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

[Shelly1919]

I stayed with Public Mobile, because of the amazing rewards program.  After the change to the rewards program I will be looking at other carriers.  I don’t use my phone much and paying full price for what I have doesn’t look appealing anymore.  I am not a big data user, so the additional data isn’t as special to me for being a loyal customer.  It’s seems like I will be losing more on the new rewards program than what I already have.  My loyalty is definitely wavering.

[dariovitale]

Fizz is owned by Quebecor (decades old Videotron in Quebec, recently purchased Vmedia and Freedom Mobile) and Quebecor is owned by Quebec separatist Pierre Karl Peladeau and his dad since decades. They fund the PQ which means money from customers. Plus Fizz seems to have their issues as well in terms of coverage and signal strength limited on Rogers and Co networks. THEREFORE if you are a Anglophone, especially us here in Quebec who knows Anglo rights have always been **bleep** on by the past PQ and current PQ disguised CAQ goverments, some of us never have or will sign up for any Quebecor service. 

[Robbwell]

You are missing the second and third words of my short comment .... "annual cost" --- not $161 per month.

[Public_Cust_17]

@ShawnC13as an Oracle here I would suggest that this impacts you to a much lesser degree than that of a senior or financially burdened customer that's about to lose up to $7/month in exchange for a 5% rebate on their bill which for anyone interested would be equivalent to a whole $.75/mth for anyone on the $15 plan. 

[ShawnC13]

@Wolfcore, I am not saying to feel bad for Telus at all and again know this is worse for the customer and financially affects every Legacy Reward Customer.  Companies aren't around to take care of Customers, the provide a product or service and their goal is to maximize profit.    If we want change a petitiont stop this switch isn't enough, we need real competition in the Canadian Market.  That is the only thing that will change things around here.

[Marchibald56]

I just came to sat lucky mobile/chatr are other viable options to consider as public mobile cuts of their nose in spite of their face....

[public_999]

FM also allows you to change to their new offerings as well.  You sort of always could but you had to ask. I think it was Nov or Dec that I noticed the special offer "just for you" when logging into my account.  Changed 2 of my accounts to one of their new accounts and even got the 24 month bring your own device promo offered to new customers. (showed on invoice 2 mths later). Same owner as Fizz.  That was how FM got their customers to give up lucrative permanent discounts.  Win Win

[Gimli007]

My god - the dropped calls are getting worse and worse.

10 mins into a call - and gone.

i saw really quickly a flash on the screen " cannot connect to server "  PM guinea piggin us with VoLTE?

[Marchibald56]

I'm considering lucky mobile 

[Gimli007]

so... as a customer - you should be speaking out against it.  You are first and foremost a customer and community member.  Love that you and your counterparts are part of the knowledge base here - but that is all coming to an end - believe me.  PM will be assimilated if this legacy program gets dropped as planned.

[Marchibald56]

Check out lucky mobile

[MrG3D]

I can't BELIEVE you have the nerve to say this.

"We’re excited to continue providing you, our valued subscribers, more opportunities to earn and spend rewards with Public Points™ moving forward."

More opportunities?  When you TAKE AWAY the value of our current rewards??

LIARS!

[ShawnC13]

@Public_Cust_17 not a Telus employee, yes an Oracle here so I get $20/ soon to be 20 Points but this financially impacts me as well with my family members and referrals.  Once the points program was started up and they said there were no plans to move people over at that time I think many knew the day would come when the Legacy rewards would end.  Just like when Legacy phone in customer service was ended for the pioneers in PM.  What major reward system hasn't been modified to make more money for the business by either devaluing your points or completely ending the program completely.  They would either change how many points you got per $$ spent, or jack up how many points it cost to redeem something.  Not defending the decision but saw the writing on the wall when the points system was introduced and rode out the cash rewards for as long as it continued.

[Wolfcore]

You know that's not what's happening with PM though. When offering incentives, they always factor in costs and profit, and leave room for movement. Telecom costs haven't gone up dramatically, in fact, they've really only gone down over time, in the bigger picture.

The only reason why Fizz may change this in the future, would be if they were put in a situation like PM, and were bought off by a big corporation like Telus. Which of course is a possibility, but yeah. It has nothing to do with operational costs.

The reason why this is happening at PM is not due to rising costs, it's due to Telus seeing an avenue to increase profits, and believing that they can milk their loyal customers for more money. This isn't some "let's feel bad for Telus" situation lol

[Public_Cust_17]

Exactly!!! They just text me with a special bonus of 5GB that expires in 150 days and I still have approx. 3.5GB that I don't use.  My reply to the text was "Stick your 5GB up your @$$"    lol

[Psygineer]

That's true, that one does exist, extra $9 a month, not terrible. She doesn't need the data, it's just the switch to 4G that was more interesting as her 3G service is very poor (without a booster), mine (4G) doesn't have that issue (same phone) so I assume the 3G is to blame. The nice little $24 plan would do that, as well as give a little bump in data. She was on the $20 provincial plan for the longest time, but recently upped to the $25 plan for the texting as it was needed for the 2FA.

Edit: I do understand what you are getting at, just I stand by what I said. Even if you want to argue segregation is great, I prefer equity. If the New User plans were time limited, get this for 6 months then regular after that, that's fine, but it is a permanent discount for new users and a slap for existing who have to pay $1 more for a far more inferior package. 

And yes I realize making the equity argument in a thread about making all people on the same system is hypocritical. 

[leebs]

This is just another example of corporate greed.  Public Mobile knows their new rewards program is not as good as their old one.  Do they think we are that dumb to not figure that out?  And giving away free data has no value to me when I haven't even used the 1GB data bonuses from 2 years ago.  Why is Public Mobile alienating their most loyal customers?  I would have never thought of switching carriers and, in fact, have promoted Public Mobile to many people.  I would think this is valuable marketing for Public Mobile to have their most loyal customers promoting their business (i.e. word of mouth).  For the first time in 5 years, I have checked out the alternate carriers.  Stop this change Public Mobile; it's a bad idea!

[Marchibald56]

Or go to lucky mobile...

[Wolfcore]

This is the thing exactly. Most people are on plans that have enough data to support their usage. If not, they'd be buying addons constantly, which would make it not cost-effective to be on that plan. So the only reason why anybody would need this extra data, would either be if they were going on vacation somewhere and didn't have access to wifi. Otherwise, nobody NEEDS it.

They know this, but they're trying to gaslight us anyway. Pretending like it's some sort of generous offering to us, and we should all be happy and praise them.

[Gimli007]

lots of addons ( that dont expire) to go through before I touch the 240Gb BS addon.

[ShawnC13]

@Psygineer I moved my kids and parents to the $29/30GB plan it was open to all.  My kids plan was an upgrade and parents was a cost down grade but a data upgrade

[Public_Cust_17]

I'd say judging by the fact that you are replying to posts and just arguing PM's decision and attempting to justify their money grab that you are somehow biased and quite possibly a PM or Telus employee.  Regardless of what you say in their defence... this is an ignorant money grab on the most vulnerable of their customers!  😡

[hTideGnow]

hi @vlc2 most people agree it was better back then. But very sad none of those new players survived themselves in the end.  Public, Clearnet, Mobilicity, Wind Mobile all sold

[gzluwl]

Long time customer, sadly to see this happens. Will move out my 2 lines when the time comes.

[Psygineer]

Agree to disagree. I have seen plenty of plans in the price range of my mother's account that were far better for New Subscribers only, and not a single one ever went for existing members. I do watch carefully! Yes for the higher end plans that are a dime a dozen with other carriers those come to existing, but I am talking the bread and butter plans of old PM. Those for the seniors, students, and others that are living of a meager dime. Ex. the $25 1GB 3G plan (Existing) vs $24 4G 4GB plan (New). I have not seen any movement in the $2X range that benefits existing. If I missed one, please do share!

[traycer2]

Great, good to know!

[traycer2]

Thanks very much for the prompt response!

[vlc2]

Not happy at all .... so much for loyalty. PM was better before TELUS bought it out.

[Dunkman]

---

@traycer2 wrote:

I have multiple 1GB and 2GB bonus data packs built up over the years. They never expire. Now with the 240GB 150-day bonus data added, will it be the first one used if I go over my monthly allocation? That would make the most sense, but I can't find anywhere on PM's site about what order those packs will be consumed.

Thanks!

---

@traycer2 

Correct, this data bonus add on will be used before your older data add ons.  Confirmed by PM and by a few customers who already are using the bonus add on. 

[ShawnC13]

@Wolfcore that is great for those that provider will work for.  Just like anything starting out and building a client base they will offer promotions and incentives to grow as PM did, the only concern is that as the company grows and now that program they had originally to increase the customer base cost them more each year.