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

[MintBerry]

CCTS officially rejected Public Mobile's objection so now we wait until Apr 26 to see what they come up with as a response.

We examined the customer's complaint and Public Mobile's objection to the complaint.

Section 4.3 of the CCTS Procedural Code states that The Commissioner may not direct or require a Participating Service Provider to change any of their policies or practices. Additionally, pricing of products or services fall outside the Commissioner’s scope. As your complaint pertains to a billing and contractual dispute, the CCTS confirms that your complaint falls within the scope of the CCTS.

The CCTS cannot accept objections that are based on the merits of the complaint, and such objections will be rejected. A “merit-based objection” is an objection in which the PSP asserts that the complaint should not be accepted by the CCTS because the PSP is allowed to do the action that the customer complained about.

Additionally, The CCTS does not consider the following matters as “pricing of products and service”: billing disputes, contract disputes or changes, price changes, additional charges, and removal of promotional discounts.  For this reason, we are rejecting the objection as your complaint meets the requirement set out by the procedural code. 

[abtest]

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@RetiredGuy1 wrote:

Looks like Fizz has become an early mover among the competition to take advantage of PMs self-implosion. They’ve launched new intro prices that stay as long as you keep the plan without any price increase in the future. 

$19 2GB

$21 3GB

$22 6GB

$23 10GB

$25 20GB

$27 30GB

$29 40GB

Fizz uses Freedom’s network so you get out from the clutches of the Big 3. Data rollover (up to 2 months) is a client-focused feature that PM could learn from. They also have data sharing and a rewards program (which is a bit too complex for me to articulate but it exists nonetheless). It should be noted Fizz coverage is currently limited primarily to urban areas in ON and QC and Edm and Cgy (per their coverage map).

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@RetiredGuy1- It seems those prices are not available in Quebec. 😞

[IanP]

Come on Telus, instead of causing all this resentment and bickering.

Come up with a solution to appease loyal customers. 

Why not offer a small selection of offers that we could choose at no extra cost to us and probably very little or none to you. When you move us to the points

Upgrade a plan by 1 tier

Or

Add free international roaming to 1 or 2 countries 

Or

Ideas?

Better than losing loyal customers and shows you care

[dmc69]

Not sure if this was posted already but anyone remember this? 

[maurelle]

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@eyes wrote:

When I said "Let’s not be hasty…… don’t forget that the reward dollars will be converted to points that may be used towards paying your plan".  - ------- it was meant for plan holder that will have accumulated points.

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This makes even less sense than your previous reply to my first post. I don't even know why I bother.

I stand by my outline (as well as my previous posts) on why this change hits the often vulnerable, lowest cost plan holders the most. And that the points system is near-useless for them. Might as well just call it what it boils down to: paying full plan price. * 

Paying a DIY provider, that doesn't have live support and prides themselves as online only carrier but has a crazy buggy self serve portal, $6 for an absolute minimal plan at 50 miniutes and 50 texts is ok, $8 for 100 minutes as well (Canadian standards anyway...). $13/$15 with zero real life improvements is too much. The way they are pulling this off is an insult.

*Unless you have referals. Assuming that they'll actually stay with PM.

[Bunnyhop]

I'm sorry you guys went through that. The pm community should've been more supportive of those on the $10 plans.

[computergeek541]

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@Bunnyhop wrote:

Rogers owns freedom now

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Rogers does not own Freedom.

[Bunnyhop]

Rogers owns freedom now

[kb_mv]

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@SimonGood wrote:

Thanks for the free gift of 240GB which you promptly took back off me when I responded by changing to a cheaper plan as any sane person would. Apparently I broke a condition you didn't share with me. Please reply so I can complain to the CRTC

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@SimonGood You are out of luck if you expect a reply here. Open a ticket using the chat bubble and complain. Then you have proof that you engaged PM.

[SimonGood]

Thanks for the free gift of 240GB which you promptly took back off me when I responded by changing to a cheaper plan as any sane person would. Apparently I broke a condition you didn't share with me. Please reply so I can complain to the CRTC

[Bunnyhop]

Don't make excuses for the big corpo.

[Matty1234]

I just switched to Fizz and live in Victoria BC, everything seems fine so far. I can't remember what speeds I was getting with Public Mobile but this is what I have for Fizz:

Not sure why the server is all the way in Montreal and not somewhere closer like Vancouver or even in Alberta 

[EdN]

You wrote "

Currently I'm paying $8 before tax after loyalty ($5) and subscription ($2) discounts for my $15.00 for 100 min Canada-wide calling + 250MB data at 3G speed plan.

So what exactly is going to happen to my cost?"

When you pay your $15 you will receive 0.75 points back

On your anniversary you will get 10 points.

When you accumulate 15 points you can redeem it.

It will take you a year to earn 19 points then you can apply 15 of them to your payment.

Your bill will be going from $8 to $15.

[eyes]

You will have to pay full price and eventually when you have accumulated 15 points you may apply them for a free month. 

[eyes]

When I said "Let’s not be hasty…… don’t forget that the reward dollars will be converted to points that may be used towards paying your plan".  - ------- it was meant for plan holder that will have accumulated points.

[Pete444444]

Currently I'm paying $8 before tax after loyalty ($5) and subscription ($2) discounts for my $15.00 for 100 min Canada-wide calling + 250MB data at 3G speed plan.

So what exactly is going to happen to my cost?

[maurelle]

@eyes wrote:

Let’s not be hasty…… don’t forget that the reward dollars will be converted to points that may be used towards paying your plan. In your case plans. 

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You are kidding, right? On the low cost low usage plans you have to pay full price for a full year before you get even close to the 15point threshold for redeeming points to available funds.

There is absolutely nothing hasty in our decisions - the port-out(s) would have happened eventually anyway. Public Mobile, in their infinite wisdom, just gave us a clear date.

Because of considerably diminishing call quality and reliability on my former Public Mobile referral's lines, we've been testing networks for several months last year. Where those phones are used most, Freedom is equal and in some spots even outperforming Telus/Public Mobile (same phones, same places, same times - to make it as fair of a comparison as possible we even used phones for the tests that are whitelisted by Public Mobile... {Freedom doesn't block any phone from using features like VoLTE, as long as the phone supports them. PM does.}).

As of early this year the only thing that kept these accounts at Public Mobile was the price after $ rewards. These accounts didn't have referrals, just auto pay and loyalty rewards.

Public Mobile with legacy rewards: (12 x $13 plan cost) - (12 x $2 auto pay) - (12 x $5 loyalty) = $72/360days actual payments

Public Mobile on Points: 12 x $13 plan cost = $156/360days actual payments... Only after 365 days, after application of the $10 extra points will there be >15 points to redeem to available funds.

Public Mobile's $10$13 plan, that these people were on before porting, includes 50 minutes CW in and out, 50 texts out, unlimited incoming texts, no data. *

Freedom's lower yearly plan has unlimited calls (in and out), unlimited text (in and out) plus 15GB/year for $119/year. $9.92/1.25GB/month. More than the current $6 at PM, but $3 less for considerably more features (and, for these particular customers, better service overall) come May.

I've said it time and again: Freedom is not for everyone. But in the case of the accounts I help(ed) manage it was/is a no-brainer for both cost and reliability/quality.

* The math is not significantly better on the still available $15 plan (100 minutes out, unlimited in, unlimited text in and out, 0.25GB). As of May (12 x $15) = $180/360days actual cost. A whooping 9 points accumulated - again, the earliest you can redeem $15 to available funds is after day 365 when you get the 10 loyalty points... That is, as long as they stick with the current conversion of 1 point = $1...

If you compare similar features: It's Public Mobile's $25/30 days for unlimited talk & text and 1GB vs Freedom's $119/year = $9.92/month for unlimited talk & text and 1.25GB... Even with 15points = $15 converted at the end of the year, PM is more than double the price. For, in our cases, comparable network quality.

[RetiredGuy1]

Looks like Fizz has become an early mover among the competition to take advantage of PMs self-implosion. They’ve launched new intro prices that stay as long as you keep the plan without any price increase in the future. 

$19 2GB

$21 3GB

$22 6GB

$23 10GB

$25 20GB

$27 30GB

$29 40GB

Fizz uses Freedom’s network so you get out from the clutches of the Big 3. Data rollover (up to 2 months) is a client-focused feature that PM could learn from. They also have data sharing and a rewards program (which is a bit too complex for me to articulate but it exists nonetheless). It should be noted Fizz coverage is currently limited primarily to urban areas in ON and QC and Edm and Cgy (per their coverage map).

[ShawnC13]

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@NoseyNick1 wrote:

I believe you're reading someone's post correctly, except they misunderstood the easily-misunderstood PM website. Mine says "you could earn 1pt/mo" for referrals NOT because it's a cap, but because I have 1 referral reward right now.

I don't work for PM, don't take my word for it, this post is not gospel, but I THINK the cap is still 5 referrals. The confusingly-worded PM points site seems to tell us how many we HAVE NOW (presumably max 5)

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@NoseyNick1 referrals have never been capped at a MAX of 5  I am down to 10 currently on my account but I know of others with way more.

[RetiredGuy1]

Fair enough. But I think unless you know this individual personally, neither one of us can really be sure

[colleeno]

I am sure the majority of the 136 are not friends or even acquaintances. When I became a PM customer in 2019, I used a referral code that was advertised on Kijiji just so I could get the $10 credit. At that time, I think the referrer also received $10 as well as the $1 per month so it was quite lucrative to advertise codes wherever you could. There are Reddit groups for posting codes.

[RetiredGuy1]

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@colleeno wrote:

The maximum number of referrals is 110 according to the attached comment. I have seen a comment in this thread that showed a screenshot of a subscriber’s account, and they had over $2000 in unused credits. 

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Wow, and I mean this sincerely - 136 referrals is quite impressive! Just imagine if this one subscriber decided to leave and the other 136 decided to follow in solidarity. 

[colleeno]

The maximum number of referrals is 110 according to the attached comment. I have seen a comment in this thread that showed a screenshot of a subscriber’s account, and they had over $2000 in unused credits. 

[Yatti4201]

No they will not. This is a Telus decision for sure. Everyone should move to Freedom and get away from the big 3 until they commit to truly lower our prices below every other major nation. Canada should have some of the cheapest telco costs in the world - not the higest. Trudeau loves this move! Its a DEI decision. After the switch we will all be the same. Equality at its finest lol

[NoseyNick1]

I believe you're reading someone's post correctly, except they misunderstood the easily-misunderstood PM website. Mine says "you could earn 1pt/mo" for referrals NOT because it's a cap, but because I have 1 referral reward right now.

I don't work for PM, don't take my word for it, this post is not gospel, but I THINK the cap is still 5 referrals [EDIT: MAYBE NOT - SEE LATER POST!]. The confusingly-worded PM points site seems to tell us how many we HAVE NOW

[Tiffiny124]

My referrals are my kids whose bill I pay and my mom, brother. Should be 6 but when I read recently with the changes it’s going to cap at 4. Maybe I read it wrong. 

[wruoca]

Certainly not happy with the coming change as a long time customer. With so many complaints, will PM consider cancel the change?

[RetiredGuy1]

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@softech wrote:

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@RetiredGuy1 wrote:

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Conclusion

In light of our assessment of the complaint and Public Mobile’s objection, we have concluded that the complaint does not meet the requirements of the Procedural Code; falls outside of the scope of our mandate.

Therefore, we have proceeded to close the complaint further to section 4.3 of our Procedural Code.

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I don't like losing the legacy rewards like everyone here.  But putting aside my personal interest, I have to say they made the right call 

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Yes, they made the “right” call when taking into consideration the parameters of their mandate. However, as the telecoms fund the CCTS to begin with, their impartiality can reasonably be drawn into question. Lets face it, PM would not have changed the rewards program without knowing they had a rock-solid legal basis to do so. Not to beat a dead horse, but it shouldn’t take away from the fact they went ahead and willingly made a decision they knew would upset their customers and cause an as-yet unknown number to leave. Of course, it also signifies that they just don’t care which, frankly, is a bizarre way to conduct business.

[Gruumine]

I have already moved myself and my family ( 4 lines total ) to another provider whos rate are same as PM + old reward system rate.

I could have complained to PM and all that but I know in life your wallet speaks louder than your words…

I suggest to everyone out there, find a new provider and move on. This is the only way.

[Matty1234]

So finally setup my transfer:

Public Mobile message: We've received a request to transfer this phone number to another service provider. To approve this request, please reply "Yes". By replying Yes, you agree to transfer your number to the new provider and your Public Mobile service will be disconnected. If you did not request this transfer, please reply "No". Please note that you must respond within 90 minutes. If we don't receive a response within this time, the request will be automatically cancelled. Thank you. 

Been a Public Mobile customer since Sept 2018:

 

Not a great move to treat your customers like this.