Allow SIM cards orders up to and including the last day of a promo to be retroactively eligible

[outdoorsaddix]

Having a dealine of Nov 20th for the $40 deal is great if you have bricks and motar stores, but with ordering a SIM card online and having it shipped being the only way to actually get one the dealine is more like Nov 15th (Today) because any cards ordered after today are probably at risk of not arriving in time before Nov 20th.

It probably wouldn't be hard for PM to keep a list of all card #s shipped this week and allow them to activate on the $40 plan after Nov 20th. 

If not for this promo, maybe for the next one?

[stonechucker]

This promo started in October, giving everyone at least 3 weeks to get the message out, and get SIM cards ordered.  Yes it would be wonderful if Public Mobile were to do this, but where do you draw the line?

You could say "I placed my order on November 20th at 23:59:59 PST", and that would be technically within the promo period, however you and I both know the SIM card would have no chance to make it in time to activate.

[ShawnC13]

I think a weekend end date was planned so that people would have to order ahead of time and with time left to activate. 

[outdoorsaddix]

@ShawnC13 @stonechucker All true, but in reality there are people who are only just finding out about this promo through word of mouth or social media advertising that won't be able to sign up. I would personal have the cut off at November 20th at 23:59:59 PST, is it really any skin off the backs of PM to do this? If so they should tighen up the promo window. 

On a service where you can't sign up until you get a mail order sim card, cut off should really occur at the point of putting the wheels in motion to sign up. 

I could maybe agree with you if PM puts the brakes on all advetising (promoted social media posts) but I am still seeing them as of this morning and if they continue straight through to the end of the promo (which remains to be seen) it will at that point be a fine line on if it is false advertising or not (promoting something that someone just learning about it can't possibly get).

Anyways probably not going to happen this time arround, but something to consider for next time. There may be a lot of disapointed customers this time arround that won't come arround for the  next promo because the cutoff left a bad taste in their mouths. 

[Rockdaddy22]

You can also check locally on sites like Kijiji

[outdoorsaddix]

@Rockdaddy22 True, but then you get a black market of people selling cards for 3 times as much because they can, and I assume prices are going to creep up as the clock ticks down. 

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-cell-phone-accessories/markham-york-region/public-mobile-sim-card/1199526957?...

Not that I blame them. With the current system it seems almost worthwhile to stock up on cards at the beginning of a promo and do this for either profit or referals. 

[Rockdaddy22]

It's a free marke

[outdoorsaddix]

@Rockdaddy22 I'm not saying it isn't, I just think its a bad image for PM and the benefit is fully to them and current subscribers if they were to restructure promos to work like this. 

I just can't see a downside. 

- PM gets more potential subscribers 

- PM gets better public image

- More potential for referrals (as of now referrals are pretty much out if you hoped to convince someone in the next few days)

This isn't some kind of exclusive club where we need to try and exclude people just because they weren't on the ball at the beginning of the promo. 

Again whether or not I think the way it is currently set up is actually "wrong" or not is going to depend on if I see social media promoted posts right up to the 20th or not. 

[Rockdaddy22]

I was with PM promo or not. Only one of my many referrals are because of this promo. Would they have a time limit to activate once they get it?

[outdoorsaddix]

Yea I would say something like all cards ordered in the last week of a promo are valid for activation at promo pricing for an extra week. 

That would avoid abuse with people buying a whole bunch of cards for resale after the promo period is over. 

Maybe also a reasonable per household limit on last week orders?

Logic would be simple, but may take a bit of work to code. As cards go out in the last week, they get scanned into a database and when entered the site up to a maximum of 1 week past the expiry date of the promo whether or not that sim card # is in the database would dicate if the $126 fall promo discount appears as an option in the plan builder. 

[outdoorsaddix]

Just an update to this. This was posted by Dave at PM yesterday:

• If you order a SIM at this point (Tuesday evening), it will likely not arrive before the promo ends on Sunday. To help with this, we are organizing SIM card pick up locations in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal for Friday and Saturday for anyone who wants a last minute SIM card. Details to come, but the location will be downtown in each city and the $5 for each SIM will be going to Prostate Cancer in the spirit of Movember.

http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Announcements/Doing-wireless-different-has-its-ups-and...

So it sounds like it is a concern of PM's that people ordering now may not be able to activate before the promo ends. Hopefully for the next round something like I suggested can be implemented.