Connect 75 Unlimited - Telus trying to force me into $65/1GB

[fr05t]

Why would you want to cancel Telus's Unlimited Data Plan? Seems kind of foolish since there isn't a unlimited data plan for PC use in Canada at the moment.

Advising someone they can cancel there plan is what Telus wants anyways? Id expect that kind of advise from a Telus employee and not a Telus customer.

I wanted to cancel it *without penalty*. According to the TOS they can suspend my service, and charge me for the contract since *technically* it's within their rights as they see it - regardless of what the law might decide they think they are right and will act on it. I still intend to file a complaint because it's total BS what their doing, but I don't feel like paying early termination fees.

Be sure that if you jerk them around or admit to anything like Bittorrent, they will take a closer look at the logs, kill your service, and charge you an ETF. Then *if* they get to court you *might* get the ETF cleared. A year or two later after it's either been long paid for, or hurting your credit rating.

[w4lker]

they will take a closer look at the logs, kill your service, and charge you an ETF

Can they charge you an ETF if *they* cancel your service?

I really doubt that. The ETF is "liquidated damages" -- it's you repaying them for the damage you did by not fulfilling your contract. If *they* don't fulfill their end of the contract, I don't think they can charge *you* damages.

Can they?

[DennyCrane]

Wirelessly posted (BB Curve 8330: BlackBerry8330/4.3.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/126 UP.Browser/5.0.3.3)

they will take a closer look at the logs, kill your service, and charge you an ETF

Can they charge you an ETF if *they* cancel your service?

I really doubt that. The ETF is "liquidated damages" -- it's you repaying them for the damage you did by not fulfilling your contract. If *they* don't fulfill their end of the contract, I don't think they can charge *you* damages.

Can they?

Oh they'll try because I believe the terms also state that the ETF is payable if either party terminate your contract. I would sure as hell fight that one though.

[w4lker]

If that's true, they should terminate the least-profitable 50% of customers! They'll collect about a billion dollars in ETFs and the ARPU will go to $100+!!

I should have worked for TELUS.

[fr05t]

They sure would, and can do that. Now it could be disputed first by arbitration, then you could take them to court. But you'd have to pay for a lawyer, it could take a long time, and in the short term if you don't pay the ETF they would likely send it to collections.

*If* there is a class action, or government action down the road I'll likely be able to get a few bucks back. BUT in the short term the options are either A) cancel without penalty, or B) cancel with penalty.

You can argue with them all day long, but the rep has his marching orders and can't overturn the policy laid down from the top. They have the disconnect button, so unless you feel like investing $$$ and time in the possibility of a judge seeing it your way the best option you've got is walk away. Either way you aren't going to have an Connect 75 Unlimited plan in the mean time.

Is that fair, or right? Hell no, but it *is* the reality of the situtation.

[w4lker]

They sure would, and can do that. Now it could be disputed first by arbitration, then you could take them to court. But you'd have to pay for a lawyer, it could take a long time, and in the short term if you don't pay the ETF they would likely send it to collections.

*If* there is a class action, or government action down the road I'll likely be able to get a few bucks back. BUT in the short term the options are either A) cancel without penalty, or B) cancel with penalty.

You can argue with them all day long, but the rep has his marching orders and can't overturn the policy laid down from the top. They have the disconnect button, so unless you feel like investing $$$ and time in the possibility of a judge seeing it your way the best option you've got is walk away. Either way you aren't going to have an Connect 75 Unlimited plan in the mean time.

Is that fair, or right? Hell no, but it *is* the reality of the situtation.

jesus.....

[imaddicted2u]

I got the letter from Telus just the other day. I spoke with a rep today and was told that I was being given the option to move from my unlimited plan to the 1Gb plan. If I don't my service will be cancelled. I was also told that they were cancelling all of the "Unlimited" plans.
This really ticks me off. I was kicked off the Bell Aliant Atlantic Canada network and it is happening again. Probably because I'm roaming on their towers. My bandwith usage is 7-8 gigs a month. When I signed on to the service with Telus I asked for the definition of unlimited and was assured that it was "unlimited" of course. I sure didn't expect this to be happening all over again not after the assurances that I got from the Telus reps.
Do I have any recourse?

[w4lker]

I hope everyone who's looking at this thread will take a moment and check out my poll!

[RoMu]

Do I have any recourse?

See Tony2468's post on page 6 for who to contact.

The Commish will only handle complaints for individuals for contract disputes, does not get involved with misleading or false advertising, not part of their mandate. I told them the whole story and how Telus is trying to force me into a lesser package than what I had contracted for.

Competition Bureau will only handle deceptive marketing practices complaints.

Everybody who has received a phone call and/or letter needs to contact all the people Tony2468 listed.

Got an email from the Competition Board, they are going to look into the deceptive marketing complaint I put in. The more complaints they get may encourage them to do a full investigation faster.

W4lker

Brilliant Dear i.Fido post, can I use it in my CCTS complaint?

[w4lker]

W4lker

Brilliant Dear i.Fido post, can I use it in my CCTS complaint?

Be my guest.

Even better, I wonder whether you could direct the CCTS to this entire thread?

[imaddicted2u]

When Bell booted me I filed complaints with the competition bureau and the CCTS as well as the BBB but all to no avail. I filed complaints against Telus this evening. Might as well make a nuisance of my self

[RoMu]

In case anyone is interested some background on the CCTS

CBC article about how the telcos are criticizing the CCTS.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2...omplaints.html

Rogers is complaining they've spent $400,000 for 400 complaints, companies have to pony up $1000 per complaint.


The story a year ago when the CCTS started
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2...omplaints.html

Story on changes made by the CRTC
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2...meragency.html

Postings going on at Michael Geist blog - bio

Dr. Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law. He has obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees from Cambridge University in the UK and Columbia Law School in New York, and a Doctorate in Law (J.S.D.) from Columbia Law School.

Dr. Geist has written numerous academic articles and government reports on the Internet and law and is a columnist on technology law issues that regularly appears in the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun, and BBC.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3322/196/

[EV-DO in NS]

Hi folks.

The Letter arrived last week and I very naively gave them a call. I was half-expecting a gentle warning about bandwidth since we have admittedly used quite a bit over the past few months with the kids out of school, and some significant software downloads (service packs). In fact, that's what the letter implied: "In order to avoid a possible suspension of your data service...", please call. (I guess that's another lie for the pile.)

I certainly wasn't expecting anything other than a friendly talk since I've been paying for "Unlimited" service. But no. Bang - the representative gave me 30 days notice based on 'streaming'. There really wasn't any escape from the cancellation, but I did keep him talking long enough for him to provide enough details that may eventually get Telus hanged for their crimes.

The rep admitted that the usage cap is "5GB", but that "it depends on the tower"... He said it depended on "the equipment", but I think the name on the door matters too (that detail learned here).

The rep also admitted that the enforcement of multi-media streaming "is selective" and they do not bother anyone that uses less than 5GB. They "only become concerned about protocol if you exceed the 5GB." In other words, the real limit is the unstated 5GB limit on your "unlimited" bandwidth.

I was perfectly honest with him and admitted that some of us use YouTube. But I also made the point that "multi-media streaming" might be interpreted as being a like a 24/7 webcam ('streaming' as a verb, ie. outgoing). Reception of multi-media streams is slightly different than 'streaming'. It is also perfectly unavoidable, and the Internet runs on UDP as much as TCP these days (more actually).

The real root issue he admitted is "Unlimited" versus 5GB. Everything else is just lies and smokescreen. And the rep admitted enough to make that perfectly clear.

I have filed a formal complaint with the CCTS as per the previous post. I've also formally complained to the Competition Bureau (about deceptive marketing) and they've accepted the complaint as valid. Based on the indisputable facts, I suspect that Telus is going to get some serious flack on this stupid, heavy-handed, clumsily executed campaign of cancellations. Any moron could have planned it out better than this.

I may also be filing a Small Claims Court case against them. Small fee, no lawyers. I'll wait for a while and I'll refer to the decisions arising from the above complaints and claiming for all the now less useful PC and network hardware (thousands of dollars) as there is no other High Speed option in this neighbourhood at this time (just dial-up). Their lies won't look good in court if I decide to go that route. The Small Claims limit is $18k and I'll not be anywhere near that to make it well worth my time.

By the way, the rep was very quick (almost instant) to offer a full refund on the modem. But he hasn't yet called back as he promised too.

Other details from the rep: The head honcho for this cancellation campaign is a guy named Fabian. He works for Rob Durham, Sr VP client operations (signature on letter).

[stigweard]

Interesting. Fabian is pretty much the top man for the Atlantic provinces. He comes around to all the Telus stores and talks about new phones, roll outs, pricing policies, etc... I was talking with a rep about him when I picked up my Diamond.

[EV-DO in NS]

The fact that Fabian is 'the top man for the Atlantic Provinces', and is also apparently in charge of this "Unlimited" data plan cancellation campaign, makes it very clear that Telus is tired of reselling Bell's EV-DO service under the terms that THEY set in the first place.

It all fits together perfectly.