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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."
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.
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.
So you think this is a reasonable change from an unlimited plan: http://www.telusmobility.com/on/business_solutions/connect_megabyte_rate_plan.shtml
Well, it has never been successfully tested.
News flash: You don't have the right to cheap unlimited internet when you live out in the country.
Maybe not, but Telus should at least be held to it through the end of the contract.
I was thinking more:
Company changes the nature of its product?
Unless they have a contract, this is a fairly pointless story. My experience has been if a company does this they just finish out the contracts for existing customers and then tell them its not longer available.
If you bothered reading any of the articles (since this is /. and your ID is less than 10k you didn't) then you'd know that they sold UNLIMITED plans when the real cap was 5GB and that they are only forcing people off the plan who went over that cap.
It is a text-book case of deceptive practices (bait and switch).
Had the company disbanded its unlimited service altogether instead of kicking off people over the real limit, I'd have agreed with you 100%.
If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
If Telus sold underpriced plans, underestimated use, and lost money, how long are they obligated to maintain the service?
what if they were making money, but discovered that the margins were higher for per/GB service? Are they allowed to just cancel contracts with users in order to extract a higher profit margin from their product?
Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
Of course they're not obligated to continue offering a service (at least probably not in this case - there are some services companies are required to offer in exchange for the right to do business - think 911, or whatever the emergency number in your area is).
On the other hand, if they're going to be jerks towards their customers, people are also not obligated to continue patronizing them.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
I guarentee that I never went over 5 GB unless I got a LOT of spam that got through my server and was filtered on my end. They could not even tell me my usage when they cancelled mine. Just that they were cancelling everyones.
I'm not familiar with this particular case, but in the US it is common for such plans to be sold with a contract. This contract typically specifies rates and services which will apply over a two year period. Both of us are expected to adhere to that during the contract period, after which we are both free to continue or to stop as we prefer. But you don't get to just stop following the contract just because you changed your mind and don't like it anymore.
So the answer to your question is, they are obligated to maintain the service for the period that their contracts specify.
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
They are obligated to maintain the service for however long the contract says they need to maintain service. If they ask nicely, I might be willing to help them. But they have absolutely no right to just break any contract because they screwed up.
There's a question of what the contract says exactly, but that's what courts are for. I hope that someone with deep pockets gets this going as a class action lawsuit, and sues Telus into bankruptcy.
Newsflash: corporations can't just do whatever the hell they want.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
I was really hoping for a good Telus bashing today. Looks like I have my chance.
I have had nothing but problems with Telus. They cripple my phone, cripple the internet when viewed through the phone, and charge customers through the nose.
HERE IS A TIP TO GET FREE VOICEMAIL/SPARK 10/CALLER ID:
1)Call Telus (*611)
2)Yell AAAGGENT into the voice recognition system.
3)Yell AAAGEENT again.
4)AAAGEENT.
5)When you get a human say "When I connect to the mobile web, my phone takes me to the Telus homepage. I am then charged 2 cents. I didn't want to go to Telus' home page, I wanted to go to www.google.ca. Can you please block access to all websites hosted by telus.
6) They say "We can't do that."
7) You say "You guys are ripping off paying customers. I would love to change my homepage, but this crippled handset won't let me. Instead whenever I use my mobile browser, I get directed to Telus home, and charged 2 cents.
8) At this point they will do anything to get you off the phone, DON'T HANG UP!
9) Tell them that you are not hanging up the phone until this issue is resolved.
10) Eventually they will realize that they only solution is you give you a free spark 10 plan (so you don't get charged for viewing partner sites) which also includes VM and caller ID!
11) Save $10/month.
If you are a Telus customer (I feel your pain) please call them and do the above. It works, and you can screw telus out of some money.
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. This comment may not be copied in any way including, but not limited to caching.
If Telus sold underpriced plans, underestimated use, and lost money, how long are they obligated to maintain the service? Forever?
For however long they promised they would! You don't just get to make promises and break them whenever you feel like it.
A lot of US car companies are going under because they have very generous pension plans and a lot of retired workers to pay. Short of declaring bankruptcy they have to keep paying.
This is the whole point of contracts - if Telus can't get it right then it's their own fault. It is also deceptive conduct which there should be consumer protection laws against - you can't just advertise something and lie about all its qualities and expect to get away with it.
PS Good troll - you've even been modded insightful.
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
HERE IS A TIP TO GET FREE VOICEMAIL/SPARK 10/CALLER ID:
You mean voicemail and CID isn't included by default? Fuck, you Canadians are getting shafted even more than I thought.
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
Par for the course. They already do that with their DSL service, so why not the expensive wireless one too?
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.
WTF? The plan jumps to 1 GB from 8 megabytes?! It's fucking absurd that telecoms are allowed to get away with completely fucking over everyone who wants reasonable service at a price point lower than the most expensive plan like this!
(And no, the 1GB plan is not a reasonable change from unlimited... but the "connect 25" and "connect 40" plans are even worse!)
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I was with Telus since mid-nineties til everyone was finally forced to introduce a way to switch carrier without losing the mobile phone number. I had to wait for that unfortunately before I could switch, but once it was here I ran from Telus as fast as I possibly could. I am with Rogers now, they suck too, but with Telus it was the figurative mobile hell, locked phones with no SIM cards, outrages charges, various catches (for example with Telus I had to call them before going to US to turn on the roaming, otherwise they would charge me about 10x the normal amount.) I HATE TELUS. I wish them all to rot in hell.
You can't handle the truth.
Wanna hear something even more crazy? The "Basic" Voicemail only allows you to have 3 messages for something like 48 hours. If you want more than 3 messages, you have to upgrade to another tier.
The "Basic" VM is not free either...
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. This comment may not be copied in any way including, but not limited to caching.
But if they're the only service provider, then people are obligated to continue patronizing them. Contrapositively, they are then obligated not to be jerks. QED.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Are they allowed to just cancel contracts with users in order to extract a higher profit margin from their product?
Apparently, they are.
I'm an American, and I can say your telecommunications industry sucks. That's really saying something.
TELUS Forcing Customers Off Unlimited Planes
Roughly half my comments are never submitted. You may be reading the better half...
This is slightly different. This is company has a contract with the customer, and is using it's "we reserve the right to change any term and any time and/or cancel the contract for any reason without penalty" option to extract themselves from a contract they no longer wish to honor.
The customers now have the option to sign a new contract to pay more money for less service or switch to another provide [Rogers, yaay].
I'm sure Roger's wants to this this for their 'special' data pricing plans 6 Gb per month/some amount of money, but they probably don't want a whole bunch of unlocked iPhones on shorter-term contracts ready to switch when the competition get their GSM network setup in the next 1 or 2.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Yup, we certainly are. Unfortunately, as bad as Telus is, my experience is that Bell and Rogers are worse. And that is the full cartel of wireless companies in Canada; so you get to pick bad (Telus), worse (Rogers), or worst (Bell).
Aliant (Bell) double billed me 11 months in a row. And they cut off my service, every month, for 'non-payment'. So at the end I had built up a credit of $950 on my account, and yet each month they still debited my account and then disconnected for non payment. When I said cancel the contract they argued over the cancellation fee. They finally relented though. I don't think they are stupid though, just pure incarnate evil.
Rogers on the hand were a lot nicer. Just stupid beyond belief. My father started calling them 'Rogers Clueless' instead of 'Rogers Wireless' because they screwed up his bill, my sisters bill, mine, and almost any Rogers customers I've talked to. My favorite screwup is when they simply don't take the money for weeks or months because of some 'issue' in their system. Morans!
So as of yesterday, based on the recommendations of two friends, I now have a Telus phone here on my desk and hope against hope they don't screw me too badly. The two friends have assured me Telus doesn't suck that match. I'll let you know when the two year contract runs out.
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.
... have assured me Telus doesn't suck that match.
damn. ... doesn't suck that *much*.
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.
sure, they should be able to cancel contracts, so long as they pay a reasonable early termination fee, say around 250CDN.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
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
A lot of US car companies are going under because they have very generous pension plans and a lot of retired workers to pay.
Yeah right. More like, they haven't had an original idea in 20 years and are just now trying to make reliable cars with good mileage instead of optimizing repair shop revenue.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
It gets worse. You can't get the bundles if its a corporate phone, only if its a personal phone. So if your a corporate customer you can't get the $20 package with Caller ID, Voice Mail, unlimited text and unlimited web. You need to get them all separate, except you can't get a unlimited text plan or unlimited data plan on a corporate plan. Text Messages are per use, in and out. And Data will cost you $40 for 8 MB a month.
The problem is the most you can reasonably expect is for a court to provide you with is the cancellation of your contract... which Telus is offering for free without the hassle of court, just refuse to switch to the 65$ 1GB plan and they'll happily cancel you. Sure you might get the court to pay your lawyer cost but that's not guaranteed to actually cover the entire cost and you might get punitive damages but that's not guaranteed either.
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.
Wanna hear something even more crazy? The "Basic" Voicemail only allows you to have 3 messages for something like 48 hours. If you want more than 3 messages, you have to upgrade to another tier.
Its actually 3 messages for 3 days, but still pathetic: http://www.telusmobility.com/on/services/pcs/mini_voice_mail.shtml
"I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
What's to just stop them from saying "two cents - too bad" and hanging up somewhere along step 8?
The problem is that Telus (and all the other cell providers in Canada) have an explicit "We reserve the right to alter the contract without prior notice" or something to that effect.
Basically, you sign a contract with Telus and you HAVE to adhere to the document, but Telus is more or less free to be asshats.
52 52'23" W 47 32'07" N
Isn't it wonderful - If we want to break the contract it's a hundred to two hundred dollars, but If the phone company breaks the contract it's no big deal...
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!
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.
Telus is Evil I tells ya, EVIL!!!! It was a happy day when they called me to try to convince me to come back after I cut them out of my life. I told them they would have to take a long hard suck on my *** before I would ever come back to them.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
So, from now on, can the US purchase oil from you Canadians if we send back 75% of the Vaseline we produce from it? It sounds like you all need it up there...
-SaNo
Corrections: Small corporations can't do whatever they want. That's a privilege reserved to the giant companies that fill politicians pockets.
They are not permitted to hang up on callers; as long as they remain on the line and are not abusive. This is standard across may call centers, as disconnecting the call constitutes refusing to help with the customers problem and not acting reasonably.
The agent will eventually try anything to get you to go away as their calls per minute rate is dropping all the time you stay on the line, and most are paid bonuses based on how many calls they handle in day/week/month.
Some call centers are allowed to put you on hold for a considerable length of time, in the hope that you hang up; don't hang up.
If you are cut off while complaining, write them a letter with the time and date of the call, tell them you were disconnected while attempting to sort out your problem, and give them a reasonable time to get back in touch with you to rectify the problem (say 14 days).
If you get to the next step of legal action, after the reasonable time has expired, they don't have a leg to stand on; all because they disconnected your call and don't respond well to letters.
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.
why if i get a cell phone plan that i can not afford, can i change the terms?
I had to take Bell to court to get that cancellation fee back... they only agreed to settle out of court when I filed a motion asking for class action status. After they told me to bugger off when I went through the better business bureau, I basically resigned myself to the conclusion that even if I ultimately had to fork over the cancellation fee, it would cost them far more than the $200 it was worth. They were bad enough that I went back to Rogers, after having left them 10 years earlier over being screwed over by shitty customer service.... I still feel like I'm nothing more than a number to them, but they have improved significantly.
But what I really wanted to point out is that, back in the day, the service was really good. I have no experience with Bell Mobility in the early days, but my first cell provider was Cantel AT&T, nearly 15 years ago. Their service was amazing. Really good customer service. It didn't really go downhill until after Rogers bought them out... it became Rogers AT&T, and sorta went downhill, then it became Rogers Wireless, and it became shit. Pure unadulterated shit. So far, not so bad, though. I'm relieved.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
"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*
Newsflash: corporations shouldn't be able to do whatever the hell they want.
There, fixed that for you.
(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 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
Yep, and soon will appear one to write here "you need to accept moron, is the law"
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Such clauses should be made illegal, or at least made to apply equally to both sides regardless of the wording.
Note I'm not saying that they are illegal, but laws should be changed to make them such. I seem to recall that some (US) courts have indeed thrown out such clauses, but even if true I don't think that there has been a general consensus that they are unenforceable.
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
Canadian wireless companies are the worst in the world.
I was looking into plans that would cover Canada and the US as if it was one big roaming/calling local area. US providers used to offer a $25 add-on to their national plans to cover Canada too, but they were getting raped by Rogers/Telus so they quit. Now the only way to cover both is to go with Rogers/Telus and take a Canadian number.
A plan with 1600 minutes costs on the order of $450 USD with unlimited data, and that's not "REAL" unlimited data. They also charge for text messages and many areas in Canada are "roaming" even though it's a national plan.
A comparable "nationwide" plan in the US with "real" unlimited data costs about $120. Too bad we can't just add on $25 any more. The problem is that Canadians were buying those plans and taking them home because they're SOO much cheaper.
Absolutely. It has happened in NZ, where Telecom decided it made a mistake and stopped offering their unlimited plan. But they still allowed the current users to make use of the plan until their year "contract" was up.
You think Canada is getting shafted... Checkout the plans in NZ.
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
They didn't eliminate the plan, rather they're removing people from the unlimited plan who go over what they deem fair use. If you don't go over that amount, you get to keep the plan.
It is, of course, all about maximizing profits at the cost of a consumer base that doesn't have many choices.
Don't worry if you're a kleptomaniac, you can always take something for it.
I just LOLed on the train because of you. Now people are staring more than usual.... Thanks for that.
I did read the articles. Clearly you did not. The cap is 5G *if you were streaming media, against the ToS*. If anything it was a favor to let them get away with 5G.
But that wasn't the contract. The contract was not "forever". The contract also stipulated that they wouldn't stream media. He broke the contract, they cancel. Clear case, really.
What you can do is to try and get retention plans, plans given to customers who are ready to quit.
I called Fido and asked them to match one of Koodo Mobile's plans with a better price and features. Telus has and is still pushing Koodo mobile strongly out there and they're stealing a shitload of customers because their plans are cheaper in average and there's no SAF (system access fee) so you can use them or Virgin Mobile (also no SAF) as a reference of what you are looking for at cheaper prices.
For $22 + tax + SAF (around $30 a month), I'm getting unlimited evenings and weekends, 200 daytime minutes, 100 sms and call display. All I cared about was calls during evenings and weekends which for some reason (greed) is normally expensive and I made it clear that's what I needed in order to stay with them.
The longer you've been their customer, the better the plans you can get. Just don't go to them like "You guys suck, give me more or I'll quit!". Make clear demands, you need unlimited SMS, unlimited local calls, and so on. And yes, DO NOT HANG UP, that's probably the most important thing here, but be ready to quit if they insist they can't (won't) listen.
In the end, they need us, and it probably doesn't hurt them to give you an awesome plan because 95% of their customers are getting ripped and don't care.
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
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
I agree. I would say that any fair-minded judge would probably rule in favour of the plaintiff and wave off any fines. (IANAL, so I'm wearing very rose-coloured glasses)
I doubt very many people would take Telus to court over something like this, however, so Telus FTW.
52 52'23" W 47 32'07" N
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!!!
You're probably right. Which is why an explicit law would be a good thing, even if a judge is already likely to throw out the clause. If it's codified in law instead of just legal precedent, people are much more likely to know and stand up for their rights.
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
The rates are only getting worse. 7 years ago, you could get a plan that included real voice mail, caller ID, free evenings and weekend from 4 pm to 8 am, and free lunch hour, and all for $35 total after taxes and all charges, and now you have to pay $30 even just for a basic plan, no vm, caller id, evenings and weekends starting at 9 pm. So by the time you add all the features you actually want, plus the system access fee, you end up paying $55 for what would have cost $35, 7 years ago. Even with all the advances in tech, and the fact that everybody has a phone, it still costs way more for service than it used to. I used to be able to get pay as you go, with 25$ for free evenings and weekends starting at 6, and 30 cents a minute for each extra minute. So for $35, and no contract, you could get evenings and weekends, plus 33 other minutes, which also included caller ID and voice mail. To get a similar deal, even under a contract now, you could easily spend $50. You might get 100 daytime minutes, but you'd be on a contract, and there's no way you would spend less than $50 a month, whereas, a lot of the time with the caller ID plan, I would only spend $30 a month.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Bait and switch is advertising an unlimited plan and when you go to buy it, being told it's no longer offered. This is just plain fraud, no fancy name.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
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.
This is slightly different. This is company has a contract with the customer, and is using it's "we reserve the right to change any term and any time and/or cancel the contract for any reason without penalty" option to extract themselves from a contract they no longer wish to honor.
This is not valid. You cannot arbitrarily change a contract and force the other party to honor it, it just doesn't happen. Our legal system would not allow it, because it would open up options for me to agree to provide computer support to that cute girl in the next apartment and then suddenly turn her into my sex slave for all eternity.
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Worse than that, they say they can terminate the contract for any reason. And if you read the bit on termination fees, you pay it when your contract is disolved before the end date. So by their illegal contracts, they can the day after you sign up, terminate you without notice, and make you pay the monthly fee for all 3 years of your contract!
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
I don't think he agrees, he's just not surprised. Telus has a long history of pulling shit like this and getting away with it.
Sure, some people sue, but not enough so they lose money breaching contracts.
It's like "that girl" who keeps on being beat on by her piece of shit boyfriend and keeps going back. One day, he's going to put her in the hospital or kill her. Nobody wants it to happen, everyone agrees that it sucks, but when she does get seriously hurt, it really won't come as a huge surprise.
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They also charge $25 a month for a (i.e. 1) static IP.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
From
http://www.telusmobility.com/about/mike_pcs_pt_policy.shtml
18.
Changes
These service terms (including any rates and charges) may be changed unilaterally by TELUS from time to time on at least thirty (30) days' notice to you, and such changes shall become effective once you use the service after such thirty (30) day period (which use shall be deemed conclusively to indicate acceptance of such changes.
So according to this, they could change the contract so you agree to provide computer support to that cute girl in the next apartment and then suddenly turn her into your sex slave for all eternity. And if you don't like it, you have to submit to arbitration instead of going to court [well, you could go to court, but they would generally say [at least here in Canada], you agreed to arbitrate [clause 15].
So there! I would be surprised if a similar clause is NOT most other cell phone contracts (in the Americas, Europe and Asia and everywhere else).
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
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.
I used to be a Telus customer. Quite possibly the worst service ever. About three years ago I was paying $60 a month for a plan with fifty text messages (incoming = 25, outgoing = 25) and around 200 cellular minutes (incoming and outgoing combined). The overage charges exceeded $0.50 a minute for outgoing and $0.25 for incoming (if I remember correctly). There was no voicemail or caller ID on this plan, unless I opted to pay an extra $15 a month. Here in Korea, my phone costs $50 a month regardless of minutes and text messaging... plus I get free, unlimited broadband internet with unlimited live TV streams (+100 channels/shows). It's just not worth it to own a cellular phone in Canada.
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!
Don't forget the System Access Fee which is pretty much giving them $6.95 for no reason. Can I own a phone and not pay the System Access Fee? That would be pointless so either add it to the base price or get rid of this stupid money grab.
If you get to the next step of legal action,
That's the catch.
The time you spend trying to make up for their incompetence/malice is worth more than the price of whatever screwjob they've got running on you, and it certainly costs less in both time AND money than hiring a lawyer.
And these fuckers know it. /recently conned by Bell Mobility
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
A lot of US car companies are going under because they have very generous pension plans and a lot of retired workers to pay.
That's not a big problem. Those US car companies should take a page from United Airlines and simply renegotiate the contract with the current employees to get out of paying pensions to retired employees.
At least there are still laws against that here in Canada.
- 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 also liked the very reasonable $8 / MB charge once you go over your first 8MB. Give one of these to your kids for a couple of hours in the car and you might have a nasty surprise!
The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures (Junius)
Switched the family off of Telus last year (land line and cells) after being told to politely screw off by Telus staff over questions about over billing and rate plan changes. They tried to get my 16 year old daughter to sign a new three year contract before they would look at her broken phone. Yes, the plan was in our name. The upped the rates on our phones twice without any notification. The wouldn't come to repair faulty wiring hanging from the pole outside our house (Shaw fixed it). The best part of getting off Telus was that I didn't have to listen their staff complain to me about their hangovers and crappy jobs. Without a doubt the worst company I have ever had to deal with in my entire life. I can't figure out if the management hates their staff or their customers more.
Those are some truly exorbitant prices. I pay about 5 euro per month for 30MB of data at 3.5G speeds. They take 25$ for 4MB at maximum 400-800kbit/s... I would be weeping tears of blood.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
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:
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ICBW, but I think you misunderstand. The pension plans were negotiated back when car companies were raking in cash hand over fist, and expected to keep on doing so. Now, they have big pensions to pay and decreasing income, making it harder for them to retool and become more profitable again. However, unlike TELLUS, they're honoring their contracts without being forced by a court, bringing them close to bankruptcy. (Even if they file for Chapter 7 and get reorganized, they may still have to pay the pensions at the current rate. IANAL and have no idea how much flexibility they'd have in those circumstances.)
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we reserve the right to change any term and any time and/or cancel the contract for any reason without penalty
Funny how they can reserve a right that they never had in the first place.
For cell phones maybe. I wouldn't trade our Internet access for your phone rates though.
... And your government is the the one spending hundreds of billions of dollars that you don't have to support a "war" with no discernable enemies.
It's a small shaft, I'll live with it.
Indeed, I pay £2.50 for 10MB of data at 3.5G speed (although actually getting that would be something), but could choose to pay £15 for 15GB with a free PC dongle (at the half price rate for phone contract holders). The dongle might even work at 3.75G speeds...
I'm kinda considering it, because the internet service via DSL I get is so poor!
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
Mod parent up! Legal or not, all customers are forced to sign the "may be changed unilaterally by TELUS" clause as part of the contract.
Has anyone challenged these "unlimited power" clauses before?
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.
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.
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Hey man, hate to burst your bubble... but Cantel was owned by Teddie Rogers too. All the name changes have only been rebranding.
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. . . that is likely locked to the specific company and therefore a glorified paperweight. . .
Bankruptcy. That's a bit much no? We already have a lack of competition as it is, so how would sending 33% of the providers out there out of business fix anything? What we need is MORE competition not LESS. Agreed that us Canucks are getting screwed left right and center, but hopefully that will change with the new RF spectrums that should allow Shaw, MTS, Quebec telecom come into the West.
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).
I don't know if there is a limit, but you can re-save the message by pressing "9" so it isn't erased. It still consumes 1/3 slots in your vm quota though.
Here's a comparison to try out. For $62.50 my Telus plan includes:
- free evening and weekends (starting at 6pm)
- caller ID
- voice mail (10 messages)
- 350 minutes anytime
- unlimited data, email, web and IM
- Nationwide fave 5 (free calling and text to 5 people, regardless of network or location within Canada)
Any ideas how much that would cost in the US?
Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
In the US, on T-Mobile (best US carrier IMHO), I get:
"myFaves 300": $40.00, which includes:
300 minutes, unlimited N/W starting at 7PM
Unlimited whatever to your "Fave 5"
US-wide long distance
Caller ID
Unlimited to other T-Mobile customers (a lot around here)
Voicemail* (if there's a limit, I haven't hit it)
BlackBerry Unlimited: $20/mo, all-you-can-eat data, email, IM, and tethering.
Total: $60/mo, ~$5 in taxes/etc.
"Dumb" phones have the option for a $6/mo data plan that only includes email and web browsing (also unlimited, but port blocking is in effect), and those phones also bill IMs alongside SMS/MMS (unlimited 15/mo, 1000 for 10/mo, or .15/per, both ways). The non-BB "Total Internet" plan (also $20/mo) for other smartphones also includes access to T-Mobile's Wi-Fi hotspots.
*I've replaced the T-Mobile voicemail with YouMail, a free visual voicemail service. Highly reccomended, US only so far.
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
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 seem to remember that there is an alternative, that was carried out by a copper mine in the US. They basically sold out to a foreign company, which moved all the physical assets (equipment and such) down to Mexico, then declared bankruptcy. The pension plans just stopped. Point being, when a country's government allows such things in the name of Free Trade, then the government's people have a real problem on their hands.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
>The "Basic" Voicemail only allows you to have 3 messages for something like 48 hours
I've had this 'limitation' on my Telus Mobility handset for 10 years. Never been a problem. I get a voicemail, the handset beeps. I listen to the message, maybe listen to it again and write something down, then I delete it. Why would I want to clutter up my VM inbox with all these messages. The only downside is when I travel to a GSM-only jurisdiction and the phone doesn't work, but in that case I simply revise the outgoing message telling people to email me instead. Problem solved.
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.
If you agree by contract to allow the other party to change the contract without further consent from you then they are not forcing you to honor the change -- you agreed to the change beforehand.
Whether the clause is legal is another question most probably related to the practical aspects of you as an individual being able to negotiate contract conditions with the much more powerful (legally speaking) service provider. Personally, I have always thought that it would not be considered equal under the eyes of the law, yet you find it in every contract you sign today. So likely it is legal (at least in the US, not sure about Canada).
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
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.
Just last year Shaw decided to add two new tiers to the high-speed internet. To manage that they throttled back my old high-speed internet, and then offered to give me part of the bandwidth back for just $10 more a month. (Oh, and for 2.95 a month they'll turn off the throttle for a few seconds at a time for "speed bursts").
And the frustrating thing is Telus' service is still worse.
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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