Staying with PM

[MEU_21]

So, I come back from vacation and find PM's text about the price increase, the reversal, and now the mass exodus to the guy in psychadelic spandex. Wow.

For someone like me who doesn't need canada-wide, nor the full 4GB (I use about 3GB/m), and already have another 2.5 months vested in the next pay cycle, Koodo's deal is not worth it for me. It makes no sense to pay extra for data I wouldn't even use.

I'm perplexed by all the moth being drawn to 5GB/$40 flame. Overall, the trend is towards plans with greater data, for all providers. Despite all the fears about what may happen to PM, Koodo is no less isolated and has no better track record.

I'm willing to call the bluff and stay with PM, especially as it meets my needs and the plans should drop with loyalty... removing the rewards will impact not just those on the fall promo, but all PM subscribers... so, I doubt they will remove it.

That being said, if a more attractive deal is provided in the future, I will definitely consider it.

[PhoneSeeker]

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@Korthwrote:

Reading through a bunch of the other active threads here where people are discussing the Koodo offers to PM refugees, I see a lot of variations of:

"Try talking to another Koodo rep, and another, and another, until you get one who'll give you the deal"

"You'll probably have to drive a few miles to other Koodo stores, like I did"

"You have to give the Koodo people the website links so they can see all the promo details"

"You just have to be patient, polite but firm, try to haggle a bit, they never start off with their best offer"

"YMMV"

etc

That alone is more than enough reason enough for me to stay with PM.

I have to move from rep to rep, drive from store to faraway store, be persistent and haggle and negotiate for the offer they're supposedly offering me?  I have to come with all the information they need to know their own price?  I have to work hard into earning them a sales commission?

I don't expect to haggle over grocery prices at Save-On or Walmart.  I also don't expect that other customers will be able to haggle for prices and deals different than mine.  Ridiculous.

If Koodo wants my business then they have to make their offer and wait until I decide to accept or reject it on their terms - and if I walk into their shop only to find their offer is not what they promised then I walk right back out.

I'm not a misanthrope or shy of confrontation or any of that, quite the opposite.  I just don't waste my time playing other peoples' games, if that means I lose out on a killer deal then so be it, in this business there are a dozen alternatives who are eager to take new customers.

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Well said.

[Korth]

Reading through a bunch of the other active threads here where people are discussing the Koodo offers to PM refugees, I see a lot of variations of:

"Try talking to another Koodo rep, and another, and another, until you get one who'll give you the deal"

"You'll probably have to drive a few miles to other Koodo stores, like I did"

"You have to give the Koodo people the website links so they can see all the promo details"

"You just have to be patient, polite but firm, try to haggle a bit, they never start off with their best offer"

"YMMV"

etc

That alone is more than enough reason enough for me to stay with PM.

I have to move from rep to rep, drive from store to faraway store, be persistent and haggle and negotiate for the offer they're supposedly offering me?  I have to come with all the information they need to know their own price?  I have to work hard into earning them a sales commission?

I don't expect to haggle over grocery prices at Save-On or Walmart.  I also don't expect that other customers will be able to haggle for prices and deals different than mine.  Ridiculous.

If Koodo wants my business then they have to make their offer and wait until I decide to accept or reject it on their terms - and if I walk into their shop only to find their offer is not what they promised then I walk right back out.

I'm not a misanthrope or shy of confrontation or any of that, quite the opposite.  I just don't waste my time playing other peoples' games, if that means I lose out on a killer deal then so be it, in this business there are a dozen alternatives who are eager to take new customers.

[mimmo]

@will13am it has probably been said before but if PM had done a similar migration offer and price increase as they did to legasy customers I doubt there would have been the huge back lash.  i think many people would have accepted a $3 increase with few complaints.  

What the future of our plans will be is uncertain.  If history (this offer and the ones offered to legasy customers) is to say anything i think future migration offers will be on par to the current plans they want us to leave.  the current 1gb bonus is just to wash away that failed attempt.    

[will13am]

@MEU_21, very interesting perspective.  It is always nice to know what drives each customer in their decision making.  It helps one to calibrate the decision making. 

I am in the camp that doesn't use the entire 4 gigs every month consistently.  I have gone over from time to time, but the average is definitely inside of 4 gigs.  So arguably, extra data fits into the "future proofing" bin mostly and contingency bin less so.

As for calling their bluff, I am not so bold with doing that.  In the relatively short time with this service, I believe there have been two price increases for the so called legacy customers that have access to the call center.  So, price increased for this brand are a certainty.  Dave's promise of no surprises isn't quite true. 

Having said that, the price increases for the legacy plans have not garnered the venom that we saw with the increase on the 2016 fall promo.  This is the only thing that held back this latest increase.  If enough customers leave/migrate, the voice of the remaining customers is much diminished.  The protection that we enjoyed as a cohesive large group this time may not be there the next time.  Keep this in mind for the future. 

I do fully agree that as time marches on, data plans have ever increasing bucket sizes.  They do come with price increases.  At the moment, $40 is an unspoken minimum price point for a full featured cellular plan across all brands.  No brand wants to present a "normal every day" price at less than this price point, not even Freedom Mobile.  The upgraded promo offers a data bucket size that is statistically speaking on the higher side of average.  The price for this data bucket size is on the lower side of average.  This makes for very compelling offer in that there isn't a substantial savings in getting a plan with a smaller data bucket.  Could the next offer have even more data?  I would say similar or likely higher, definitely not lower.  Could the next offer have a higher price?  I would say similar or higher, definitely not lower.  There is nothing I can see that indicates any future migration plan, IF offered, will be cheaper than what we have before us today.

In a way Telus has blinked twice.  They took the price increase off the table for now.  Then they quietly sweetened the migration offer.  Anyone betting on Telus blinking a third time?  I will admit that I am on the fence on this one, not confident enough to say I am definitely staying.

BTW, I have done some research into Koodo price stability and it seems a lot better than Public Mobile.  I do know of people who have legacy plans with no price increase over a period longer than the existence of this brand under Telus.  This is a data point that needs to be taken into account.

[fanfan]

I thought about it for a while but also decided to stick with PM in hopes that they won't increase the price in the future, or in hopes that Koodo offers more gb data at a lower price and better incentive.  It's hard to beat PM's $2 autopay discount and $1 annual loyalty discount.  $37/month for 4 gb data is hard to beat if you are not a data hog.

[Korth]

PM's lack of visibility does make it difficult to gain referrals.

I say "Public Mobile", they say "never heard of it", I say "check out their website", they say "Okay ... well ... I dunno, plans aren't bad but a lot of angry people complaining about it".

"Public Mobile" google search ... top hits are official site, wikipedia, twitter, cellular comparison sites ... then "about 53,000 results" involving plan cancellations, price increases, CCTS complaints, rip-off accusations, etc ... if I had never heard of PM then 2 minutes on google would surely scare me away from it forever, lol.

[PhoneSeeker]

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deleted 

[torontokris]

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@Korthwrote:

I can't quite figure out how a 4" tall pseudo-Mexican Luchador is supposed to represent a Canadian phone company.

But Public Mobile does need a mascot.  Or, well, at least they would, in theory, if they did any advertising.

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They do some advertising billboards the phone company without a number

[Korth]

I can't quite figure out how a 4" tall pseudo-Mexican Luchador is supposed to represent a Canadian phone company.

But Public Mobile does need a mascot.  Or, well, at least they would, in theory, if they did any advertising.

[PhoneSeeker]

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@Korthwrote:

The guy in psychedelic spandex has a name: he is El Tabador!

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He's in retirement. They should really bring him back, but for Public Mobile this time! A good job for him in his golden years. 

[Korth]

The guy in psychedelic spandex has a name: he is El Tabador!

[mimmo]

Welcome back.  I too was on vacation when the first text came.  Untill my rewards dry up in staying put.  What future migration incentives might be I do not know, mb better mb worse. But it kind of feels like we are on an over booked flight where they first offer x to take snore flight, then x +y if still over booked.  The tricky part is to take an offer before they drag you off the plane