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

[ShawnC13]

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@Robbwell wrote:

The deal was that if we stayed with PM we would EARN rewards. We did so then they took away those rewards. It's like an arrangement where you get 2% towards a pension for every year worked then, years later they deny the pension you EARNED.

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Usually in your collective agreement there wouldn't be wording of The employeer retains the right to change this agreement at anytime with 30 days written notice.

[Erskine99]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Generally when a company changes a rewards program (especially from dollars to "points") to “better serve its customers” the only winner is the company. No matter how Public Mobile spins it as “more ways to earn and spend rewards, with greater flexibility” the new plan seems bad, at least for me and I suspect for everyone.

My example. With the old plan I was receiving a discount for autopay ($2 per month), a discount for 5 year loyalty ($5 per month), and a discount for a referral ($1 per month). $8 per month.

New plan gives me nothing for autopay, 5% of my bill ($2 per month) for points back, ($0.83 per month) for loyalty (anniversary points) , and I believe the referral amount is unchanged at $1 per month. That’s a total of $$3.83 per month.

This new and improved new plan costs me an additional $4.17 per month over what I was spending. How am I  better served by this? Oh, but the flexibility makes it so worth it! What, may I ask, is more flexible than my cash in my pocket?

Let’s do some math. If I am the average subscriber and Public Mobile has roughly 200,000 subscribers then this little Rewards Program “improvement” earns them about (200,000*$4.17*12) $10,008,000 per year.

This makes it better for the shareholders, I do not see where it is better for the customers.

If I’m wrong then please enlighten me. Show me how I am better off.

[hTideGnow]

hi @Lolo_1234 check the screenshot from others replies earlier in this thread 

[Lolo_1234]

So after asking questions to cs_agent in private messages, they asked me a screenshot of the text I was referring to (1 point/month for switching program), and now less than 12 hours later boom, the text is gone from their website... 

[hTideGnow]

hi @Robbwell they don't deny, they just change it to something else 😒

[ShawnC13]

@edeepm why do you even need to ask?  Hasn't it been pointed out many times that anyone on Legacy rewards, this will result in lower reward values.

[Robbwell]

The deal was that if we stayed with PM we would EARN rewards. We did so then they took away those rewards. It's like an arrangement where you get 2% towards a pension for every year worked then, years later they deny the pension you EARNED.

[ShawnC13]

For the longtime customers who say they have been stuck on a plan and all the good plans went to new customers only, that is not true.  Sure the plans started out that way but eventually they were opened up to all customers.  There are a lot of good plans out there right now with other providers and  are probably for new subscribers only as well, but they may not have the flexibility of PM with the 30 day plan/contract and you may get locked into a longer contract without the ability to react to better deals elsewhere.

[Wolfcore]

As of right now, the new point system is objectively worse, and I can't see them making changes any time soon. If they were going to, they would have spoken up already, as they're losing countless subscribers every minute that goes by.

[hTideGnow]

hi @Psygineer yes it is a big loss for everyone without the loyalty rewards

 Really hope they will come up with more ways to get more points 

[Markaps]

Coming from Telus where I paid $60 for a 5GB plan, going to a $34 50GB Can/US plan, the points to me are bonus.

[Psygineer]

I honestly want to Thank Public Mobile for this change! You have no idea how much I needed this change! You have finally given me the reason I needed to leave! 

That loyalty credit each 30 days was the one thing that kept me going even with better offers out there. Even when PM snubs existing people by excluding them from new deals, my loyalty reward kept me mostly not minding. Sure new people could get more data or better than 3G service for the same price, but that loyalty discount meant my package still was cheaper in the end. Now it has been reduced to 10 points a year down from $60? The points works out to pointless to stay! It's been a fun run everyone! 

I'll stick around just to see the aftermath and if the points system is better than I expect.

[fov90_90]

I am immediately porting out my phone to a different provider.

[Wolfcore]

A few points that you're missing:

1. You only REALLY need a VoLTE phone if you wanna make calls from within the US right now
2. In most of Canada, you'll have no issue using almost any phone on their network (at least for now, and assuming it supports the bands). In some extreme cases, your service may be limited, but those are rare.
3. I don't know why you're only showing apple, but you're leaving out an entire list of supported phones from other brands. And even the list they provide is limited, as there are countless other phones and brands not on that list, that support VoLTE.
4. The reality is, 99.9% of people won't have a single issue with them

[ShawnC13]

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It is not appropriate to search out personal information in the Community

[hTideGnow]

hi @ATHENS so, it is the same iPhone list as PM's

[LTD2023]

It really doesn't matter to me anymore. My phone right now is whitelisted on public mobile. It is not volte certified with them either. In order to stay here, I need a new device. I considered buying a new device and upgrading to 4g plan here because I had the rewards to lower my bill. I can only upgrade to a 5g plan here which I don't need. Needless to say, not much incentive to stay.

[hTideGnow]

hi @RevCo17 so you are the**********************??

Edited by ShawnC13:  It is inappropriate to Share or search out for personal information in the Community

[IanP]

Totally disagree with this change.

Data is a useless bonus for many if not most of us as we have excess already.

Least they should offer is a matching amount of points to what we are receiving now.

[ShawnC13]

@Wolfcore, I have referred many people onto the new points system and a few of them have even more referrals than I do now as they heavily promoted and got friends and family members over to PM.

[RevCo17]

Yes, I did. @hTideGnow 

[Wolfcore]

Who's referring these people though? That's the most important question. Is it the new customers, or the old customers?

I'd argue that there's no question it's the old loyal customers who are spreading the word. These are the people who built this company up and brought them their subscriber base. Up until this announcement I was still promoting this company, this is without me giving out a referral code or anything. I was just happy to promote a company like this who treated their customers fairly. 

The people on the old rewards system also had greater incentive in general to spread the word, because they'd get money automatically taken off their bill each month, whereas the new system is just points, and you need to stack them to meet a threshold, until eventually having to manually turn them in for a discount.

So yeah, if not for their customers (who they are now betraying), PM would not have very many customers signing up, as we're the main source of their promotion. If your argument is that new customers also have incentive to promote the company, don't forget that if they betray the old customers, the new customers will also see this, and it will have a ripple effect on their loyalty as well.

As for the 1 point for every 30 days you've been with PM idea, yeah, it would soften the blow, but people are smarter than that. They know a one-time reward isn't greater than their old rewards program. So most people still wouldn't be happy. Me personally, I'd just use their "free" points to get the free months of service that this would provide, and then leave.

[shawnh29]

If they don't take this back and go through with it, I cannot recommend them to anyone now, I won't have much good to say about you guys anymore. I've been a loyal customer since 2017 and the "special" data bonus is just a slap in the face because most of us either have big enough data plans or don't use that much data. Also the fact that it expires in 150 days, like wow a second slap in the face. I have a 50gb plan so I'll never touch the bonus data. Just a huge blow I've been a big advocator for you guys for years, I'll finally start looking for a new carrier if they follow through with this. 

[hTideGnow]

thanks @RevCo17  did you start this??

[LTD2023]

Not going to that provider. $119 Yearly plan that partners with the big 3 'nationwide' when you're not on their network. My son has had them for years in mississauga with no problems.

[hTideGnow]

hi @ATHENS there is no more 2G system.  Rogers might still have it but you don't got stuck on a 2G plan. LoL

[Michael6666]

Seriously?

They are videotron and now own freedom mobile. They work great in Quebec, but public mobile rewards always held me back being just slightly cheaper. 

They have loyalty rewards that reach 6$ per line, rollover data, cheap US plans, guaranteed prices if you don't change plan and even sharing data between accounts even to people you don't know through the community. It's clearly better if these changes go through.. And maybe even if they don't. TBD

[LTD2023]

Thank you. Signed and forwarded.

[ShawnC13]

@RetiredGuy1, that is an interesting idea.  The only thing is that I am not sure (can never say never) that PM would want to get rid of the referral credit at this time.  Word of mouth is really their main driver for new customers.  They have recently had TV ads but it is still based on referrals for growth.  I know many will say that it will be hard to refer people here now with the Lgacy points gone but they have been gone for 2 years now and we are still seeing people sign up, so for some PM is still a better option.

I know it still sucks that the Legacy rewards are gone but if they still did the 1 point per every 30 day cycle you were with PM would have soften the blow and maybe retained some customers.  What costs them more using myself as an example giving me 87 points for my time here or paying $120 for a CCTS complaint?

[RevCo17]

https://www.change.org/p/preserve-legacy-rewards-for-public-mobile-subscribers

Please sign this petition and forward as much as possible. Thank you for your support.