I am a Bell customer. I am not surprised by this story:
A couple from Merritt, B.C. has been battling Bell Canada for months over enormous bills – which they call outrageous and unwarranted – for thousands of dollars in unexplained data charges on their smart phone. “They basically made us scared of our phone,” said Daniel Methot.”We just stopped using it. We shut it off,” added his wife, Kate.
However, Daniel said, he has already ruled out that possibility because the charges continue even when the phone is shut off. He said he’s spent countless hours talking with numerous Bell representatives trying to diagnose the problem. Each time, he said, he had to tell the whole story from the beginning.
I know this is quite off our usual beat but when I even think about needing to call Bell for any reason at all I want to shoot myself, so given that circumstance, I am morally obligated to post this information. And another link to this.
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Deborah adds: I’m going to go out get my very first ever Canadian cell phone today. It’s been hard convincing myself it’s a good idea since it is so incredibly more expensive than in the USA . . . voicemail and caller ID aren’t automatically included with every plan?? And . . . long distance and roaming? They practically don’t exist for cell phones in the US. So now I know what company NOT to choose (and my husband already vetoed Rogers)! Canada needs a revolution. A cell phone revolution!
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Jennifer adds: I think it’s an epidemic. I had problems with Rogers as well, so switched to Virgin. My first bill with Virgin said my smart phone was “online” more hours than are in the day! Their excuse? My phone was “looking for updates” because I hadn’t updated it correctly. The problem is fixed now, but I still ended up paying an extra $40 in fees that I didn’t cause. I basically took out the battery and threw the phone in a box until the problem was fixed. It made me want to claw my eyes out! Not to mention that I’ll never get back the hours spent on the phone with their reps. Awful… I think I’m getting post traumatic stress just thinking about it.
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Brigitte is doing what she can to help:
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Same story here with Fido. When I threatened to move to Telus since my hubby works for them – guess what! They suddenly managed to cancel my access fee and other fees so I pay only $30 a month from a whopping $60+ and I barely make calls on my cell, mainly text but to pay that much for about 20 texts a month is crazy! We need better regulation – looks like it’s a free for all with these cell companies. Once I get my Telus plan, I’m moving on!
I’ve been leaning toward Telus (since Bell is a bad idea and the husband is anti-Rogers/Fido, and I heard some pretty negative things about Virgin). Hopefully they’ll be okay! I’m definitely not going to get a smartphone though (even though I’m pretty sure that an iPhone would change my life forever and it heals kidney stones), just going to go with a plain old fashioned voice plan.
Deborah, Virgin has been okay since the initial “incident”. BUT, you have to be prepared for their annoying attempts to attract young demographics. They start their emails off with “Hey Jennifer” (since me and the CSRs are BFFs, obviously), and when you call, you choose your wait music. “Would you like to ‘chill out’? Press 1. Or would you like to get ‘pumped up’? Press 2. Or to listen to what we’re listening to, Press 3.” It’s incredibly annoying, especially because you would never phone them about anything but a problem. I do miss the days of US phone contracts… one day Canada, one day.
I’m on wind mobile which is way cheaper if you live in onne of the cities they have coverage in. I am actually commenting on this using my wind phone right now. I love it!