Upcoming Changes to our Old Rewards Program

[J_PM]

Hey Community,

We have an important announcement to share with our subscribers who are currently enrolled in our old Rewards program.

We’re making changes to our rewards program and are sharing how these changes impact some of our subscribers. Starting in May, we’ll be retiring our old Rewards program and moving all subscribers to our Public Points™ program. 

We launched the Public Points™ program in January 2022 to provide our subscribers with more ways to earn and spend rewards, with greater flexibility. As part of our commitment to continuously evolve our products and services, it's time to retire our old Rewards program and shift our focus on enhancing our Points program.

To show our appreciation for your continued loyalty, subscribers on our old Rewards program will receive a special thank you. We'll send you a text message when it has been added to your account by March 31st. 

We’re excited to continue providing you, our valued subscribers, more opportunities to earn and spend rewards with Public Points™ moving forward.

To learn more about your move to Public Points, check out our FAQ here.

The Public Mobile Team

[jor123]

Massively disappointing for loyal customers who have been around for a long while and referred multiple people to PM. 

[HALIMACS]

Extremely disappointing @J_PM - we implore you to take these user comments back to the 'higher-ups' and please stop the change.

Let’s be clear folks, Public Mobile did not have to do this.  They could have retained the Legacy Rewards program for their loyal customer base who built it's success over the past 10 years.

By discarding their customers earned loyalty over the years, they are effectively saying we don’t matter as much as we did before.   Imagine a company saying that, and then trying to wordsmith key messages surrounding Public Points as if it's even remotely as beneficial.

Of course, it's not - they know it and we all know it.

Yet, here we are.

[Meow]

---

@Trixxstrr wrote:

Ya, definitely going to look at moving after this. I'm a $15 a month customer, so looking around I see Freedom Mobile has a yearly prepay for $120 a year with 15GB/year which would be cheaper ($10 a month) and I would have more data than I do here.

---

This Freedom thing is interesting!

I never considered moving from PM. I am on $15 plan as I (we) need mobile phone(s) as emergency phone(s) and stay in touch with my better half while I do grocery shopping or we are in some big-box store (using SMS).

I do not use data at all. Like never. I do not use phone for social bs sites or to watch movies. Thus data 'gift' is meaningless to me 1000%. I still have holidays gifts from past years untouched.

Instead of being negative, lets be constructive and create a list of ALL mobile service providers offering the LOWEST rate for very basic phone service and unlimited SMS. That might help those on $15 plan as there IS a reason WHY these people (including myself) have that basic plan.

I am sure folks on higher plans have different lifestyle and needs so if they leave PM will feel a hit.

Somebody suggested more involvement in Community to earn points. HOW is that supposed to work if suddenly hundreds of eager participants in a quest for few points start answering posts with very similar wording???
Oracles will be spending ALL their life removing redundant posts. Good luck to them!

Again, lets make a list of providers offering lowest rates and with clear head discuss pro and cons staying or leaving PM.

[Bryan316]

My reason to stay with PM is being removed, sadly.

[Arzed]

Not impressed. If I  want points I’ll buy gas and groceries. Give me the discounts and keep your lame points program 

[Eddie16271]

This is disrespectful to your loyal customers. I'm switching the moment this change applies. How can you say "focus on enhancing our points program further for our subscribers". What a load of baloney!

[Abhishek8]

For a lot of us, the loyalty discount and auto subscription discount was the main reason for staying. Fizz looks like an interesting alternative, they have roll-over data for 2 months and more flexible plans.

[MikeyMcP1]

Well, the going rate for 20GB 4G plans is $29/month. As a long-time customer, I cannot get that with Public Moblie but new members can? Does that make any sense? I guess I will go somewhere else.

[CalvinW]

You already limit most promo plans to new customers already but guess that’s not enough. You just had to directly target your loyal customers. How does a carrier go down hill so fast? Guess Public Mobile will show you. Literally no reason to stay. I was already having a headache dealing with your lack of customer support. Peace out like all your old customers. 

[ShawnC13]

---

@EdN wrote:

A 5% points back payment is based on how much you pay after your referral deduction etc.

---

This is incorrect, as nothing is credited against your plan price at all.  So if you are on the $34 plan you get 1.7 points. 

[EdN]

A 5% points back payment is based on how much you pay after your referral deduction etc.

[mrsblondee]

I guess it was a matter of time before they forced this change. Was good while it lasted for those on legacy rewards.

[MikeyMcP1]

Another aggravating factor is that new Public Mobile members can get my plan at $5 cheaper a month. Why can't I get that price?

[mojorising]

@J_PM thanks for the 5 years of service. I'm getting my Lucky Mobile sim card tomorrow.

[ShawnC13]

---

@Y4J259 wrote:

Am I correct in my understanding:

I will lose $50/yr from loyalty, and lose another $24/yr from auto-pay? This is another way of saying you are increasing my plan by $7/month, with no additional value? 

All my referrals will be collected as points, so you will make me log in EVERY SINGLE MONTH to convert my points to credit, and you intentionally will not allow this to happen automatically? 

The "gift" is a well-calculated joke. You know perfectly well that most users will not use that, especially users on the 50/75/100GB plans. 

The only "gift" would be for PM to have the option for legacy customers to move to a $27/mo 50GB CAN US plan. 

---

@Y4J259 pretty much but the $2 autopay discount is offset by the 5% ppints back for plan price.  BUT you need to be a $40 price plan or higher to get equivalent points

[Zaros]

No wificalling, no international roam, no rollover, no international calls... Yeah, cancelling without old rewards. Loyalty discount and auto subscription discount were the only thing that made switching to other carriers not worth it.

[Amped]

Sounds about right!

[Soon-ex-PM-user]

what if your 3 referrals decide to leave?  Have you take this into account as your referral friends may also leave due to crappy new point reward system? 

If this is the case you may lose the $3 referral monthly completely

[MikeyMcP1]

Although I don't like it, I want to understand it. I have a $34 per 30-day plan.

So right now I am saving $4 (4 years loyalty) + $2 (auto-pay) + $3 (3 friend referrals) = $9 per 30 days.

Under the new plan:

$1.70 ($34 x 5%) + $0.83 ($10 per year / 12 months) + $3 (3 friend referrals) = $5.53

The difference is $3.47 per month or $41.60 per year. I also have to log in to actually use my points too.

Are my calculations correct?

FIZZ looking quite affordable...

[atonz]

Not impressed that PM is targeting loyal customers. I will return the favour and port out my family lines

[Lar1]

Thanks for the info on the yearly plan for Freedom Mobile

[danbeau]

Not good... I'm definitely going to consider moving elsewhere. I've been a PM happy & loyal customer for the last 4 years but not willing to pay $7 more per month. I think Fizz will be having lots of new customers.

[eJonavin]

Yearly plan is great. I have 3 of them now and will probably move my last line there. The reception has been good.

[eJonavin]

This is bad news.  I used to have 4 lines with PM. Now down to my last line. Now you don't even give me any reason to stay.  This is effectively a price hike.

[Trixxstrr]

Ya, definitely going to look at moving after this. I'm a $15 a month customer, so looking around I see Freedom Mobile has a yearly prepay for $120 a year with 15GB/year which would be cheaper ($10 a month) and I would have more data than I do here.

[MandyJS]

This feels scummy. You give us a "good deal" to convince us cheaper customers to pay more for our phone plans. We think hard about upgrading because it's quite a bit more than we'd already been spending, but the deal seems good with our discount. So we make the plunge and go for the more expensive plan and then right after, you take away our discounts, forcing us to pay even more than we'd budgeted for?

And then as a "thank you", your only compensation is a data add-on that will expire, when many of us upgraded to a higher data plan and will likely never use that "gift"?

I'm so glad they clearly value our loyalty.

Already "shopping around" to see what's available. No point being loyal to a company if they don't appreciate it.

[Lar1]

So now there really is no reason to stick around with PM since they don't value loyalty.  No more putting up with the chat bot for answers, no more time wasted.  No more telling people how good PM treated it's customers and trying to get them to convert.  Not just myself but family will now consider the options. 

[kyle12]

To enhance our rewards offering and ensure we’re providing the best possible value to our subscribers, we’re moving everyone on our old rewards program to the Public Points™ program.

Sounds like a BS reason, this whole change looks like a straight loss for the customers.

[Kristowhy]

---

@dabr wrote:

@golffan    Do you really need an official comment/reason as to why that was eliminated before this announcement?  I'd say it's very obvious as to why it's been removed..

---

Absolutely it's very clear why.  This entire legacy rewards move was done in bad faith.  I realize that PM/Telus is running a business, but there are better ways of implementing major impactful changes...many of which have been mentioned earlier in this thread.

PM seems to have adopted a "head in the sand" mentality and have created a less trustworthy and less customer friendly environment.  Remember how the data on's were quietly changed to expire after 30 days?

If this program can be retired at any time, so to can any plan.  What's next?