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

[Zahir_h]

They should go to a company which actually has customer service for the same price as PM

[Haus973]

Forcing long term customers to log in every single month to utilize a fraction of the benefits they’ve previously enjoyed just seems like a terrible business decision in terms of customer retention.

Decreased convenience and increased prices. PM is essentially self-service, now we have another task to do?

I don’t want to switch. I’ve been with PM since 2016 and have been happy with the coverage and plans, but I’d really rather not have to set a monthly reminder to log-in to save a few dollars. Other companies offer low cost, high functionality plans without this extra step. Without my loyalty bonus, why should I stay?

[Dandu31]

This is BS. You're making my bill more expensive for a crappy program that I don't want. I don't want more data. I already have way too much data that I'll never use. How about lowering the **bleep** price and removing the throttling on YouTube? What's the point of having so much data if I can't even use it because I'm throttled?

How about enabling wifi calls? 

I was staying on PM because of the rewards giving me a cheaper bill. More data does nothing to me. Is this why we got a free 240GB for 150 days? Why does it have an expiry date? Why data? I don't need data. I need a cheap service!

[mojorising]

People have the power. Your frustration is legit but PM will march on with Public points.

I used my power and I'm now with Lucky Mobile. My brother, wife and son who are also with PM will soon join me. We will use referrals that will give us a credit of $5 a month for 10 months. Someone on here was nice enough to invite me for a referral and I will eventually receive $5 a month for 10 months, in a couple of months and so will they.

They will hear when people leave. It was a nice 5 years. I had no intention of ever leaving as I had no issues with the service, but this move was the last straw.

I hope all of you find a service that meets your needs, even if that means staying with PM. Don't waste your time waiting that PM will reverse their decision.

[Tx88]

It's bait and switch.

They make you "earn" stuff like loyalty and referrals then take it away once it's time for Public Mobile to pay up.

Yeah Public Mobile can claim they can make changes whenever they want, but this loyalty thing was a deal both parties accepted. We kept our deal by staying and referring, but once it's their turn they refuse to hold their end of the bargain.

Any other business except Canadian telecoms would be held accountable.

[Spindy64]

I have been with PB since 2014, promoted & supported many friends & family. I was basically the phone tech for my parents…not the easiest thing to do let me tell you. The Community & forums are not the easiest for seniors to navigate. I spent many hours helping them out & they are happy with their choice. I earned rewards for my work, that has helped my never ending tight budget.  

The rewards & locked in phone plans make PB a stand out. Your bait & switch in 2018 to change the phone plans blew up in your face.  You came to your senses & grandfathered those phone plans. This latest fiasco with the rewards program is looking like your going down the same path of 2018. I’m very disappointed & disgruntled in this latest decision to move to this dumb/bad idea of a points program. How could PB & its executives think this is a good idea? I want to be grandfathered in…pure & simple. I didn’t switch to the points plan in the past & have zero desire to switch in the future. 
 
PB can sell this points plan to all the new customers….& anyone I refer know this is what they sign up for. 

[Wolfcore]

Honestly, not much longer. A lot of these companies have already begun programming AI to handle not only most of their online live chat, but also phone calls as well. I was on a support call the other day, and it took me a few minutes before I was able to realize that it wasn't a human. It sounded so realistic and I was only able to figure it out when I started asking non-traditional questions lol

[hTideGnow]

HI @GKPublic 

yes, it's good at least PM is keeping the Community rewards

and @Korth_ , i think Oracles here have been doing great job

[GKPublic]

Hopefully the most helpful community members keep getting discounts. This is a great forum for getting answers, where else would people go? 

[Korth_]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

I honestly can't see them rolling this back.  I hope I am wrong but I doubt it.  When this happened those customers were only getting $2 in loyalty now they are getting $5 which is costing PM more and if they are like me am on a cheaper plan than when I started on that plan.

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I wonder when Public Mobile (Telus) will decide that $20 per Oracle is cutting too deeply into their profits ...

[Dunkman]

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@Shan_Bhai wrote:

So, the $2 autopay reward has been removed, and the 6 years of loyalty for $6 is no longer available. You now receive a $1 discount through loyalty inn points. Additionally, there used to be a $1 discount for referrals. Is that referral discount also gone?
Due to inadequate customer support and subpar infrastructure allocation by Public Mobile, I’ve decided to switch providers within a month. When I reached out to them to enable VoLTE, they lacked the expertise to do so. Interestingly, when I tested my phone on Freedom Mobile, it worked flawlessly.

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@Shan_Bhai 

Yes, with the migration to points system, you will lose $2/month autopay and $5/month loyalty.  They will be replaced with 5% back on your plan cost and 10 loyalty points/1 year (anniversary date).  

The friends referral rewards remain intact.  one friend referred equates to one point/30 day cycle as long as friend stays with Public mobile.  

Yes, the VoLTE whitelist with Public mobile is limited to certain phones and is frustrating for customers who own phones outside the list.    

[Zahir_h]

When PM stated there were no plans to make a change to the old reward system back in 2022, there was no disclaimer or anything added saying subject to change/cancellation.   As this forum is the main way for PM to communicate with us and for us to communicate with them, their messaging without and disclosures can be be seen as them agreeing to not make future changes..  it's not that strong of a case, but a case can still be made to have a CCTS claim opened, and to get our voices heard, and cause financial costs to Telus/Pm for their scummy behavior 

[golfball]

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@Michael6666 wrote:

CCTS is the way to go.

Structure the request as a change to the original agreement where the discounts were progressive.

They promised 5$ off per month after 5 years and then pulled it away for some after not even reaching 5 years. Clear bait and switch if you ask me. It was a discount program that attracted many of us. 

I also asked for 50$ credit if there is no way the discounts will be reinstated.

At least it will give me a few months of credit if anything.

Public mobile, don't make forward looking promises! It's a disgusting business practice and my CCTS will hopefully, at minimum, cost you some time, money and effort to compensate my loss. 

My future provider, fizz, actually refers to never increasing plan rates in their contract as long as I don't change plan, now that's a refreshing way to do business. 

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That's an interesting point. We were told the loyalty reward would go up to $5 after 5 years as long as we stayed with PM. But my loyalty credit is only at $4 and now will never get to 5. Is that not false advertising?

[Rikusk]

What a shame, I love the old system. I will also be moving to  PC Mobile when this change goes into effect. My other family member who is on the new point system has to apply her (lower) discount every month and it gets super annoying. 

[sswilson1]

PC Mobile must be loving this. Received the PM text notification early this afternoon, had migrated my number over to PC Mobile before 5PM.

Bye, Bye PM. (Although I will admit it was good while it lasted)

[Zahir_h]

Complaint are being accepted by CCTS already.  Will there be an outcome in our favour, likely not, but we need to have our voices heard, and additional costs / fees imposed to Telus for this scummy behavior.  These cases will cause financial costs to Telus which they rightfully deserve 

[onewaypiano]

goodbye PM. 

I wasn't even able to receive verification texts outside US and Canada anyway.

and with this nerf, time to leave

[James456]

Very disappointing decision. Would rather have kept my old plan. They sucked people into the new plan for a little more money but lots more date and are immediately clawing it back by removing the rewards system. Existing and loyal customers should be grandfathered in. 

[PM10DollaGFatha]

Signed up for $10 plan in 2018 (increased to $13 in 2022) 50 texts/50 minutes/no data plan with $8 off in rewards ($2 autopay, $5 for 5+ years loyalty & $1 off for 1 referral) & your switch to Public Points is increasing the cost of my monthly bill about 2 and a half times.

Absolutely ridiculous (considering the level of service provided & used) price gouging and now this bait & switch on rewards is the last straw with me.

If Public Mobile proceeds with removing the old grandfathered loyalty rewards system that I signed up for & forces us on to the Public Points system that will jack up my bill by %250 (on top of already jacking up my bill %30 in 2022) then I & my referral will be RUNNING, not walking to switch to a non-Telus carrier ASAP.

I WAS intending to upgrade to 1 of the $34/$29 range plans at Public Mobile around Black Friday this year but no chance if this fiasco goes forward.

[Wolfcore]

Would be interesting to know how many people voluntarily switched to the new points program, from the old one (when they first released it). It has to be almost none, because it made no sense to. I know that a few people fell for the trick of it being a better system, but those must be few and far between.

The reality is, their new points system is terrible, and the only reason why they've even managed to remain competitive, is because of the plans they've been offering. 

With all of these disgruntled subscribers now, and the negative press, it's only going to get worse for them. Competitors will move in to try and scoop these people up, and if they're even fractionally more competitive with their pricing, and offering things like live support, PM will be in trouble.

[Tinop]

Yes but I actually started getting more expensive plans... Now I'll take my 4 lines that i pay for elsewhere.  Also my home services as well.

[Hdjfnxkz]

I don't like this decision, and I don't like how we don't have options to opt out.

[Tinop]

That's how they got some to switch earlier... I knew the new program wasn't good. They sure don't know their customers.  

[Meemo33]

This is completely unacceptable. Public Mobile does not value our loyalty. The Old Rewards Program was what made PM stand out among all of the other service providers. Many users and their referrals will jump ship because of this. 

[ck6]

I have been with Public Mobile since just a few months after it became Public Mobile, so long that I remember Martin.   I suspect that there may not be a whole lot of others who can say the same.

In the past, PM has grandfathered plans/raised prices.  There have been complaints but I think everyone recognizes, deep down, that these things happen in business.

The current situation is different.  For me, as others have mentioned, it is the perceived breach of trust that is most disappointing.  We were promised that we could keep our loyalty rewards.

IMO the person who dreamed up this announcement has a cord that doesn’t quite reach the outlet.  Instead of terminating loyalty rewards, PM might examine why the Points program apparently has been such a colossal failure.

[Mikep3]

Very true. They basically had their customer "locked" in to a contract by providing enough incentive for us to stay. Now everyone will just jump as soon as there is a better option.

[Mikep3]

If you cost out Freedom and a phone over a 24 month period it's basically the same price. With Freedom you get live tech support and brick and mortar stores.

[ninjastar]

Guess they didn't like my comments about how they did this with their Koodo brand too.. $6 hike

https://forums.redflagdeals.com/four-months-later-koodo-brings-6-price-increase-29-black-friday-plan...

[yelopage]

I'd like to make a complaint here: Public mobile doesn't offer a choice "not to move to the new points reward system". 

This will be my reference for my CCTS complaint.  

[Mikep3]

It doesn't matter if they promised or not. Yes, they can make any changes they see fit. 

I think the problem is that people came to Public Mobile for cheaper plans. But it was only cheaper because in turn the customer sacrificed live tech support, brick and mortar stores and having to do their own account management.

With this change they are now basically the same price as the competitors but they haven't provided us anything in return. We still do not have live tech support, brick and mortar stores and we still have to do our own account management. Not only that, we need to do even more management work to be able to redeem the points.

I think they have lost sight of the fact there are a lot of services they don't provide, so they shouldn't be almost the same price.