$5 more for national calling plan?

[laoli]

Was told by the sales who signed up me today. Public Mobile will change calling area from national to Provisional only next week.  For $25, you need pay $5 extra in order to call Quebec (from Ontario) , or vice versa.

Will this affect old customer (such as myself) $25 plan? Anybody heard of this price increase?

[gpixel]

I think there will be a price increase...

 

[computergeek541]

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@BearFBI wrote:

@computergeek541 Well. Right. I mean they can't really lower the prices any more. Prices will reach a point where they cant get any lower but they can increase the plan value for the same price. 

"Am I a happy customer because of the rewards on my account? Yes."

What I'm trying to get at is that my refferals wouldn't want to stay with PM when they see that they can get a better deal somewhere elese. If I loose my refferals I loose almost all my rewards. Refferals make up a big chunk of rewards for me. No rewards = no happy customer. 

I'm still currently an extremely happy customer for now... 

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Since the summer, I've been telling Public Mobile and other members that there is a serious customer churn problem.  What good is a promotion that attracts 20 new customers if 15 of those customers leave after some 6 or 8 month discount period? What if I told you that I have seen an account that lost 20 referrals over a few months?  And no, I don't mean the fake ghost referrals either.  The current price plans and offers are not good enough to attact new custmers, and even when they do, customers just switch back and forth between carriers every few months.  The plans also aren't good enough to get people to stay. I suspect that long terms customers stay because of the increased rewards, but why would the newer customer stay?

And what about those surveys that others have posted screenshots from asking about if they would accept changes to the the rewards program?  What was Public Mobile thinking?

[BearFBI]

@computergeek541 Well. Right. I mean they can't really lower the prices any more. Prices will reach a point where they cant get any lower but they can increase the plan value for the same price. 

"Am I a happy customer because of the rewards on my account? Yes."

What I'm trying to get at is that my refferals wouldn't want to stay with PM when they see that they can get a better deal somewhere elese. If I loose my refferals I loose almost all my rewards. Refferals make up a big chunk of rewards for me. No rewards = no happy customer. 

I'm still currently an extremely happy customer for now... 

[computergeek541]

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@BearFBI wrote:

@PMinfo wrote "Both Telus & Koodo are offering prepaid LTE 1GB with Autopay UL T&T for $30."

Oh wow. Thanks for sharing that. What a joke PM has become. If anything we need a 5$ price decrease on all plans. 

I'm praying dotmobile launches soon. I might consider the switch if PM had gotten even worse. I have a lot of rewards but my other accounts don't and thats gonna take years to buildup. If anything there better off leaving Public. And if my friends leave I loose refferals, If loose refferals my rewards are next to nothing. Gives me no reason to stay. 

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Am I a happy customer because of the rewards on my account? Yes.

Would I sign up now as a new customer on the current plans or if the plans are made worse? Absolutely not. 

The plans now are just terrible. While the rewards can eventually make the plan very good, these are mainly not automatic for the absolutely best discounts and are not something that the new customer can immediately take advantage of for the most part. 

@BearFBI I'm not even sure that a decreasing prices by $5 would even matter all that much. Price isn't everything, but what's included for that price does matter.   If Public Mobile has no call centre and has very low expense overhead, why is that they are not the cheapest, have less data included in the plans, and include slower data?  With such a lower expense overhead, Public Mobile should be able to over the best plans out there. Sadly, they haven't been doing that for a long time.

[gpixel]

imo public should either remove Canada wide and not increase the plan prices or they should increase the price and leave Canada wide alone. it doesn't make sense to do both unless the goal is to make public worse. 

comparing lower and higher tiers if a $5 increase is implemented, everything remains the same as it is now except we are paying $5 more. this makes sense cause the higher tiers will be paying more. 

unfortunately they cannot remove prepaid unless they are willing to give plans to people with bad credit

[mimmo]

@PMinfo who knows Telus might get rid of Telus and Koodo prepaid.  I always found it silly that the three brands offer the same offerings.

I doubt any decision is made without looking at the whole playing field. I'm sure there is a grander scheme at play... I'm sure Telus pays a group of people alot of money to come up with these these changes to maximize their bottom line (which I believe missed their most recent target) and maximize the cash out of our wallets.

[BearFBI]

@PMinfo wrote "Both Telus & Koodo are offering prepaid LTE 1GB with Autopay UL T&T for $30."

Oh wow. Thanks for sharing that. What a joke PM has become. If anything we need a 5$ price decrease on all plans. 

I'm praying dotmobile launches soon. I might consider the switch if PM had gotten even worse. I have a lot of rewards but my other accounts don't and thats gonna take years to buildup. If anything there better off leaving Public. And if my friends leave I loose refferals, If loose refferals my rewards are next to nothing. Gives me no reason to stay. 

[PMinfo]

@mimmo...  Both Telus & Koodo are offering prepaid LTE 1GB with Autopay UL T&T for $30.

Unless they are planning on raising those promo's as well, Telus is not trying to "differentiate" the Public Mobile brand.  It actually looks more like trying to "eliminate" it.

All incumbents are suffering from lower ARPU's.  $15 monthly plans don't look to be part of Telus future regardless of what affiliate.

[BearFBI]

@mimmo valid point. If telus is doing this to differentiate the 3 brands though then that extremely alters PM's existence. 

PM was originally launched to make cell service not be a luxury. When telus acquired them they embraced that and offered awesome plans that were the lowest in the market. PM has gone through a couple slogans "Less for Less", "Everybody Talk" I forget if there are any others.

PM's Less for Less slogan now is totally not valid, If anything its "the same for less" compared to koodo. Some of koodo's bigger data deal plans are better than Public's. PM is really only good at lower priced plans and now with this change they might just be good at nothing. PM will totally suck and the only thing good about it will be the reward system that takes ages to build up. 

PM has changed for the worse. Telus is just becoming more greedier and this phone company that used to be great because of the price is now just a joke. 

[LurganIeUk]

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But I those that are rewardless, fled to better deals PM wouldn’t survive with a high ratio of accounts that pay little to nothing. There must must only a percentage on low low side that find referrals while some are just satisfied with price, service, auto-pay reward and loyalty reward. So those referrals are low cost gains for PM. 

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In hind sight those least to leave, have lots of rewards.  Others that are on the edge of leaving that have plans to make or made with a balance to use up, will leave over the next months. 

[mimmo]

The more I think about this plan change / increase the more I think it is a smart move on Telus part.

The biggest issue Telus has with carrying three different brands is differentiation between the three. 

• All three used to have full LTE now only Telus and Koodo. 
• Telus Koodo sell new phones PM used ones
• Telus and koodo have more data than PM plans with some overlap)  
• PM is going to be Provincial (waiting to be seen)  Koodo Telus nation wide
• PM has limited roaming Telus Koodo Worldwide
• Telus values post paid more than prepaid
• PM is online only Telus/koodo live reps
• Visual Voice mail on Telus and Koodo none on PM
• VoLTE on Telus and Koodo none on PM
• am sure there are more

I have seen a koodo/ PM kiosk in my local mall so if a person is going to come to the kiosk there needs to be clear differentiators between the various brands.

if I go to teh Hyundai dealership they sell  the Accent (PM), Elantra (Koodo) and Sonata (telus)  they all get you from A-B but there are clear differences between the cars  (size, features etc),  I believe Telus is trying to do the same thing.  If one outgrows the Accent they will move to the Elantra and i believe that is the concept behind some of the changes we have seen in the past and will in the future.    Outgrow PM plan / start spending more than similar plan at koodo then go to Koodo....  

Another example are the airlines  in europe you have easyjey and Ryan air (no frills) (the PM of air travel) then you have the national Carriers (KLM, British Air, (the Telus)  both get you from A-B  but one has many more comforts than the other.    

PM is the 3rd tier of phone service its the barebones if you need more there are options... just not at PM.

anyways just some personal thoughts lets see what happens at midnight/tomorrow

[JK8]

Out of the 4 London Drugs in my area 2 said there was going to be a change to the Canada Wide / Provincial Calling and 2 did not know anything about any changes. Has anyone else had any luck contacting their local stores to see what is going on?

[ShawnC13]

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@dabr wrote:

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@darlicious wrote:

@dabr 

Funny you should mention the current issue (glitch) with customers who have province wide calling plans of course this glitch if still uncorrected would throw a major spanner in the works...... These customers are unable to make any outgoing calling without purchasing or using a Canada wide calling add on. It's just a little ironic or coincidental(?) that this possible launch of province wide calling plans is hampered by the fact that you need Canada wide calling to call provincially currently?

Dissent towards any announcement can be handled just like pm's customers and community handled it 3 years ago....organize, complain and make your voice heard. LOUD AND CLEAR!!

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@darlicious   Yeah, I do think if these changes happen that there will be quite a bit of that "Dissent, Loud & Clear".....and rightly so!

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There is one major difference from back then.  This proposed/rumored plan change wouldn't affect any current PM customers where the previous attempt did.  It was probably also at the time the biggest customer portion of the provider they were going after the people on the 2016 Fall Promo

[dabr]

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@darlicious wrote:

@dabr 

Funny you should mention the current issue (glitch) with customers who have province wide calling plans of course this glitch if still uncorrected would throw a major spanner in the works...... These customers are unable to make any outgoing calling without purchasing or using a Canada wide calling add on. It's just a little ironic or coincidental(?) that this possible launch of province wide calling plans is hampered by the fact that you need Canada wide calling to call provincially currently?

Dissent towards any announcement can be handled just like pm's customers and community handled it 3 years ago....organize, complain and make your voice heard. LOUD AND CLEAR!!

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@darlicious   Yeah, I do think if these changes happen that there will be quite a bit of that "Dissent, Loud & Clear".....and rightly so!

[darlicious]

@dabr 

Funny you should mention the current issue (glitch) with customers who have province wide calling plans of course this glitch if still uncorrected would throw a major spanner in the works...... These customers are unable to make any outgoing calling without purchasing or using a Canada wide calling add on. It's just a little ironic or coincidental(?) that this possible launch of province wide calling plans is hampered by the fact that you need Canada wide calling to call provincially currently?

Dissent towards any announcement can be handled just like pm's customers and community handled it 3 years ago....organize, complain and make your voice heard. LOUD AND CLEAR!!

[ShawnC13]

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@LurganIeUk wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @kb_mv : Yes.

And the old province-wide meant calling in the province you're in. It didn't depend on anything called a "home" province.

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Not that I know about the old plans.   Would not the provincial calling be based on your phone number? In those days lets say I had a Ontario number. What would happed if I went on a business trip to BC....make calls yes/no......receive calls yes/no?  Canada Wide makes things so much simpler. And I did a check for prepaid offerings in Canada and they all seem to offer Canada Wide. 

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Ontario number in BC can call all of BC with provincial only calling, I can't remember if they were able to call back to Ont "free" or not, receive all calls 

[Anonymous]

 @kb_mv : Oops @LurganIeUk : As I understood it and putting it in my words...whatever province you're in you can call in it. You would need add-ons to call elsewhere.

Inbound is always up to the callers calling plan.

[BearFBI]

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@laoli wrote:

@BearFBI ,no it's INCREASE.  

LTO is for national calling plans only.   For example, $30 1gb national calling plan is $25 with LIMITED TIME OFFER .  

I wish PM do what you said, but it's not. 

Bad move 👎👎👎

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Oh god. BAD MOVE. 

This is ridiculous. 

now everyone should be in panic state

[LurganIeUk]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @kb_mv : Yes.

And the old province-wide meant calling in the province you're in. It didn't depend on anything called a "home" province.

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Not that I know about the old plans.   Would not the provincial calling be based on your phone number? In those days lets say I had a Ontario number. What would happed if I went on a business trip to BC....make calls yes/no......receive calls yes/no?  Canada Wide makes things so much simpler. And I did a check for prepaid offerings in Canada and they all seem to offer Canada Wide. 

[laoli]

@BearFBI ,no it's INCREASE.  

LTO is for national calling plans only.   For example, $30 1gb national calling plan is $25 with LIMITED TIME OFFER .  

I wish PM do what you said, but it's not. 

Bad move 👎👎👎

[computergeek541]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @kb_mv : Yes.

And the old province-wide meant calling in the province you're in. It didn't depend on anything called a "home" province.

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There never really was anything that was actually a "home" province.  I'm aware that some of the help article might have used that term, but it wasn't accurate. The only way a home province would have been relevant would have been for incoming phone calls because at a most carriers, answering a phone call if you weren't in the same local calling area as your phone number would result in long distance charges at if the plan didn't include at least some long distance minutes.  That doesn't apply at Public Mobile because customers with province-wide calling plans can answer a all in any province without needing a Canada-wide long distance add-on. At one point, Public Mobile did quietly make a change to the Knowledge Base articles.

[Anonymous]

 @kb_mv : Yes.

And the old province-wide meant calling in the province you're in. It didn't depend on anything called a "home" province.

[dabr]

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@kb_mv wrote:

I do call cross country but I also travel a lot and make calls from / to different provinces. Would the 500 Canada wide minutes cover me if I am out of my "home" province to call anywhere else in Canada?

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@kb_mv   I can't see any reason why they wouldn't...

[kb_mv]

I do call cross country but I also travel a lot and make calls from / to different provinces. Would the 500 Canada wide minutes (or all the free minutes I have) cover me if I am out of my "home" province to call anywhere else in Canada?

[dabr]

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@BearFBI wrote:

@dabr exactly. This may be actually a really good change if you can take advantage of the limited time offer. Even if you are a canada wide caller. 

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@BearFBI   The problem being, of course, the $5 discount will be a LTO and probably most customers will be unaware that they have this option unless they come to the community forum or hear of it in some other manner and will most likely miss the opportunity to take advantage.

As long as PM grandfathers in the current plans, it might be a bonus for some, that is, of course, if this thread is correct about the proposed changes in the first place!  😊

[BearFBI]

@dabr exactly. This may be actually a really good change if you can take advantage of the limited time offer. Even if you are a canada wide caller. 

[dabr]

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@BearFBI wrote:

@dabr I'll tell you what I got out of this thread and what PM may be possibly doing. 

All of the plans 15-50$ will be switched to province wide calling with a 5$ option to Canada wide Calling. 

During the week of this rollout. PM could be offering a 1 week Limited Time offer 5$ off for 25$ plans and up. Now the 5$ would be off the province wide plan price. For example if you claim this offer on the 25$ plan your plan will now be 20$ for 1GB of data and Province wide talk and text. 

For non canada wide callers this limited time offer window will be a blessing. I dont really call outside of my province and I'm on the 25$ plan. Paying 5$ less would be awesome for me. I also have like 1k minutes that I'm never gonna use because of my current canada wide plan. Only downside of this is your grandfathered to it. 

For Canada wide callers this would be terrible. You'll be paying 5$ more. Now am not sure if the 5$ off LTO counts towards the canada wide plans. You could probably buy a canada wide calling addon and stay on a provincal talk plan. 

This is all I got out of it. Not sure what will 100% happen. We will see I guess. I'm kinda happy and curious. 5$ off would be awesome.

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@BearFBI   Ahhh...when you put it like that, that, of course, makes a lot of sense.  Yeah I think that for many customers the province wide calling only would make more sense and if they can get their current plan at a $5 discount (sans ROC calling) they would definitely be better off. 

As you noted with all the free PM gifts of Canadian mins they already have on account, for the occasional calls needed to other provinces would more than do the trick.  Plus adding $5/500 mins add-on is always a cheap option should these customers need it.

[BearFBI]

@dabr I'll tell you what I got out of this thread and what PM may be possibly doing. 

All of the plans 15-50$ will be switched to province wide calling with a 5$ option to Canada wide Calling. 

During the week of this rollout. PM could be offering a 1 week Limited Time offer 5$ off for 25$ plans and up. Now the 5$ would be off the province wide plan price. For example if you claim this offer on the 25$ plan your plan will now be 20$ for 1GB of data and Province wide talk and text. 

For non canada wide callers this limited time offer window will be a blessing. I dont really call outside of my province and I'm on the 25$ plan. Paying 5$ less would be awesome for me. I also have like 1k minutes that I'm never gonna use because of my current canada wide plan. Only downside of this is your grandfathered to it. 

For Canada wide callers this would be terrible. You'll be paying 5$ more. Now am not sure if the 5$ off LTO counts towards the canada wide plans. You could probably buy a canada wide calling addon and stay on a provincal talk plan. 

This is all I got out of it. Not sure what will 100% happen. We will see I guess. I'm kinda happy and curious. 5$ off would be awesome.

[dabr]

I've just realized there have been a few threads/posts with customers on older (grandfathered) plans with provincial calling only having issues with not being able to make calls suddenly and the workaround is purchasing the $5/500 Canadian mins add-on.  I wonder if this is connected in anyway to this thread, probably not but....

[esjliv]

What the heck is going on?

This is a suspenseful, drama happening here! I am now pulled in.

What news is next....?