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

[Disgruntlednow]

This is a horrible move.  We have had my children with PM for several years.  This will double my daughter's bill.  We will be leaving over this.  You are no better than the other big players.

[Wolfcore]

From what I know, they've never really enforced this. I've never heard of a single verified person saying that their service has been canceled because of this. In my opinion, It's just something they write in their terms, in the event of severe cases of abuse. 

For what it's worse, freedom also has wifi calling, which is considered within Freedom's native service.

[fixin]

@hkjhkj - It is rare to see people who get kicked off of nationwide. The workaround is to use Wi-Fi calling whenever possible as it will act as in a Freedom Zone to avoid having no service.

But it is only after several months of not being in the Freedom Zone.

[Wolfcore]

Ahh, you're just referring to people porting their numbers in, fair enough. So around 15% of the population may not be able to port their numbers in. When we factor in the people who want to port their numbers in, versus people that are fine with a new number, this percentage will drop even lower. 

Regardless, the vast majority of Canadians will not have an issue. 

[kb_mv]

@Wolfcore  I think you are missing my point. This has nothing to do with their nationwide coverage. In order to port your number to Freedom you have to be in an area that they offer native service. This excludes large parts of the country. This excludes as I said, all of the Maritimes (approx 3 million), all of Manitoba (approx 1.5 million) all of Saskatchewan (approx 1.3 million) plus almost all of Alberta outside the 3 major city areas. I'm not debating whether or not they are a good company, nor am I saying their coverage including roaming is sub par, just pointing out that not everyone will be able to port their current number to Freedom and this is slightly more than a tiny percentage of the population.

[RetiredGuy1]

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@kb_mv wrote:

@fixin Wifi calling would be nice!

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@kb_mv Your post inspired me to come up with a follow-up to my karaoke opener of “Loyalty”. Going back to The Sound of Music (and with apologies to Julie Andrews), its early in development but I’m thinking:

All plans available, option yearly subscriptions

Allow Wifi calling and points by automation

No more surprises, so plans with no strings

These are a few of my favorite things

[Cheefster]

Dear Public Mobile. Please just call the forced switch of the legacy rewards to the new Public Points system what it is: Devaluing loyalty and reducing rewards. I've been with PM for 4 years on the $25/month plan, referred 6 people, so here's how the legacy Rewards system compares with the new points system:

	Legacy Rewards	New Points
Autopay	$2/month	5% ($1.25)/month
Loyalty	$4/month (4 years)	$0.83/month (10 points/12 months)
Refer-a-friend	$6/month	same
Helping others	same	same
Total	$12 off	$8.08 off

Worst of all, I now have to go in every month to spend my points, rather than having the money automatically taken off my bill. You gave me 30 GB of free data as "compensation", but it expires in 150 days, and I don't need anywhere near that much data.  Just call a "duck" a duck and stop trying to spin it.

[Wolfcore]

The people you're referring to are only a tiny percentage of the population, is what I'm saying. Just look at their coverage map with nationwide now. I believe we're talking about less than 1% of the population who may have some issues. Nationwide is almost included with all of their plans as well. Here are their coverage maps. We're talking about minor differences, and only in low-population areas. Also, when you're not in native, you're automatically placed on nationwide, and it's seamless. 

Freedom

Telus

[Public_Cust_17]

@saturna   yeah, the no data on the $99 plan would be a show stopper for me.. I don't need much and have managed to get by with the 250mb + a couple gb rewards to cover me but I still use some.  For my 80ish year old neighbour who only uses her phone to talk to people that would be an appropriate plan so I can see it working for some people.  🙂

[fixin]

@kb_mv - Yes, I hope so too!

[kb_mv]

@fixin Wifi calling would be nice!

[fixin]

@Wolfcore - One Redditor on the Public Mobile Subreddit said that they asked twice about Wi-Fi Calling. I have tried to confirm this with a CS_Agent without luck.

[ashishg1]

Well i just wanted to let PM know incase they monitor this thread.... instead of making money off of the loyalty discount you will be losing 3 lines worth of money instead. This has become more of a principle thing now. People should not continue to give you any loyalty if you dont care about the most loyal customers who have been with you for years.

[kb_mv]

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@Wolfcore wrote:

Let's be honest, Freedom will work for 99.9% of Canadians. They cover nearly every reasonably populated area in Canada. With their nationwide, they now use Rogers, Bell, and even Telus towers.

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@Wolfcore Freedom's native coverage is small meaning most Canadians (those outside the urban centres, most of western Canada, all of the maritimes) will be unable to keep (port) their number.

[Wolfcore]

I have a bunch of friends on Freedom, and some of them even say that they get better coverage than some of their friends do with rogers/bell in certain areas. Freedom also has wifi calling, so in the unlikely scenario you don't have service for whatever reason (but do have access to wifi), at least you're still okay. Last I checked, PM doesn't even have wifi calling yet.

[RetiredGuy1]

Plus, aside from the value those annual plans provide, there is the added convenience of paying your bill once and not thinking about it again for a year.

[JDBlue1966]

We have a Freedom store right by us. Will drop in this week. Will be nice to actually talk to someone. Plus the International stuff will be great. 

[Wolfcore]

Yeah, for the extra $20 a year, it's definitely far superior, and would make sense for more people. You also get more than 1gb of data per month.

The $99 plan makes more sense for older people who don't text or use data, or maybe people looking for backup lines.

[Wolfcore]

Let's be honest, Freedom will work for 99.9% of Canadians. They cover nearly every reasonably populated area in Canada. With their nationwide, they now use Rogers, Bell, and even Telus towers. Freedom isn't the same company that they used to be. There's a reason why PM considers freedom to be their main competitor. If Freedom had terrible service, PM wouldn't even bat an eye. They definitely wouldn't be following freedom's pricing trends, and wouldn't be constantly price-matching them, like they do now.

Now that Freedom is starting to have international plans, it's going to be a gamechanger. They now have a reasonably priced plan that roams in 81 countries, and I've been seeing a ton of people jump on it. Freedom is the reason for PM introducing all of these new plans lately, and will probably start working on international plans soon too (not just US). If Freedom were to just introduce their own proper reward system, they'd probably put PM out of business.

[saturna]

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@fixin wrote:

@sa7375 - Probably to not entice customers because the $15/month plan is $180 annually.

Freedom does seem like the #1 provider for annual plans, despite that they don't have the ability for all Canadians to have it yet for their MVNO service.

$99/year talk & text = $8.25/month.

$119/year talk, text, 15GB = $9.92/month.

$149/year talk, text, 30GB = $12.42/month.

Those plans are crazy cheap (If you live in the Freedom Coverage.)

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Just a word of caution: The $99 is incoming calls, outgoing calls and incoming text only. If you use tradional SMS (at 160 characters each) more than once a day average, you are better off with the $119 plan. The later is still <$10 for considerably more features than PM offers for $15...

[RetiredGuy1]

@upandadam 

And the replies have more than doubled since that article was published 👍

[fixin]

@Public_Cust_17 - Yeah, they do operate tiny bits on the Rogers network (Now called as phase 2 MVNO expansion) it just gets those little dead spots in the Freedom Network and somewhat streamlines the network out.

If you check their coverage map and switch between LTE / 3G and 5G / Extended range LTE (MVNO Freedom) it just has slightly better coverage.

I am also in the 4G / LTE coverage zone as there is two Freedom Stores in my City.

I will have to stay as I am on the points system with going to the states for free last year with that system.

[RetiredGuy1]

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@sa7375 wrote:

@upandadam  Sadly, it's not getting the attention where it needs most — at the PM. 😄

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@sa7375 

Well, there’s different ways of looking at that. Will this growing backlash be enough for PM to reconsider this change? Realistically, not likely. But, will it plant a seed of doubt for any future changes that would again impact their customer base in a negative manner? It might. As the proverb goes “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”.

[Public_Cust_17]

@fixin   according to what I was able to find Freedom seems to be a core mobile operator vs. a mobile virtual network operator.. Wikipedia, so I guess that depends on how much you trust the info there.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_operators_in_Canada

For myself, I found out that I am solidly in their 4G LTE coverage area so that works in my case.. https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/network-coverage

A couple of years ago I wouldn't even have given them a look but with the sale of Freedom to Quebecor  that was completed on April 3, 2023 and the ability to roam at no charge was introduced.. I've decided to try them out since Public Mobile seems to have no interest in retaining my business... who knows, maybe Telus/PM puts reputation above profits but I'll not be holding my breath in May..  😉

[fixin]

@sa7375 - Probably to not entice customers because the $15/month plan is $180 annually.

Freedom does seem like the #1 provider for annual plans, despite that they don't have the ability for all Canadians to have it yet for their MVNO service.

$99/year talk & text = $8.25/month.

$119/year talk, text, 15GB = $9.92/month.

$149/year talk, text, 30GB = $12.42/month.

Those plans are crazy cheap (If you live in the Freedom Coverage.)

[Public_Cust_17]

@sa7375   I hadn't really thought of that as I rarely check my rear-view mirror once I've decided to move on but since you asked, yes if I'm able to still sign on here and post an update I will.  🙂

[sa7375]

Does anyone, insider or otherwise, has an idea why PM seems not inclined to offering Annual plans? 

[sa7375]

@Public_Cust_17  I appreciate your strategy for picking up a monthly, before signing up for the yearly plan, and will keenly look forward to your experience/feedback with the new carrier. I hope you will keep us informed. 

[Public_Cust_17]

@Tav2   it's Freedom Mobile and although some have voiced their opinion that their network is no good, Mobile Syrup's review of them seems more credible to me. 

https://mobilesyrup.com/2023/10/26/testing-freedom-mobile-5g-network-canada/

[sa7375]

@upandadam  Sadly, it's not getting the attention where it needs most — at the PM. 😄