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

[Slick66]

Has it already started?  I received just 1 refer-a-friend buck, rather than the $81 I am owed.

This is soooo upsetting!

[Wolfcore]

It's really the only way. Just like almost every other company out there, these guys always reward new customers better than old ones. Just look at the last few months, where current customers had to fight with agents on here just to get the same plans that new customers (with no proven loyalty), were being offered. New customers are always offered the best deals.

So you gotta speak with your wallet. Leave and take your referrals with you if possible (not like there's a shortage of similarly-priced competitors out there), and who knows, maybe within a year or two, PM will try and entice you back with something greater. If not, oh well, their loss.

[ShawnC13]

@Soon-ex-PM-user  I don't think I have been promoting this as a good thing and pointed out other downfalls of rewards they took away. There is a separate section for Oracles and I can tell you we are amplifying the concerns here and very vocal of the unhappiness of the community.  As well or discussion there is much more direct and we can really consolidate the concerns and just keep pointing them out

[terrywkw]

I second this opinion. As a long time subscriber (5+ years) I will be taking my business elsewhere in May.

Vote with your wallets 🙂 

[Stelawrat]

"I found a link to a points catalog but the link is dead. Can you get any good add ons and how much do they cost?"

I wondered about this as well & the link is also dead, I'm guessing for everyone except for those already on the points system.  

[ShawnC13]

@HOTO , that is your personal amount.  I thought it was limited as well but my number matches my referrals

[Frank_M]

OK, I just switched 3 plans from the $40 plan to the $34 plan and one from the $24 plan to the $15 plan.

I now have zero loyalty to public, like they have for me.

I will of course stay as long as this is the best deal I can get.

If I find a deal somewhere else I will now port in and out as needed. I never did that before because the loyalty points kept me here. If public has no loyalty then I won't either, it goes both ways.

For now the money they will make on me with this boneheaded move is ZERO and now they have real competition which they never had before when I was LOYAL.

PS. Each account is at least 5-7 years old.

[Dunkman]

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@HOTO wrote:

Looks like it might be even worse.

https://myrewards.publicmobile.ca/en/on/opt-in

The wording here implies that max points for referrals is 2 points per month:

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@HOTO 

What is showing is for your account at the present time.  You have 2 friend referrals, so you will receive 2 points/30 days.  You can sign up more friends if you can and get more points per 30 days.  

Another customers opt in page will show different referral points depending on how many friend referrals that that customer has at the present time. 

[MyNameIsMrBurns]

So if I follow the math correctly ... on a $40 month plan with $2 auto, $5 loyalty, I'm getting $2 worth of points every month (2 pts), 10 points every year for loyalty. So end of the year I can save $30 (34 pts) versus the old system of $84. Yay...

[Soon-ex-PM-user]

funny eh?  The people that are shilling for Public Mobile or defending them are mostly people with 'Mayor' or 'Oracle' status (in Public Mobile forum). I am wondering if some of them are working for Public Mobile 🤔

[Wolfcore]

I am also sitting on 7 referrals, but if you count the secondary referrals (people who my referrals have referred), It's far more. All of these people are in close contact too, so it's quite easy to switch them all to another company.

I've been with Pm for 8 years, and so have most of my referrals. Just think of all the money we've given them. We've all been loyal, only to have it be shoved in our faces in the end, by pretending like they're switching us over to something greater, like we're a bunch of idiots.

There's no more loyalty once you do this to your customers, and due to a much more competitive market now, there's really no reason to stick around anymore. Better off just getting you and your referrals to all switch to a competitor, and even if they betray you as well one day, at least you'll have saved some money in the meantime.

[bbdata]

This is terrible news. The old rewards program was what kept me loyal to Public Mobile. With a change like this, it's not only about a decrease in value, but an added inconvenience of having to redeem points periodically. So things cost more + needs more work from me. If you're going to make things cost more for a customer, make it dead simple to justify it. Sadly, you haven't. The better strategy was to make your Public Points program better than your old program, not worse.

[Mrcoollick]

No thanks PM. You are punishing your long time loyal customers and disguising this as an awesome new change but its only good for you PM.

Instead of loosing the years of loyalty of up to 5$/mo, you should make the 10 pts per year cumulate up to 50 pts per year just like to the previous program, I think that would help keep most of us loyal customers happy.

I manage all my family's accounts (7 accounts) and it will end up costing my family an extra 40-50$ or more with the conversions to points. At least, add an option to automatically redeem points and the possibility to manage multiple accounts from one login. So that us "account managers" don't need login to each of our family members account with that super secure 2FA and how long it takes to load any page on self-serve.

I was a satisfied customer until this, now I am not so sure 😕

[Tk111]

I am close to $9 too. I think it’s probably time to move on. 

[nomnom]

Where is the thumb down button? I would like to use something to thumb down 👎

[Wolfcore]

Shhh! You're not supposed to do the math! Everybody is supposed to think that this new system is far greater, far superior, the best of the best. Keep quiet before they toss you in the gulag!

[hTideGnow]

HI @Stelawrat 

if you have enough credit or available funds, you still don't have to login to make payment

if you don't have enough, then you can set autopay

but with the rewards, yes, you have to keep checking and make manual redeem to change 15 points to $15

[Stelawrat]

I think the reference to bill credits was badly worded. Should have been more along the lines of, the method used to apply bill credits has changed, or will change. 

As per the following, all credits earned up to May 2024 are saved, can be used towards bill payments. You have to log in monthly to make your bill payments now though, which I'm betting isn't appreciated by anyone. 

[LizfromCanada]

LOL I saw and wondered when it happened!

[mikasik2]

Can the devs do something?

[santi21]

This is by far the worst move PM could ever make.

I have been a fierce promoter of PM to all my friends and family for 8+ years. This is totally unacceptable. I will simply switch providers and bring all my friends and family with me.

Byebye PM

[AtlasAvenger]

What other good alternatives are there?

[eJonavin]

You get $1.70 + 10 point once a year which equals about 83 cents. So you're looking at $2.53 vs your $7 discount per month.

It's worst if you're on a $15 plan. It's equivalent to a 77.4% price increase.

[mamma]

What a drag! So disappointing!

[hTideGnow]

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@LizfromCanada wrote:

It says something when a community post has 0 Bravos, I think! Even the announcement on scheduled maintenance for March 5th has 9. 😅

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HI @LizfromCanada 

but the community post has 2 bravos now (no, they weren't from me 🙂 )

[Handy1]

@HOTO  if it 2 max referrals then yes this place is dead . I’ll be absolutely fine with PM 

adding hope that screen should you have means 2points for each referral be ok at least 

[MyNameIsMrBurns]

Yeah that's what I'm gathering from other people. Kinda backwards, but okay.

[mamma]

Mine was a 29$ plan

[Wolfcore]

This is the funniest part to me, but it's been done time and time again, so most of us know what to expect. Even when they initially released the new points system, they promoted it as being "better", even though it clearly wasn't. If it were actually better, they would continue to leave it as optional to switch, but they aren't.

They have a lot of shills working over time though, just to try and calm people down. I don't think they're going to work this time, I suspect thousands of people will be leaving. Just myself, I have dozens of referrals if you count secondary referrals. All of these people are closely related, and I can easily get them to all switch to something new. The only reason why we've even stayed with PM, was due to the old loyalty rewards. Without them, PM isn't actually that competitive. Makes no sense to stay with them, when there are better plans out there from competitors.

[Frank_M]

Trying to change 4 plans to a lower tier and nothing seems to be working, servers appear overloaded.