Telus charging me an additional $5/mo on a 2 year fix term contract

[Leeman]

So basically, when Tony, who came to our building in Richmond back in July/August 2019, when we upgraded our building optics told me we are guaranteed to be on a fix term of $60/mo internet services + $10/mo PikTV, he was either lying or he was ignorant of Telus' price increase. If he was lying, then that tells me a lot about the ethics of the company itself, doesn't it? If he wasn't lying and was ignorant of the Telus policies on fixed-term contract price increases, then perhaps he shouldn't be working at Telus. Regardless of either reason, it's no wonder I stayed away from using any Telus-related services for about two decades. The price was 'too good to be true'.

I read at another thread, that someone with a 2 year fixed contract, had their price increased once every few months. Wow, so basically Telus is full of it? Entice people to buy into their service for a 'cheap price', then increase it like crazy to make up for promotional loss?

I'm pretty pissed, as you can probably tell.

Our previous internet service provider, Light Speed, had questionable customer service, but when we signed up for a fixed term contract, they actually meant it. We had them for two years. We paid $46/mo and never once did they increase our internet price. On top of that, when I cancelled the contract with them, they waived the $65 cancellation fee. How awesome are they eh? I will DEFINITELY go back to them when this 2 year BS contract is done and over with.

Now, I since I am but one man, representing a small household with no power nor influence, the only thing I can do is complain here and cancel this **bleep** contract when our 2 years is up. We're going to take our business elsewhere after this BS is over and done with. However, what really irks me is that I still have to pay Telus for the next 21 months.

So, folks, if you're searching the internet about Telus-related products, I hope the search engines do you good and find you this forum post. Don't be like me: gave Telus another chance, after I cancelled all of their services in the late 1990's.

[Leeman]

Just so you all know, Tony was the guy from Telus who signed us up for the service and I asked him exactly this, "So it is guaranteed that I will be paying the $70/mo + taxes, without any hidden fees and further price increases?" and he told me there won't be any.

[Leeman · Accepted solution]

Well, I just spent an hour on the Telus customer support line, through two customer service agents. Maria and Jessa fixed the problem for me. I won't go into details what they did, but my initial irritation with Telus and the sales guy who sold me Telus a few months ago has been completely mitigated by these two customer support reps.

Of the entirety of my adult life, I have never had such amazing customer service. These two were professional, friendly and went out of their way to make things right for us.

If ever Maria and Jessa read this, THANK YOU.

[Lodaka]

Just out of curiosity, was it their booster that you were being charged for? I know that it is not free and they would charge $5 per month for a few months or something like that for its boosters.

[Leeman]

Hi Lodaka, the break down of our bill looks like this:

$60/mo for 150/150 internet, $0.45/mo for PikTV and $9.55/mo for Easy Payment (Equipment Financing). Then the taxes on top of that. It normally came out to $77.24.

They gave us $250 credit. So we got 'free' service for the first 3.5 months. The $5/mo apparently is happening with all Telus users and it's for the upgrade of their networking hardware or something like that. That's supposed to happen starting Dec 1st.

However, after speaking with someone from their Loyalty Department, they made it so my sign-up cost is fixed for the next two years and I am actually going to pay less, because we rarely use PikTV.

[Lodaka]

Got you. Thanks for posting this by the way. This along with a couple of other posts got me to check my billing as well.

[LongtimeFool]

If that was the best service of your adult life then it is an indictment  of how absolutely horrible the monopolies treat their cash cows!

You signed a 2 year contract- you are not allowed to alter the contract- i.e. not pay or leave before completion and they are not allowed to charge more or supply less. When they tried to charge more it cost you 1 hour of your time plus however long you were on the first call. at $5/month over the balance of your 2 yr contract ( that saved you being over charged by $150-$200 depending how much time is left on your contract). Did they pay you for your time? 

As you mentioned others are being charged it as well, and if they have the time to play the no it isn't- yes it is game with Telus they too will be the recipients of what they originally agreed to.

By the way before the $5 price increase Telus (and other Canadian ISPs) already had the distinction of having the most expensive service of any first world country.

When I called to ask about the increase the customer service expert I was so lucky as to get put it best... When I asked why the price was increasing her response was- Because that's what Telus decided to do. 

I appreciate that she didn't try and hide it under some made up world crisis that it costs more to send light down a pipe than it did a year ago, just plain and simple greed- cause they can.

[Leeman]

Well, it's the best service relative to my worsening memory and the service type. Haha! 😉 You're right though, it truly is quite horrible when such standards have become so low. Or rather, instead of "becoming", it simply should have been.

Anyhow, when I was with Light Speed Internet, they charged me $46/mo. Never raised my monthly fee. No hidden cost and as blunt, as well as at times, rude their customer support was, at the very least, they didn't lie about anything. Strangely, I find their tech support way nicer than their regular customer service.

Like you, I wish companies would be more honest.