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Your Public Mobile experience just got an upgrade.

J_PM
Public Mobile
Public Mobile

Hey Community, 

 

We have a big announcement to share with you! 

 

Starting July 13, Public Mobile is going 100% digital, with all new activations and devices taking place exclusively online. New customers can join Public Mobile on the go, from anywhere, without setting foot into a store.

 

To officially mark the start of a new & improved Public Mobile experience, we’re announcing two exciting new features launching today:

 

Browse up to 30x faster with new 4G-speed plans. 

Now, you can get up to 30x faster speeds with Public Mobile’s new 4G-speed plans, when compared to existing 3G-speed plans. These new plans provide new and existing customers with a wider range of included data and speeds to choose from, depending on their needs. 

 

Introducing the new My Account: A modernized, mobile-first self-serve experience.

Redesigned from the ground up, our refreshed self-serve portal provides you with easy account-management at your fingertips without the need for in-person support. Plus, it features an all new intuitive mobile-friendly design to make all account management a breeze. 

 

Along with these new features, as many of you know, we recently launched our new rewards program Public Points earlier this year, where you can earn and redeem rewards with ultimate flexibility. We also redesigned our Community Forum to give our customers the ability to find solutions faster, with 24/7 access to online support. 

 

Expect to see many more exciting enhancements as we continue on our journey of putting the power of mobility in the hands of Canadians. To celebrate these exciting launches, we will be giving new subscribers 3x the points-back for their first 12 months, for a limited time on eligible purchase, through our Public Points™ Rewards program.

 

Important Details:

  • You will still be able to purchase SIM cards from TELUS & Koodo corporate stores. Find a store near you using our store locator.  
  • Vouchers will still be available for purchase in the same locations as before. Visit our vouchers page to access our list of voucher purchase locations.  

 

For more information on these exciting new changes, please visit publicmobile.ca or our FAQs on these changes. 

 

        - Public Mobile Team

294 REPLIES 294

Pawprints1986
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

I don't understand the value of esim, other than making it more difficult/impossible for people to use more than one device? Say if you use one as a daily in Canada but to travel to the US you prefer another with removable batteries as it's mostly a camera in this case? 

sa7375
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

e-sim.png

Totally Digital, but no ESIM. 😊

Both, our parent TELUS, and our sibling Koodo offer it, and wonder what is holding PM back! 

musicollector
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Thank you, @J_PM and Darlicious. I appreciate the support. It stinks, frankly!

Koodo also has kiosks all over the place. Where you can shove your phone (your problems) at some counter person's face and walk out with working phone (no problems) minutes later.

 

You get what you pay for - especially when buying from different tiers of the same company. Public Mobile doesn't pay people to stand at a counter and solve your problems for you - no frills - but they "reward" you with a little cut of the money they don't have to spend on this operational expense.

 

I prefer saving money and doing things myself. Many of us do. But "DIY" is just not the best choice for everybody.

JRSRfin
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

"I see no reason whatsoever to switch to Koodo."

They provide VoLTE, which can apparently resolve coverage issues for some people.

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@J_PM 

I guess I wasn't paying enough attention to that line in bold in the announcement that the 3×points back (3×5%=15%)is for new activations only. Way to stick it to everyone on points who has activated since January 25th of this year and all of the customers who joined the points program on the mistaken belief that it was a requirement rather than a choice.

 

Here was public mobile's opportunity to sell the points program as better (even though its not for most). Offering 3×5% back would go a long way to make all points program customers feel good about the program rather than resentful......look at @musicollector activating on July 11th 30 hours before the "big change" now he's disappointed new customer instead of a points happycollector!

 

@musicollector 

Since there isnt a whole lot of loyalty built in anymore and you are not beholden to your phone number get yourself another $4.99 sim card while you still can and hope that maybe a referral bonus comes along or that at the very least you activate on August 9th and suspend your current account.

 

You will get the $10 bonus referral credit and 5 welcome points and the 3×points back. Stagger your reactivation and timed correctly you can double dip the "more is merrier" holiday gifts (if pm continues the tradition) and anniversary points stiil accrue when suspended. Unless pm changes their mind and extends this promotion to all points customers?!!😲

bluejaywpg
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

A few people have mentioned that the 4G pricing is such that if you're going to go with those plans, then you might as well switch to Koodo because of the similar pricing. But why??? I looked at Koodo's plans, & the 4 GB plan is exactly the same price & same features. The differences are that Koodo, AFAIK, has no rewards program like PM does. Why would I give up my guaranteed minimum $14 per month (in my case $7+ for me, $4 for my wife, $3 for my son) in discounts for nothing? Also, Koodo offers only 4 GB & 6 GB. The only other difference I could find is that Koodo has their Tab plans for paying off new phones via monthly payments (presumably interest-free) which could be handy for some who cannot afford to pay full price for a new phone.

 

For the record, I just buy phones outright. I look for sales, deep discounts for refurb phones, or eBay deals. I have no need for buying a new phone via an overpriced plan that makes the "free" phone (when some phones are offered for "free" on Black Friday or Boxing Day) not-so-free.

 

So for me, I see no reason whatsoever to switch to Koodo. If I want 4G, the only switch I was considering was PC Mobile. Otherwise, now with the 4G plans, it makes the most sense to me to stay with PM if I want faster data.

I very much approve of the improvements I see in Self-Serve.

 

Details for plans and add-ons are now nicely summarized in an easily-readable, easily-understandable format. I like how all the data items are grouped together and all the calling items are grouped together, much easier to add things up at a glance than it was before. I do feel that PM has missed an opportunity to put a nice little "free gift" icon beside the free gifts - it never hurts to remind people how great you are - but this isn't a real issue.

 

The new download (pdf) option for usage history and payment history is perfect. A once-absent necessity that I've been critical about for years. Applause.

 

All the "hidden" tools - stuff like changing your phone number, changing your plan, reporting lost/stolen, etc - are now all nicely grouped together on one page. Much better than the old method of trying to find what you need by digging through multiple screens - or directing others towards the options they need with multiple instructions and screenshots.

 

The unique SIM card # is now displayed, alongside the unique account #, etc. Though I still don't see the PUK # as well, and I still haven't been given any believable reason why it needs to be withheld from the subscriber - so I'm still going to rant about it whenever I see yet another tiresomely-common "how can I get my PUK?" thread on these forums, lol.

 

The new 2FA login looks promising. Though it's also quite annoying - so I already predict many customers will end up turning it off - and I predict that, eventually, some of these will complain when they forget their login username/password/email/account#/etc - plus they're also unable to verify their identity to PM's CSAs without active 2FA ... so I think this is a worthy attempt, and it's certainly better than the nothing we had before ... but I think it might also be a can of worms.

I notice that a friend's iPhone displays her email address and a few lines from each of a few recent text msgs onscreen before it even prompts the user for a screen-unlock code. Default settings, I believe, since she's an awesome but also a rather, um, "tech-impaired" person. And, unfortunately, these are exactly the two pieces of information required to login to her Self-Serve with 2FA, yes? If so, then things just got easier than before for phone thieves.

No further comment until enough time has passed that we can see whether PM has implemented their security in a way which works effectively at blocking frauds or which frustrates too many legit (but forgetful) users from recovering their lost accounts. Of course they're not going to openly describe the technical and procedural details for their security implementations here, lol that would just reveal sensitive information to attackers. But I remind Public Mobile that many customers never login to Self-Serve - until the first time their AutoPay fails - and half the time they no longer have access to whatever phone or computer (and passwords/etc stored on it) they used years ago on the day they first activated and set everything up.

 

One suggestion for an improvement:

Provide an option to enable/disable billing-related "Public Mobile here..." notifications. I know that many customers find them annoying and block them - and these are invariably the customers who get frustrated when AutoPay fails or billing dates (on their credit cards) shift to different days of the month, etc. There's little PM can do to get people to un-block things on their phones, but there's something PM can do to prevent these sorts of problems from being created and repeated (endlessly) by new customers while moving forward.

Pawprints1986
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@JRSRfin agreed, there's literally nothing of value for those who don't use much data. At least not yet. The whole point of third tier is small bills. If you're gonna spend $50 anyway, may as well hop onto koodo (their prices are crazy too for anything smaller, they currently have the bare bones talk plan, and then a $20 or so jump and a bunch of data. They offer not much for light data users either under 4g postpaid)

 

Hoping things change or that we'll get grandfathered with a forced 4g change when the 3g tech dies. 

 

Side note - still getting plan renewal texts at midnight the following day, for rewards, and the successful renew one too

musicollector
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

That is outrageous. Thanks.

Community_QA
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

New site !! New site !!  

Good stuff.  

 

Thanks PM

@musicollector you don't unforunately. Only ppl who signed up on Wednesday and beyond. Really unfair tbh, especially for the ppl getting screwed on the new rewards program

JRSRfin
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

This new crop of unthrottled plans has nothing to offer clients who use little data. I want (loading maps, ordering food or movie tickets, checking grocery flyers, messaging services) to be fast, but i rarely exceed 1GB/month. Get a value tier in there, say $28 for 1GB,  or $30 for 1.5GB, then we'll talk. 🙂

@kav2001c- You did miss something. They opened some kiosks then they quietly disappeared. They arranged with a number of stores to provide activations and now they're retracting that. Now they're only selling sim's in company stores or online with their lousy delivery times. Some online vendors may continue to sell sim's.

And apparently you also missed the change in long distance add-ons? They re-arranged the long distance add-ons a bit of a while ago.

kav2001c
Mayor / Maire

I thought Public has been 100% digital online for years now??? Unless I missed something???

A few dealer stores sold Public SIMs but I have not seen a Public store anywhere

 

Good news on LTE return and good news on finally bringing back some real intl long distance offers

 

treefrog
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@J_PM 

This is a surprise! I will go explore and see what I think?

Anonymous_i_am
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Amazing! Thanks so much!


@Anonymous_i_am wrote:

Yessss thiiisss! Anyone know?


HI @Anonymous_i_am   Yes, we know

 

Changing plan would not affect current  rewards/add-ons/holiday giveaways

 

But make sure you don't have activation bonus, those activation bonuses have terms that you cannot make plan change or you will loss 

 

 

and Changing plan would not move you to the new rewards.  You will keep your current reward system

 

Anonymous_i_am
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Yessss thiiisss! Anyone know?

Anonymous_i_am
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Great news! Wondering if folks with the old rewards program switch to a 4g plan, will they automatically get bumped from the old rewards plan to the new one?

 

darlicious
Mayor / Maire

@musicollector 

Only if it autoplays Pink Floyd when you sign in....lol....but you should get 3× the points going forward so 2.25pts for each renewal for the next year. 11×2.25=24.75=$24.75 Thats $2.75 more than the autopay reward earnings.

musicollector
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Meaning, $15 plan customers get no benefit from implementing Autoplay?

musicollector
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

"For a low tier they don't even *offer* a 1gb plan? Wow ":

 

It's pathetic. A measly 250 MB! I better not watch a (long) Pink Floyd video. I'll be done for the month in the first 60 seconds!

musicollector
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

"Rogers"

Except for a whole day last week! 🙂

musicollector
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

That's news to me. I just signed up on Monday. Do I get 3X points? How do I find out?

musicollector
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Makes perfect sense. I gather that is why they even have vouchers for people without credit cards. Thanks for the clarification.

musicollector
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

"However, my wife switched to Koodo during one of those deals a few years ago. She never misses calls and sound clarity is much much better."

Now, it makes sense about difference between Tier 2 and Tier 3. 

musicollector
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Thank you, tbone9. Learned something new.

BearFBI
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@bluejaywpg wrote:

@BearFBI wrote:

These plans are a ripoff. 

 

Where is VoLTE and E-sim ?

 

Ive moved all my accounts with data away from PM. I downgraded mine and now use data with another provider 


@BearFBI if you don't mind me asking, who provides your data? I've looked into this & found that it's not worthwhile for me. Or, because my phone is not a dual physical SIM phone (1 physical SIM, 1 eSIM), I cannot do this with some providers. So I'm still with PM only for all cell services.


https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/The-Lounge/PM-s-15-plan-with-the-cheapest-dual-SIM-E-...

 

@softech These issues have been flagged to our team, who are working quickly on fix. 

 

Thank you!

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