Complaints about Public Mobile ending its legacy rewards program are racking up.
A community post announcing the change four weeks ago had nearly 3,800 comments spanning 125 pages at the time of publication. A majority of them come from consumers upset with the Telus-owned provider’s plan to change its rewards system.
The new program, like the legacy one, allows users to earn points in several ways, with one point equaling $1. However, every category of the new program doesn’t offer the same value.
Under the legacy program, for example, users can earn $1 every 30 days (up to $5/30 days) for every year they were with the company as a loyalty reward. Customers who’ve been with Public Mobile for at least the past 12 years would be earning $60/year in credits.
The new program’s loyalty reward only offers 10 points (or $10) for every year a customer is with the company, a massive drop.
Several customers have indicated they’ve filed a complaint with the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS). According to reporting from iPhone in Canada, the Telus-owned company hasn’t been successful in filing objections against complaints about the change.
The CCTS told MobileSyrup it’s “monitoring” the service provider’s changes.
“The CCTS can understand the frustration that consumers are facing with changes to services and service provider programs. Providers must notify customers in advance about changes to services and contracts,” the organization said in a statement. “The CCTS cannot direct a service provider to change its policy or practices.” More information on their resolution process is available on their website.
As a “thank you” the company offered customers 240GB of data for their “continued loyalty.” Customers only have 150 days to use it. Many users have indicated on the service provider’s community forum the “bonus” data isn’t worth anything, especially since most plans come with copious amounts of data already.
Public Mobile launched its news points program in January 2022. It will retire its old program in May.
MobileSyrup reached out to Public Mobile for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Updated April 1st, 2024, 4:46pm ET: The article has been updated with a statement from the CCTS.
Updated April 2nd, 2024, 11:34am ET: The article has been updated to clarify some legacy customers could be earning $60/year as a loyalty reward. The previous version stated $60/month.
Source: iPhone in Canada
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