Telus Scam - Update - Telus Makes Good !!!

[Pipestoneflyguy]

Seeing the discussion on Telus TV has got me wondering if anyone else has had tropuble with Telus regarding internet sticks.

 

This is what happened to us

 

Given that we don't have any choice but dial-up or an undependable satelite service for internet we decided to investigate getting an internet stick which uses a cell signal

 

We went to a telus store in Market Mall, the clerk sold us two internet sticks. He advised of a particular plan he said would be perfect for us based on how we answered his questions (Neither of us are very savy with such things, so we trusted the kid was doing right by us). The plan was going to be $40 per month per stick and he assured us this was the best plan for our needs.

 

Sticks worked fine, no complaints in that regard - the software included a little program that tracks your usage, the clerk at the store told us it is not exact but close enough to use as a guide so we don't end up generating extra charges.

 

Jump ahead six weeks - According to our software we stayed well under the limit of 2 gigs on each stick in that first month - our first bill arrives from telus - lo and behold, we get a $18000.00 bill for the first month.

 

I was working on the road most of the summer so the wife calls and tells me about the 18k bill - I laugh it off as an obvious error and ask her to call telus and sort it out, assuming it is a typo of some kind.

 

So Sandy calls Telus and they tell her the bill is correct, and we had gone over on one of the sticks by almost 2 gig - she says that can't be possible because the program says we were fine, they tell her that the program they gave us is useless and shouldn't be used for the purpose of tracking usage. Sandy tells them there is no way in hell we are paying them 18k. They proceed to tell her that she will have to take it up with the telus store, as they are a separate business and only a contractor and telus won't be held responsible for what they did, and as far as telus is concerned we owe them 18k.(despite the giant "Telus" sign on the front of the store)

 

So Sandy calls the Telus store and the kid on the phone literally laughed at her when she explained the situation, commented that she should have read the fine print warning against using the provided "usage meter" for metering usage and that the bill was between her and Telus and that they were going to do nothing further than refer us back to Telus

 

So...Sandy calls telus back, and reviews what the telus store said - the Telus rep tells her OK, we'll lower the rate this one time only and that's it. He says he will lower the bill to $800 just this one time. Sandy tells him that's a big difference from the $80 we expected and that she would like to call me to discuss it further. The Telus rep tells her that's fine but as far as he is concerned this is a one time offer and if she doesn's agree to it, the offer is cancelled and Telus will begin legal action against myself to secure the 18k. Of course at this point Sandy is freaking, not knowing what to do she agrees to the $800 and proceeds to make the payment. It wasn't till this point that they told us how to properly monitor the usage fom a web site thay have.

 

Jump ahead 3 days, I get home and Sandy explains what happened and I am furious, not at Sandy, but at Telus for basically blackmailing her into an $800 payment. but I chose to stand by my wife and the decision she made. Clearly we have a level of intrety that Telus lacks. We got onto a different plan and well, I guess that's that,... we are now paying about $100 a month.

 

I would caution against doing business with Telus in way what so ever - they are corporate scam artists, once our contracts with them run out we will never do business with them again.

 

Has anyone one else been burned in this way ? - I have run into a few folks that got bills as high as 5k in the fist month but none as large as ours was yet. The future is friendly my ass.

[bhurt]

I would say this is not a scam, remeber a while back with the guy in Fort Mac that got a huge bill like yourself but he was using rodgers.

 

As a person that has spent almost 20 years in retail stores I would say you got poor service, it is not a scam if it is in fine print, only a scam if it is not in writing.

 

Like I said before you were misiinformed and not scamed and technically by law you are still responsable for the 18k bill be happy they reduced the price.

[flyfishfairwx]

Seeing the discussion on Telus TV has got me wondering if anyone else has had tropuble with Telus regarding internet sticks.

 

This is what happened to us

 

Given that we don't have any choice but dial-up or an undependable satelite service for internet we decided to investigate getting an internet stick which uses a cell signal

 

We went to a telus store in Market Mall, the clerk sold us two internet sticks. He advised of a particular plan he said would be perfect for us based on how we answered his questions (Neither of us are very savy with such things, so we trusted the kid was doing right by us). The plan was going to be $40 per month per stick and he assured us this was the best plan for our needs.

 

Sticks worked fine, no complaints in that regard - the software included a little program that tracks your usage, the clerk at the store told us it is not exact but close enough to use as a guide so we don't end up generating extra charges.

 

Jump ahead six weeks - According to our software we stayed well under the limit of 2 gigs on each stick in that first month - our first bill arrives from telus - lo and behold, we get a $18000.00 bill for the first month.

 

I was working on the road most of the summer so the wife calls and tells me about the 18k bill - I laugh it off as an obvious error and ask her to call telus and sort it out, assuming it is a typo of some kind.

 

So Sandy calls Telus and they tell her the bill is correct, and we had gone over on one of the sticks by almost 2 gig - she says that can't be possible because the program says we were fine, they tell her that the program they gave us is useless and shouldn't be used for the purpose of tracking usage. Sandy tells them there is no way in hell we are paying them 18k. They proceed to tell her that she will have to take it up with the telus store, as they are a separate business and only a contractor and telus won't be held responsible for what they did, and as far as telus is concerned we owe them 18k.(despite the giant "Telus" sign on the front of the store)

 

So Sandy calls the Telus store and the kid on the phone literally laughed at her when she explained the situation, commented that she should have read the fine print warning against using the provided "usage meter" for metering usage and that the bill was between her and Telus and that they were going to do nothing further than refer us back to Telus

 

So...Sandy calls telus back, and reviews what the telus store said - the Telus rep tells her OK, we'll lower the rate this one time only and that's it. He says he will lower the bill to $800 just this one time. Sandy tells him that's a big difference from the $80 we expected and that she would like to call me to discuss it further. The Telus rep tells her that's fine but as far as he is concerned this is a one time offer and if she doesn's agree to it, the offer is cancelled and Telus will begin legal action against myself to secure the 18k. Of course at this point Sandy is freaking, not knowing what to do she agrees to the $800 and proceeds to make the payment. It wasn't till this point that they told us how to properly monitor the usage fom a web site thay have.

 

Jump ahead 3 days, I get home and Sandy explains what happened and I am furious, not at Sandy, but at Telus for basically blackmailing her into an $800 payment. but I chose to stand by my wife and the decision she made. Clearly we have a level of intrety that Telus lacks. We got onto a different plan and well, I guess that's that,... we are now paying about $100 a month.

 

I would caution against doing business with Telus in way what so ever - they are corporate scam artists, once our contracts with them run out we will never do business with them again.

 

Has anyone one else been burned in this way ? - I have run into a few folks that got bills as high as 5k in the fist month but none as large as ours was yet. The future is friendly my ass.

 

 

Same Same Same..

 

With land line, cell phone and internet.. bills never right.. will never work with them again.

 

Got rid of a cell phone when I retired, just have the SPOT now and it is enough..

 

[Taco]

That's some serious overage man. I know a Hutterite kid that thought he'd found a neat way around the Colony's internet restrictions by using his ex-colony brother's supplied wireless stick. That bill came to 9 grand plus. The kid had spent the entire billing period downloading music, movies and PC games. No idea how that was resolved.

[Pipestoneflyguy]

I hear what you saying Bhurt, which is why I kinda left well enough alone - but if telling a customer that this costs $80 a month, and then they get a bill for $18000 - constitutes nothing but bad service, I would hate to think what you consider getting screwed over LOL

 

 

[Smitty]

I strongly urge you to tell your tale to the media; both print and tv. These guys don't like bad press - usually. Also, most local tv stations have a trouble shooter reporter that love these kinds of stories. For sure this warrants a letter to the editor.

 

Anyways, I sympathize with you the whole way, I do urge to go beyond the FFC to share your story. Of course, up to you though...

 

Smitty

 

P.S. Absolutely ridiculous that our gov't and the CRTC doesn't allow more competition into this country. Canada has one of the highest rates for tv, phone and internet, and its directly caused by our protectionism. Same thing I saw today about not allowing foreign competition in our airline industry.

[brewingup]

I've passed this on to someone i work with who used to work at Telus, who in turn has emailed your story to one of the directors at Telus. I'll let you know if the effort bears any fruit.

[beedhead]

Thats nuts!!...I have had few run ins with Telus...Few winters ago I was working up north By Highlevel....My phone plan was evenings and weekend free inside Ab and Bc...1st month was good bill wise...Second month I get a bill for 1200$$...Wtf...I phone telus freakin, They tell me the northern alberta tower was down for that area, so my phone was using a tower out of the NWT's... I didnt care, its not my fault the tower is down...They insisted that I pay the full amount!!!...After a week of arguing and threatening to see a lawyer, they bumped it down to 400$$...I was still pissed right off, but paid it, telling them they will never have my business again once my contract ran out...And that was it...Bin with bell for 6 years now...

[headscan]

I strongly urge you to tell your tale to the media; both print and tv. These guys don't like bad press - usually. Also, most local tv stations have a trouble shooter reporter that love these kinds of stories. For sure this warrants a letter to the editor.

 

Anyways, I sympathize with you the whole way, I do urge to go beyond the FFC to share your story. Of course, up to you though...

 

Smitty

 

P.S. Absolutely ridiculous that our gov't and the CRTC doesn't allow more competition into this country. Canada has one of the highest rates for tv, phone and internet, and its directly caused by our protectionism. Same thing I saw today about not allowing foreign competition in our airline industry.

Agree 100%. These companies should be legislated into warning you when your bill hits a certain dollar value no matter what. It's incredibly easy to program something like that into the billing software. If you keep fighting I bet they'll relent because they know they'll take a PR hit if you go to the media. A lot of times just the threat of going to the media is enough to get them to cave.

[Guest Sundancefisher]

Seeing the discussion on Telus TV has got me wondering if anyone else has had tropuble with Telus regarding internet sticks.

 

This is what happened to us

 

Given that we don't have any choice but dial-up or an undependable satelite service for internet we decided to investigate getting an internet stick which uses a cell signal

 

We went to a telus store in Market Mall, the clerk sold us two internet sticks. He advised of a particular plan he said would be perfect for us based on how we answered his questions (Neither of us are very savy with such things, so we trusted the kid was doing right by us). The plan was going to be $40 per month per stick and he assured us this was the best plan for our needs.

 

Sticks worked fine, no complaints in that regard - the software included a little program that tracks your usage, the clerk at the store told us it is not exact but close enough to use as a guide so we don't end up generating extra charges.

 

Jump ahead six weeks - According to our software we stayed well under the limit of 2 gigs on each stick in that first month - our first bill arrives from telus - lo and behold, we get a $18000.00 bill for the first month.

 

I was working on the road most of the summer so the wife calls and tells me about the 18k bill - I laugh it off as an obvious error and ask her to call telus and sort it out, assuming it is a typo of some kind.

 

So Sandy calls Telus and they tell her the bill is correct, and we had gone over on one of the sticks by almost 2 gig - she says that can't be possible because the program says we were fine, they tell her that the program they gave us is useless and shouldn't be used for the purpose of tracking usage. Sandy tells them there is no way in hell we are paying them 18k. They proceed to tell her that she will have to take it up with the telus store, as they are a separate business and only a contractor and telus won't be held responsible for what they did, and as far as telus is concerned we owe them 18k.(despite the giant "Telus" sign on the front of the store)

 

So Sandy calls the Telus store and the kid on the phone literally laughed at her when she explained the situation, commented that she should have read the fine print warning against using the provided "usage meter" for metering usage and that the bill was between her and Telus and that they were going to do nothing further than refer us back to Telus

 

So...Sandy calls telus back, and reviews what the telus store said - the Telus rep tells her OK, we'll lower the rate this one time only and that's it. He says he will lower the bill to $800 just this one time. Sandy tells him that's a big difference from the $80 we expected and that she would like to call me to discuss it further. The Telus rep tells her that's fine but as far as he is concerned this is a one time offer and if she doesn's agree to it, the offer is cancelled and Telus will begin legal action against myself to secure the 18k. Of course at this point Sandy is freaking, not knowing what to do she agrees to the $800 and proceeds to make the payment. It wasn't till this point that they told us how to properly monitor the usage fom a web site thay have.

 

Jump ahead 3 days, I get home and Sandy explains what happened and I am furious, not at Sandy, but at Telus for basically blackmailing her into an $800 payment. but I chose to stand by my wife and the decision she made. Clearly we have a level of intrety that Telus lacks. We got onto a different plan and well, I guess that's that,... we are now paying about $100 a month.

 

I would caution against doing business with Telus in way what so ever - they are corporate scam artists, once our contracts with them run out we will never do business with them again.

 

Has anyone one else been burned in this way ? - I have run into a few folks that got bills as high as 5k in the fist month but none as large as ours was yet. The future is friendly my ass.

 

Take it to the media. This crap was happening with text messaging plans and made all the headlines. Sounds like the Impark fine crap...they will harass you like crazy.

[bhurt]

So let me get this right, you can sign a legal binding contract stating you understand everything in the contact then it comes out that you didn't read everything and you can get out of it by going to the media?

[Wanny]

How is 2 gb of data worth $18,000. This whole wireless thing is F-ed

[robert]

Gotta ask, did you read the entire agreement when you signed up for this flyfishcalgary.com? people rarely ever read every word and that's what hassholds like telus prey on. Many, many people have been burned.

 

I have NOTHING telus related anymore and I will never ever use them again for anything. They are the sorriest company out there and if they can get you by the short and curlies, they will - and they don't care what happens once you autograph that contract.

 

I'd personally love to see someone take them over and get rid of the name... sound like alot of love for them?

 

i'm an IT consultant, and I cringe every time I have to call telus regarding internet - they have blacklisted me so I have to lie about who I am to get any service out of them. how sad is that.

[bhurt]

Gotta ask, did you read the entire agreement when you signed up for this flyfishcalgary.com? people rarely ever read every word and that's what hassholds like telus prey on. Many, many people have been burned.

 

I have NOTHING telus related anymore and I will never ever use them again for anything. They are the sorriest company out there and if they can get you by the short and curlies, they will - and they don't care what happens once you autograph that contract.

 

I'd personally love to see someone take them over and get rid of the name... sound like alot of love for them?

 

i'm an IT consultant, and I cringe every time I have to call telus regarding internet - they have blacklisted me so I have to lie about who I am to get any service out of them. how sad is that.

Robert,

 

If you knew your facts you would know that telus is now owned by Bell Canada and their head office is no longer located in calgary but out in BC

 

Also why have contracts so people can not screw other people oer, you wanna make sure you getting charge correctly then read the contract if not then your at fault and comparing FFC where there has nothing to do with money to a binding contract with monthly fees and additional charges are not the samething, and to answer your question yes I read the disclaimer for FFC when I signed up.

[ÜberFly]

Brad,

 

What are were you smoking while on your lunch break?!

 

Bell Communications Enterprises (BCE) and BCT/Telus Communications (see below) are two totally separate companies!! (insert GPT )

 

Name: BCT.Telus Communications Inc.

 

- Headquarters: Burnaby, B.C., and Edmonton

 

- The market: Local, long-distance and cellular service in British Columbia and Alberta, with plans to sell data services to companies across Canada

 

- Foreign ownership: GTE Corp. of Stamford, Conn., will hold 26.7 per cent

 

- Assets: $8.2 billion

 

- Stock market value: $10 billion

 

- Annual revenue: $5.7 billion

 

- Employees: 25,000

 

vs.

 

The BCE subsidiary Bell Canada has moved into new industries via new divisions such as Bell Internet, an Internet service provider; Bell Mobility, a cellular wireless service now operating in most Canadian provinces; Bell TV, one of Canada's two national satellite television providers; Bell Home Monitoring, a new division announced in February 2007; and Bell Distribution. BCE also owns 15% of CTVglobemedia, one of Canada's largest privately held media companies which owns the CTV Television Network, the /A\ television system, The Globe and Mail, and the CHUM Radio Network, as well as other (primarily television) media assets. It also operates retail stores, as simply the Bell Store (formerly BellWorld in English Canada and Espace Bell in Quebec, and prior to 1999, the Bell Phonecentre/Téléboutique Bell).

 

In mid 2009, BCE extended its ownership of Virgin Mobile Canada from 50% to 100%. BCE also bought The Source by Circuit City (which was renamed after the sale to The Source) and all assets of InterTAN from bankrupt Circuit City.

 

 

Robert,

 

If you knew your facts you would know that telus is now owned by Bell Canada and their head office is no longer located in calgary but out in BC

 

Also why have contracts so people can not screw other people oer, you wanna make sure you getting charge correctly then read the contract if not then your at fault and comparing FFC where there has nothing to do with money to a binding contract with monthly fees and additional charges are not the samething, and to answer your question yes I read the disclaimer for FFC when I signed up.

[bhurt]

Okay I stand correct but my point is that when you sign a legal binding contract you should know exactly what it is you are signing as you are legally responsable for it and any cost that come with it, if you don;t then shame on you.

 

Also signing a disclaimer and signing a contract is not the same thing.

 

One other thing I want to make clear I find it amusing that people think that through errors of their own they can bully compaines into doing what they want, its like the idoit that came in today who signed off on a proff that states (and I note I also pointed out to him) that all information on the proof was correct, he looks at his cards and see some wrong information but it matches up with the proof and he wants them reprinted for free I was willing to go 50% discount but nope he wanted them for free and he wanted to keep the old cards, now who is trying to scam who...

 

I see things like this everyday and alot of people say oh I will go to the media then, you know what I say sure if that is what you want to do but the simple facts are right there. Be aware of what you sign is all I have left to say.

[Weedy1]

So Sandy calls Telus and they tell her the bill is correct, and we had gone over on one of the sticks by almost 2 gig ...

 

I have one of these sticks and they make me nervous as hell. I use it only when neccessary.

 

That being said according to my calculations you should have had to pay an extra $102 for 2 gigs over the limit if you were not roaming. Sounds to me like you may have got slammed for a combination of Canadian / U.S / or International roaming fees. The differences in these rates is obscene.

 

5 cents /mB in Canada

U.S. Roaming Data Rate $3.00 dollars / Mb

International Roaming Data Usage $25.00 dollars / Mb

 

See fine print http://www.telusmobility.com/en/AB/connect...INTCMP=ILCq4pl5

[bhurt]

Weedy,

 

I could be wrong but as I understand it if you go to a web site that is a u.s web site then you pay the u.s roaming fees, and so forth and so forth....

 

Like I said I could be wrong but that is how I understand it.

 

Just rereading it also and actually selected one of the plans it also states that if you are over then there is a 0.35 cents per mintue charge

[Weedy1]

Weedy,

 

I could be wrong but as I understand it if you go to a web site that is a u.s web site then you pay the u.s roaming fees, and so forth and so forth....

 

Like I said I could be wrong but that is how I understand it.

 

I don't think so, it's based on usage not location. I'm looking at my bill as we speak and there is no sort of indication to that effect.

 

 

 

[Bigtoad]

I hate Telus. Period.

 

I've had so many bad experiences with them and trying to maneuver through their customer services on the phone is a truly new dimension of hell. Incredibly long wait, incompetent and unhelpful representatives, and I always feel like somehow I am getting screwed each and every time I try to deal with them.

 

I am so jaded by them that when we moved into a new house, I went with Vonage so that I wouldn't have to deal with Telus for a LAN line. Vonage isn't perfect but it's ALWAYS $20.99 per month and when my vonage magic-box went on the fritz, I phoned customer services, talked with someone immediately, and they sent me a new box in 2 business days for free. Now that is customer service.

 

I am so jaded with Telus that it really wouldn't matter how bad Vonage is, I still wouldn't go back to Telus. It would take several, and I mean several, customer service representatives from Vonage to literally tell me to F$#@ off before I would even consider going back to Telus. They are a truly terrible company that doesn't care about the service they provide or the customers that they provide the service for. They are interested only in the bottom line and are not interested in anything that interferes with that line. They invent new and creative ways to rip people off. Shame on them. Shame on us for letting them.

 

 

[jonn]

I would say this is not a scam, remeber a while back with the guy in Fort Mac that got a huge bill like yourself but he was using rodgers.

 

As a person that has spent almost 20 years in retail stores I would say you got poor service, it is not a scam if it is in fine print, only a scam if it is not in writing.

 

Like I said before you were misiinformed and not scamed and technically by law you are still responsable for the 18k bill be happy they reduced the price.

 

I understand what your saying about reading the fine print, But what if there is no fine print to read. For example, if you change something over the phone. If they screw up Telus still expects you to pay the bill. I stopped working in the States for about a year so my wife called to remove my international calling due to the exessive bill. When she called they said that they would change a couple things on my contract but the international calling would remain the same at a much lower price. Great I thought. Well I ended up back in the states in September and low and behold my first bill was $1200.00. When I called Telus to see what the hell, they told me they removed the roaming section of my bill. So I called my wife to see if they had told her about this change on my bill. When she said NO I became Angery Jonn and got on the horn. After about 4 hrs of heated conversations they knocked my bill down to $400.00 and revised my plan so my next bill would be the usual $200.00-$250.00. Well when that bill came it was $700.00, so again I called telus. They tried telling me that I never made the call to them with the first problem and there was no record of changing my bill. He then said there is nothing he can do for me and that I need to make the payment inn full. outraged I told him to give me the total amount for a buy out because I was done with them, he then informed me that he can't do that and I would have to call someone else. I then called Rogers to look into they'er plan options. I then called telus back to get my total international minutes, internet usage and contract buy out. Of course they wanted to know why, so I again explained the whole story over to her. When I was done she some how convienced my to stay with telus, lowered my bill, gave my an IPHONE and a couple other seemingly great perks. Now knowing the Iphone was on a new network to Telus I triple checked that the phone would work in the states (I spend 2/3rd's of the year down there working and my wife was pregnat). They promised it would, saying all Telus phones work in the states. so I get down to Pittsburg and low and behold they were right it did work, right up untill I left the city. I spent 28 days down there and got about 30 min of use out of my phone. I had to buy a U.S. phone so I could talk to to my wife anf telus to resolve this problem. through the total of about 15 conversations and 12 hrs. I got the run around 15 times. You can never talk to the same person and they never call you back. I wont bother going into the full detail's, but when I got home there was a nice 250 dollar bill waiting for me. $250.00 for thirty min. what a deal. So I get back on the phone again. at this point I have $140.00 worth of money into the U.S. phone and $250.00 owed to Telus. They offerd my the great deal off $100.00 off my bill. PAUSE $100.00 off, something isn't right here that means I'm still paying $150.00 for a service I didn't recieve and I'm still $140.00 in the hole from my U.S.A. phone and I'm suppose to be happy about this. Since I've been home I've spent a additional 4hrs on the phone with them trying to resolve the issue, no luck. Altough they gave my the option of buying a new phone at full retail (because the Iphone was a promo and they can't do that twice) paying to activate the new phone, and I would have to pay a penelty towards my apple iphone contract. Huh. Needless to say I'm now locked into a contarct with apple and ipod for three yrs. and the f*&%^ing phone doesn't work. however I did get a very exciting phone call yesterday informing me that my phone should work down there in a month or so, yaaaaaah. great news, f.u. telus.

 

Don't even get me started on setting up my t.v. with the bastards. hahaha

[danhunt]

In this case the consumer asked a sales representative specific questions about whether or not the product was suitable for their needs, and was in turn given given advice about the product that was deceiving. That is not an acceptible practice and is not covered by "Caveat Emptor". Just to be clear, going back to Pipestones original post this is the point where I think the deception occurred "...the software included a little program that tracks your usage, the clerk at the store told us it is not exact but close enough to use as a guide so we don't end up generating extra charges". Whether or not the clerk was trying to decieve the customer is a moot point, they are still responsible for ensuring the product advise they give is accurate and up to date.

 

I realize that what I’ve cut and pasted below is not a direct parallel, but it is in a related vein and I think it has some bearing. Keep in mind that I am not a lawyer, I do have a bias towards the consumer in this case, and I’ve only presented the information that I think supports my point of view.

 

http://competitionbureau.gc.ca

 

http://www.laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/C-34/index.html

 

On June 9, 2006 and October 20, 2006, the Bureau provided its opinion that, with respect to the promotional materials for the prepaid telephone card, that there were sufficient grounds to launch an inquiry under section 52(1) and paragraph 74.01 of the Act for the following reasons.

 

* The materials contained fine print disclosures contradicting the general impression created about the advertised rates and the telephone minutes available.

* The materials used ambiguous language and complex disclaimers that could mislead consumers when choosing the products.

 

52. (1) No person shall, for the purpose of promoting, directly or indirectly, the supply or use of a product or for the purpose of promoting, directly or indirectly, any business interest, by any means whatever, knowingly or recklessly make a representation to the public that is false or misleading in a material respect.

 

74.01 (1) A person engages in reviewable conduct who, for the purpose of promoting, directly or indirectly, the supply or use of a product or for the purpose of promoting, directly or indirectly, any business interest, by any means whatever,

(a) makes a representation to the public that is false or misleading in a material respect;

 

74.03 (1) For the purposes of sections 74.01 and 74.02, a representation that is

(d) made in the course of in-store, door-to-door or telephone selling to a person as ultimate user, or

(e) contained in or on anything that is sold, sent, delivered, transmitted or made available in any other manner to a member of the public,

is deemed to be made to the public by and only by the person who causes the representation to be so expressed, made or contained, subject to subsection (2).

General impression to be considered

(5) In proceedings under sections 74.01 and 74.02, the general impression conveyed by a representation as well as its literal meaning shall be taken into account in determining whether or not the person who made the representation engaged in the reviewable conduct.

1999, c. 2, s. 22; 2009, c. 2, s. 423.

 

 

[reevesr1]

To put things in perspective a bit: From a $80 bill to the price of an entry level CAR. I wish I could find words to express my disgust at this sort of business practice. Actually, it's not a legitimate business practice. In my world we have a word for it. It's called fraud. The fact that it is even remotely possible to ring up that kind of bill is stunning and equally stunning (I would say bordering on criminal) that they would ever send a bill of that size. If they said there was a program that could track usage, and according to that program Pipes did not rack up that usage, then Telus has no ground to stand on.

 

And Pipes, I think if you push this hard enough they will drop it. I would start using words "media" and "lawsuit" when I talked to them.

[Weedy1]

If they said there was a program that could track usage, and according to that program Pipes did not rack up that usage, then Telus has no ground to stand on.

 

The software that tracks usage is part of the same software package that allows the Telus stick to access the internet. The software will tally your usage after your session ends and display it next time you connect. As far as I'm concerned if they are capable of tracking usage they should be able to simplify the whole affair by putting together a piece of software that allows the user to limit their own usage or cost, display an actual cost per Mb being downloaded, a tally of the total cost per session, and total monthly usage/cost.

 

I think it's about time the law was change regarding this type of crap being pulled by the cell companies.

 

[headscan]

When the iPhone was launched in Canada a couple years ago I admit to standing in line to get one on the first day. By the time I got mine, the Rogers computer systems were barely working from being overloaded. As a result it didn't get recorded in the system that I opted for the 6GB a month data plan at $30. A couple of weeks later I get a call from Rogers customer service to warn me that my data usage was around $200 so far for the month. I explained that I had asked for the data plan, she said she understood that the systems had problems that day so she added the plan to my bill and corrected the charges. Never even had the error show up on my bill.

 

Anyhow, the point is that when someone's bill starts racking up to a certain point or shows abnormal usage there should be a system in place that alerts the customer somehow like Rogers did for me. Not saying that there aren't other problems with Rogers, but in this case their customer service was obviously much better than what Pipestone is experiencing with Telus.