Losing lots of referrals

[WoozyPolarBear]

Ever since Public Mobile took away nation-wide calling and added $5 per month for that "privilege", while making the base plans with only Provincial calling, I've lost a lot of referrals. I used to have 22 referrals as of mid January, and the majority of them had been with public mobile for at least a year. As of the rate plan increase/change, I have lost 10 referrals, and am now down to 12. It's quite eye opening how quickly people will bail out on a service when the price no longer is good. Has anyone else lost this many referrals lately? It seems like Public Mobile is no longer to go to discount carrier anymore.

[gpixel]

@WoozyPolarBear stop taking my referrals!

[HALIMACS]

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@WoozyPolarBear wrote:

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@Bear2 wrote:

@WoozyPolarBear @I had one referral and a week later it was gone. I never received any money off because it was gone so fast

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I think there is a glitch with Public Mobile with referrals where overnight it will add one referral, and in the morning it will go away again.

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That's correct.

You'll probably notice your referral reward value may frequently not match the numbers of registered phone numbers associated with it under the Rewards tab.   Usually it's a short-lived mismatch, however its a regular occurrence. 

It's definitely a glitch.

[HALIMACS]

This is curious, @WoozyPolarBear 

Are these folks leaving shortly after having had signed up?   Did they KNOW they don't lose their existing plan and are grandfathered into it?

The only valid reason I could see a person leaving based on the price increase announcement, is if they're someone who likes to routinely change plans based on seasonal usage or something like that.  Those folks will no longer be able to do this and maintain the grandfathered plan.

[will13am]

@WoozyPolarBear , is it possible that your referrals didn't understand the fact that the new price increase has no impact unless they change plans?  Public Mobile is not known for changing the price on legacied plans.  The only time I recall where it happened was on plans that has access to call center support.  The call center was being eliminated and they needed to incentivize a move to in market plans that rely on community support.  

[esjliv]

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@WoozyPolarBear wrote:

Ever since Public Mobile took away nation-wide calling and added $5 per month for that "privilege", while making the base plans with only Provincial calling, I've lost a lot of referrals. I used to have 22 referrals as of mid January, and the majority of them had been with public mobile for at least a year. As of the rate plan increase/change, I have lost 10 referrals, and am now down to 12. It's quite eye opening how quickly people will bail out on a service when the price no longer is good. Has anyone else lost this many referrals lately? It seems like Public Mobile is no longer to go to discount carrier anymore.

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@WoozyPolarBear , that does suck.

It would be interesting to find out if you did find one of your friends that are still active PM, but they are removed from your list...curious, if this happens?

If you ever did find out could you report back on that?

[darlicious]

@WoozyPolarBear 

Other than the two americans I referred when I first signed up that were only looking for a cheap plan for their 3 week vacation in bc I haven't lost a single referral. I directly manage 6 of those accounts. The others I keep aprised of all important changes, contests, freebies etc....offered by public mobile. 

I just learned that one of my referrals is considering going back to koodo because he wants a new phone but he's on a strict budget and can't afford to buy one outright but can afford to pay $15 more per month on top of his $40 plan. ( Not that he even comes close to needing 5gb of data he just likes to know its there if he needs it....go figure a guy on a budget?!!) So this is what I sent him to consider before he makes any moves......

Koodo plan (+$15 tab=$60 p/m)The $45/5gb unlimited province wide calling, canada wide texting etc...long distance in canada $0.02 - $0.10 depending on amount of min purchased. International long distance $0.10 - $0.40 Intl. texts = additional charges

The new public mobile plan $40/5gb unlimited prov wide calling, intl. texting etc... canada wide long distance $5 (unlimited p/m) or $5/500min add on ( rolls over 'til done) do you talk more than 8 hours a month long distance? 

Also fongo or textnow offer free long distance calling/texting and fongo offers mobile data calling 0.5mb per minute 100mb=200 calling minutes and they're a canadian company. I'll call you from my fongo # after this so you have it as I use it for a lot of my outgoing calling because I'm on the $15 plan since july I've used 4 minutes from my add ons and about 100mb of extra data from my add ons. (20gb +2500 cdn min+900 intl min on one account alone....+$135 account credit+$75 on the other one that grows by $5 per month. I currently pay $2 p/m from my $135)

Instead since you dont want to leave all your freebies if you leave pm so I would switch to the $15 plan like me make sure you use all your data saving options ( data warning, limiter, saver) and turn off all background data that alone can save you up to 38% of your data usage.

I looked at the koodo $45 plan +$10 tab =$55+tax $6.60=$61.60 p/m×24=$1478.40

Public $15 plan -$3( $2 autopay +$1 loyalty)=$12 p/m +tax $1.44=$13.44 p/m.

Koodo 4 months $61.60×4=$246.40 - $53.76 (pm×4)=$192.64 saved to spend on a new phone.  

You should currently have RBC data 5gb+shaw bonus data from last summer 5gb +2gb xmas freebie +500 min intl long distance ( canada too but I would just buy the $5/500min add on and save the intl for when and if you need it no expiry)=12gb data

Remember come October you get another $1 for loyalty so you will have $4 off per month so if you go back to the $40 plan its $36 p/m compared to $45 at koodo. Also if you participated in the community you can earn $1 with 2 or 3 well placed posts or one hour a week can easily get you $2 in community rewards. You can save 7% on vouchers if you buy from CCS or buy $10 vouchers once per week at london drugs with the LDX program to earn $5 off coupon every 10×$10 voucher. (5% savings)

Below is the link for my phone all in with taxes and duty $170 canadian. As you can see by switching to $15 plan $13.44 even from your current plan saves you $30 p/m in 6 months you can pay for a new phone or 4 months from a koodo plan. I figure its at least 4 months to use up your freebies! Food for thought.....

I'm always happy to help. (lol.... my pm signature you should try the community there's lots to learn and some good discussions you might enjoy!)

dar(licious)

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1595563-REG/moto_pafv0001us_moto_g7_plus_64gb.html

[gpixel]

@WoozyPolarBear 

if you act as the referees customer support and don't let them get hit with surprises(service disruption). they won't leave

[darlicious]

@WoozyPolarBear 

 You had my "The referral king" story for how you capitalized on referrals at your place of employment. But I think the combination of price increases, better plan offerings at higher data speeds with larger data plans and call centre support is taking its toll on public mobiles customer base. Many people are sucked into the bigger and faster is better....but if that only costs you $10 more per month then people are going to jump ship. Public mobile still rules the low cost plan especially coupled with rewards. Limiting data plans to 8.5gb with slower data speeds and less innovative choices for new plans is eventually going to cost pm in the long run.

[WoozyPolarBear]

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@Korth wrote:

@WoozyPolarBear 

lol - assuming these referrals are actually people you know, not random unattached internet strangers - you could always just call them and ask why they suddenly left. Maybe they found a better offer. Maybe even a better which would be of interest to you.

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4-5 of the referrals are people I know, the rest are indeed strangers. I've had 1 real friend leave them in the last month (they got tired of the 3 Mbps capped data speed).

[Korth]

@WoozyPolarBear 

lol - assuming these referrals are actually people you know, not random unattached internet strangers - you could always just call them and ask why they suddenly left. Maybe they found a better offer. Maybe even a better which would be of interest to you.

[Bear2]

Wow I didn't know its been a decade. Where I live just seeing promotions and $10 plans now with lots of advertising. It really sucked seeing a friend referral disappear so fast but I'm not worried. Having a bill for 14.56 is so much better than the 140 I used to have for 2 lines

[WoozyPolarBear]

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@Korth wrote:

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@WoozyPolarBear wrote:

Has anyone been able to gain new referrals since the new plan prices started?

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As for those referrals who jumped ship in a panic ... because they didn't listen, didn't read, didn't think ... they were likely going to drift away anyhow.

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I had those referrals for over a year, and then suddenly in a span of the past month, poof, they're gone.

[WoozyPolarBear]

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@Bear2 wrote:

So hard to pick a cell provider now. So many new ones... I didnt realize there were so many until recently. Like lucky mobile and now PC has their own chain too

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PC mobile has been around for over a decade, and Lucky mobile has been around for a few years.

[Korth]

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@WoozyPolarBear wrote:

Has anyone been able to gain new referrals since the new plan prices started?

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Yes and no.

Got a couple of people who do want to join PM. Got the spare PM SIM cards ready.

But don't got any sort of data or signup data offers which interest them. They'll stick with their current providers until PM runs a promo which sells what they want to buy.

PM has ups and downs. Sometimes it has utterly unbeatable promos. Sometimes it throws stale unappetizing leftovers on the table.

Don't focus on getting referrals. Focus on getting happy referrals. You might miss out on $1 per month for a season or two while you ignore PM's bad offers and wait for PM's good offers. But then you might get that $1 per month for a long time afterwards because happy referrals don't keep hunting for better alternatives and are harder to tempt away.

As for those referrals who jumped ship in a panic ... because they didn't listen, didn't read, didn't think ... they were likely going to drift away anyhow.

[WoozyPolarBear]

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@Bear2 wrote:

@WoozyPolarBear @I had one referral and a week later it was gone. I never received any money off because it was gone so fast

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I think there is a glitch with Public Mobile with referrals where overnight it will add one referral, and in the morning it will go away again.

[Bear2]

So hard to pick a cell provider now. So many new ones... I didnt realize there were so many until recently. Like lucky mobile and now PC has their own chain too

[Bear2]

@WoozyPolarBear @I had one referral and a week later it was gone. I never received any money off because it was gone so fast

[computergeek541]

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@dlambro wrote:

@WoozyPolarBear,  Hi there, I find it a bit puzzling why the change in plan structure would cause you to lose existing referrals.  All existing plans are grandfathered, so the new plan structures should not cause any existing customers to bail, unless they are getting a better deal elsewhere.  Maybe your friends/referrals don't realize their rates will not change unless they change their plans?  

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The loss of referals is at least partially the result of better offers being available elsewhere. The plans are getting better at the Big 3 and medium-priced brands (Koodo, Fido, Virgin, Zoomer) and at Freedom/Shaw, but worse at the budget brands, to the point where the budget brands don't even always have the best prices. Customers end up switching because of that. Also, having referral rewards on your account is a one-time activity and with the referrals remaining forever. When the plans get worse, as they have been, this leads to a lack of new referrals to replace the ones that you've lost.

[computergeek541]

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@WoozyPolarBear wrote:

Ever since Public Mobile took away nation-wide calling and added $5 per month for that "privilege", while making the base plans with only Provincial calling, I've lost a lot of referrals. I used to have 22 referrals as of mid January, and the majority of them had been with public mobile for at least a year. As of the rate plan increase/change, I have lost 10 referrals, and am now down to 12. It's quite eye opening how quickly people will bail out on a service when the price no longer is good. Has anyone else lost this many referrals lately? It seems like Public Mobile is no longer to go to discount carrier anymore.

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I've been saying this for about a year that Public Mobile has been having difficulty keeping customers. You losing that many referrals isn't an isolated incident.  What if I told that I've lost more than 30 referrals since the summer?  It's not necessarily that customers don't sign up, but I have long believed that customers who sign up when there's a promotion with some type of temporary price discount are often the ones who leave as soon as the price goes back up.  The total price that customers can pay when there a whole lot of rewards on the account is excellent. However, when it comes to the actual plans themselves, they just are no longer cutting it without those rewards, rewards that new customers won't have (except for autopay) when they iniitally sign up. 

[Anonymous]

 @WoozyPolarBear : Absolutely. And yet they get promoted up to the big leagues. Go figure.

Edit: Their announcement does say it but of course who reads stuff. No one.

[WoozyPolarBear]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @WoozyPolarBear : Nice job on the referrals! I think it is all a huge misunderstanding by people. They see rate changes and think they have to pay it like with other carriers. Not here. What'r'y'gonna do.

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Well, if that's the misconception that people have, Public Mobile needs to do more to clarify the plan price increases.

[Anonymous]

 @WoozyPolarBear : Nice job on the referrals! I think it is all a huge misunderstanding by people. They see rate changes and think they have to pay it like with other carriers. Not here. What'r'y'gonna do.

[WoozyPolarBear]

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@dlambro wrote:

@WoozyPolarBear,  Hi there, I find it a bit puzzling why the change in plan structure would cause you to lose existing referrals.  All existing plans are grandfathered, so the new plan structures should not cause any existing customers to bail, unless they are getting a better deal elsewhere.  Maybe your friends/referrals don't realize their rates will not change unless they change their plans?  

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Has anyone been able to gain new referrals since the new plan prices started?

I'm not sure that is the exact reason, but just my own speculation. I have lost the odd referral here and there over time...maybe 2-3 in a month at the worst, but losing 10 referrals in the same span of time since the new plan went into effect was quite drastic. I also used to be able to offset the lost referrals with new ones, but have not been able to get a single new referral since the new plan started. There must be some reason for it. Maybe another provider had an amazing offer out there or something. 

[dlambro]

@WoozyPolarBear,  Hi there, I find it a bit puzzling why the change in plan structure would cause you to lose existing referrals.  All existing plans are grandfathered, so the new plan structures should not cause any existing customers to bail, unless they are getting a better deal elsewhere.  Maybe your friends/referrals don't realize their rates will not change unless they change their plans?