Upcoming Changes to our Old Rewards Program

[J_PM]

Hey Community,

We have an important announcement to share with our subscribers who are currently enrolled in our old Rewards program.

We’re making changes to our rewards program and are sharing how these changes impact some of our subscribers. Starting in May, we’ll be retiring our old Rewards program and moving all subscribers to our Public Points™ program. 

We launched the Public Points™ program in January 2022 to provide our subscribers with more ways to earn and spend rewards, with greater flexibility. As part of our commitment to continuously evolve our products and services, it's time to retire our old Rewards program and shift our focus on enhancing our Points program.

To show our appreciation for your continued loyalty, subscribers on our old Rewards program will receive a special thank you. We'll send you a text message when it has been added to your account by March 31st. 

We’re excited to continue providing you, our valued subscribers, more opportunities to earn and spend rewards with Public Points™ moving forward.

To learn more about your move to Public Points, check out our FAQ here.

The Public Mobile Team

[mde]

I'm really not happy about this change, especially about losing my loyalty rewards. Also, the data bonus isn't very useful to many users and, in any case, should not expire after 150 days, that's just bad. PM shouldn't be able to just do this to us, it is effectively making my plan significantly more expensive with no real recompense (which is no doubt the purpose of this change).

[kb_mv]

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@Shan_Bhai wrote:

I was curious about your experience with Public Mobile while traveling in the USA. Were you able to use VOLTE for seamless roaming? If not, you might face difficulties receiving or making calls. Personally, when I used Public Mobile in the US, I couldn't utilize VOLTE. Consequently, I could receive texts and access data, but making calls was not possible.

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@Shan_Bhai One more time. While I appreciate you are trying to be helpful, please accept that I know what I am doing in picking the plan I did and travelling in the US. My phone is fine, my plan is fine. Cheers.

[Delfino]

This is really disappointing. I switched mine and my family's phone plans to Public Mobile specifically because of the loyalty rewards. The promise of receiving increased loyalty rewards each year was the reason that we stayed. It feels a little like a bait-and-switch. The new rewards system is evidently inferior and it's condescending to have your marketing department spin this like an improvement for us after repeatedly telling us it was optional.

The new way to earn rewards does not have greater flexibility than money. In addition to being worse financially, if we want to utilize the points, we are expected to log in repeatedly to manually redeem them. It was already annoying to log in to this website once to type this, I can't imagine trying to do this on each of my family member's phones.

Lastly, sending us expiring data as "appreciation for our loyalty", is insulting. Our loyalty was a result of the rewards program that you told us would stay in place as long as we had an active account. What is the use of extra data on an unlimited data plan? 

Will be switching the family to another provider in May.

[saturna]

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@G_Pomzz wrote:

My phone (POCO X4 Pro) was not listed as compatible with VolTe and there was no switch to toggle on VolTe in the settings but I got it set up in a roundabout way using the phone dialer and punching in a code, then the toggle appeared in settings. 

(Removed screenshot)

 

 Sim Card settings. 

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Unfortunately, that is just the phone settings. You might be lucky to have access to VoLTE for a bit. Days? Weeks? A month? Essentially until the PM infrastructure detects that you are using a non-whitelisted phone and kicks you off the VoLTE access.

When VoLTE was first activated on my account last year, my Umidigi phone happily worked on VoLTE and proudly showed it in the status bar. Couple of months later PM kicked me off the feature. VoLTE works perfectly fine when my friends Freedom SIM is in the Umidigi phone, and my SIM triggers VoLTE access in their Pixel 6a (which is on the PM whitelist).

So, enjoy it while it lasts...

[Public_Cust_17]

@kb_mv  Look carefully at that map.. the "nationwide" is not Freedom mobile coverage that you'd need to sign up with them... that's them using another providers services.

NEVERMIND!! I guess I should've read your post better.. lol

[G_Pomzz]

My phone (POCO X4 Pro) was not listed as compatible with VolTe and there was no switch to toggle on VolTe in the settings but I got it set up in a roundabout way using the phone dialer and punching in a code, then the toggle appeared in settings. 

(removed screen shot)

 

 Sim Card settings. 

[Shan_Bhai]

I was curious about your experience with Public Mobile while traveling in the USA. Were you able to use VOLTE for seamless roaming? If not, you might face difficulties receiving or making calls. Personally, when I used Public Mobile in the US, I couldn't utilize VOLTE. Consequently, I could receive texts and access data, but making calls was not possible.

[kb_mv]

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@Shan_Bhai wrote:

Did you roam in USA and did you get VOLTE connection enabled on your phone by PM? My phone was not in their whitelist and they blocked calls while i was in US.

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@Shan_Bhai Please, believe me when I say, I am well aware of roaming in the USA and VOLTE. I have done my homework and picked a plan (and provider) that works for me based on my usage and requirements. Cheers.

[Shan_Bhai]

Did you roam in USA and did you get VOLTE connection enabled on your phone by PM? My phone was not in their whitelist and they blocked calls while i was in US.

[kb_mv]

@Shan_Bhai That is not a CAN-USA plan, you can call USA but that's it, see pic below. I appreciate your efforts but believe me when I say there is no comparison to the plan I have now (in the Maritimes).

 

[Shan_Bhai]

Not even PC Mobile? I see the above plan here in the West..

[Shan_Bhai]

Alexander is genuinely a kind individual who wishes to offer assistance. It's regrettable to see him dealing with the nonsensical policies imposed by upper management. He's likely encountered numerous moments of frustration, perhaps even to the point of banging his head against the wall, as a way to cope with these policies. We sympathize with his predicament.

[kb_mv]

@Shan_Bhai Fizz has no service in the Maritimes. I am on a prepaid $34/50GB Can-USA plan. As i said in a number of my posts. there is currently not a single provider with service in the maritimes that can meet let alone beat the prepaid plan I have now with PM with a prepaid plan of their own.

[RetiredGuy1]

@hTideGnow 

I think you’re taking my attempt at a little humour (in an otherwise depressing thread) too literally. I was attempting to show loyalty (staying together in a relationship) being recognized in the legacy program with loyalty rewards (gifts) incrementally increasing up to 5 years. As you know, now a 1-year and 5+ year subscriber each receives the exact same $10

[Shan_Bhai]

For maritimes you may try, Fizz-PC Mobile-Chatr-Lucky-Videotron-Fido etc. I hope you find a fit. If not, PM is always available with better options when you return as new customer.

Fido has a better plan for 15$ for a month, not for 30 days. Also UNLIMITED incoming calls.. What else do you need?

[Mike-B]

I got Alexander, Manager within Public Mobile Escalation team. He told me there is not much he can do. I mentioned the Freedom plan and that it come 5$off with unlimited data that I can switch to. His replie was "all the best". 

[kb_mv]

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@G_Pomzz wrote:

There are options, Freedom has the same 50 GB, Canada/US plan for $34 per month with $5 off per month for the first 24 months. 

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@G_Pomzz Unless you live in one of the limited areas of native FreedomMobile coverage, you cannot port a number to them. Their native coverage, if you look at the map below, excludes most of the country (geographically). Certainly seems like a deal if you are in the more populous areas.

 

[hTideGnow]

hi @RetiredGuy1 

you can't put a price to love.  the longer the relationship, the more bond there is and more "priceless".  To many, an afternoon walk holding hands is more valuable than any gift

[Shan_Bhai]

For those who are hesitant and still in disbelief, just take a glance at these two plans. New customers are receiving significantly better offers, while loyal customers are facing discrimination. This serves as an invitation for all loyal customers to consider leaving PM and explore other providers. If dissatisfied, they can return to PM as new customers and take advantage of the $24 plan for eg, which isn't even accessible to "loyal" customers. There's little risk in giving it a try.

[Ybgfl7]

I tried to rectify with PM support but I'm headed to CCTS after going round and round and being offered nothing.

[mikasik2]

I heard a rumor that public points will be tradable on Binance in 2025

[dabr]

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@Joe_Crushy wrote:

So how do you feel about losing your legacy rewards, I'm sure you're in the same situation as myself losing auto pay, anniversary rewards and referrals costing  $14 a month for myself. 

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@Joe_Crushy    You will be out $7/cycle (if getting the max. discount with autopay/loyalty) once the switch to the points system is made.   Your referrals' discount stays although you will need to manually redeem those points once the account accumulates 15 points ($15) to be able to use towards a future bill payment. 

Of course, caveat being some of those referrals may decide to leave once PM implements this change  depending on their particular circumstances which would impact your bill further.

[Shan_Bhai]

The positive aspect is that you don't need to spend extra money to access superior plans elsewhere. Other providers offer better value for your money, including features like reliable customer support, international roaming, VOLTE support, and monthly billing. Since the old points system has been scrapped, there's no motivation to stick with this lower-tier network provider. Hopefully, the management grasps the reality of this situation and reconsiders the sole aspect holding people to this failing business model.

[Matty1234]

I have to agree with @eyes, I would also pay more rather than give Public more money, I don't like being lied to and I don't trust them anymore, loyalty works both ways and Public has shown that they don't have loyalty to their legacy customers. 

Fortunately  I have options with providers under a similar plan that are actually cheaper than Public (even after the new rewards plan discounts) that I don't have to pay more. 

[ShawnC13]

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@Alveeto wrote:

@eyes Even if I have to pay a competitor $5-10 more a month for the equivalent Public Mobile plan, I'll do it. Its the only thing I can do to stick it to Public Mobile and their stupid move to significantly reduce my rewards.

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So you would pay upto $17 more than you are now for the same service to stick it to Public mobile.  That is a A LOT of money over a year.  Losing the $7 alone with this change is bad enough, I wouldn't want to add to that.

[Grinch]

Bringing back lower cost 90 or 360 day plans would be nice. As long as data and out bound calls are allotted monthly. 

[Alveeto]

@eyes Even if I have to pay a competitor $5-10 more a month for the equivalent Public Mobile plan, I'll do it. Its the only thing I can do to stick it to Public Mobile and their stupid move to significantly reduce my rewards.

[Ma17]

Upcoming Changes are crazy wrong for us that grandfathered the old rewards system . A paltry 5 GB loyalty bonus that will expire in 150 days is not advantageous to me. These changes will be for Telus & PM benefits only. 

[mark38]

Its to be teplaced with the 10 points per year only

[G_Pomzz]

So this is just adding to the legitimate load that they already have -------------- Yes I don't think it's fair what PM is doing to us -----but they are within their legal rights and that's that.

Don't be too quick to give up. We have every right to complain about PM's decision to take away our rewards program as it's just a sneaky way to raise prices roughly 10-15%.

File your complaint online with the CCTS, it's easy and takes about 10 mins. Only the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If there are enough registered complaints they may concede and let the long term customers keep their present discount program if they so choose.