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

[HALIMACS]

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@RetiredGuy1 wrote:

@ShawnC13  We’ll just have to agree to disagree then. I feel this thread is the place for discussion on anything that could help prevent another fiasco and I bet Telus execs would welcome that too. As @HALIMACS pointed out “there’s been flexibility exercised on this thread, so why not continue it?” 

More to the point: the announcement posted in this thread includes a link to faq. One of those is what I was directly addressing. If you feel thats a “free-for-all” then thats your right to have that opinion. Just don’t expect everybody else to necessarily agree with it.

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To a certain extent, though. 

I feel the Oracles and PM Staff have been forgiving in allowing discussion to occur.   After all, this is PM's platform and PM's property.  We're just 'visiting' here (so to speak)

It should not be a free-for-all.

It needs to remain civil and within the Community TOS.

[Public_Cust_17]

@eyes   for me, right now I have one more months billing at a price I really can't beat anywhere else with 5 years & auto-pay rewards so it makes sense to ride that until May and hope PM changes their minds.  I would also like to win the lottery before May and probably have better chances of that even though I don't buy tickets!  lol

The other possibility is that one of the PM competitors offers up an enticing deal knowing that it won't take much to get an unhappy PM customer to jump ship so there's no real hurry and it might even be beneficial to wait it out a bit.

[Public_Cust_17]

@mikasik2   yeah, I'm kinda hanging around until May hoping against hope. I'll let PM auto-pay my April bill and if nothing changes by the middle of May when my payment is due again... sayonara, adieu, adiós, arrivederci PM  😋

[clev1]

I was never issued an email about these changes. I’m going to file a complaint with CCTS.

[mc931]

It looks like complaints regarding pricing are out of scope, but they don’t consider “removal of promotional discounts” to be a pricing issue, so a complaint about that is allowed. That’s probably the closest descriptor of what they’ve done by removing loyalty discounts - they promoted their services in the first place with the promise of a loyalty discount. 

It also looks like you are allowed to complain about something which the service provider is “allowed to do” - they can’t have the complaint dismissed on those grounds.

So from this, it looks like people suggesting everyone should complain to the CCTS are on the right track - it doesn’t matter that Public has done something they are allowed to do, because we are still allowed to complain about it.

[mc931]

I can understand why some people want to bide their time. They hope that the decision will be reversed.

I’m talking about people who will essentially make a lateral move (no cost savings or maybe a really modest increase monthly, like $1 more per month) because Public has made it clear with this decision that they aren’t valued customers. It may not make sense except in the context of how they feel about the decision.

For myself, I pretty much have two choices - a cheaper plan with public to recoup my savings (and lose my 5G, which doesn’t matter because I don’t have a 5G device anyway) or pay the same price from PC mobile (where I get 5G in theory). My partner does have a 5G phone, so it makes no sense at all to stay with Public.

It’s not clear whether there are other options because Freedom (as an example) has “nationwide” coverage in SK and MB but no Freedom network there, and they say their plans are designed for mostly being on Freedom network, so I suspect they won’t let you sign up if you’ll always be roaming. Fizz isn’t available here either. That might change in the future, and if so, Freedom’s yearly prepaid plans are amazing and Fizz looks like they have good options too, we’d go for that in a heartbeat.

[ON4EKE_]

Sent a complaint to the CCTS and got this response back after PM responded and I rejected their response.

"

The Objection 

Public Mobile has objected to the customer's complaint further to section 4.3 of the CCTS Procedural Code on the basis that the customer's complaint relates to an upcoming change to their existing rewards program. Public Mobile's objection states that the upcoming change was announced to their customers with a notice sent 30 days before the upcoming change. To demonstrate their position, Public Mobile provided the CCTS with screen captures of the notice sent to their customers.

Our Assessment 

We examined the customer's complaint and Public Mobile's objection to the complaint.
Section 4.3 of the CCTS Procedural Code states that The Commissioner may not direct or require a Participating Service Provider to change any of their policies or practices. Additionally, pricing of products or services fall outside the Commissioner’s scope. As your complaint pertains an increase to your billed charges, the CCTS confirms that your complaint falls within the scope of the CCTS.

The CCTS cannot accept objections that are based on the merits of the complaint, and such objections will be rejected. A “merit-based objection” is an objection in which the PSP asserts that the complaint should not be accepted by the CCTS because the PSP is allowed to do the action that the customer complained about.
Additionally, The CCTS does not consider the following matters as “pricing of products and service”: billing disputes, contract disputes or changes, price changes, additional charges, and removal of promotional discounts.  For this reason, we are rejecting the objection as your complaint meets the requirement set out by the procedural code.

"

Anyone want to digest what that means other than the CCTS has accepted the complaint?

[mikasik2]

What if the rewards are reinstated?  If we leave before that, chances are we will be SOL

[SeniorCitizen]

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@eyes wrote:

“how this decision makes people fee”?

Obviously I also dislike what they’re doing. However I’m just a little puzzled about all the posts presenting better deals but still sticking with PM. Isn’t it a no brainer that if one finds a better deal that they should grab it?????

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Some of us that are now tainted so badly due to the change we have decided to leave. But still have a vested interest in staying until the rewards decrease and at that point will have pre shopped and pull the pin accordingly. PM hopes we are too lethargic to do so….hmmmm. And any Telus  customer that is dissatisfied on top of the PM fiasco is just waiting as well. 

[eyes]

“how this decision makes people fee”?

Obviously I also dislike what they’re doing. However I’m just a little puzzled about all the posts presenting better deals but still sticking with PM. Isn’t it a no brainer that if one finds a better deal that they should grab it?????

[mc931]

I don’t think they are incompetent - it would have been incompetence to not foresee this response, which leads me to believe they did foresee it. They know full well exactly the impact of the change and felt they could survive it - whether that is correct or not remains to be seen.

Whatever data they based their decision on though, I think may be flawed. Past behaviour can be a really good predictor for future behaviour, as long as conditions remain relatively stable. People start to behave very differently when conditions change markedly though - and the increasing costs of living that people really cannot reduce through behaviour changes (like food and shelter) mean people will of necessity start to behave differently with other things - most people might be too lazy to change providers for a few dollars difference, but when you don’t actually have those dollars and the choice is now “go to the bother of switching providers” or “don’t have a phone” people will switch.

I also suspect they are underestimating the impact of how this decision makes people feel - because even if I could have a same/similarly priced plan elsewhere as here, how I’ve been treated as a customer here means I will now go elsewhere. I have a $34 plan (or I will on renewal) and $2 for autopay and $4 for loyalty, and one referral that I know is leaving with this change (so I won’t include that), so right now I pay $28. I’ll happily go to the bother of changing providers for a $29 plan elsewhere that still meets my needs, because forget about making any calculations based on savings from public points. I can’t budget with those, it’s a hassle to redeem, and they could withdraw those too by the time I accumulate enough to use them anyway. I could go down to a $29 plan here, but why would I do that when some other company might actually value my business more? Or, in the case of PC mobile, provide a points based reward that I can more easily redeem when I need to for everyday things like my groceries?

I could be wrong, but given the changing landscape of telecoms and increasing financial pressures on individuals, probably the worst decision a telecom company could make right now would be to alienate loyal customers who were previously very happy. When the landscape eventually levels out (as you have suggested) the only thing that will differentiate one company from another will be service quality, and customer service is a big part of that. 

[golfball]

To be honest 10 points per year does sound like a bad deal when the old loyalty could give you $5 off every single month.

[SeniorCitizen]

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@eyes wrote:

LETS NOT FORGET that under the point system we will still be swarded $10 worth  anniversary points, friend referral points each month, perhaps maybe helping others points and 5% payment discounts. Does this sound like a bad deal?

---

Let’s not forget about all the other rewards or loyalty programs there are out there. They all get revised and watered down to the point of why bother belonging to it. When will the $1 per point become  50 cents per point? Normally we do not get involved in loyalty programs but this one at the time “was” good. 

Perhaps the changes are BONUS driven. 

[eyes]

LETS NOT FORGET that under the point system we will still be swarded $10 worth  anniversary points, friend referral points each month, perhaps maybe helping others points and 5% payment discounts. Does this sound like a bad deal?

[Wolfcore]

I wouldn't say it's incompetent leadership. They know how to make money, and they account for everything before making a decision (at least in most cases). They know very well that most people are lazy, and would rather pay a few extra dollars than go through the process of switching phone companies (even though it's not difficult). They also know that even though their service is less competitive now, they still have somewhat similarly priced plans to their competitors, which gives those lazy people even less of a reason to switch. So really, their hope was/is that they'll only lose a fraction of subscribers, and they'll still be making a ton of extra profit from this decision.

For their sake, they better hope their predictions were correct though, because in the long run, things could get very bad. Something like this is reputation-destroying, and you can't really come back from it. I'm sure they'll survive, but they won't have the same supporters as they used to, and the moment a competitor pounces on that, it'll become a problem for them.

As for your price-per-GB point. Yes, this is one of the most important factors in all of this. They've been pushing everybody to higher tiers, and offering them more data for the same price over and over again, so of course people switched, but do people actually need/use all this data? Of course not. All it'll take is a competitor to come out and offer an $18/5GB plan, or $23/10GB, and a ton of those people on the $34/$40 plans will be gone. They know this as well though, and they're preparing for it. Telecom is in for some major changes over the next 5 years, as everything makes it's way towards it's ultimate end, which is unlimited everything (like ISP's and internet plans eventually got to).

[eyes]

Posters here share facts and  opinions being positive, negative or naive they are entitled to do so. 

So my opinion is that you may post again on this thread ha ha - 

[RetiredGuy1]

This will be my last post.

I sincerely want to thank everybody for having the opportunity to participate in the interesting discussions. I can honestly say I’ve learned more about cell plans (and telecoms in general) over these past 3 weeks than I ever knew in my lifetime!

Obviously, there is an overwhelming cloud of negativity in the thread (and rightfully so). I have attempted, at times, to use a little humour (particularly satire) to try to maybe lighten the mood and perhaps put a smile on a face or two. 

Lately, in my own little way, I have shifted towards attempting to think outside of the box and offer ideas or suggestions that could either help offset some of the impact of the changes coming or to perhaps lessen the impact of any further changes to the Points program. However, I no longer feel it is worth my time to continue.

I hope that whether you stay with PM or move elsewhere, that each of you find the plan that is perfect for your individual situation.

Cheers!

[Wolfcore]

Yup, exactly. They've of course already factored these people into their decision, but whether their predictions were correct, is yet to be seen. They just believe that even after losing all of these customers and their support, that they'll still make more profit by removing these legacy rewards.

What are they going to do with this extra profit? I think we all know lol

[mc931]

You’re probably right that there are more legacy subscribers than points subscribers, but it still remains that there will never be more legacy subscribers than there are now. So they know exactly what legacy subscribers’ rewards will cost them and can price accordingly, but they chose not to do that.

I guess my point is just that all of this is a choice. My initial response was that they didn’t know how much they were going to upset their legacy base - but I actually think on reflection that they did know and chose to do it anyway. They would have to have some pretty incompetent leadership to have not foreseen this response, so they probably did, but decided for whatever reason that they could weather it.

I honestly hope they don’t. I wasn’t looking for other options before because I was happy, but now that this has happened I realize they aren’t offering substantially better than what a number of other companies are offering, so … I’m not stuck at all. In fact, I can get a plan that better matches what I actually need (because I do use data but not a ton of it) for the same price I pay now (after rewards are applied).

There must be others like me, using data at around the 5 GB mark monthly, and there’s no good plan for that with Public. They are trying to sell more expensive plans by offering way too much data - it’s a “better deal” from a price per GB perspective but that’s irrelevant if you don’t use it all up. 

[SeniorCitizen]

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@Wolfcore wrote:

Of course they aren't losing money with these plans, but by eliminating them, they believe they can make more, and to them, profit is everything. They also just reported record profits recently, so they're doing just fine. You're right though, there are countless other ways they could have handled this without resorting to removing the legacy rewards.

As for the legacy subscribers, in my opinion, I believe it's the opposite. I believe there are far more users on the legacy system, compared the new system. I don't have evidence of this, but I feel we can use reasonable judgement to get there. You gotta remember that the old system had 7 years worth of time to collect subscribers, whereas the new system has only had 2. Also, very few (if any), crossed over from legacy to points, when it was first introduced (it just didn't make sense to). 

So unless PM attracted more customers within these last 2 years, than the previous 7, I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of users are on the old system. As far as I know, Telus doesn't report subscriber counts separately for their budget brands, so only they know the truth.

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But……how many other legacy customers, like me and many others, are pi$$ed off and plan to leave and/or plan to stop referring? I am on both counts.  I have brought in at least 70 customers.  And I still ask two things…..what is PM doing to improve retention…. and to improve business, will they consider offering significantly better pricing for all customers and dissolve the rewards program? 

[Wolfcore]

Of course they aren't losing money with these plans, but by eliminating them, they believe they can make more, and to them, profit is everything. They also just reported record profits recently, so they're doing just fine. You're right though, there are countless other ways they could have handled this without resorting to removing the legacy rewards.

As for the legacy subscribers, in my opinion, I believe it's the opposite. I believe there are far more users on the legacy system, compared the new system. I don't have evidence of this, but I feel we can use reasonable judgement to get there. You gotta remember that the old system had 7 years worth of time to collect subscribers, whereas the new system has only had 2. Also, very few (if any), crossed over from legacy to points, when it was first introduced (it just didn't make sense to). 

So unless PM attracted more customers within these last 2 years, than the previous 7, I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of users are on the old system. As far as I know, Telus doesn't report subscriber counts separately for their budget brands, so only they know the truth.

[RetiredGuy1]

@ShawnC13  “Unfortunate”? You spelled “I apologize” wrong

[RetiredGuy1]

@ShawnC13  We’ll just have to agree to disagree then. I feel this thread is the place for discussion on anything that could help prevent another fiasco and I bet Telus execs would welcome that too. As @HALIMACS pointed out “there’s been flexibility exercised on this thread, so why not continue it?” 

More to the point: the announcement posted in this thread includes a link to faq. One of those is what I was directly addressing. If you feel thats a “free-for-all” then thats your right to have that opinion. Just don’t expect everybody else to necessarily agree with it.

[eyes]

Let’s face it , other then venting and  passing some time there is no point in fighting this PM switch to points. None of us has a contract with PM. We’re all on prepaid plans. 
As an example- when you see milk on sale on a grocery store flyer that  sale price is only valid for the week. It would be silly to go the following week demanding to pay the previous week’s price. 

[eyes]

If one is a light user on the $15 plan there is no point in going through the hassle of switching to another provider. $15 with points is still great deal. The only ones that are screwed are the ones that for some incomprehensible reason maintain several never used phone accounts. Multy  account holders that may have difficulty letting go of their never used accounts could reduce their cost per account by renewing only every 89 days . That would only cost them $5/cycle with points.

LETS NOT FORGET that under the point system we will still be swarded $10 worth  anniversary points, friend referral points each month, perhaps maybe helping others points and 5% payment discounts. Does this sound like a bad deal?

[sa7375]

@SeniorCitizen    Well said, "PM needs to reinvent themselves". To survive in a competitive market, PM doesn't have a choice: it has to.

[mc931]

It doesn’t make sense that the model was not sustainable. They sustained it for years - and then only had to continue sustaining it for a defined, limited number of subscribers. They could easily up the price of all plans by a dollar and recoup the loyalty rewards.

There can’t be so many legacy reward subscribers with big enough loyalty discounts to affect their bottom line - not when they are keeping referral bonuses exactly the same. They could cap either or both to keep things under control too.

Also their initial marketing was to highlight that you could theoretically get your bill to zero with referrals, loyalty, autopay, and community participation. So the fact that some people have very low bills because of their reward system is silly because they will have accounted for a certain amount of that, if they had any sense.

[ShawnC13]

@RetiredGuy1 if you felt singled out because it was your post that I responded to and I used the @ in my replies that is unfortunate.  It wasn't an intention to single anyone out.

[ShawnC13]

@RetiredGuy1 I didn't say that at all.  I just said that this thread wasn't the place for it.  A separate thread could be done up for that.  That is all that was meant by my post

[BM61]

I always wondered when this good thing would come to an end....and here we are!! I spent time informing people about how good this program was, encouraged them to sign up and spent time getting them set up. Now I have to tell several of them that the program has changed and they will no longer see the discounts. Moving forward, I will be looking for a better deal and hope people keep posting those good deals. Too bad for everyone.