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

[PublicPointsuck]

Bye Public Rewards I stayed loyal You did not, Hello Freedom

[Public_Cust_17]

Public_999, thanks for the clarification. It was a couple of years ago since this happened so maybe it's changed? I did take a quick look at their coverage map https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/network-coverage and it shows a lot of southern Ontario that is "Nationwide - When you travel outside of the Freedom network, you’ll be automatically connected to a partner’s network. Your phone will display ‘Nationwide’ when in this area and may also indicate that it’s roaming."  When you say free of charge does that mean for phone calls and data? Just curious because they may be a viable option.  Thanks   🙂

[ily]

---

@hTideGnow wrote:

HI @J_PM 

I am surprised and I am not surprised.

Surprised that it finally comes, but not surprise that we know it will come one day

But the only good news is that we can still have 5% back with points, still better than other without rewards. 

And to all those who are going to loss many points from that, come to the Community and help, get the most out of Community!!

(we need to look on the bright side of everything 🙂 )

---

It looks a hell of a lot brighter on the competitors' side. Let me tell ya that much.

[Bottomshelf]

I was on the $15 plan and received an email on March 11 stating that I will be getting 5 gb for 150 days.

[Timlorde]

This is terrible choice unless they revamp the points program or add extra points to grandfathered accounts.

[ily]

See, with a gun to my head I would be willing to look past all the fine print and the "we reserve the right to change our mind" cries and all. But not sending out proper notice is outright irresponsible, borderline malicious. Is this even legal? I'm no lawyer but there must be at least some regulation around proper communication, right? We're not that bad around here, I hope...

[Bottomshelf]

Yes, pay $15 plus taxes upfront.

I'm also on the $15 plan paying $7.84 per month ($.84 taxes).  My  net "loss" is over $85 on an annual basis.

$8.96 x 12 = $107.52 - $21.00 = $85.52,  21 referral points = $21 based on 5% x $15 + 10 pts (anniversary) + 2 pts for referrals.

I can't see myself moving because there are no comparable plans at that $15 price point.  I will make up my mind on D-Day.  Subscribers with the higher data plan have more options to move to other carriers.

[public_999]

All of their plans include roaming in Canada, free of charge, however the majority of your usage should be in their native coverage zone.  If you use wifi calling/texting, that usage will be considered in the home zone regardless of where you are physically located in the world.  You must reside within their native zone in order to set up service

[Public_Cust_17]

Just a head up.. check out Freedom Mobiles coverage maps and make sure it'll work for you. My son-in-law was with them for a couple of years and their coverage was insufficient in some areas which caused him to be on roaming data in those areas.

[Jormungandr]

Talked to my friend with multiple PM lines for the family, they will initially move all but 1 line out once the new point system comes in.  The 1 line will also be moved to FM likely. 

Greed.

Dishonourable.

Unscrupulous.

[SSAnne]

Really disappointing. The rewards system is the reason I transferred to Public Mobile and I stayed because of the loyalty discount. Giving me a "special data" bonus "for my loyalty" is insulting. I have more than enough data and you are "rewarding our loyalty" by increasing our bills and making us utilize a time-consuming and inferior rewards plan that nobody asked for. There is no benefit to staying with Public Mobile now and I will be transferring my family's plans come May.

[ArchEngel0]

Came and finally registered an account to add another voice. I will definitely be leaving if this change doesn't get reverted (and maybe regardless after such a move). This is insulting to the legacy customers, and squeezing just a bit more put of the people with the cheapest (read: those that can afford the least) plans. 

I believe I may warn people away from Telus in general after a move like this.

[edmensah]

They hit 🎯 the hornets nets 🐝 not realizing there are a lot of angry hornets ready to fight back!!!!

[bcsuazon]

I don't think PM is shifting customers to the new program.  Its more like they are "shifting" them to their competitors 😂.

[Salvo1]

 good job Legacy friends !!!

[Devis]

Considering the response, will Public Mobile chose to reverse this decision, or lose thousands of customers?

[4mpersand]

I received a text today that bonus data was added to my account, but I did not receive an email explaining why.

Browsing the site, your FAQ says that everyone impacted by this change will have received an email explaining what is going on by March 12 (and over the last few days has continued to see that date be edited into the future). I have not received any correspondence from the company aside from the bonus data text.

What is going on, and what are the terms and conditions of our forced migration? Why is this information not posted transparently for customers to understand at their own speed? How specifically are the transition points that used to be offered to move from the 'old' rewards to the points system impacted? And, most importantly, why are your rewards pages showing as blank 'cannot be retrieved' pages on multiple browsers to provide literally zero information about the mandatory point program's structure? 

Based on your current FAQ, the 150-day data period takes effect immediately but any customers that downgrade their plans to take advantage of the "generous gift" are then deemed ineligible  and the gift will be removed from their account. That is not a "generous gift;" that is a PR management scheme to appease shareholders where the devil is in the details and few customers will see any gains from the transition that will ultimately cost them more for as long as they remain with the company.

I get that the company wants to make their business more profitable. That's to be expected. What shouldn't be expected is a poor rollout with incorrect phasing of notices, a lack of transparent and timely information, a forced app update that has frozen my mobile account out completely (despite a reboot and clean reinstall on an iPhone 12 with an up-to-date iOS), and a lack of transparency regarding edits to the FAQ as information and key dates change over time.

[Public_Cust_17]

What a $%)*#$%# arrogant reply... 😡

[Stelawrat]

Thanks again for pointing out that correction. 

Really good to know your feedback, especially with regards to your children, because like so many of the younger crowd, I bet that they make heavy use of their phones!

Agreed re: the importance of the phone, in order to take advantage of the best features offered by any provider, for that matter. 

When it comes to phones, my needs are pretty simple, so I'm not prepared to fork out upwards of $600 for mid-tier ones. I'll stick to my good old $200 one, still maintains 4G so I'm happy with that. I am super lucky to have 3 different provider' towers close to home, a Roger's one only a block away.

I've never experienced any connectivity issues at all & as already mentioned, no problems with PM either, so personally it's a matter of wait & see. 

[BennyRLB]

This was an incredibly disappointing update from public mobile. I intentionally kept the old system of rewards because I knew they were a better deal. The extra GB bonus won't matter because I have other bonus GB that I would need to use first that I have been saving (that has no expiry date). There really isn't much reward to loyalty anymore. I think I will consider taking my money and going elsewhere

[Stelawrat]

As per the email which I received on March 6th. re: the text message, I just now received that text advising 240GB has been added to my account, expiring 150 days from today. 

Like many of you, I still have a ton of GB from bonus gifts PM gave in the past, so won't use this. For those of you who might, then at least know the texts are being rolled out. 

[Patrick_PM]

Wonder if Public Mobile expected clients would react so strongly against this change?

https://mobilesyrup.com/2024/03/12/customer-complaints-public-mobiles-shutting-down-legacy-points-pr...

[Panorama]

Looking at the way the new rewards system will work is just a money grab. Once you are on the new system you can only apply points back in lots of 15 and only towards a future bill. So if you plan to move to another carrier after May any funds in the system become free money to them since the points can only go to a future bill and even if you tried to use any you have what are the odds of it being exactly 15 the month before.

It seems that loyalty no longer means anything to them if they can benefit more. Much like a company I know had to report system faults effecting more than 1/2 hour to efficency but changed reporting to one hour to increase efficency and receive bonuses

[yinny]

great job tanking the business model that set you apart from other providers. all customers will just be chasing the better plan now instead of holding onto their loyalty rewards.

[Al16]

Public Points Rewards is lagging big time to the discounts we get & it sucks  Please just retain the original rewards system that I have had with mobile for the past 4 years 

[Soon-ex-PM-user]

Pretty sure this is done intentionally by Public Mobile.

Also why do we have to wait until 15 points is reached - lol why not 5 points or less ?  PM intentionally set up this way so it is harder for people to save money.

Their new point rewards system is so fishy that even the fishes will smell from a far distance and will not take the bait lol 

[LitlLdy]

---

@TECHRANG3R wrote:

And....to elaborate on the added difficulty this change will cause me, I will need to login to 3 different accounts each month to apply point rewards.  These accounts also have MFA which texts the verification code to the account's phone number before I can login with said code.  So unless I have all 3 devices in one room, I need to coordinate the retrieval of these verification codes with my 2 teenagers on a monthly basis to apply these points with the new system, vs previously it was all applied automatically and charged with autopay.  God help us if you don't do it on time because I am sure they won't be late to withdraw funds.  Not to mention, even if you set your PC or phone as a 'trusted device', they seem to reset this setting regularly so it doesn't really save.  I can see this new system being a very large exercise in frustration on a monthly basis... 

---

@TECHRANG3R , that and we can only redeem points to use towards our bill once we’ve accumulated 15 points! We can’t redeem any amount under that to use towards our bill! 😞 

[ON4EKE_]

Unfortunately, after porting, you still need to actively use the number or they reassign it after 3 months of inactivity. 

Not to mention that Fongo still needs a data service unless you're always within reach of free wi-fi.

[computergeek541]

---

@ON4EKE_ wrote:

And points have to be manually applied after you accumulate 15 points. What a pain, in this technology-driven society, they can't manage to keep the automated bill reduction.

---

Some customers will end up not taking the steps required to redeem the points.

[ON4EKE_]

And points have to be manually applied after you accumulate 15 points. What a pain, in this technology-driven society, they can't manage to keep the automated bill reduction.