Canadian data pricing strikes again

June 11th, 2008Canadian data pricing strikes again

Two horror stories, this time it’s courtesy of Bell. Customers stunned by massive phone bills

…customers have been left reeling, and fuming, after receiving cellphone bills from Bell Canada for tens of thousands of dollars even though they believed they had “unlimited” Internet access on the devices. Khalil Haddad, owner of an Ottawa salon, was charged $10,342 last month after his son used his phone to surf the Web. Jennifer Rundle, an Ottawa hairstylist and student, was sent a $24,791 bill for similar reasons. Both thought they were paying an extra fee for unlimited Internet access…

What’s the worst you’ve seen on a Canadian phone bill? We spoke with one aquaintance recently, a busy independent consultant who traveling at least once a month between cthe US and Canada. She was proud, almost boasting in fact that by juggling plans and curtailing roaming as much as possible, she’d finally gotten her personal blackberry bill down to less than $750 a month.

Our wireless industry is a heck of a tax on growing a business in Canada.

Sportyboard

I'm a little bit confused as what qualifies as "data". Is regular web browsing considered data transfer?
Michael Glenn

I was accidentally put on the wrong plan when signing up with one of Roger's new HSPA Data devices. Fortunately Roger's loss prevention contacted me when I had managed to rack up $4,000 in charges within the first two days. They corrected it right away which was great but it's chilling the differences in rates depending on the data plan you might be on.
frankyB

Most unlimited data plan are not "unlimited", it's unlimited email or browsing but not unlimited "everything". Sales peoples are not informing customers properly (some of them don't even know the difference). And some use their phone as modem for their computer or download movies (yes some are doing it) and that's when they start having problems as it is not seen as browsing or email download anymore, even if this is what they are doing.

I know the difference, but most people don't and Wireless Carriers are doing a poor job to inform their customers.

Unlimited email and browsing is not a bad plan, as long as you clearly explain to the customer he can ONLY do that.

I feel sorry for those people, but at the same time they should have been more careful.
May C

All the more reason I'm praying that there will be some new entrants in the industry. Robbers is so bad being the main national GSM carrier that I'm forced to stick with them. Had CDMA carriers not forced us in only using their phones, I probably would have switched. Bring us another national GSM carrier, please!
Darrell Wright

Just remember, deregulation is consumer friendly and there is no price gouging in the cellular industry.

Also, if you haven't noticed; Rogers just upped the rate per text message to the US from 15c/msg to 25c/msg whether you had a plan or not. That's a whopping $1638/MB assume 8bits per character.
roland

amen to "Our wireless industry is a heck of a tax on growing a business in Canada." !!!!

Wirelessnorth.ca

June 11th, 2008Canadian data pricing strikes again

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