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

[edmensah]

They hit 🎯 the hornets nets 🐝 not realizing there are a lot of angry hornets ready to fight back!!!!

[bcsuazon]

I don't think PM is shifting customers to the new program.  Its more like they are "shifting" them to their competitors 😂.

[Salvo1]

 good job Legacy friends !!!

[Devis]

Considering the response, will Public Mobile chose to reverse this decision, or lose thousands of customers?

[4mpersand]

I received a text today that bonus data was added to my account, but I did not receive an email explaining why.

Browsing the site, your FAQ says that everyone impacted by this change will have received an email explaining what is going on by March 12 (and over the last few days has continued to see that date be edited into the future). I have not received any correspondence from the company aside from the bonus data text.

What is going on, and what are the terms and conditions of our forced migration? Why is this information not posted transparently for customers to understand at their own speed? How specifically are the transition points that used to be offered to move from the 'old' rewards to the points system impacted? And, most importantly, why are your rewards pages showing as blank 'cannot be retrieved' pages on multiple browsers to provide literally zero information about the mandatory point program's structure? 

Based on your current FAQ, the 150-day data period takes effect immediately but any customers that downgrade their plans to take advantage of the "generous gift" are then deemed ineligible  and the gift will be removed from their account. That is not a "generous gift;" that is a PR management scheme to appease shareholders where the devil is in the details and few customers will see any gains from the transition that will ultimately cost them more for as long as they remain with the company.

I get that the company wants to make their business more profitable. That's to be expected. What shouldn't be expected is a poor rollout with incorrect phasing of notices, a lack of transparent and timely information, a forced app update that has frozen my mobile account out completely (despite a reboot and clean reinstall on an iPhone 12 with an up-to-date iOS), and a lack of transparency regarding edits to the FAQ as information and key dates change over time.

[Public_Cust_17]

What a $%)*#$%# arrogant reply... 😡

[Stelawrat]

Thanks again for pointing out that correction. 

Really good to know your feedback, especially with regards to your children, because like so many of the younger crowd, I bet that they make heavy use of their phones!

Agreed re: the importance of the phone, in order to take advantage of the best features offered by any provider, for that matter. 

When it comes to phones, my needs are pretty simple, so I'm not prepared to fork out upwards of $600 for mid-tier ones. I'll stick to my good old $200 one, still maintains 4G so I'm happy with that. I am super lucky to have 3 different provider' towers close to home, a Roger's one only a block away.

I've never experienced any connectivity issues at all & as already mentioned, no problems with PM either, so personally it's a matter of wait & see. 

[BennyRLB]

This was an incredibly disappointing update from public mobile. I intentionally kept the old system of rewards because I knew they were a better deal. The extra GB bonus won't matter because I have other bonus GB that I would need to use first that I have been saving (that has no expiry date). There really isn't much reward to loyalty anymore. I think I will consider taking my money and going elsewhere

[Stelawrat]

As per the email which I received on March 6th. re: the text message, I just now received that text advising 240GB has been added to my account, expiring 150 days from today. 

Like many of you, I still have a ton of GB from bonus gifts PM gave in the past, so won't use this. For those of you who might, then at least know the texts are being rolled out. 

[Patrick_PM]

Wonder if Public Mobile expected clients would react so strongly against this change?

https://mobilesyrup.com/2024/03/12/customer-complaints-public-mobiles-shutting-down-legacy-points-pr...

[Panorama]

Looking at the way the new rewards system will work is just a money grab. Once you are on the new system you can only apply points back in lots of 15 and only towards a future bill. So if you plan to move to another carrier after May any funds in the system become free money to them since the points can only go to a future bill and even if you tried to use any you have what are the odds of it being exactly 15 the month before.

It seems that loyalty no longer means anything to them if they can benefit more. Much like a company I know had to report system faults effecting more than 1/2 hour to efficency but changed reporting to one hour to increase efficency and receive bonuses

[yinny]

great job tanking the business model that set you apart from other providers. all customers will just be chasing the better plan now instead of holding onto their loyalty rewards.

[Al16]

Public Points Rewards is lagging big time to the discounts we get & it sucks  Please just retain the original rewards system that I have had with mobile for the past 4 years 

[Soon-ex-PM-user]

Pretty sure this is done intentionally by Public Mobile.

Also why do we have to wait until 15 points is reached - lol why not 5 points or less ?  PM intentionally set up this way so it is harder for people to save money.

Their new point rewards system is so fishy that even the fishes will smell from a far distance and will not take the bait lol 

[LitlLdy]

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@TECHRANG3R wrote:

And....to elaborate on the added difficulty this change will cause me, I will need to login to 3 different accounts each month to apply point rewards.  These accounts also have MFA which texts the verification code to the account's phone number before I can login with said code.  So unless I have all 3 devices in one room, I need to coordinate the retrieval of these verification codes with my 2 teenagers on a monthly basis to apply these points with the new system, vs previously it was all applied automatically and charged with autopay.  God help us if you don't do it on time because I am sure they won't be late to withdraw funds.  Not to mention, even if you set your PC or phone as a 'trusted device', they seem to reset this setting regularly so it doesn't really save.  I can see this new system being a very large exercise in frustration on a monthly basis... 

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@TECHRANG3R , that and we can only redeem points to use towards our bill once we’ve accumulated 15 points! We can’t redeem any amount under that to use towards our bill! 😞 

[ON4EKE_]

Unfortunately, after porting, you still need to actively use the number or they reassign it after 3 months of inactivity. 

Not to mention that Fongo still needs a data service unless you're always within reach of free wi-fi.

[computergeek541]

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@ON4EKE_ wrote:

And points have to be manually applied after you accumulate 15 points. What a pain, in this technology-driven society, they can't manage to keep the automated bill reduction.

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Some customers will end up not taking the steps required to redeem the points.

[ON4EKE_]

And points have to be manually applied after you accumulate 15 points. What a pain, in this technology-driven society, they can't manage to keep the automated bill reduction.

[dabr]

@edeepm   You can view who gave the bravos on any post by clicking on the bravo box.  I'm inclined to think it mi most of them are probably customers on the points system already and, therefore, not impacted by this decision.

[ON4EKE_]

If there was a dislike / boo button, it may crash the forum.

[Marchibald56]

Not with all the customers who switch to another pre paid carrier 

[Wolfcore]

You can see who gave them. Just click on where it says "14 Bravos".

Edit: Unless you mean the actually people behind the usernames.

[Marchibald56]

I don't want points I want discounts. Nor do I want your measly 250 gb as a consolation prize. I'd like a substantial amount of points or some sort of hardware. I've been with pm for years and have earned good discounts

[dabr]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

These daily updates is something everyone can see themselves though.  Really there are alot of these posts that aren't discussion related adding to the post count.  THe page views is how many of the same people refreshing to read the latest posts.  Yes it is a very active thread, probably the biggest as previous threads like this were a specific plan.  The Fall Promo, then the $10 plan while this is a policy that affects every legacy reward account.

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Many of those legacy customers are still probably unaware of this new policy until they receive their official notice/email from PM.   One account received the notice yesterday and other two today.

edit:  adding but no bonus data added to the account that I can see, not that it matters considering the terms of this "valuable" bonus and having previous bought/gifted data still unused left in my account.

[ShawnC13]

@mbreakin, your journey with PM is similar to mine.  My wife and I came over for the Fall Promo, I have stayed she went to Koodo on the same offer as you.  In the meantime, we got both our kids the $15 plans, but recently upgraded to the $39/30GB plans.  I was on the fall promo until I switched to the $34.40GB plan recently and then to the $34/50 GB Can US plan at which time I just brought my wife back as well.  It is disappointing in losing the loyalty conversion points.  While not a fix I think that would have maybe soften the blow a bit of this forced migration to the points program

[ShawnC13]

These daily updates is something everyone can see themselves though.  Really there are alot of these posts that aren't discussion related adding to the post count.  THe page views is how many of the same people refreshing to read the latest posts.  Yes it is a very active thread, probably the biggest as previous threads like this were a specific plan.  The Fall Promo, then the $10 plan while this is a policy that affects every legacy reward account.

[BRAWL]

This is maddening. You take away the $10.00 in savings on my two accounts and give me pennies in return.

My wife and I will be moving 3 services to a new carrier. This is a disgusting way to treat loyal customers. 

[mbreakin]

I signed up myself & my wife Nov2016 on the famous Fall2016 $120 90 day plan. I am disappointed that my wife will have to switch to the point plan that is less rewarding, more effort & was initially promoted as optional.   I am more disappointed that a bonus to switch plans was removed shortly before the announcement and the current 'bonus' is a time limited data offer which is useless to many, especially those that switched to higher cost/ large data plans as my wife has.  Note that many of these including the lower cost plans (such as the $29) have not been available to current suscribers.   

For reference, my wife still had the fall 2016 plan until a year or so ago when she switched to a 30 day plan & just changed to the new USA/ Can plan  I moved to Koodo during the text promo in 2018. Koodo has been fairly good and appreciated the availablility of help/ contact options (real stores/ kiosks & chat/ call options) unlike PM.  After a week of reflection I am still disappointed the 'optional' move to points system is now required.  I will sugggest that my wife continue while the old system is in place but the cost of the new USA/ Can plan is not much different to competitors that have more direct customer service.  I do appreciate all the great community support & don't use direct customer service often but helpful when things are not working or a change option isn't obvious.  I'm not sure if I'll advise my wife to switch as she has been here a long time but my kid is on a competitor that the service is better than expected.  I'm sure the cost of running two plans isn't that onerous but probably cheaper & simpler to have one.  Anyway I do hope they at least consider a better reward that factors in long term customers better.

PS: I am not new to the community & was super active in the first 5 or 6 years (2016 to 2021) & had over 30 badges.  However I appear new as the switch to the new security has sent me back to square one.

[Markaps]

😂😂

[ily]

I really wanna get my Freedom back. Unless I feel like a pop Qizz, and reach out for my PC 😉