@eyes You haven't made investments of time, goodwill, or even monetary considerations to promote those businesses profits or subscriber base - the analogy doesn't speak to the issues at hand. Nobody is denying inflation and increases are expected however, this increase represents hundreds to thousandths of percent increases to the plans that some worked toward establishing. Before anybody pipes back with a 'woe is me' comment, don't bother. You have your opinion and that's fine but you're not the one being affected to that degree and it's not likely you spent the hours, goodwill, and material assets to achieve that lower priced cell plan.
The discounts have become established ,in part, as consideration for building a loyal subscriber base, end of story. Many loyalty programs eventually devalue their liabilities (accounts payable) and screw over their patrons however rarely to this degree. It's all completely misguided and mismanaged. Inflation is supposed to hit the plan prices, not the discounts for those loyal patrons who earned that consideration. One might even be comfortable with having the 5 year loyalty discount changed in nature to fit the new program but they're not doing that - they are simply erasing it and the motivation for some long term subscribers. I've lost one of my referrals that was over 4 years old and for every one more that leaves (and there will likely be many more) than this whole thing gets even worse for those who invested in building those referrals.
Yes things change but generally speaking - you can't expect people to be happy with being 'cheated' out of an expected cell plan price established for many years and a discount that is actually capped at 5 and doesn't substantively affect the Telus bottom line. Their loyalty program was established long ago and has had some changes even before I joined however, it has always been a substantive, defined, and marketed incentive for the plans offered to lure subscribers and engage referral work but more than that, may constitute a 'contract' of consideration for services rendered in bringing friends and family over to PM. Yes of course they have lawyers and feel confident in their actions to change in the interests of increasing ARPU/ARMU to appease shareholders and secure pay bonuses/incentives at the c-suite level, but when a company uses the letters of contract law to reverse longstanding considerations which stretch beyond the simple concept of a loyalty program, well, that's why there are other lawyers, class-action law suits, CCTS, CRTC, and good old fashion protests. In the face of 'K*rens' who like to participate in a thread that doesn't apply to them or company shills who serve to censor or diminish the voices here, there is a strong contempt among a very great number of people who will be affected by a variable increase to their monthly budgets. On a yearly basis that looks like $84 - 5% of plan cost but what few are realizing is that there will be further substantive increases when their referrals leave because of this. Those referred may only be losing $2-$7/month but it's motivation enough to seek other providers.
Now, consider this strategy (no I'm not a conspiracist but) so insidious that the intent to some degree is to drive that referral base away only to then lure them back with some other promise! It's a simple and very well established principle in business, it costs far more money to earn a new subscriber than to keep a loyal one. It costs even more when you consider that PM is losing advocates, promoters, and forum support 'staff' (a title applicable to those members who spend hours in these forums supporting other users for a monetary consideration on their upcoming bills).
