Simple Fixes to Public Points to Save Legacy Customers (from Leaving/Mass Exodus)

[akp]

Hi Public Mobile and loyal Customers,

I've been with you guys since 2016 with the 4GB LTE $120/90 days.  Had 5 referrals (now down to 4) so I was paying roughly $28+tax a month for my plan after discounts (including the 5 year loyalty providing $5 off a month or $15 every 90 days and the auto-pay providing $2 off a month or $6 every 90 days).

I get it, times change, and plans change.  We're now in the days of $34 phone plans with 40-50gb 5G Can/US thanks to the competition bringing prices down.  With our legacy discounts giving us $7+ off per month (minimum for 5+ year legacy accounts) plus referral discounts that count as $1 off per month automatically, I and others can see the reason for this switch to increase customer margins.

So I present to you two solutions that are easy (the latter, Fix 2, would be the best and easiest 😜).  The faster you get your Telus management to announce these changes, the faster the bleeding of loyal Customers and influx of complaints will stop.

Fix 1: Update the new Public Points System:

1. A. Create an automatic points redemption toggle where points are automatically converted into cash credits at the end of the calendar year, anniversary date, or when points reach a certain amount (ex: 15 or 20 points).  The PM website and EverSafe are unnecessary slow and cumbersome to sign in to use these rewards points.  Older folks may find it near impossible.  I get it, management wants us to forget about these rewards points.  If they had to sign into the same EverSafe platform once every two/three months to maintain their free corporate cellular accounts I'm sure they'll understand the struggle and how important an automatic rewards toggle is.  If desired, have this toggle only for the legacy Customers as a "Legacy Perk", your mileage may vary.

1. B. Give the Anniversary point bonus (of 10 points or $10 a year) an overhaul.  It should be 10 points for the first anniversary, 20 points for the second anniversary, 30 points for the third anniversary, and so on.  Cap it out at 30-50 points for 3-5 years, whatever helps, but resetting all legacy customers of 2 to 7 years (or more) to just 10 points a year is a slap in the face to your most loyal Customers.  This still removes the $2 auto-pay discount (per month) that all legacy Customers have/had, irregardless of their phone plan.

Fix 2: Don't Touch Legacy Rewards

• It's that easy.  Leave it alone.  The announcement post has 10 bravos/thumbs up and already 1300+ angry posts.  No, your loyal Customers aren't dumb, they can do math, and nobody is ever going to use their reward points for "raffles and contests".  This announcement just made us unloyal, possibly the best free advertisement your competition could ask for.  Public Mobile was always a no-frills, self-serve business model and we brought our family, friends, and strangers here for the referral savings.  We were the ones setting up their phone plans.  Taking our legacy discounts away, making referral credits much more cumbersome to redeem, and giving us useless data that expires in a few months (you know we won't use them) would be a rug-pull; a betrayal.

Some of your loyal Customers have already voted with their money and left with their referrals.  Some of us are holding out to see what happens.  Don't wait on this, stop the bleeding and win our business back.

Thanks for reading this message.

[akp]

Hey cbPM51, that's a great idea for a CCTS submission.  I'll look into it and see how they help us out in terms of Customers being misled on loyalty pricing/rewards.  Thanks for that!

[cbPM51]

🥁🥁🥁EXCELLENT WRITE UP.

TX FOR taking the time.

Changing the annual anniversary points would incentive STAYING AS A CUSTOMER.

ANNIVERSARY DATE:

1    10 PTS     

2    20 

3:30,     4:40,        5:50

6+ YEARS    50 pts (no change from year 5 on)

On a $34 plan it would to calculate to these % discount:

Yr 1   5.3%         yr 2  7.8%

Yr 3   : 10%     yr 4  12.7%

Yr 5 on    15%

15% is the current rebate for 3 yr with autopay.!

So they are still ahead.

💡I think your idea should be included in a CCTS submission.🌡🌡🌡

Have you made one?

[akp]

Truth be told we all had thoughts that this day would come; there was a bug that sent out an accidental message to existing legacy reward Customers that they would be switched over to Public Points back in January 2022.  However, the PM staff put our concerns to rest that it was a bug and that there was no plans we would be forced to switch over.

Public Mobile is at fault for misleading us during the launch of the Public Points system (Jan. 21, 2022), again when this email bug happened (Jan. 24, 2024), and at other times following the launch of the new rewards system (ex: Feb. 21, 2022 and email messages post-launch).  See the attached screenshots below.  Why would they state that Customers would not be forced to switch over/no plans to do so and then two years later they would do the exact opposite?  Sounds like Public Mobile was/is having some internal friction or miscommunication leading to a classic bait-and-switch on their loyal/longest-paying Customers.

[joe77]

I totally agree that opening up the $24 and $29 new sub only plans would absolutely help alleviate a lot of the anger amongst legacy members and possibly avoid a mass exodus.

[Wolfcore]

Once you realize that it's all by design, it'll all make sense to you.

- The reason why they don't make point redemption automatic, is because they know that many people are lazy and forgetful. They know that a large chunk of people won't take the time to redeem points. By keeping it this way, it saves them money.

- They've had website/app issues for years. They've 100% been the worst website in the telecom industry for this, it's not even close. I've never had problems with any other website like I have with PM. You think that a multi-billion dollar company doesn't have the money to fix website issues that have persisted for nearly a decade now? Of course they do. If they wanted it fixed, it would be fixed tomorrow. Truth is they receive a lot of benefits from their website being terrible.

- As for increasing anniversary rewards, it's the same situation. They don't wanna decrease profits, it's really that simple. This is Telus now, it's not the old PM. Profit is everything. Profit trumps user experience, customer loyalty, usability, everything.

The only way you'll see additional customer benefits with this company ever again, is if they start noticing profits decreasing. That's how they all work. But before they do that, they'll pass the costs onto their remaining customers first. If enough customers leave due to a result of this announcement, I wouldn't be surprised if all of these fancy new plans jumped by $5 to account for the loss. If that causes more people to leave, then, and only then, may you start to see some sort of attractive incentive program to lure people back in.

It sucks, but this is who PM has become, and how they'll continue to be from now on. They almost all end up like this eventually, so It may be time to just jump on another train and ride them out for another decade or so, before they become like PM is now.

[ger01]

You nailed it. We brought friends and family over and handheld them through the signup and port process. Many of them coming over from Rogers/Fido, Bell etc. Now you slap us in the face and say thanks and goodbye? 

The very least they could do for legacy customers is provide special perks like rollover data or introduce something new like giving us a refund for all the data we DON'T USE. 

[Jackie_kelleher]

I agree and PM seems to be making it very difficult to understand, and it seems like you will have to do some work.

[hairbag1]

@akp 

I know the forced reduction in account benefit is going to sting older accounts...but if you pay attention to questions in the Community Forum, there's still many new PM'ers coming  over from the other networks, as well as totally new customers just starting out. IMO...PM isn't going to alter their course on this issue.

[Dunkman]

@akp 

Absolutely.  The number crunchers at PM/Telus did their analysis and they believe that the company will make more profits with this move.  Otherwise, they would not made this change.  I don't agree with the decision, but I am just a customer.  Saying that, with the introduction of the points system in 2022, I was expecting that the legacy rewards will be eventually eliminated. 

With the offering of 5G, higher data plans and even US roaming, Public mobile has attracted a lot of new business recently.  These new customers are all on the points system. Unfortunately, I think that PM is targeting +$35/month customers these days.  Hate to say it, but companies don't mind losing customers that are only paying $5-10/month for their cell plans. It actually helps with their profit spreadsheets, etc. 

We still have until May for the changes to officially happen.  I would not rush to change providers yet.  Let's see how Public mobile responds to the legacy customers. 

[akp]

I'm sure if they can't put a simple toggle to automatically redeem rewards they won't implement visual voicemail or additional caller features either 😅

The one time I saw complaints work with PM was the time they tried to increase the 4GB (per month) 90day for $120 plan.  Thousands of complaints could also work in our favour this time around, if not then it's back to the good ol' shopping around trick 😁 

[hTideGnow]

hi @akp with porting so easy and most consumers show no loyalty other than go with price, I think PM sees it is hard to keep customers with or without loyalty rewards 

[akp]

The business decision is to make profits but I'm pretty sure they also have done studies on the Customers they would lose and their respective referred business.  After all, the advertisement was done by us, word-of-mouth, for the longest time (2010s to early-mid 2023) when they switched to paying advertisements for "Canada's first 5G subscription phone plan" on the social medias.  They have thrived on loyalty business, why not now?  Why kick loyalty business to the curb or to the competition?

[hTideGnow]

hi @akp I don't think PM will reverse the decision. I saw and went through many rewards system changes, many complaint and none of those complain made any difference.  You can join force with the other trying to complain to different places (one even suggested Competition Bureau 🤣😅) but likely in vein

I would rather look ahead and ask  to offer more call features and a more reliable system . PM tried to put itself on a different market level, they'd better make things right and bring in more

[Dunkman]

@akp 

Unfortunately, I doubt that Public mobile will reverse course on the forced migration to points system.  It was a business decision to increase profits.  

However, I agree that adjustments should be made if Public mobile wants to retain more of the legacy customers  Maybe a revamp of the anniversary points may be an idea.  I was thinking that it would be easier to offer the new activation promo plans (ie. $24 or $29) to existing customers.  Right now, these plans are only available for new activations.  PM should have kept the one time loyalty bonus points (one point for each month with PM)

[akp]

Another point to add - please make new phone plans available for legacy Customers to choose from since you're reducing/removing their legacy discounts, anyway.  A lot of us chose certain phone plans BASED on the legacy rewards we would get.  I still do not have the email or text from PM about this forced reward system migration.