A letter from Dave on the infamous $40 for 4GB price change

[Dave_M]

Hey Community,

I am writing to you today to let you know that we will not be moving forward with a price increase on the infamous “$40 for 4GB” plan ($120 90-day Province-Wide Talk + Text + 12GB Data), contrary to the SMS that customers on that plan received yesterday.

After sending out an offer to select customers, we heard your feedback loud and clear: we said no surprises, and we surprised you. While all good things must come to an end at some point – that point is not today. As a brand, we have always been proud of our transparency, and of our commitment to our customers. We are sincerely sorry for any frustration caused and we want you to know that this has been a learning experience for us all.

We have been reminded that you, our customers, are vocal and passionate. We’ve seen how much some of you love Public Mobile and we’ve also seen how many of you like the added value that our sister brand, Koodo, has to offer. To that end, we are happy to say that the Koodo offer that our Public customers on the “$40 for 4GB” plan received still remains available for anyone who wishes to take advantage of it.

Thank you for your continued support,

Dave

[jpar]

Glad to see PM do the right thing here.

[dcannons]

This should have never happened and the damage has already been done. As soon as my prepaid is up, I'm switching carriers.

Go pound sand.

[ToniCipriani]

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@Wi11iamwrote:

Thank you for listening PM. 

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They're not. Re-read the letter, basically it's: "you win this time, we'll be back with vengeance."

[sbreakin]

Thank you, Dave for coming forward with the announcement that PM has reconsidered.

For myself, I realize expenses and prices change, however, I thought the price increase (25%) was too large & too soon after attracting customers away from competitors and with language that stated the plan & price would remain as long as we remained active. 

When I was with Rogers (for 17 years), after my last contract period, the price remained the same for several years on a month to month basis with only a credit expiring. Eventually, the price increased but there were retention offers of credits and phone discounts if I moved up to even higher plans, which is why I eventually moved.  Many telecoms including PM keep folks grandfathered for a reasonable period before adjusting prices.

I am glad that we will be able to retain the plan and while all good things come to an end, "at least that point is not today".  

While I don't wish to encourage any price increase & terms of agreement mention a month (which I hadn't noticed before), I might suggest considering 90 days notice to coincide with most people's term.

I also appreciate keeping the Koodo offer available for those that might wish to change.

Your sister company Koodo often wins customer awards and has a few things we don't have here (phone discounts, kiosks, call center) as it's not part of the PM business strategy.  

[will13am]

@Dave_M, what are you going to do to redress those who have already been forced out the door already?  I hope there will be some sort of offering to allow those who have left to come back into the community.  We were a loyal bunch and none of us deserved to be forced out even if it is to a sister company. 

I respect the need for businesses to make a profit.  However, the affected customer base was on this plan for just a little over one year.  A 25% price increase over this short period of time is totally unjustified.  If the increase was consistent with inflation, we might not like it still but the reaction would be at worst muted.  If for business reasons this particular plan profile is better suited for the Koodo brand, we could have been encouraged to move over with far less aggression.  As you can see, our equal and opposite fierce reaction reflects our love of the product and the desire to stay put. 

You have relied on this community forum as a backbone for this innovative product.  I suggest some consultation with the community the next time major measure are being considered.  While we don't run the company, our collective voices are influential and do matter.  Call it a social license conduct business. 

For now, I suppose both sides will go to our respective corners and licked the wounds.  The healing process is going to take some time.  I have no doubt that this episode will result in greater understanding and respect for each other.  On behalf of the remaining customer base, thanks for doing the right thing!

[pakmode]

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@ShawnC13wrote:

This is great news!!  I commend everyone for your passion and persistance and showing a Big Corp what the little guy can do when they feel they are being mistreated.   Unfortunately for PM and Telus the damage is done.  This will scar them for awhile.  Just think of all the new community reward winners we will have next month for beating up a  company that is now giving you a financial reward for doing that. LOL

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LOL. It's so true. 

[remik]

If anything good came out of this it's that a **bleep** load of people will be getting "community discounts" on their next renewal for bad mouthing PM 😛

[IWIK]

Although I'm extremely pleased that I won't have to switch right now. It is certainly an eye opener about what may come in the future with Public Mobile

[cbrguy]

Im not even against moving to koodo, but dont drop this crap on me 3 days after i just paid for 3 months of service with an exploding expiry date 30 days from now.  We had 3 lines on the Fall 2016 plan.  One was moved over to Koodo 60/10GB because of the need for Data. I too will be looking at migrating my PM lines away.  They have lost my trust and in turn my $$$ since that's all that seems to matter to these vultures.  

[Vanterax]

How are you going to help those who started the move to Koodo?! Will you refund the purchase of the SIM card that is no longer needed?

[ShawnC13]

This is great news!!  I commend everyone for your passion and persistance and showing a Big Corp what the little guy can do when they feel they are being mistreated.   Unfortunately for PM and Telus the damage is done.  This will scar them for awhile.  Just think of all the new community reward winners we will have next month for beating up a  company that is now giving you a financial reward for doing that. LOL

[Wi11iam]

Thank you for listening PM. 

[Tallguy11]

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@scpmwrote:

We have won an important battle but we will be ready to win the war when it comes in the near future. Go Social Media!!!!  

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HELL YA BRING IT ON!!!

[remik]

"...While all good things must come to an end at some point – that point is not today. "

No Bravos, and no comfort in this statement. Pretty much confirmed that  a price increase is coming just not on March 20th.  See you all in 90days???

[scpm]

We have won an important battle but we will be ready to win the war when it comes in the near future. Go Social Media!!!!  

[slavitch]

"We said no surprises, and we surprised you."

No, you surprised legal by not making them aware of that posting.  Now they are dealing with the consequences, which is dealing with 2,500 complaints one by one, an expensive process.

[orangeworx]

I hope this will stick... But thanks for the update and for listening to your clients

[steelworx]

@Dave_M You better get a text out soon... my family is still outraged and many people we have referred still don't know. Clearly many are planning to leave Telus, Public and Koodo completely over this. PR nightmare on your hands!! Waiting for the CBC story to go live any minute...

[CalvinW]

Better keep a heads up for any promotions that come around. The next time they try again, I’m pretty sure they won’t back down 

[saje_ward]

Sadly I would suspect that you're right. 

I'll continue to ride this pony while the riding is good. 

[Maniacal]

Thanks Dave and Public Mobile for not moving ahead at this time. 

Though as you will be in the future and because of this, I will be looking elsewhere and if I do find something better I will be taking it. I, like many others here, are not happy with this attempt by TELUS to get us off pre-paid and Public Mobile. 

Especially since PB is very no-frills and doesn't have an actual customer service line for non-legacy customers I'm not sure where the price increase would be going to anyway.

Cheers,

[Vanterax]

Well thank you.  This is giving me until the end of my cycle to find a new provider.  PM has permanently damaged their reputation with us.

[hocuspocus]

I interpreted that as such as well.

[saje_ward]

Oh ouch mate, that sucks. We knew to wait a bit and see which way the wind was blowing after a bit of sober second thought. Hopefully PM can make it right but with their track record...

[PeterH]

While this is good news for now. I started moving lines that I manage away from PM. Once the prepaid is up the rest will go to Freedom mobile. Shaw has significantly improved the Wind network in the past 2 years making it worth switching.

[EG6]

"While all good things must come to an end at some point – that point is not today."

Translation:

Let us check with our legal team about how to do this in a way that will not provoke the regulators and we'll get back to you in a couple of months with what we invented!

[nd]

When good things are attempted to be ended again, we'll be ready.

[PBForMe]

This is quite unexpected. I commend the company for trying to keep their promises, well done.

It will take a long time before I trust PM again that's for sure. 

[Samz2]

Well done and thank you to everyone who submitted complaints to CCTS. Despite the phrase "while that point is not today" sounding ominous, Public Mobile surely realizes this uproar will happen again next time they try and pull something.

[Tallguy11]

i think they should be sending out a mass txt right now as well...so everyone gets informed! otherwise more ppl will jump to koodo (this is their plan i think) then there wont be as many ppl to fight the next round..very underhanded aswell...