Bell's Retention Thread

[Jason.Tapp]

Let me know how I did.

Unlimited My Friends 10
Unlimited Text
Unlimited Picture & Video
Unlimited Evenings 6PM
Unlimited Weekends
Unlimited Incoming
Caller-ID
Visual Voicemail
400 Minutes
6GB of Data plus Tether
No System access fee

$64 including tax.
Plus a Blackberry Bold 9900 for $249
All on a 1 year contract.

[Old Faithful]

Let me know how I did.

Unlimited My Friends 10
Unlimited Text
Unlimited Picture & Video
Unlimited Evenings 6PM
Unlimited Weekends
Unlimited Incoming
Caller-ID
Visual Voicemail
400 Minutes
6GB of Data plus Tether
No System access fee

$64 including tax.
Plus a Blackberry Bold 9900 for $249
All on a 1 year contract.

I would say it's excellent, to get that amount of data it would cost me more, and I had to negotiate with retentions, plus I have half as many day minutes as you have, and it's for three years. You did great!

[Old Faithful]

Hey guys i'm new here, maybe this has been touched upon but I don't have the time to go through 100 pages right now. I am currently with bell using an lg rumor i've never had a smart phone of any kind. The other day a guy I know who works for blackberry gave me a brand new one. I'm having a bit of trouble deciding on some plans. Basically i'm looking at the bell website and the cheapest plan i can find will cost me $60 this is unexceptable, LOL. I don't want to pay over $50 a month but I would like. Some min i don't talk alot I text mostly, So i'd like unlimited text, i'd like to check out facebook, twitter, use bbm. I need a bit of data for email and checking some sports scores online stuff like that. I did find a plan for around $50 but I wanted caller id which cost 10 or 12$ a month which I thought was ridiculous. But the thing is I know people who have all of this and they pay less then $60 a month, they basically told me don't even look online, go to the bell store and tell them you want to pay less, i've also heard people say they called customer retention and got some things either free or for less. I've tried both methonds will no luck. What should I do? I checked out some of the pay per moth methods on the bell site but they don't seem much better.

To be able to negotiate with retentions, you must be a free agent, which means, that you've reached the end of your contract and have no obligations to continue. Only then will you be able to negotiate freebies.

If you read on more in this thread you may notice some plans appear to be better than others here, but all in all, its pretty much the same, where the difference is, is in the details. You will definitely get a better deal with retentions, but except rare cases where people have managed to hold on to incredibly inexpensive, grandfathered plans, or have somehow managed to get a hold of a really inexpensive corporate plan, you can't have it all for cheap.

Take me, for instance. After negotiating with retentions after the end of my contract, I was able to get a leaner plan for $35 without data, Fab 10, 200 minutes daytime, evenings and weekends at 6PM, unlimited text with picture and video, and retentions gave me unlimited incoming and the message centre/call display bundle for free. That will save me $25 a month, but NO data! Since I used it only for checking emails anyway, the trade-off is minimal for the savings.

So what you should ask yourself is whether you can get by with a 100MB data plan. That would cost you $10 instead of $25 and you'd be within budget. But can you do it? That is the question!

[jimmyja]

Nice, I think 100mb will do, I only wanna use it for email and checking some sports scores maybe a website or two from time to time. What kinda stuff will retentions negotiate? The caller id/voice mail for $12 a month is what's putting me over budget, would they be willing to do something about that? I am sorta a free agent in that i'm not on a contract with them so I could leave at pretty much anytime.

[Old Faithful]

Nice, I think 100mb will do, I only wanna use it for email and checking some sports scores maybe a website or two from time to time. What kinda stuff will retentions negotiate? The caller id/voice mail for $12 a month is what's putting me over budget, would they be willing to do something about that? I am sorta a free agent in that i'm not on a contract with them so I could leave at pretty much anytime.

I would DEFINITELY ask for it. I've basically had this feature without paying extra for it at least the past 10 years, except when it was already included in a package.

Only in my early cell phone days for my first contract (1994) did I have to pay to actually get this feature, as part of a voicemail bundle, IIRC.

[jimmyja]

Alright I talked to bell both on the phone and went to their store they will not budge on anything, there's no way to get my bill under $60 a month so i'm done with bell, they kinda pissed me off with their snotty attitude and lack of customer service, but i guess they are really big so they won't miss my money. Time for a new company, is Virgin owned by bell? I've heard they use bell's network

[Old Faithful]

Alright I talked to bell both on the phone and went to their store they will not budge on anything, there's no way to get my bill under $60 a month so i'm done with bell, they kinda pissed me off with their snotty attitude and lack of customer service, but i guess they are really big so they won't miss my money. Time for a new company, is Virgin owned by bell? I've heard they use bell's network

I believe Virgin is owned by that 'rock and roll dude from Britain'. In any case, different company so even if they were in fact a sub-brand of Bell, as a different company they have different management style and could well give you better service. As for myself, I've been with Bell for almost 20 years and I am extremely tenacious, that may count for something. Plus I write down every single CSR's name and employee number, and make them repeat every single thing they agreed on so I may not be taken advantage of later. It's definitely not for everyone, Bell can really be a pain to deal with (as you unfortunately found out)!

My advice: follow your heart. If you have a greater choice by the fact of living in a larger city, you have more to choose from. As for myself I'm kind of stuck (don't tell anyone) by virtue of living ion the boonies, at the very edge even of the cellphone service. Heck, we only got high speed internet 2 years ago, and I had to threaten Bell with a lawsuit just to get a landline back in 1998!

In other words: Good for you. Have you tried Koodo? They have fairly inexpensive plans and Telus (Koodo's parent company) pretty much uses the same technology as Bell (at least in our area), so that reception quality tends to be the same as Bell. You could check this online cell phone map if you'd like, http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html

[jimmyja]

Yeah i'm in a small area too, we have bell, telus and we have virgin, i'm not sure if we have kodo I haven't heard anyone who is with them but i'll check it out. Basically looking at the bell and virgin website I can get everything I want at virgin for 45-50$ a month depening on how much data I use. with bell the same thing would cost me $60 a month. Also i like that with virgin I wouldn't need to get a 1,2,3 year contact, i could just do prepaid or pay as you go sorta thing

[Marauder2]

Let me know how I did.

Unlimited My Friends 10
Unlimited Text
Unlimited Picture & Video
Unlimited Evenings 6PM
Unlimited Weekends
Unlimited Incoming
Caller-ID
Visual Voicemail
400 Minutes
6GB of Data plus Tether
No System access fee

$64 including tax.
Plus a Blackberry Bold 9900 for $249
All on a 1 year contract.

How did you get that? My plan is nearing its end and I am aiming for that exact plan. What did you say to get that? Were you still in a contract or a free agent? Any tips is appreciated

[Kingsley00]

Wow...And I thought my plan was bad...I just called them now and they said +$10 on my bill for 6GB....

200 LD CDN mins
200 Daytime mins
ULMTD TXT MSGING + PICTURE + VIDEO
MY 10 CDN WIDE + ULMTD TXT
CALLER ID
VOICEMAIL
6am-8am EVE & WEEKNDS
1 GB DATA
ULMTD SOCIAL NETWRKING

= I pay $51.50 every month after tax

I actually got this 2 weeks after I signed my contract initially I was paying $67.

I'm 2 years into my contract but does anyone know if they can change your plan after your contract is up? I probably won't do a HUP if so..

Its a really long story though if you want to know I'll share..

[Old Faithful]

I thought I'd chime in as it might be useful for people who mostly get a lot of incoming calls, such as self employed consultants.

Unlimited Incoming - The most important feature of any plan, IMO, a MUST for anyone that gets a lot of lengthy incoming calls like me.
Fab10 Nationwide - a MUST to stay in touch with friends, family or business partners.
Voicemail/Call Display - a MUST for anyone, shouldn't even be considered an option at all.
Evenings and weekends 6PM-7AM - for free access to national customer service call centres.
200 anytime minutes - For the few times I actually need to initiate daytime calls to non favourites.
Unlimited SMS and MMS - useful if you have kids, for me, best used with speech to text.
100MB Flex - Should be sufficient for data usage of speech to text and email.

Including promos, $40.40 + Taxes, eligible to HUG, most phones are free, high end ones at half subsidy (about $250 off over 3 years)

[anunes]

The UMB feature will work on every HSPA handset...despite what Bell may have you believe. Only available in Ontario though.

wait that's the exact same plan as me... so my question is... if i bought the iphone... would i have to do their data plan or would the UMB work on the iphone without them having to charge me $25-30 for a data plan
and how does 1 go abt it?

[sexpot]

I just got off the phone with retentions and accepted the following:

200 daytime minutes + additional 200 mins (400 total)
national fab 10
unlimited text/picture/video
unlimited evenings and weekends @ 6pm
unlimited canadian long distance calls
callerID + voicemail
1gb data

Total: $55+ tax

[jflki]

I was just offered:

200 daytime minutes
100 Canadian LD minutes
My 10 Nation wide
Unlimited after 6 pm and weekends
Unlimited incoming local
Unlimited text/pic/vid
1GB
CID and VM

$50 off Bold 9900 3 year contract price
$20 HUG fee

Cost: $72 + taxes

I thought I would be able to do better price wise. Any thoughts? Am I being unrealistic? Contract is up in May.

[Urself25]

Continue to negociate. I was able to get that but instead of 1gb, i got the 6gb when it was available. All of this for $59. (VM and CID free + 10% discount)