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

[LeoV]

I have. I am no longer a PM client.

[HALIMACS]

My guess @mikasik2 , that’s a flat out no given they withdrew that in 2023.

[mikasik2]

Will we still get a holiday bonus at Christmas time?

[HALIMACS]

Yes @Handy1 

But aren't you eagerly awaiting what surely will be huge enhancements being made to Public Points which will allow it to be so dearly embraced by all of us?

I know I'm on pins and needles.

😒

[Handy1]

@Shan_Bhai  yes not only do you lose the $2 auto pay and $5 loyalty . The great and wonderful flexibility of this new and enhanced point program will. Cost you around $50-60 more a year with the added work of having to wait u til you have 15 points to Redeem $15 off your bill . Total slap in our faces 😞 . The whole situation stinks of GREED

[HALIMACS]

@Shan_Bhai 

yes, they have gotten rid of the auto pay reward

 its replacement is 5% of the value of your plan in points, mind you that only benefits those on $40+ plans so it’s still a setback for many

perhaps for those who are not on auto pay, and thus do not benefit from the auto pay reward, it allows them to receive benefits they may not have otherwise had

[Shan_Bhai]

The Icing on top of this move from PM is that you will also loose 2$ off auto-pay reward per month. This is what they refer as " more ways to save money" for customers.

[JDBlue1966]

You are right. I am preparing to leave. Only stayed because of the loyalty bonus. Would rather pay a bit extra and get better customer service. 

[HALIMACS]

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@ben20181 wrote:

Is the loyalty reward gone when moving to new system?

---

That's their intent. 

 It'll be replaced with 10 points after 12 months service, or about $0.83 a month, vs as much as $5 a month for 5+ year customers on this service.

It's a huge setback for loyal customers.

[HALIMACS]

Sorry @JDBlue1966 , you can assure me you're not ... what?   I'm unsure which point you're responding to, specifically.

If it's the one I made that folks are reacting by threatening to leave immediately, you wrote that if the changes are made, you are gone.   I think you're doing what most are doing, preparing to leave IF Public Mobile follows through and doesn't throw a huge carrot in the interim to reclaim the lost loyalty.

[fujiyama]

+1 to all the disappointment, and then another +1 to some accounts only getting 5GB “bonus”

🪓😡🧨...no pitchfork and torch emoji, these will have to do...

[mikasik2]

I'm on legacy rewards

[aj48]

Great , Pm is trying to save money but in turn will lose many customers since the rewards was the only thing keeping a lot of us here. I'll be looking for at other  mobile providers when these new rewards come out.

[Wolfcore]

I misspoke, sorry. I edited the comment to correct it.

[ShawnC13]

@Wolfcore When was this amount uncapped for wide open growth?  I have been here from 2016 and it was 5 since then

[Matty1234]

Welcome to the somehow superior yet financially more expensive points system. It makes sense if you put your shareholder hat on. 

Other providers are available and at a better price point after the retirement of the old system. 

[ben20181]

That sucks, I have been with Public mobile 5 years. It is $5 off each month. Now it is becoming less than $1 per month.

[computergeek541]

---

@ben20181 wrote:

Is the loyalty reward gone when moving to new system?

---

It will be replaced with 10 pionts once per year.

[ben20181]

Is the loyalty reward gone when moving to new system?

[JDBlue1966]

I can assure you I am not. If the changes are made, we are gone. Only stayed with PM for 2 reasons. 1, we don’t use the phone much, 2, the price and rewards. 
if that goes, then so be it. We will move to something else. 

[mark38]

PM has to save money on the reward program to pay salaries. The CEO of Telus made 15 million last year so our rewards are going to someone who needs it at least.

[MajorTalent]

@Wolfcore and @ShawnC13 I would look at it as paying a premium for the service, on top of biting that bullet for the principle. Not much different than this Almost-Mandatory-No-Matter-What tipping culture we've developed in North America, but in this case it would be more than warranted for all the extras you'll be regaining with another provider that PM has long since dropped and forgotten.

[RetiredGuy1]

The whole premise behind a fixed loyalty reward redeemed annually despite the number of years one has been a loyal customer is skewed in PMs favour (which is why they moved to that model). If one has paid PM a monthly amount for 60 consecutive months vs only 12 months then that should be recognized by PM accordingly. The new program does not value your patronage on a continual basis which is, in essence, the definition of loyalty. As has been said here many times by many posters - what they’re doing may be legal but it is without question unethical.

[Wolfcore]

There's also this, where they said that these loyalty rewards would continue to accumulate as long as our accounts remained active, and then provide a chart showing the exact breakdown of what we'd earn over time.

Here's a link to the actual page containing it. It's been archived just in case:

https://web.archive.org/web/20240310024729/https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Knowledge-...

There's also this, talking about this latest move, where they say that it's to ensure they're providing the best possible value to their subscribers. Which, as we know, is objectively a lie, as 99.9% of subscribers will be getting less value out of this move.

[Wolfcore]

[vince90cay]

When the new reward program was introduced in January 2022, PM indicated in an email that we would have the choice to stay with the legacy rewards program as long as we subscribed to Public Mobile.

Has anyone kept this email and if so, could you please share a screenshot or attachment, as I will need it for my complaint to the CCTS? Thank you.

[RetiredGuy1]

@hTideGnow  Thanks and yeah, you’re probably right but I like to never say never! I should have mentioned this proposal could keeps things fair between long-time legacy folks and those who joined PM since the points program was introduced in 2002 by marking May 2024 as the starting point for ALL PM subscribers. 

[hTideGnow]

HI @RetiredGuy1 

i like your idea, I tihnk it is great suggestion

unfortunately, I don't think PM is looking for our input.  I honestly don't see them reversing.  Maybe some minor tweaks to the current offer.  We would be lucky if they remove the 150 days expiry on the bonus add-on.  I honestly don't see them paying us extra money or points to try to make us happy

[RetiredGuy1]

One relatively simple revision PM could make that could act as a compromise regarding the change of loyalty rewards between the legacy and points programs is to allow the 10 point ($10) anniversary reward to accumulate over the next 5 years. So, beginning in May and using a current 5+ years subscriber as an example:

- if legacy program had continued it would have been $300 in total ($5 each month x 60 months)

- with points program it will be $50 in total ($10 each year x 5 years)

- proposed compromise would be $150 in total ($10, $20, $30, $40, $50)

Just to be clear, the proposed compromise would still be structured like the points program in that the rewards are applied once per year on the anniversary date. Its a compromise because PM (Telus) can appease shareholders by still reducing costs compared to allowing the legacy rewards program to continue while, in this case, a 5+ year subscriber would be out $150 over 5 years instead of $250

[Grinch]

☹️I never use all my 250mb.  So is no use to me.