are truly active

- 5 I never ever had (I have kept records from day 1)

- 4 old and no longer customers. 

=====

00

And 1 old number that does not show on list. 

There is NO indication of status for any of the numbers. This is a horrible IT blunder. I can reassure you when I was in IT this would never ever happen as it would have been tested on a back up system first and then a small region before a full roll out. 

And if you read....it says This pay cycle includes:

21 numbers but refer a friend is $12. More poor wording? Shouldn’t I expect $21 as it says includes?

Also please note that refer a friend will get a $10 one time credit too.

I am not happy. 

 

[pm-smayer97]

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@Ali2019 wrote:

My understanding of the New Point Rewards system changes are for Auto pay and Loyalty only:

Auto pay - now "Points Back", instead of $2.00 off your bill, you get 5% rewards points, i.e. if your plan is great than $40/month, you are better off; otherwise the old system is better.

Loyalty - now "Anniversary rewards" - you lost $2.00 per year, as the new system gives you $10 per year instead of $1 per month, but we don't know if there is a cap or not.

There is no change to Refer-a-friend" and "Community" rewards.

Looks like  to me PM is encouraging people using their "bigger" plans, everyone will look at their own plan and figure out which system is better.

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Almost correct: Loyalty is now broken into 2 parts.... $1/mo + $10/yr... both fixed.

See complete analysis here: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Introducing-Public-Points/m-p/777931/hi...

[pm-smayer97]

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@olav1 wrote:

It is great that the two reward systems stay in place, but I fear that the $ rewards will eventually be merged into the points rewards and all $ credits will vanish with it.  Just watch the number of lawsuits claiming the $ lost !

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I suspect they thought that through since they decided to keep BOTH programs, and grandfather the old one. I think they learned their lesson from an incident a few years back with the $40/4G plan.

PLUS the new program is NOT such a HUGE savings for PM, at least not for several years.

see my complete analysis here: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Introducing-Public-Points/m-p/777931/hi...

[pm-smayer97]

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@AE_Collector wrote:

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...

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Initially my thoughts also were that at say 5 years we would receive 5 times the annual 10 points but as there is no cap mentioned at 5 years I thought this was very unlikely. The wording can be interpreted either way though I haven’t gone to check the additional info as of this morning yet.

AE_Collector

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Definitely NOT cumulative. That would be a BIG LOSS for PM and would make no financial sense for them.

[pm-smayer97]

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@olav1 wrote:

I don't think anyone with a credit on their account will join unless the credit is also carried over as points !

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For accuracy, you do get $5 of it from the Welcome bonus, but true, that is not much of an incentive, especially given the other losses.

My full analysis is here: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Introducing-Public-Points/m-p/777931/hi...

[pm-smayer97]

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@DMC wrote:

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Hmm, if it really is only a fixed $10 a year now for loyalty, then that's an awful and drastic change because I'm about to hit 5 years in March to earn $60 a year.  Losing $50 a year by switching is not worth it at all.  I guess the one time switching points is supposed to entice you of which I would earn 65 points, so would be temporarily ahead, but it'll be wiped out too fast losing $50 a year.

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Yes, it is only a FIXED $10/yrs Anniversary bonus and fixed $1/mon Loyalty. So switching is not really beneficial for anyone that has been with PM for more than 22 month...If you have one of the plans over $40, then the numbers change a little but not much.

See my analysis here: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Introducing-Public-Points/m-p/777931/hi...

[pm-smayer97]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

Now that the complete information is up on the homepage, I strongly suspect that the feedback from the userbase is going to be really bad.   One thing that Public Mobile did get right was make this new program optional for existing customers.  A forced migration would have caused some customers to leave for another carrier. 

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The way I see it is that the biggest loss is on the Loyalty/Anniversary Rewards. BUT it takes a while compared to the current old program. So any new customers won;t feel the impact of it for almost 4 years before they start to lose out.

It is only "bad" for existing customers if they are beyond the 22 month cross-over point.

See my analysis here: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Introducing-Public-Points/m-p/777931/hi...

[pm-smayer97]

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@DMC wrote:

I guess we need clarification on the loyalty part because I'm reading it differently from some of you guys who are reading it as only a fixed 10 points or $10 a year.

Happy Anniversary Earn 10 points for every 12 months you stay with us. Think of it as an anniversary present, except you don't have to get us anything.

However, I read it as 10 points for every 12 months as a cumulative number. So if you've been with them for 4 years, that's 4 sets of 12 months for 40 points or $40 a year.  ...

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It is definitely NO cumulative! That would be a LOSER for PM.

[pm-smayer97]

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@ottawa wrote:

Thanks for the directions. I don't see any way it's worth changing for an existing customer, certainly not on the lower plans (and I suspect not even on the $70). I looked at one family member's account on the $25 plan, and it says they'll get (note I've referred to $ not points, hoping the points can be converted to bill credits):

• $5 one-time Welcome bonus for switching to Public Points
• $92 one-time Loyalty bonus (counted from Telus takeover in May 2014, they've been a customer since the CDMA days)
• $36/yr ($3/mo) ongoing for 3 Friends instead of $36/yr ($3/mo) for 3 Friends 
• $15/yr ($1.25/mo being 5% of $25) ongoing Cashback instead of $24/yr ($2/mo) for Autopay
• $10/yr ongoing Anniversary bonus in May instead of $60/yr ($5/mo) Loyalty bonus

Do I have that right? Looks to me like a no-brainer to stay on the old plan, after a year they'd be up $97 and down $59 (net +$38). Ongoing they'd just be down $59 each year (net -$21 after year 2)? Breakeven less than 18 months then a net loss after that. Nice PM is even letting us stay on existing, I imagine they'll evict us all after a few years (I'm guessing 5 years, 2027).

Easy enough to say "don't switch to Public Points" but it's going to make it harder to convince friends to switch to PM, the old sales pitch was "it's really $13/mo which is cheaper than Lucky for the same thing, plus unlimited incoming calls, and the monthly fee will go down by $1/mo every year until it's only $8/mo if you stick around for 5 years". Maybe it was too generous before, but  😞

=aw

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You got it mostly right, except not sure where you get the $92 one-time Loyalty Bonus. And not sure if PM will be giving out fractional points. That part is not clear to me yet.

The way I read your numbers, I see getting $5 one-time sign-up and $61/yr thereafter on the new program vs $120/yr on the old program, so yes, down $59.

[CS_Agent]

Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out.  We’ve been alerted that an email was accidentally deployed to some customers in error. If you received an email confirming that you’ve joined our new Rewards program Public Points, please disregard it. 

We can confirm that joining Public Points is completely optional for all existing customers, and you have not been switched over to Public Points automatically. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Public Mobile Team. 🙂

[hTideGnow]

HI @Ali2019   Yes, look like no change to Friend Referral and Community Reward

As  Telus/PM point of view, it makes sense.  They shouldn't give the same amount of reward to $15 and $70 plans.  Also, by doing that, they eliminate many "Free" services.

[smp99]

For all the negativity - it's still way better than other prepaid services in this country. If Lucky Mobile or Chatr were adding this to their service people would be crazy excited for this.

I am not switching.