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

[Retiree2024]

I believe i will have to shop around for a new plan as to continue with public mobile my plan will definitely increase in price and its no coverage with them for travel outside Canada. My wife went with Bell and can call, text and has data when traveling outside Canada and i thing Rogers has the same kind of deal. We both dont need the data when traveling but if i have to invest in a new plan that is what i will strongly look at. Loyalty means nothing to the business anymore (public mobile) just profit is what they want. 

[TheDre]

It's not all about loyalty though. We grew their business and in return were promised an incentive. For me the complaint is not about the pricing. It's the fact that many of us brought in many customers with a promise to be rewarded with cash incentives and now that they have grown so much, largely because of the people we brought them, they are taking that incentive away.

[mikasik2]

No Surprises!No expiration

[CoolyRanks]

Thank you, done. From what I've read elsewhere, you do indeed need to complain to PM first *before* complaining to the CCTS. Just summarizing here to help others. 

[TheDre]

Click the chat bubble icon at the bottom right. 

[CoolyRanks]

How exactly do I file a complaint? I thought posting here was enough. 

[TheDre]

FYI, you first need to file a complaint with Public Mobile as it will ask you this when filing your CCTS complaint.

[CoolyRanks]

I'll be losing out on $4 a month with this change. I see many comments from other people losing a lot more. It was promised that our old rewards would be kept. I will be filing a CCTS complaint and recommend others do the same. 

[TheDre]

I've submitted a ticket asking to stay on the old rewards program. I imagine I will be denied like everyone else so next step will be to file a complaint with the CCTS.

If this doesnt get resolved, I will eventually move to Lucky Mobile. For those wondering, Lucky is owned by Bell so this would be the best move. Do not go to Koodo thinking you are making a difference as they are owned by Telus just like Public Mobile.

[metaldog7]

We were a retailer years ago and I've been helping public customers for years.  No more.  Moving to work with another carrier next month.  The rewards rug pull was the last straw.

[rd12345]

Loyalty doesn't mean much these days. Will you change your mind, or will it be over?

[jtennyuk]

I recommend switching to the $29 20GB plan if you don't use much data. I'm pissed off just like you, but at least we can claw back a bit of savings if you don't use much data anyhow

[jtennyuk]

Also, might as well file a CCTS complaint while you're at it for fun.

[jtennyuk]

I'm as pissed off as anyone else for losing my rewards, but I'm switching to the $29 20GB plan and saving myself $5 per month (was never gonna use up my 50GB of data in the $34 plan, hardly go above 5GB ever) so that softens the blow a bit. Recommend everyone who doesn't use much data to do the same, especially since 5G speed seems to be a sham. (Oftentimes it's even slower than 4G LTE.)

[PreachJohn]

What is this unacceptable forced move to the crap point system? When many of us have the clear understanding that we had a Choice that you are now unilaterally removing wrongly.
As one Poster pointed out, it is the Rewards Program that made PM stand out from the others. That's true for me.
That was the one thing that kept me from migrating to Lucky. I said to myself that the Rewards make it worthwhile, even tolerating the horrible, incompetent Eversafe that made me dread every single Login. Their 'Trusted Device' is still a crock.
So as many are leaving Pm, there is nothing to to hold me from taking my 2 lines and heading for a more honest Outfit. Lucky is where I'll start searching.

[Wolfcore]

Won't somebody think of the poor multibillion dollar company with record profits, please? The humanity, somebody please help them!

If they simply kept their word and didn't lie to customers, they wouldn't have run into this situation. There are consequences for actions, and this is one of theirs.

[ShawnC13]

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@Legacy_Rewards wrote:

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

@FormosaWest1 you are not losing your referral rewards.  They will be points rather than straight up $$

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You will be losing some of your referrals as some of them will be porting out to other companies for lower price plans. 4 of my referrals have already left PM in the last couple of days. As well you must accumulate 15 points before they can be converted to Available Funds. Instead of getting a credit right away at renewal you need to wait for the 15 points and that is to PM’s advantage.

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@Legacy_Rewards of course it is to the benefit of PM.  The legacy rewards were at the benefit of PM as well.  Once they started paying out more and it didn't become beneficial to them, they end it.  All rewards programs still benefit the company offering them more than the customers they service.

Yes I understand you need to log in once you reach 15 points, but PM emails monthly Points balance so you know when you have 15 to convert.  I understand it will be some work to login and convert those points.  But points are added on every dollar you spend on PM.  Other rewards programs you need to work as well scanning cards and making sure you have that with you.

What I am saying is that Loyalty Rewards will always benefit the company more than the consumer.  They are in the business of making money not friends

[Legacy_Rewards]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

@FormosaWest1 you are not losing your referral rewards.  They will be points rather than straight up $$

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You will be losing some of your referrals as some of them will be porting out to other companies for lower price plans. 4 of my referrals have already left PM in the last couple of days. As well you must accumulate 15 points before they can be converted to Available Funds. Instead of getting a credit right away at renewal you need to wait for the 15 points and that is to PM’s advantage.

[Y4J259]

While true that you're not losing rewards, there is always the possibility that 1pt will not equal $1 in the future. 

Secondly, you must now manually log in, and convert referrals EVERY SINGLE MONTH because PM is choosing to force loyal customers to work for their rewards. This is a deliberate choice to inconvenience customers, likely in the hopes that many will not log in monthly to convert pts to $$$. 

So yes, many people will in fact be losing referral rewards, and ALL OF US will be losing auto $$ off monthly payments. 

[ShawnC13]

@FormosaWest1 you are not losing your referral rewards.  They will be points rather than straight up $$

[ShawnC13]

@ashishg1 how are you losing $100 per line per year?  I have been with PM for 7 years and  I am out about $53 per line a year.

$5 a month Loyalty $60 + $2 autopay a month $24 = $84 - ( I will convert points to $$ for comparison) $10 Anniversary - $20.40 (5% of $34 * 12)=$53.60

[Pancake8]

I, like many here, am very frustrated with Public Mobile and its required switch to Points, especially as a loyal user for multiple years. The disregard to the legacy rewards system, which is why I joined in the first place, makes me very dissatisfied and I am joining the many wonderful public mobile customers who are filing a complaint with the CCTS 

[simon247]

Indeed! And what happened to the written assurance we've been receiving that we'll be able to stay with the old rewards as long as we don't manually choose to transition to the new rewards? There were messages people were receiving from PM staff (and sharing with the broader community) whenever they had concerns and wanted to clarify whether switching plans would change their reward schemes.

[Lorne_Grant]

This is not acceptable, it was implied from the beginning we could maintain our rewards as long as we stayed

[fixin]

@simon247 - Yes, and since carriers have to tell and buy spectrum from the government to place cell towers it is hard to get it in certain locations.

[Dimane]

 I am not happy with Public Mobile's decision to go back on the promise made to their customers. When Public Points was introduced, we were told we could remain on the legacy rewards system as long as we remained with PM. The new points will cause a significant increase on my bill and I am planning to join the host of other customers who have brought this issue to the CCTS.

[simon247]

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@kb_mv wrote:

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@NoseyNick1 wrote:

I would also note that $9/mo (well OK, 5GBP) gets 5GB/mo in the UK, so 250MB $9/mo is still orders of magnitude worse than common plans in Europe   😞

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@NoseyNick1 The UK has 1.5 ish times the population of Canada (67 million to 40 million) and is about 41 times smaller area than Canada. Economies of scale play a big part.

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Yet somehow Canada also has a far smaller network infrastructure than the UK.

For context, Canada has fewer than 15 thousand wireless cell towers. For context, China has got 2.1 million, South Korea has 1.5 million, Japan has got 800 thousand. England alone has got nearly twice as long of a telecom infrastructure, and nearly twice as many towers as Canada. The idea that Canada is big was a convenient white lie by our telecom companies. It is more expensive and bureaucratically challenging to build new infrastructure here, but our infrastructure is tiny in comparison to other countries.

If you leave population centres in Canada, you're highly likely to be stuck outside of service very quickly. We've even got active farmlands with no cell reception. We've got whole communities not far from major population centres that have no cell reception. This isn't the case in most of the world, where "white" areas are isolated to remote forest sections and the like. Our telecoms simply are some of the worst and most expensive in the world, as they aren't threatened by real competitors operating at modern international standards.

[simon247]

I posted here before, see no answers from Public Mobile (except actions indicating that it is clearly doubling down on the change still) and have submitted my complaint.

I guess now it's time for Public Mobile to change its name, as they have killed off among the final big things that made them stand out as a brand that follows what people have been asking for.

I've been on the fence for a while, as it's been years of waiting for international roaming or wifi calling that could allow me to at least receive texts abroad. With my number becoming useless while I travel, with no access to 2FA texts/calls, it's been a huge challenge. This change is the last straw and a good push to shop around outside of Telus brands.

[FrankHowdy]

I do not agree with this I prefer immediate discount vs having to purchase an amount later.

This is not a fair trade 

[Ewolf]

In the terms and conditions, I understand PM can change the value of the points anytime to 1point is 1 cent if they wanted to.