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Extra charges

fleecedInVancouver
Organizer

Check your bill!

 

I just noticed a charge for $6/month on my landline and internet bill for "dialup access".

 

Dialup modems were popular after world war II, but were replaced by DSL toward the end of the last century.

 

Sadly, it seems I have been paying for this service until today. I only noticed it now because I recently moved, and the charge was applied to the old address. Otherwise I might still be paying it. All in all, I figure Telus has silently siphoned at least $2000 from my wallet into theirs since the last time I used a dialup modem in the late 1980s.

 

I cancelled the "service" and Telus graciously offered to refund me $12 for this year's charges. As you can imagine, I was scarcely able to contain my delight.

 

Is it any wonder we peasants loathe our telephonic overlords?

 

 

5 REPLIES 5

nasty
Rockstar

 

Why do people never bother to actually read bills on a monthly basis, so as to find out if they are paying for stuff they don't have or get.

 

Old people in the U.S. are still renting phones from way back when.

 

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/04/27/3-on-your-side-elderly-still-renting-home-phones/

Most people who have land line phones in their homes own them outright. But as odd as it might seem, there are some people still leasing their home phones!
   Phone leasing goes back to the days of ma bell when people had to rent phones as part of their basic service. Little did Martha Rettalick realize that her parents were among those still renting! She says, “I don’t think this should exist at all.”

 

Martha was visiting from Arizona recently when she came across a bill at her parents house for $21.09. It was from a company called QLT Consumer Lease Services and was the monthly bill for leasing 3 home phones. Martha says, “Add that up over the course of a year, that’s over $250 for leasing a telephone. Since the mid 80′s Martha estimates her parents may have spent over $6,000 renting phones. And her parents aren’t the only ones.

     “Some folks never got around to buying their own personal telephone at any local store and are still just going ahead and paying that monthly rental along in their phone bill,”

 

 

--

Its April the first. Have you pranked someone today?

fleecedInVancouver
Organizer

"Why do old people never check their bills?"

 

I think it is because old people (such as yours truly) remember a time when people trusted their phone company. It seems hard to imagine nowadays, but back when it was called BC Tel, and a landline cost $12 / month, a phone was more than an excuse for a huge corporation to plunder the the unwary. Back then, the phone system was considered an essential part of the country's infrastructure and we all relied on it. There was no need to check a phone bill - the thought of our phone company stealing from us was unfathonable.

 

We have come a long way. Thanks Darren.

 

 

The evolution of billing is such a pain. Products change and 2-way grandfathering exists.

 

Company can change bills and not ask the end user, then get yelled at for changing bill to the worse. 

Company can write a small program to audit customer bills and call about extint programs/products.

Customer can call in every few months and ask if their current package is still optimal to their use.

 

 

 

--

Its April the first. Have you pranked someone today?

fleecedInVancouver
Organizer

-----<quote>-----------------

Company can change bills and not ask the end user, then get yelled at for changing bill to the worse. 

Company can write a small program to audit customer bills and call about extint programs/products.

Customer can call in every few months and ask if their current package is still optimal to their use.

---</quote>----------------

 

  • Telus can and does change our bills, and quite frequently too. However, I have never seen a change that resulted in a smaller payment or the deletion of a service or option. A suspicious person might think that slipping extra charges in might be company policy.

  • A high school student with rudimentary database skills could write a simple query to select customers that pay for a service they never use, or a deprecated service. I suspect this might be a career limiting move though. "Hey boss - look at all the money these people are giving us for nothing. Lets tell them to stop..."

  • And yes, we the unwashed peasants could phone our banks, car mechanics, hydro, gas, phone companies, and all the other service providers every few months to check the status of our "plans" and "packages". But seriously, who does this? Life is too short as it is.

 

fleecedInVancouver
Organizer

... and the charges are still there, despite the service centre's assurances.

Oh well, I will call again on Monday. Maybe I should add it to my calendar as a recurring weekly task, no expiry.

 

Contrast this with the ease with which "features" are added. All it takes is a moment of unwariness during one of the relentless telemarketer calls.