Rewards converted to Public Points: what are the practical consequences?

[Tritanix]

Hi,

When logging in my Public Mobile account. I got a notification:
> Starting May 2024, we’ll be retiring our old Rewards program and moving all subscribers to our Public Points™ program

Which has a link to a detailed page Moving to Public Points which has a section:

What is the difference between the old Rewards Program and Public Points Program? What do I keep? What do I lose?

For detailed comparisons and what changes to expect, please refer to our current help articles.

But no link given to explain further. Can you please help to fill the missing information?

Basically, in a bill of $34 which has the following lines:

• Reward - AutoPay: $2.00
• Reward - Loyalty Recognition: $2.00

Which make the amount to pay = $34 - $2 -$2 = $30 + $3.90 HST

What would the bill above become when Public points kicks in May 2024?

[Yesmil8]

Yup. This is no longer a "no frills" situation. If I will have to pay more, then I should get the frills of customer service  access instead of searching for articles, interacting with a bot. I do care for the great help we get in this Community, do not get me wrong, but most are all great volunteers who give their time and energy and do not get paid

[Yesmil8]

100%. Unfortunately we have a cartel. I recall the time Canada was ready to get some competition coming in and the telecom lobbyists cried "buy MADE in CANADA" to the extend of getting their call center employees to introduce themselves with a "I am so and so and proud resident of so and so city in Canada"..LOL...as soon as they got their wished. Call centers went back to the usual countries were people get paid peanuts.

[danielsk]

Is it legal to just eliminate previous loyalty rewards?

Class action?!

[Thammer1]

Oh I get that. Doesn't mean they don't deserve to hear feedback in response to their actions. Also, if they raise costs, people might start shopping around. 

[computergeek541]

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@Thammer1 wrote:

I got to this train a little late, but man is it disappointing. They marketed it as some great thing, but I did the math for my bill:

Old rewards: (39/month - autopay reward of $2 - loyalty reward of $5) x 12 = $384/year

New rewards: (39/month x 12) - (39x12)x0.05 - loyalty reward of $10 = 434.6

I am now paying $50.6 more a year.

I mean they gave me some free data that I will never be able to use, so thanks...?

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Points were never designed to be better.  Whenver any company makes changes to some type of loyalty program, the result is usually worse for the customers.

[Thammer1]

I got to this train a little late, but man is it disappointing. They marketed it as some great thing, but I did the math for my bill:

Old rewards: (39/month - autopay reward of $2 - loyalty reward of $5) x 12 = $384/year

New rewards: (39/month x 12) - (39x12)x0.05 - loyalty reward of $10 = 434.6

I am now paying $50.6 more a year.

I mean they gave me some free data that I will never be able to use, so thanks...?

[RetiredGuy1]

Hi HALIMACS,

I’ve only seen $15 used as the example threshold for redeeming and not the idea of $15 or more. Is this documented somewhere? Cheers

[hTideGnow]

hi @Tritanix I can only say no one likes it

 But all businesses will change the rewards system for the worse once they have good market share , it is sad for consumers 

[Tritanix]

Thank you everybody to clarify the downsides of the Public Points system. I wish the official documentation Overview of Public Points could have a concrete example comparing an invoice before/after the change to "Public points" to better highlight the differences (more exactly the loss).

I understand companies try to save money. I would be understanding if the company just say outright, the new system will cause you some credits loss, because we are in economic difficulties.

But the way the strategy change is communicated make the move looks suspicious causing loss of trust instead of empathy. Reading quickly Moving to Public Points gives the impression that the new system is more flexible. And in particular seems as having no adverse effects from the end-user point of view. All of those huge docs, finally explain much less than a few sentences that every members in this thread had given. Those who wrote those Public Mobile help article should go back to school to learn how to do basic maths. A concrete example is shorter and clearer than long articles, which, finally doesn't explain much.

[HALIMACS]

@Tritanix 

Q1. What is replacing the "Reward - Loyalty Recognition: $2.00" in my current bill?

it’s no longer a per month reduction. It’s an annual reduction of 10 points, which is equal to $10. It never goes higher than that

Q2. I see often the answer "after you collected 15 points, go to Reward site and redeem for $15 bill credit". Is it just an example or is it because the "redeem point to dollar credits" works by bucket of 15 points?

one must redeem at least 15 points to equal $15 but you can redeem anything above 15 in smaller increments at one time, for instance, 15.5 points for $15.50

[hTideGnow · Accepted solution]

hi @Tritanix I dont see why $60+ more.  

You need to pay $48 more from $4 lost per cycle

but you get 1.7 points back, that is around $20.  Also, you get 10.points for anniversary rewards.  So, your lost should be just around $20 per year 

and yes, bill credit redemption is every 15 points

[Tritanix]

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@hTideGnow wrote:

now, you need to pay fill price first every month.  But get 5% back in points (1.7 points for $34 plan)  And also friend referral in points

then after you collected 15 points, go to Reward site and redeem for $15 bill credit 

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$2 off reduced to $1.7 ? Ok I can live with that.

Q1. What is replacing the "Reward - Loyalty Recognition: $2.00" in my current bill?

Q2. I see often the answer "after you collected 15 points, go to Reward site and redeem for $15 bill credit". Is it just an example or is it because the "redeem point to dollar credits" works by bucket of 15 points?

[klr4evr]

What a joke. I received the text message saying I had 30 GB of extra data, good for 150 days. Logged in to see what was the scoop. I've got more data than I can use, 50 GB extra will just expire. It seems to be the way it goes these days. Companies bait you to sign up or shop and just when you have a good thing going they take it away. This doesn't surprise me at all with Public being a Telus company. I'll certainly be looking at pother options down the road.

[makkahn28]

Also, Loyalty is No longer $15 per 90 day or $5 per 30 Day

It's 10 points per yr

[Tritanix]

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@Handy1 wrote:

@Tritanix  It’s all bad news Basically you will pay $50-60 more a year 😞you will get 10 points back once a year and 5% back in plan spend . Once you have 15 points you can redeem $15 off your bill 

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Can you please give more details about the $50 to $60 more a year? For example, would this be because of the -$4 in my above example would no longer exist? Which would explain paying $4 x 12 = $48 per year.

But then what are the 10 points back and 5% back in plan spend ?

[makkahn28]

Essentially, take Auto-Pay, Instead of $2 off per 30 Day, or $6 per 90 day, it's 5%

So, If Bill was $50 per 30 Day, No $2, it's literally $2.5 in points 

Or if you have the $34 Plan, Ya get $1:70 back in Points 

[hTideGnow]

@Tritanix 

now, you need to pay fill price first every month

but get 5% back in points (1.7 points for $34 plan)  And also friend referral in points

then after you collected 15 points, go to Reward site and redeem for $15 bill credit 

[Handy1]

@Tritanix  It’s all bad news Basically you will pay $50-60 more a year 😞 you will get 10 points back once a year and 5% back in plan spend . Once you have 15 points you can redeem $15 off your bill