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

[jemulock]

I'm currently on the $40/month 5G 75GB plan and after autopay/referral/loyalty is applied, I end up at $28/month.

The 240GB 'bonus' data has been deposited.

I lived with the $25/month 3G 1GB plan for 4 years and only upgraded in December 2023 to a 5G plan. 

If I downgrade to the $15/month 3GB plan, will the 240GB of data remain? Would it become 240GB at 3G speed? If yes, so be it...I'll ride it out for the 150 days and then look elsewhere.

[Gavin_K]

I'm very sorry to hear that you are going forward with this change. I always expected this change when public points was launched but was happy the company chose to keep prior users on the superior system as a nod to being loyal this far. 

Public points, while trying to seem more user friendly and beneficial ends up being more costly to all, but also is confusing and less user friendly. Where I am definitely unhappy with the change, there are a few suggestions that can improve the actual application of public points. 

1. Auto apply points on a regular basis so that I don't have to worry about logging in. It creates an unnecessary step which is more work than any other plan regardless of price. 

2. The family having been with the company for  5 years, even post switch to points, I was happy to refer when I thought there was value. Most people still won't switch, but I became a good source of publicity for public mobile. You should consider removing the new referral cap.

3. Thanks to the application of points vs. dollars, it becomes harder to share with others the actual value of the platform as they don't understand there can be some rewards (even though many are disappearing). It would be better to put your actual bottom dollar price and market this. Trying or not, confusing with points vs. price isn't trendy. And great 1pp=$1, but you'll have to keep saying this until the end of time which is a pain for everyone. 

4. (Bonus) Even if points are the go forward system, it would still be nice to get a real loyalty bonus, that stacks instead of this 10 points for 12 months crap. And if you can't stack it, be real and give us 12 for 12. We're getting shafted with this price hike and it's a relatively small gesture that would help all public mobile users.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Stelawrat]

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@pm-smayer97 wrote:

Something that has been noted but to make this VERY CLEAR, if you have referrals, and therefore are getting Referral rewards, you will VERY LIKELY lose some, as they choose to leave due to this change.

Be prepared for significantly more expense, beyond just losing the Loyalty and Auto-Pay rewards.

---

I don't have referrals but I feel sure that you're right. I can imagine a domino effect, disillusioned referrals who may have also referred others, all of whom are now reconsidering. It could really... I used a time honoured term here & when I posted it was changed to *bleep*? It was a weather related term, involving snow. 🤔

[mikasik2]

Rug pull

[felixwang118]

Really depends on what they will do for goodwill... but looks like I'm taking me and my 4 referrals I pay for elsewhere.

A sad day for PM and for Canada indeed

[EdN]

Will I automatically get the 1 point per month of loyalty added to my account or do I have to do this manually when I am forced to move to the point system?

[nport]

Can't believe that Public Mobile is screwing over loyal customers like this. I have been with PM for over 4 years and I used to always try to convince friends and family to join - my plan cost is now going to jump by almost $10 dollars a month I will definitely be switching carriers

[Nashocheese]

It gets removed?

[Nashocheese]

I have absolutely no interest in this NEW points system, this is why I never opted to change in the first place. Seriously considering cancelling my plan as this just looks like a greedy play by public mobile. 

1. How can you just change the agreement without our consent? I'm pretty sure you can't. 

2. In what world would you think this is a good idea? 

[Stelawrat]

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@kistarla wrote:

So my plan will essentially be increasing $7/month with the switch to points. I’ve been pretty happy with PM despite some annoyances here and there (EverSafe, certain plans only being available to new activations, etc.), but BECAUSE of the rewards, I was happily locked in. Now I’ll definitely not hesitate to switch should a better option open up elsewhere.

In general I hate and avoid point systems and if it’s true you need to accrue 15 points before you can redeem a bill credit, it’s even more useless to me.

Is there anyone else who still hasn’t received a text or email about this yet? Aside from the occasional text about CRTC complaints, and 2FA codes, I never hear a peep from PM and always have to come to the forums to read about any changes.

---

I know it sounds really obvious, but still, maybe the email you're using isn't the one you used to activate your PM account. Also the old, check your spam folder... 

I received the Points change email yesterday. I get those same text messages as you do, but haven't received one about this change. 

[dabr]

@Chalupa_Batman    I've not tagged or mentioned J_PM in this thread at all and I don't think I've seen too many others do that either (although haven't read every post, obviously).   I think most of us understand this decision was taken by executives making big fat salaries...

[golffan]

If you use the mobile PM app (at least on android), and if you login, and go to My Rewards, the description of the Anniversary points says 1 month = 1 point when you switch over.  Any money this will get fixed, and will be removed.

[Chalupa_Batman]

Hello Folks. Let's not crap on @J_PM as she's merely an employee of the company who has no say in what management decides. This is above her pay grade. She's merely a conduit for information from the powers that be.  I am in no way defending Public Mobile on this poor decision. 

[eJonavin]

The diagram also said "upto 2 per month" fir referrals 

[Stelawrat]

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@hTideGnow wrote:

HI @Stelawrat 

if you have enough credit or available funds, you still don't have to login to make payment

if you don't have enough, then you can set autopay

but with the rewards, yes, you have to keep checking and make manual redeem to change 15 points to $15

---

Thank you! I really hope that you're right re: the credit balance being applied to plan payments, without having to log in & apply it, especially for those who have really big credits left to redeem. 

I'm okay because I've always used autopay. Also, I have no big credits to worry about. 

[Salvo1]

Maybe this new point thing is a early April Fool's joke !!!!!!!!!!

[edwincanada1]

The old reward program was what kept us at PM. I will look around to port out my 4 lines.

[pm-smayer97]

Something that has been noted but to make this VERY CLEAR, if you have referrals, and therefore are getting Referral rewards, you will VERY LIKELY lose some, as they choose to leave due to this change.

Be prepared for significantly more expense, beyond just losing the Loyalty and Auto-Pay rewards.

[Soon-ex-PM-user]

To access data (no voice or text), I use Truphone and I know a few people use  Airalo for travelling outside of Canada.  There are a lot of options out there:

https://forums.redflagdeals.com/roaming-sims-esims-travelers-2183565/

[pm-smayer97]

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@pm-smayer97 wrote:

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@Dunkman wrote:

@GrumpyDad 

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@GrumpyDad wrote:

So all your old monthly referral credits go away and reset to zero, or they are gong to start you with equivalent points?  

---

Rewards

Loyalty- $4.00

Subscription- $2.00

Refer-a-Friend- $1.00

---

In the new points system, there are no autopay/subscription rewards ($2/month) or monthly loyalty rewards (ie. $4/month).  Your refer a friend rewards will stay the same.  1 point/month.  

You will get 5% back in points with your plan cost and each anniversary year (date when you sign up), you will get 10 loyalty points. 

Every 15 points can be cashed out as bill credit of $15. 

---

Actually, you need a min of 15 points to redeem, but can redeem any amount above that. You do not need to redeem in increments of 15 points.

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Regardless, the points system is lipstick on a pig.... yuck!

[dabr]

Hmm...interesting that this thread with over 15000+ views and over 400 replies doesn't appear in the "Trending Topics" section.   I wonder why...

[Wolfcore]

They know this of course, and that's the reason for the change. They make far more profit with the new points system, so that's why they're getting rid of the old one. The only question is how many customers will they lose because of this decision, and will those customers ultimately cost them more in the end.

We've seen plenty of examples of this in the past with other companies. They always assume that the backlash won't be enough to affect the insane amount of profit they'll be making from the change, but often times it's the complete opposite, and the negativity alone creates a ripple effect, causing them to crater.

[pm-smayer97]

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@Dunkman wrote:

@GrumpyDad 

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@GrumpyDad wrote:

So all your old monthly referral credits go away and reset to zero, or they are gong to start you with equivalent points?  

---

Rewards

Loyalty- $4.00

Subscription- $2.00

Refer-a-Friend- $1.00

---

In the new points system, there are no autopay/subscription rewards ($2/month) or monthly loyalty rewards (ie. $4/month).  Your refer a friend rewards will stay the same.  1 point/month.  

You will get 5% back in points with your plan cost and each anniversary year (date when you sign up), you will get 10 loyalty points. 

Every 15 points can be cashed out as bill credit of $15. 

---

Actually, you need a min of 15 points to redeem, but can redeem any amount above that. You do not need to redeem in increments of 15 points.

[Frank_M]

Quite honestly, I would love to see two public mobiles. One with the old points system exclusively and one with the new system.

Bets on which one would have more customers?

If they really looked at this topic as a benchmark they would see they had some of the most loyal customers in the business. All that is gone now, they should have gotten rid of the new points system, nobody cares two bits about it.

[specialK]

When the points program was announced, I think many of us knew a forced change was inevitable. I personally was thinking it wouldn't happen this soon, but it would be at least a bit naïve to expect to stay on the legacy rewards system forever.

I'm just appalled at how horribly this is being handled, it's honestly disrespectful as a customer.

For starters, it's not even being communicated well. I haven't even received any emails or texts about this yet, it's only through online forums that I've found out. It seems some users are receiving the data bonus text without the email and are wondering what's going on.

It's been mentioned in this thread before, but previously, if you switched from the legacy rewards to the points program, you would receive 1 point for every month that you had been with Public up until then. As far as I can tell, this is no longer the case. Seriously, if someone switched over last week, they'd be better off. As someone said, it's salt in the wound.

Instead, the consolation is a useless pool of data. People are generally on plans that suit their needs. I don't think there is anyone quadrupling their data usage for 5 months without drastically changing their browsing habits. The majority of those on more recent plans with 20GB+ don't even use anywhere near enough data for the add-on to kick in. Data add-ons were at least useful for plans with low or no data when they didn't expire, for the outlier month where data usage was a bit higher.

It's clear these decisions were not made with customers in mind. I will be porting out in the near future, and there would need to be significant changes for me to even reconsider.

I remember when I signed up for Public Mobile, the cell kiosk employee asked me why I wanted Public Mobile and not one of the competitors with customer service and free SIMs and the answer was easy: the rewards. It's funny that it will be the same reason for leaving.

[pm-smayer97]

Or when they tried to increase the price of the $40 for 4GB data that they said would never change?

They got an ear-full and had to backtrack with tail between their legs!

[golffan]

Are they moderating this thread?  I now have 2 replies which showed up after hitting post, but now have been deleted.  They are also not showing up in my user profile.

(and the posts I made werent controversial??, all they did was mention that 1 month = 1 point is still all over the PM website, yet we arent getting any points)

[pm-smayer97]

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@fixin wrote:

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@pm-smayer97 wrote:

SO unhappy about this! I have 5 plans for our family and so will be losing over $25/mon overall! The old rewards program is the ONE thing that has kept us here all these years!

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Public Mobile is the only one with a well built rewards system like this.

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"was" the only one....

[Stelawrat]

I'm not that tech savvy, but it seems to me like this is a lot of extra coding, extra file maintenance for PM than under the old system. I guess it's more cost effective, but still seems so convoluted.

I imagine they're guessing a lot of people will just go along with it, won't bother redeeming points for useless features & won't have the patience to wait months on end to redeem them towards a plan payment. 

When the big companies swallow up the little guys, there's not a lot that consumers can do. Lobby our governments to tighten the rules I guess; a super slow process...

[dabr]

PM has always sold itself as the self serve provider with an online self serve model which allowed them to pass on the "savings" from hiring real time phone support vs the ticketing process (which can be time consuming depending upon the day, plus the need to login to respond).  

With this announcement putting the final nail in the coffin with the elimination of all the features, over the last couple of years, that once made it attractive to stay and willing to put up with the online support  (community/agents which was mostly good most days), there really is little reason for customers to stay now.   Of course, for some it might take a few months or more in order to use up as much of their account credits and/or their purchased/gifted data and mins as possible (myself included), especially for those on the lower tier plans.

Looking at alternatives, it seems I could be saving (once these changes are completed) at least $60/year by going with a competitor's annual plan that offers unlimited nationwide calling/texting plus 4GB data.  Multiply that by two lines currently active, then the savings double.  This competitor also offers an annual $25 referral bonus for both parties each year, although I haven't read enough to know if this only for the first year or not. 

I expect to port out one line by autumn as it only has some purchased/gifted US/international minutes left on it.  The so called bonus data is not enough to offset the savings and the annual data allotment available from the competitor is also a better fit since PM has eliminated roll over data and purchasing more at current prices/time limit is not suitable for us either.

However, I think PM's recent offerings of data packed plans at $35+ range are very competitive and don't see as much of an exodus from those customers except, perhaps, for those who upgraded thinking they were going to paying much less than will once legacy rewards are removed.

Oh well, all good things come to an end I suppose..