UPDATE #1: On Monday, I
received a letter from Bell with instructions on how to return their modem, i.e. put it in a box;
transport it to the nearest post office; make sure all parts are included.
Meanwhile, I am paying for their discontinued service until September 7th with nothing in return!
UPDATE #2: This morning I
received a call from a call centre representing Bell Canada, wanting to negotiate my
return to their ‘clutches.’ I suspect that the call centre was getting a commission if they conned me back, but I was having none of it. I told them that if they offered the service for nothing, I still
would not do business with such as sleazy outfit as Bell Canada.
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BCE Inc., Canada’s second-largest wireless carrier, reported second-quarter profit ($5 billion) and sales that beat analysts’ estimates…
No
kidding … And here’s an example of how they did it.
When I first signed on
with Bell Canada (internet), just a few years ago, my monthly bill was around
$48. Today, after a four dollar increase around the time Verizon was talking
about coming to Canada, it is $60 per month — a 28% increase.
Recently, however,
without any known change on my part, I was suddenly and mysteriously exceeding the
25 gigabyte limit – A limit which is ridiculously low by today’s usage standards.
Moreover, while Bell charges $2.40 per gigabyte for regular service, it charges $4.00 per
gigabyte on the ‘over’ usage. That, times 11.9 gigabytes, equals $47 in my case.
The idea, of course, is
to get you to move up to the next level or add extra usage for around $14.00 per
month (the exact amount is presently not available on the Bell web site.)
Not surprisingly I
found myself another provider, but although Bell’s service was discontinued August 5, 2014, Bell is charging me until today (Aug 8th) PLUS another 30 days’ notice period. A quick calculation of all
this comes to about $66.00 (with 13% tax, $74.)
To add insult to injury
the Bell store won’t take back their modem, which is now useless to me. So, like
everything else this monopolistic outfit does, I must arrange to send it back, myself.
Would I do business with Bell
Canada again? Not in a thousand years of Sundays!
Addendum
As accessories to all
this, I include the Harper government, James Moore (Minister of Industry), as
well as the former Finance Minister, James Flaherty. All of them have made
grandiose but empty statements about making cell phone and internet rates more
open and affordable.
Well, if they have, I
have yet to see it. Rogers still charged me $3.90-a-minute roaming charges while
I was in United States, and the much touted limiting of ‘overcharges’ to $50 only applies
to cell phones.
In other words, all their fine words have meant $0 in my pocket.
It is an outrage!
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