Public Mobile isn't as brilliant as it used to be just a few years ago.
On the downside:
Limited Talk/Text Plans, fixed Plans (no more Build Your Own Plan options), no more 10-day or 90-day Plans, endless parade of knee-jerk promos (catch 'em if you can, and hope the point-of-sale vendors have actually been informed, lol), conspicuous absence of PM Mods (they don't seem to stimulate or even read these forums anymore, except when making announcements or responding to bad public image). Endlessly malfunctioning websites - which is pretty bad when these are so critical for the PM business model. And convoluted consumer-confusing billing. Plus of course all the shameless (and botched) Koodo migration stuff. The public image of Public Mobile looks less like a value brand and more like a Telus department every year.
On the upside:
Rewards, they all add up but AutoPay and Referrals and Loyalty tend to go a long way towards cheap phone bills. Unlimited Talk/Text is always awesome. Long-Distance Add-on minutes (which never expire) are a great deal if your country is on the list. US Roaming Add-ons are also a great deal if you can use them well. Telus (and shared Bell/Sasktel/etc) network is basically number one in Canada by almost every measure. With all the Telus freebies (HD voice, video streaming optimizations, E911, etc) built into it. Public Mobile still has the edge, overall, although competing value brands do seem to be closing the gap and gaining momentum. And while there are faults and problems with many PM vendors there are in fact quite of lot of PM vendors all around Canada, they've gone a long way towards being able to provide something almost equivalent to actual shops/kiosks with actual face-to-face face-to-face customer service. And Simon... I'm still unconvinced that investing in friendly helpful automation instead of investing in friendly helpful staff is at all the smart thing to do in a service industry... But I'll give it a chance.
