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TELUS Forcing Customers Off Unlimited Plans
An anonymous reader writes "Canadian telco TELUS sold a bunch of (expensive) Unlimited EV-DO aircard accounts last winter and are now summarily canceling them or forcing people to switch to much less valuable plans. TELUS is citing 'Violations,' but their Terms Of Service (see #5) are utterly vague and self-contradictory. The TELUS plans were marketed as being unlimited, without the soft/hard caps that the other providers had at the time. They were purchased by a lot of rural Canadians who had no other choice except dialup. Now TELUS is forcing everyone to switch from a $75 Unlimited plan to a $65 1GB plan, and canceling those who won't switch. Have a look at the thread at Howardforums, a discussion of the TELUS ToS (in red at the bottom), an EV-DO blogger who's been a victim, a post at Electronista, and of course Verizon getting fined for doing the same thing! Michael Geist has taken an interest as well."
Wireless companies ripping people off???
Film at 11
Sounds like bait and switch...
Except on closer examination it's the legal version... GOD how I love living in Canada! On the plus side, at least they didn't introduce an "Unlimited system access fee", claim it to be some sort of vague government forced thing, and then charge more for the fee (that is mandatory) than the service plan costs.
Note to self: stop giving Telus more ideas on how to rape my ass!
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
You agree that, to maintain or improve the service, or for other business reasons, TELUS can in its sole discretion, suspend, restrict, modify or terminate all or any part of the service or make changes to the network and other facilities without notice to you.
And that is why "agreements" like this are worthless. They should just say "Here's what you are required to do... we can do as we damn well please." But honestly, is there any point in signing a contract when one party retains all rights to completely change the contract without allowing you the ability to opt-out of the contract? Is this even legal? Probably... can we change it?
I am not real big on "consumer protections" but this type of stuff just seems ridiculous. At some point we have to realize that cell phones and internet access are pretty much not a privilege any more. All of us should have access to these shared resources (the tubes).
No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
This is par for the course with Telus, a company that has had it knuckles rapped in the past for dreadful customer service.
Light the blue touch-paper and retire immediately.
If Telus sold underpriced plans, underestimated use, and lost money, how long are they obligated to maintain the service? Forever?
It's totally reasonable that they cancel a service that doesn't make sense, and fully within their rights to do so.
And calling these folks "victims" seems a bit of a stretch, and reeks of entitlement whining.
News flash: You don't have the right to cheap unlimited internet when you live out in the country.
The day I was able to say goodbye to my land line was a sweet day indeed. Telus managed to screw up everything I ever asked them to do.
They're shady, unethical, and mostly incompetent. If it's at all possible to do so, just don't deal with them. Thankfully even rural areas are beginning to have better options.
Affected users should send Telus a huge bill for trying to get out of their multi-year service contract early.
Complain! I did and they gave me a full refund for my air card (i bought it outright instead of the monthly plan) I then switched to Rogers. They had a sliding plan that works for me. It does smell and I will never use a telus service again due to the way they marketted this.
...and possibly even some sort of charges brought against them by the government.
These Telecoms are making WAY more money than they deserve. I don't know which would be worse -- a government run telco/internet service or letting the abusive service providers keep on abusing.
I am really very fortunate where I live. T-Mobile is my wireless carrier and they didn't comply with US government requests for warrantless wiretaps, my cable internet is ridiculously faster than any other I have seen and nothing about my service is blocked. I'm afraid to move because I might get crappy service. I'm not sure how I would respond to some of the troubles other people experience or have reported here.
I don't know what laws are in Canada for contracts but in the US and California this will be totally illegal. One person won a case in the California Supreme Court against a telco for claiming "Unlimited" service but the telco "changed" their plan to "limit" there service and the person sued about change of services without consent and this person won.
Its actually quite surprising that they just didn't just change the meaning of "unlimited" and left the customers with massive bills when without their knowledge they went 2 GB over limit.
Its also surprising that people have been able to get online streaming or voice over ip working on their Telus cards, the ones we have in the office are pretty much just fast enough for email and very light web surfing.
And that is why in some other countries, legislation exists that proscribes specific examples of terms in contracts that are deemed to be unfair, i.e. may not be used in any contracts.
Why oil price increase equals economic trouble (Score: Interesti
I learned a long time ago to never give telus another dollar out of my pocket. The only way to force them to change their ways is to stop paying them. This is not the first, nor the last time. I remember an unlimited north america long distance plan on their landlines that they did the exact same thing with about 5 years ago. Only that time they had to honor the existing contracts, and only after a class action lawsuit. This is textbook telus, and never again will they get any money from me.
Given the recent wireless spectrum auction in Canada, I have to wonder whether or not this practise is Telus's way of slashing costs in order to better defend themselves from the inevitable newcomers to the Canadian cell phone carrier market.
TELUS Forcing Customers Off Unlimited Planes
Roughly half my comments are never submitted. You may be reading the better half...
In Australia, an ISP's customers can complain to the Telecommunications Ombudsman (TIO).
If the TIO considers that the complaint has merit (even -before- it is investigated & decided), the ISP must pay TIO a fee, upwards of Au$200.
The TIO may then propose a solution that costs the ISP additional money, eg, if it has to compensate the customer for some loss of service, etc.
An ISP would tend think twice, before dumping customers, with such fees hanging over their heads.
Perhaps USA (and other places) needs such a mechanism, to keep ISPs a bit more honest...
One thing to avoid: In Australia, an ISP is required to "join" TIO, but there have been some cases of ISP's failing to join; in these cases, the fees wouldn't apply, at least until the ISP is belatedly persuaded to join.
To make this work, a large fine for failure to join should be part of the enabling legislation.
I lost an isp that way once a lONG time ago. I had a static IP on dial-up and they wanted it back so they made up a reason to dump me.
One evening my modem was connected but no data activity. They said that violated the "unlimited use" clause, since i wasnt actually using it.
Bastards.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Here in Pittsburgh, Comcast dropped 4 channels from their analog lineup, and are charging customers the same price. I didn't care about two of them, but BET, G4, TruTV, and (believe it or not) The Style Network were all channels that had shows we watched. I talked to a Comcast drone over the phone about this, and he said that it was a business decision to allow for more HD channels. I realize that there is a difference between wireless carriers and cable TV companies, but the concept is the same -- we're being invited to pay more for less. Now, I get one single channel from Cable that I do not get over the air -- TBS. There aren't any competitors I can switch to, even though a separate cable company services the folks across the street. Friggin' sucks!
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Our telcos are just feeling left out. The American telcos are hogging all the limelight with their various antics leaving the Canadian telcos feeling all inferior so they're just trying to play with the big boys. How typically Canadian...
...but what about the present????
db
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
Dealing with telus for me was nothing but severe pain in the backside. They care nothing about customer satisfaction. They will screw you over and cheat you out of your money as much as they can, and when you finally leave, they then proceed to harass you with endless calls and try to con you into switching back with false incentives.
Here is an example of their borderline criminal conduct. I used to subscribe to their home phone service. I had it on automatic payment (big mistake) One day, I noticed that my bill had been steadily increased from $30/mo for a single line to $40, $60, and then as high $80/mo for the past few months.
I called them trying to sort it out. After several hours of navigating through the labyrinth of automated voice menu (no, 0 for operator did not work) I finally got put on hold for over an hour to speak with a human, and was cut off while waiting in the queue. After a few tries I finally got though, and got an explanation. Apparently, they had been taking the liberty to 'introduce new services' onto my account, without notifying me, and took my not noticing and canceling them a sign of agreement to adapt those service.
They of course, refused to refund the charges because I had been 'enjoying the additional services' so I requested to cancel them on the spot. Apparently I could not do that either because I don't have this password somehow set on my account.
While I was contemplating canceling the whole account and start over with a new number, with the hassle of informing all my contacts of a number change, Shaw called to promote their $25/mo digital line. So I switched. For the past year I have not paid over the $25/mo I agree to pay. There had not been additional features secretly added to my line.
However, Telus was not happy about my switching. They called about 3 times a week asking me to switch back. Their call usually started with a pompous voice asking me to identify myself to them. They even demanded that I explained to them why I switched, to which their representatives received some colourful words from me and a request to never calling back again.
Then they called again offering me ridiculous deals such as a comparatively lower 3-month INTRODUCTORY rate (and it would eventually go back up) if I switched my phone AND internet services to them. At this point, I started threatening with a harassment suit if they didn't stop calling. The call finally stopped.
And you wonder why telus spends so much on their 'the future is friendly' PR campaign to tell people how well they treat their customers.
"I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
I recently moved to Saskatchewan and when asked by Sasktel (the gov't run company here) if I wanted them to hook me up I said no and told them that Telus had ruined the chance that any such company would see my money again. I signed up with Shaw for phone/internet/cable and haven't looked back. Their customer service is excellent and better yet - NO CONTRACTS!
Upon moving, I cancelled my Telus account of course. I received a bill for service AFTER my disconnect date. The rep told me to pay the bill and that they would fix the problem and send me a refund. After speaking to the supervisor, he assured my that I would not need to pay the bill... until the next month and I received, yes, you guessed it, another bill that had my next month PLUS the month I didn't need to pay for. After 3 months of this, they finally sorted it out... I hope.
Lesson learned? For me yes... For them? yeah - right!
I think it is way past time for a sliding scale maximum pay rate. The top CEO should get no more than 7 times the newest raw hire, and on down the line. If you have more than seven levels of management and employees, too bad, learn to do better than that, you are too top heavy by far. I'd also like to see a cap on how much extra over costs companies can charge for anything, a service or a product. Radical idea, sure, but it isn't communism nor is it strict predatory capitalism. Both those schemes have too many flaws. Pure communism is zero incentive to work, pure capitalism is 100% incentive to screw people over as much as possible and bend the rules constantly, especially if you are a corporation and can hide behind a piece of paper sitting in a drawer on the isle of mann or something. Having a maximum wage based on the lowest paid employee's pay would insure that workers always make more, there's no outside limit for the guys at the top, just a proportion that must be followed. Having an allowable top turn over price (call it 10% over just for conversational purposes) for wholesale to retail would also help consumers. Remember, your "corporation" gets a charter and besides making you money you are also supposed to be of the public benefit and interest. That part needs to be put back into place with some stronger teeth in the laws.
Due to the big boys buying up the little guys there isn't much competition. Plans are expensive and there are all sorts of extra fees. Most bill probably run $50.00 / month. Now compare that to India where a basic cell phone package is $0.50 / month and Canadians certainly aren't paid 100x Indians. So obviously there is something wrong in most cell phone markets.
I do not have a cell phone because i do not agree with their stupid contracts terms. If you do not agree with the terms of the contracts from cell providers just don't subscribe. If anybody read the contract and think about what it says for one second they would not sign it.
"You agree that, to maintain or improve the service, or for other business reasons, TELUS can in its sole discretion, suspend, restrict, modify or terminate all or any part of the service or make changes to the network and other facilities without notice to you."
That looks pretty clear to me.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
We use Verizon PC-cards for our remote users. When we first signed on all our cards were free and unlimited data for $50/month/user. Recently one of the cards crapped out. When we replaced it they said the 'unlimited' plan was no longer valid so the card was now limited to 4gb /mo. We had no other option.
thanks Verizon! *fart*
(Data for broadband, and colocation, in Australia is still many times more expensive than it is in North America.)
you had me at #!
Telus received the last dollar they'll ever see from me years ago. They operate with the complacency of a monopoly and the ruthlessness of the worst private operation.
Good data plans are hard to come by in Canada; at the moment, Rogers has a temporary high-limit package that looks relatively attractive (expires at the end of August). Cracks are showing in the data provider cartel's uniform high prices and it's only a matter of time before someone jumps in with a reasonable data package and forces the rest down. Until then, I'll wait. If it's Telus that cracks first, I'll wait.
"I have altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it further." - D. Vader
I thought the whole reason for a contract was so that BOTH parties are protected for the duration of the contract! I was told this holds true for my voice plan... maybe data services are different since they are considered a 'feature' but it still doesn't sit right in my stomach.
Basically, you the customer sign your life away and promise to uphold your end while the provider gets to choose whether to honor their part or not. It's not fair. And its not just Telus. It's ALL the cell companies in Canada. trust me Robbers is just as bad!
I did. I was a long-time Telus Mobility customer. The recent change to charge for incoming texts was the final straw for me. I both called and wrote to Telus and got absolutely nowhere, so I'm now a VERY happy FIDO customer -- and so are most of my immediate family. When the haemorrhaging gets bad enough, Telus may straighten up.
licet differant, aequabitur
Telus is about as bad as Telco's get in Canada. The only way to talk to somebody that will get ANYTHING of consequence done for you is by threatening to leave. They suffer frequent brownouts, and the real unfortunate fact of the matter is that they're the only company that really offers nationwide Fiber service. And they don't even really offer that, in fact they just offer it for the areas that they provide telephone to and outsource the rest of the country to other vendors. Makes dealing with them from an IT side can be a real pain, ESPECIALLY if it's in an area handled by a third-party vendor, because then you NEVER can actually speak directly with the technicians working on the issue.
Their ADSL service is even more horrid. Brownouts are even more frequent, and you get network lag at least once an hour. Plus, their enterprise ADSL service (the one they give SO/HOs) still clocks in at speeds below the very base CONSUMER-LEVEL cable speeds that you can get through Shaw.
They hook people into them with shiny promo packages (Get your first year free / get a free ipod / get a free COMPUTER) but then once you're locked into their contract they forget all about you, the consumer.
I'm with Rogers (well, Fido) for my phone and Shaw for my internet. While I've had occasional issue with both, I haven't even had a tenth of the issues from both of them combined that I had when I was a Telus customer.
Karma: Non-Heinous
In the US it's prorated (flat rate was ruled illegal recently, and I don't think most are using flat rate anyway), so it's not necessarily as much as you say. And honestly, I don't see why there shouldn't be a penalty for breaking a contract I agreed to. As far as the phone company, it sucks that they can do this, but what's your alternative? They're allowed to set their terms of service within reason, and I think this, while onerous, is within reason.
To quote LongNoi "QZTR was right and won't leave me alone because I called him a moron when I was wrong" FYS
I'm confused:
>flat rate was ruled illegal recently
ruled by whom? What legal reasoning was used to violate the existing contracts?
yawn
A search of "flat rate ruled illegal" will give you all your answers. I'd link, but I think you should do it yourself, quite honestly.
To quote LongNoi "QZTR was right and won't leave me alone because I called him a moron when I was wrong" FYS
I know telus is a joke, had their adsl for years and got sick and tired of having my connection down every weekend for months on end, and thats not even mentioning the speeds that were absolute garbage, im with shaw now and i get 10x the speed for the same price.
Anyways im with rogers now, I havnt had much of a problem with them but im paying almost $70 a month for 350 week day minutes, evenings starting at 5 and caller id/voicemail. I never paid much attention to my cell bills, just paid them but once I clued in though was I ever pissed, so I went online to try to change my plan, website wont work, call their office "due to unexpected reasons we are currently closed". Try again later, and after 45 minutes on hold I had to take care of some stuff and had to hang up. But the bottom line is that for the services I get I should be charged less than half what im paying. I truly believe that the people responsible for this should be charged criminally and given jail sentences.
Everything I said there was accurate, i never insuklted or belittled anyone, and did nothing offensive of any kind.
WHy did you mod me troll?
To quote LongNoi "QZTR was right and won't leave me alone because I called him a moron when I was wrong" FYS
Myself, and many of my friends in remote/rural areas are on the connect 75 unlimited plan (we were told that this was totally unlimited, no strings attracted) There is not other source of broadband in my area, satellite (yuck) and EVDO. We have invested alot into this connection.. bought the expresscard modem, a Cradlepoint mbr1000 Evdo router, a signal amp, and an external antenna. This connection serves our household (2 pcs, a laptop, an ipod touch, a ps3, wii, and 360) I very much hope that I do not get one of these letters, it would be devastating to us. Telus .. please dont be evil!!!
I remember Telus "accidentally" double charging a $5 service fee acouple of years ago on my home phone.
In their letter to me, stating the fine was not in error was a large signature from their then executive, his name.... Mr. Goliath.
It's as though they want to intimidate their customers even when they are in the wrong.
Telus --- "the future is friendly" (But we'll rape your ass today.)
Telus is a joke, no way I'd ever do business with them again.
OTOH, a friend of mine lost his cell phone so I suggest calling up Telus with the intent to leave because they don't offer the iPhone to see what they might do(let's be clear, he doesn't want an iPhone, but we know this particular phone is going to receive some sort of response from the Telus rep.). Not mentioning the lost phone to them at this point, he proceeds to tell them that he would like one of them new-fangled iPhones that everyone is talking about. Telus rep says sorry we don't have that phone. So he says oh okay, I'd like to cancel my service then. They proceed to go through the big laminated list of reasons the iPhone is crap, and he just simply says yeah, that's fine, I'll just cancel, how much is it to buy out my contract?
At this point they go ahead and offer him a new Blackberry Pearl at no charge, and he informs them that this wouldn't be sufficient and he'd still like to proceed with canceling his services. They step up to the plate again and offer him an unlimited data plan in addition to his current Telus package at no charge, for the balance of his contract (2 1/2 years).
Of course, he accepts this offer. So, although I hate Telus, sometimes they serve their purpose, such as situations like the one above.
Of course after he finishes talking with the Telus rep he proceeds to call them back immediately to report his lost phone so that it is deactivated.
This was approximately a month and a half ago and so far so good, Telus is honouring their offer of unlimited data, and he's still paying the same $48.xx a month he was paying prior to this escapade, and enjoying his new Blackberry phone.
They also charge $25 a month for a (i.e. 1) static IP.
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Having worked at all 3 of these companies (and still at one of them). The problem is/was their billing/rating solution.
The problem is that all three had in house billing solutions plus crappy red tape policies and bad development practices. As all you slashdotters know, this makes for bad software.
The unlimited plan was unlimited not because they cared but because the in house solution was crap and could not rate data usage, couldn't keep up with the flow of data from switches. So Telus had two options, not offer data, or offer unlimited data. There is a new vendor solution in place, the one that can rate data, so here we are trying to get out of unlimited data.
Oh, and those who had capped data plans and stayed under the cap, well too bad, you could have used unlimited all along, too late now.
One day, a Telus representative called the house asking to speak to my father. We informed the man on the phone that he has not lived here for the past eighteen years. Instead of saying "Oh, we'll sort that out for you in a moment"- or some other helpful thing, he adopts an accusatory tone and hangs up. Two days later a woman from Telus calls with the same offer. This time, my mother answers. She is informed that despite being the one who has paid Telus lo these many decades, the phone service will be terminated as it is not in her name. The catch: We have tried to change the name on our phone (not the bill, the bill is in the correct name) for the length of time since my parents divorced. Telus, in their infinite wisdom, refuses to change this unless my mother can present them with a certificate of divorce *AND* my father agrees. The latter of which would force undue contact. Telus can burn in the seventh circle of Hell for all I am concerned, they are not bumbling- they are pure evil. Hell, lest I forget when they claimed we had signed up for dial-up internet access and decided to bill us for nine months of use. I hate Rogers, I hate Shaw, Bell can fuck itself, but as a Canadian I have no alternatives.
As has been mentioned before, if you ever want to get anywhere with a phone/internet provider, always ask to speak to the account cancellation department. They're the only ones who have the power to give you a good deal.
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
I used to have a Telus phone, the battery died one year to the day after getting it and it was on a Sunday. No Telus stores were open on Sunday so I went in on Monday and was told since it was 1 day over the year warranty I couldn't get a new battery, so there I am with a contract and a dead phone. No grace period, nothing.
I found the president's e-mail address, I forget how, and e-mailed him asking if he thought it was fair to refuse to give me a battery because I couldn't get to their store on a Sunday. It worked, I got a call from the President's secretary and my battery was waiting for me at the Telus store.
I still left them, I wanted to adjust my plan but they said they could do it but I would be starting all over again on a 3 year plan!
The best way to describe Telus is they seem like a bunch of con men out to get every cent out of you. Fast talking Best Buy sales reps are the closest comparison.
I already posted this on the linked forum thread, but Slashdot readers might be interested:
I use a Dell 5720 TELUS card in a laptop, and have been running the unit since March 08. My usage is typically low (under 2GB/month) and I haven't yet received a letter.
However, within four hours of this story showing up on Slashdot, I was called by a representative from Dell Canada, from whom I purchased the EVDO card. The girl I talked to wasn't using a script, and the conversation was very informal. She was calling from a direct line (I called it back and got a busy signal) with the number wide open. She wanted to know how satisfied I was with the quality of service from TELUS, and how I felt about my interactions with TELUS representatives. The whole thing seemed to center around "Has TELUS made us look bad?"
It's *possible* that this is unrelated, but given that I bought the card from them six months ago, it seems like an awfully coincidental time for them to give me a follow-up call.
Any contract where one party has complete power to change the terms of the contract without warning at their own whim is total bullshit.
Switched the family off of Telus last year (land line and cells) after being told to politely screw off by Telus staff over questions about over billing and rate plan changes. They tried to get my 16 year old daughter to sign a new three year contract before they would look at her broken phone. Yes, the plan was in our name. The upped the rates on our phones twice without any notification. The wouldn't come to repair faulty wiring hanging from the pole outside our house (Shaw fixed it). The best part of getting off Telus was that I didn't have to listen their staff complain to me about their hangovers and crappy jobs. Without a doubt the worst company I have ever had to deal with in my entire life. I can't figure out if the management hates their staff or their customers more.
historically around here, it was since governement had the hand in producing electricity that it stayed at a low price (read : stable). So low , that it went under "production price" (aka: at a loss, but this is a misnomer since actually the loss part was paid with the taxes). Once that was privatized, the price was also deregulated and it went within month, if not weeks in price hikes. I have my bills to prove it. And I will be hit by another price hike of 29% next month. And I am not too sure there was a real "competition" for electricity production and a real self-regulation in the US in the last 20/30 years either (cue on Enron shenanigan).
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
I like to take a baffling approach.
Tell them that the Reptilian Conspirators are behind Telus, and that you have gotten a secret communique telling you to switch or be caught in a bloody battle that will destroy two worlds......
Or any other suitable nonsense you can make up on the spot.
Oh, and ask them not to call you again. Tell them specifically to put you on their do not call list; having worked in a call centre (one that doesn't fall under the mandatory do-not-call-adherence laws) I can tell you that "DO NOT CALL" is a valid disposition for a call.
Should be "which was always the plan behind the fact that".
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Ah yes, arguing will get your problem resolved, but herein lies another problem. Not arguing will NOT get your problem resolved. In other words, these policies are putting us on the road to the way they haggle for basic purchases in places like Mexico and China.
I suspect that this tactic works in Canada because Canadians are stereotypically less inclined to argue. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but it doesn't take a genius to realize that this doesn't scale, and is a net negative for society in general.
Nowadays everyone is clued in to the whole "retention plan" scam, and all the three of the Evil Triumvirate Canadian telcoms reserve their best plans for their most vocal and persistent customers who are willing to play chicken with the customer service rep. Frankly, I'd rather not have to fight just to get a fair deal. This kind of stuff should be outlawed.
I used to work for Bell last year and they had the exact same plan. I read their terms of service and asked my regional manager what the exact definitions of what 'over use was' and really it was just whatever they decide is "too much". Needless to say, I think I sold that plan once and I stressed just how vauge the terms were but they got it anyway.
The plan was pulled in about 4 months. Select 'high use' customers were told that their plan was being canceled and if they wanted another plan they had to go to the 1 gig and the plan was discontinued.
I was pretty surprised that it didn't get any press like this.
There are [at least] two sides to every issue. Sure, TELUS might be aqccused of bait'n'switch, even though they did give six+ months of the advertised service. How long should they have given? One year? Forever? Conditions change, and neither buyers nor sellers should be locked in longer than they have agreed. In the case of month-to-month, that looks like one month.
As for ToS violations, it probably contains a clause against running servers. P2P could well be considered a server as well as a user app.
As a TELUS customer I have been told each and every time I renew that I can extend my current contract (exactly the same plan, details, price, etc) for another 3 years. I have been told on repeated re-newels that I can extend my contract forever. Even when I had my cell phone destroyed 6 months before my contacted ended they gave me a new phone ($150 credit towards the purchase of a new one) and allowed my to extend my current contract 3 more years from the point of where I had the cell phone destroyed. I was not required to buy the remaining 6 months on my old contract. I suspect this was allowed as the records show me a long term client.
My Sig indicates the end of the comment I posted.
My favorite issue with Telus was in dealing with contracts and their "bundled" bills.
My grandparents signed up for internet with them, and supposedly for the first while the internet rates were lower than normal. After a while, they decided to cancel and move on to Shaw. When they called in to do so, Telus told them that they were locked in a (3 year I believe) contract.
Now keep in mind, this is not like a cellular service. There's no documentation, no terms of service provided. The box that came with the DSL modem had only the usage manual. Nothing signed, and nothing anywhere stating a contract.
According to the phone agent, the "contract" was presented in a click-through on the software used to setup the modem. However, in this case I was the one that setup the modem, and had done so through their webpage (not using the software CD, and not seeing any click-through contracts).
Telus - of course - could not provide anything to support their "contact", but the rep actually told me "if you don't like it, take it to court." When I asked for their legal contact info, I was told for that I'd have to "get a lawyer, and have him figure it out."
At the same time, Telus is also the local phone monopoly, so bills for ADSL and phone service are combined. I tried to get *those* separated so that I could at least deal with VISA about the DSL service without getting dinged for non-payment on the phone part. Telus will not separate the bills.
I've had plenty of issues with Telus on my own, but this case was the worst. Trying to trick senior citizens into believing their into a contract without any corroboration is just plani evil (and I did check the old advertising for the plain, no contract was mentioned).
Because of their quality in comparison to the competition, I have had no reservations about signing long term contracts to get a free or discounted phone (I know i'm paying for it in the end, i may as well get a tech refresh). Unfortunately, I'm hard on phones but they have been willing to renew my contract early (twice now) for a discount on a pda phone. It helps me out because I don't need to pay the full price up front. I was going to continue service longterm with them anyway.
Whenever I call their service line (once or twice per year) The Telus representatives are always helpful and proactive to see if I'm getting the best bang for my buck compared to useage and rate plan.
Before Telus I tried Cantel (now Rogers) in Manitoba and Alberta and the phone service was horrible. Constant dropped calls and poor signal with any phone. As soon as I switched to Telus those problems went away. Rogers could be better now but Telus works for me.
I do not agree with this current stunt they are pulling on customers - they need a slap from the CRTC for bait & switch.
I've had a long-standing grudge against Telus for years. I grew up in rural Alberta, and they own the phone lines, so even if we were to get phone service from elsewhere, the lines are still theirs.
Until a few years ago, dialup internet was the only option. And while dialup is f'ing painful to use, I was able to get a relatively decent connection, as dialup goes -- around 44kbps. Telus actually came and made a change to whatever the switching box is out at the road (interrupting a 4-6 hour non-resumable download in the process) and ever after I was only able to get a max of 24kbps.
I called and complained numerous times and eventually was told that Telus didn't provide the line as a data line -- only for voice usage. I asked them what they thought that meant since we were paying them for the dialup access at the time. They didn't really have an answer. They never did admit that they changed anything.
And this was back in the 90's, when they were still a "reasonable" company. I've watched them go further and further downhill ever since. Their business model, their customer support, the way they treat their employees, and the services they offer are representative of Canadian telecom services in general. (Does everyone remember hearing about how they blocked access to websites run by their striking employees a few years back?)
I'll just add a "hear, hear!" echo to all the complaints above about Telus, Bell, and Rogers. I love Canada, truly I do, but something has got to change. North America is behind the rest of the world, and Canada's behind the USA. What can be done? -- I don't know.
At some point, certain things might happen, or might not happen, as prescribed but unpublished circumstances deem necessary, occasionally, without prior notice, from time to time, at the sole discretion of Telus; and by using things, or reading stuff, or taking an unspecified action, you inherently agree to these terms. The point is, you're locked in by some sort of contractual agreement, or something. Whatever. Pay us your money.
I have had a similar experience back in the dial-up days.
The company was offering Unlimited for 3 months at the price of a capped plan. So I signed up and had a 24/7 connection.
When I signed up, I specifically asked them to ensure that I would not drop to the other plan after the 3 months, that I would remain on the Unlimited Plan (though at a higher cost, of course). I was assured that this would be fine.
Later, I got a phone call telling me I owned some ungodly amount of money (usage was based on time connected then). I was like, um, no. Surprisingly, they backed down fairly easily.
This sounds like a contractual violation. Even if it's covered in the contract, the courts could rule a certain element of the contract unlawful or unreasonable, voiding the contract.
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