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

[EdN]

Received confirmation from CS Agent A******** that rewards customers will not be receiving 1 point per month of loyalty when migrating to the points program.  Makes a bad situation even worse.

[Clintonian1]

Search the posts for the word gong as in gong show. I have a link to reddit there. 

[ily]

This is good advice. Just sent a private message to CS_Agent about this. Let's see what they have to say.

[gRANNY23]

5+ YEAR MEMBER, will be taking my business elsewhere and reporting to CRTC. Thank you for not treating your loyal customers with any respect.

[Korth_]

@ninjastar 

It's a form of market cannibalism. The company is eating itself to gain short-term profit. Telus wants to remove a swathe of subscribers who're generally on the lowest-priced plans on the lowest-priced tier - or squeeze more revenue out of them by halting payouts - so that the remaining subscribers on generally higher-priced plans pull up the average revenue per subscriber (ARPU) at the next shareholder report. (Because you know that if Telus will gaslight its customers then it will also gaslight its shareholders. Yay, look at the numbers, we've "increased" our profits!)

Some of us will stay. Some (like me) will go. Some will eventually return. Some (like me) will stubbornly refuse to ever give Telus/etc another dime. Ever. And everyone who's dissatisfied will actively advise all their friends and family to avoid Public Mobile (Telus), instead of actively attempting to recruit referrals for Public Mobile, which is going to cost Public Mobile (Telus) more in the long run.

Telus accounting already knows exactly how much they're "losing" to Rewards. They know this is going to be an unpopular move which will stir up anger and resentment. They know they'll lose subscribers. I don't know the numbers but it's obvious their math suggests this is the best decision they can make - the question is whether this is solid math or just some ambitious managerial's bold cost-cutting idea to get a raise - and I can bet that if it's the latter then too many of us will leave, Telus will lose money, Public Mobile will be ruined forever, and somebody's gonna get fired. 

[computergeek541]

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@Antonio_Almeida wrote:

I suggest you file a complaint with the CRTC/CCTS.

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Customers should not be directed to the CRTC. They will not accept the complaint and will only say to contact the CCTS.

[Antonio_Almeida]

I suggest you file a complaint with the CRTC/CCTS.

[Antonio_Almeida]

I suggest you file a complaint with the CRTC/CCTS.

[KM123]

Complaining is good, but.... can someone please post cost saving alternative services or refer a site where we can share alternatives to move away from Public Mobile? The real public needs to organize an Exodus.

[Antonio_Almeida]

You must and should  file it yourself!  

[Lonetreejim]

It’s been a good run.  Been a Customer since May 15, 2019 but I’ll be gone on March 16, 2024.

I only use a couple GB a month (never did use up the free Christmas data gift) but the $34 plan was too sweet to pass.  After all, it would only cost me $27 after my discounts.  I know it’s only $7 but… we had an agreement.

The real show stopper for me was having to MANUALLY redeem the Bonus Points.  My life is busy enough.  I don’t need to remember to deal with my mobile provider every couple months.  Auto-pay is supposed to be hands off for both of us.  Not just for PM.

So on March 16 I’ll port to Lucky.  I hate Bell but the $29/25GB plan will meet all my needs and, with any luck, I’ll never need to interact with them any more than I have with PM.

The one ray of sunshine in this mess is I will be free to seek out the best rate for me rather than being leveraged by my service provider.

[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).