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

[ninjastar]

I'll say it again. This is nothing but a corporate culling to remove the low value accounts in HOPES they will recruit new customers to increase a more stable subscription base. They would rather start over with 100 new $30 subscriptions than have a mix of $15 - $25 legacy accounts. It's all about investors and balance sheets. They hope you leave, like I have today. 

[Grahank]

This is a terrible idea. I want to stay with my old rewards. I’ve built up $7 in rewards and you a going to take that away. Shame on you. I will be looking elsewhere. 

[Legacy-Max]

Dear PM directors,

This announcement is terrible... People in charge should reconcider this change.

Explanation why this is terrible:

I have been with Public Mobile for almost 5 years on the old rewards program... I have 9 referals under me currently (5-6 of them on old rewards system). When this change roll-outs, they will all see a price bump on there credit card charge and ask me questions since I was responsible for them to join this cost saving service provider. What will be my answer to keep them with your service, I don't know yet. But how I see it, is me loosing some or all of those referals accumulated over the years and being forced to switch myself to another provider since I lost all of those referals. Which is a big domino effect of people switching to better alternatives.

I have put many hours helping out to the ones I refered since I was their reference point and I was earning referal rewards because of them...

With my loyalty reward being gone and the lost of some or many refered friends and family PM might not be worth the drawbacks/hassle.

Anyways thanks PM for the almost 5 years of low cost you offered. I 🤞 that you change your mind. Beware, Domino effects can be costly.

Peace

[Kenn007]

Disappointed with this decision. Hopefully they reassess this decision that penalizes their most loyal customers. 

[nomnom]

They use these words "greater flexibility", "commitment", "evolve", "appreciation", "loyalty", "excited", "valued", "opportunities" to try to fool us. In fact, they did not explain how this new point system is worse than the legacy rewards

[sweetness_]

Dear Public Mobile,

I am writing to express my extreme disappointment and frustration regarding the recent decision to terminate the Old Rewards program. As a loyal customer of Public Mobile for over 10 years, I feel my loyalty has been disregarded.

Throughout my time with Public Mobile, I have diligently paid my bills on time and actively referred numerous friends and family members, all with the expectation of earning valuable rewards. I was truly invested in the program and am disheartened that it has been discontinued without a suitable replacement or appropriate notice.

This decision has a significant impact on my perception of Public Mobile's commitment to its long-standing customers. I urge you to reconsider this change or, at the very least, introduce a new program that demonstrates your appreciation for customer loyalty.

If this issue is not addressed, I will unfortunately be forced to reevaluate my service options and consider switching to a provider that prioritizes rewarding its dedicated customers.

[Sandalwood1]

What happens to our Christmas bonus's of data and talk time if we still have some banked? Is the gift going to be given back/expires in May ? This 'free' throw the dog a bone data bonus and 150 days then expires ?? What's with that? It should never expire or a bare minimum of at least 360 days to use it. Not sure what the Telus minions were thinking when implementing these changes for their loyal customers. The community help here will dwindle if all us legacy users flee to better providers. PM has no edge to stay now. 

[lewlno]

So much for valuing your loyal customers who have supported your growth to the market share you have today. I will be taking mine and my 4 referrals' lines to a competitor. Newsflash, you're no longer the desirable carrier you once were - the ONLY reason most of us stayed was because you valued our loyalty with this bonus (or so we thought). To add insult to injury, you've scrubbed all mention of what was available to us a week ago - 1 point credit for each month of service. That would have at least eased the pain a bit, but no. Here were are.

Some basic math for the execs - 5 lines x ~$6 increased profit = $30/mo more profit. And yet you're going to see 5 lines x ~$28 = $140/mo in revenue gone. Hope it was worth it.

[Tx88]

To the ones in charge of Public Mobile:

I do not agree to the new changes. It was promised that you weren't going to force people to the points system.

Escalate this complaint to the CRTC/CCTS or I'll file it myself.

[Salvo1]

We all got our early Christmas present  30 gig taken a way  after 150 days lol and no loyalty discounts     

Thanks for the gift public mobile !!!!

[Mattpm]

No, bring back the old rewards system. No one wants this. Forcing changes on people is awful. Also, very insulting to give us data that expires. 

Sincerely, 

Everyone 

[LiveLime]

This is disgusting... I've signed up so many people to your service. I even just upped my service with you to pay for something I won't hardly use. Can barely use 250mb let alone 50GB . 

We don't want your huge amounts of "expiring loyalty GB's" it's just a slap in the face. You will be losing tens of thousands of customers in may.

[ddkim026]

Do not implement this change

[SALONIST]

it's a common practice in some institutions where your poop is pushed back up your

[jackal68]

Like many here who are expressing their minds about the upcoming changes to the rewards that we have all enjoyed, I will also start looking to port my plans elsewhere.

Freedom seems to have some decent plans (very comparable to PM plans).  Has anyone one found other ones? 

[Soon-ex-PM-user]

welcome to the party !  Read up in some of the posts in this thread before editing your long rant 😂

[sa7375]

I signed up for PM on October 28, 2018 for the $10 plan. On May 13th 2022, an email message from PM rescinded that offer and asked me to move up to a $13 plan. I, instead, moved voluntarily up to the $15 plan. Now, in March 2024, in one fell swoop, PM rescinds all my 5 years of loyalty bonus, and the auto-pay discount.  And, so it does for the three accounts I introduced to PM.

Sadly, the trust has evaporated, and it will be increasingly difficult to believe what PM says or promises now.

[-Tim-]

This is a serious load of crap. I would bet every one of your loyal customers that have been with you for years as I have are going to lose out because of this. You are making a mistake so please reconsider.

[Wolfcore]

Yup to this.

For example, Freedom is PM's main competitor. They're always price-matching each other, or trying to beat each other out. Sure, Freedom runs on inferior towers, but this isn't as big of an issue as it used to be.

What freedom does have however, are actual humans that you can speak with, they offer "free" phone upgrades like the big guys (if that's your thing), trade in programs, etc. Their prices often beat PM as well. 

Without the old rewards program, PM isn't all that competitive. The amount of times I had to struggle with getting support from PM, or having login issues, or payment issues and accounts randomly being put on hold due to system errors, etc, is just not worth it if I'm not saving money.

Most people here don't even use the data from the higher plans either, they've only switched to them because PM kept offering more data for the same cost, so there was no reason not to. But the reality is, without the old rewards program, there are a ton of people who would save money by just going to another company and getting a plan with less data (because they don't use it anyway).

[Michael6666]

You're reasoning makes no sense. 

They clearly onboarded us with discounts into the future. Stay loyal 4 years? Get 4$ off a month. There was a cap at 5 but there was without a doubt a promise into the future for loyalty. 

[Xiaohu]

Only reason I'm staying with public mobile is the old reward system. Will move all my 4 accounts in next two months 

[Meow]

Of course your bill will go up. You will lose $1 for each year of loyalty and $2 for autopay (if you have one). Multiply that by 3 and I see $21 MORE every month (if all 3 people are 5 years with PM and have autopay).
If you have expensive plan you might benefit (a little) from 5% off from plan cost but not even close to $7 off/30 days.

[-Tim-]

Ya, I am really not onboard with this. I have been a customer for 5 years and I build up my credits to put towards my monthly bill. I currently have three accounts with you. One for me, one for my wife, and one for my daughter. If my bill goes up because of this I will be looking elsewhere for a better deal. This is definitely NOT cool!

[BeRad]

So much for loyalty! Been with PM since 2018 and have always been happy until today. I will be looking to port my number and take advantage of their offers after this blatant devaluation 

[canuckyyc]

That is exactly how public mobile was set up to work, you didn't need or never needed support, a community account needed to be created to "chat" on here. So they could be a long term customer who has never needed to chat or felt the need to interact on here.  

I rarely do it but my 4 accounts, 3 or 4 referrals are all going to look at this hard now. My $34 pays $28. The other $34 pays $24. The points system is not going to be close to that.  So you had loyal customers rewarded to push the service and sell the service and rewarded them for it then decide to pull the rug out from under them. The entire point of the system or rewards or points was due to the lower operating costs of not requiring a 24/7 call line etc. If that isnt the case, the pricing is no better than koodo/fido/fizz/freedom etc etc etc.  The PublicMobile brand is so unknown that even when I have a Telus EPP plan, they called to sell me a Telus phone plan and had no idea PublicMobile/Koodo/Telus  is the same company.

[ON4EKE_]

I totally agree. I referred seniors to PM and they in turn referred their kids and grandchildren, not only did they get an automated service, but referral credits to bring down their monthly bills automatically.

If PM goes ahead with this change, they'll be losing my business, my referrals and the cascade of their referrals.

Any recommendations on whether to file a complaint with CCTS or CRTC? 

[Boki]

---

@Soon-ex-PM-user wrote:

Thanks.  So is it ok to contact CCTS ?  or not recommend to contact CCTS according to you, Oracle ? 

---

Why would you contact cctc and whit what reason?
Private company can do whatever they want. Nobody promised you fantastic bonuses being thit publicmobile forever.

Business strategy changes. Great companies rise and fall. Remember Consumer Distributing? Future Shop? Reno Depot?

What are you going to say to cctc? public cjhanged rewards program from money to points? They are going to laugh at you and ask do yo uhave complain about their ser vice? are your calls cut off? not receiving all text? No? Then do not bother us...

[Kfckoko]

Looks like this is the end of the "PM Train" where we keep those we referred up to date with PM's latest and greatest offers.  I'm sure we're all going to find better value elsewhere now.

[Keico]

bad move PM. I will consider to other company if you change the old reward system.

[Timetripper]

Same here. I've built up a fair stash of both minutes and data over the last few years and will have to abandon them all when I move on to a new carrier. Just as a matter of principle I'm not willing to stick around what with the new points system being like a two day old stale donut and jacking my monthly bill up to almost double what it was with the old rewards system. To add insult to injury, a PM popup just hijacked my reply to your post and I had to start all over again. Definitely done with this whole lame organization. From there lame pop ups for likes on a post to the back stabbing new points system I won't miss any of this dogs breakfast that PM has become. It truly is a sad day for PM how some overpaid desk jockeys can torpedo a once viable carrier into oblivion in one fell swoop. Mic drop.