07-31-2017 07:22 PM
I just spoke with a Telus rep regarding my data overages. We have 5 phones that share 7,168.000 MB / month. The Telus rep explained to me how the overages are charged and I am having a difficult time accepting this explanation. Data overages are billed at $5/100 MB. WE ARE PAYING FOR "SHARED" DATA, BUT THE SECOND WE GO OVER THE POOLED AMOUNT WE ARE BILLED INDIVIDUALLY FOR OVERAGES??? In May/2017 our "pool" went over only 20.023 MB but we were charged $15, which should have been $5. June/2017...330 MB over, charged $25. July/2017...235 MB over, charged $25. I find this practice to be unacceptable and I will be switching to another carrier upon completion of my contract if this isn't addressed immediately.
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07-31-2017 10:01 PM
The data overages are billed at $5 per 100mb for the first 1500mb. After that it is .5 cents per 1mb which is basically $50 per 1gb. It is billed per 1 line. It is also billed on a first come first basis. So if you if the first person uses 3.5gb and the next person only got to use 500mb of the plan and the third person uses 3.0gb then stops. No one has incurred overages. Now the second person who barely uses anything goes to open safari and bam they get that first charge of $5 per 100mb. Then the first and third person also go to use data and they also get charges. And so on and so on. It's not just Telus. They are competitively priced with the market. Here are the policies on Bell and Rogers websites.
Bell: actually while researching this it says on bell's website their overage is .07mb. Yikes! With their activation fee of $25 per line as well. How did I find this? You just go their website. Shop> rateplans > share all plans > I clicked on smart phone, picked the canadian plans > 4gb of data and it's in the tiny print at the bottom.
Rogers:
$7 per $100 mb per line.
There is some good news for you though. Telus has the cheapest rates and you don't need to switch carriers. The CRTC has mandated changed effective December that only the main line can be charged and it can't be per line anymore. This will probably result in prices going up but, there's been no word yet. Maybe not. What you want to do is utilze the Telus app! There's the data manager section in there where you can control who is blocked at what overage rate. You can also monitor the usage of everyone's line. And add the $2 data block feature when one person is being a data hog. It's $2 monthly which is prorated. It's basically 6 cents daily. You can also set it to drop off when the cycle resets. 🙂
07-31-2017 10:01 PM
The data overages are billed at $5 per 100mb for the first 1500mb. After that it is .5 cents per 1mb which is basically $50 per 1gb. It is billed per 1 line. It is also billed on a first come first basis. So if you if the first person uses 3.5gb and the next person only got to use 500mb of the plan and the third person uses 3.0gb then stops. No one has incurred overages. Now the second person who barely uses anything goes to open safari and bam they get that first charge of $5 per 100mb. Then the first and third person also go to use data and they also get charges. And so on and so on. It's not just Telus. They are competitively priced with the market. Here are the policies on Bell and Rogers websites.
Bell: actually while researching this it says on bell's website their overage is .07mb. Yikes! With their activation fee of $25 per line as well. How did I find this? You just go their website. Shop> rateplans > share all plans > I clicked on smart phone, picked the canadian plans > 4gb of data and it's in the tiny print at the bottom.
Rogers:
$7 per $100 mb per line.
There is some good news for you though. Telus has the cheapest rates and you don't need to switch carriers. The CRTC has mandated changed effective December that only the main line can be charged and it can't be per line anymore. This will probably result in prices going up but, there's been no word yet. Maybe not. What you want to do is utilze the Telus app! There's the data manager section in there where you can control who is blocked at what overage rate. You can also monitor the usage of everyone's line. And add the $2 data block feature when one person is being a data hog. It's $2 monthly which is prorated. It's basically 6 cents daily. You can also set it to drop off when the cycle resets. 🙂
01-06-2020 09:50 PM
I pay $75 per month with Virgin Moblie and that gives me 9GB data, unlimited calling Nationwide and unlimited texting so I disagree with the statement that was made concerning Telus is the cheapest. Telus called me concerning my granddaughters' phone which I was paying $25 per month with NO data and unlimited texting and 700 minutes of calling, then Telus called me and talked me into changing her plan t 1 GB data unlimited texting and unlimited local calls. I was promised that when she reached her data they would shut the data off, well I am here to tell you that was pure garbage and I am now paying long distance because she called into Red Deer and we live in Innisfail 20 minutes away and I was charged long-distance rates. According to Telus, my bill is correct although nothing about my bill even closely matches what I was guaranteed I am now paying $12 less with Telus for her plan and possibly more at this rate than my plan with Virgin. I want to clarify Telus called me I did not call them!!!!!
07-31-2017 10:33 PM - edited 07-31-2017 10:35 PM
You could also add 300 MB or 1GB up to 3 times in a billing period, or, since you seem to have had recurring data overages, possibly it is time to increase your plan size.
08-01-2017 07:00 AM - edited 08-01-2017 07:05 AM
Data is really hard to control with multiple users. When only the owner of the account is responsible for paying the bill for everybody, you'll never control data unless you block them. That's the unfortunate nature of share plans--paying and making enemies. Me? I only share with myself. I think I have an obsolete plan though, 500mb, that I'm sure Telus will take away from me very soon.
BTW, my flower icon is obscenely huge on all of my browsers lately. Is it trying to tell me it's been discontinued???? Lol. My luck.
08-01-2017 10:16 AM - edited 08-01-2017 07:48 PM
@Lola wrote:
BTW, my flower icon is obscenely huge on all of my browsers lately. Is it trying to tell me it's been discontinued???? Lol. My luck.
Naw...... that you're growing in the Neighbourhood! 😁
08-01-2017 03:32 PM
08-21-2017 12:41 AM
I have also had very big data charges from (Telus Mobility) long story short bought a new ph 2 year contract my 1st bill on a shared plan was 350.00 over the 130 i was paying already and the kicker is I 1000% know how cell phones work if you restrict the background data and only use your datA WHEN YOU NEED IT BUT TELUS doesnt see it like this i even tryed to return the malfunctioning ph to telus as the ph was still under warrenty and they refused to take it back plus i still have to pay for a ph that doesnt even work. I have lost all respect of telus as a company and i have moved on to a better provider TELUS DID NOTHING TO FIX THE SITUATION EVEN THOUGH I WAS A LOYAL CUSTOMER FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS.......
08-22-2017 09:37 AM
@Porter-- That does seem quite a lot over if you have data off.
Here's a thing though. In ground-level terms, sometimes, even with data off, whenever you enable wifi, data will click-on for a moment. This data usage is extremely minimal, and mostly used on tablets. My tablets do this. I've checked my data usage times a few times and they coincided with wifi enabling. I painstakingly tested that for co-workers because I have no life. Lol. It amounted to 2mb or less for a month, except one time I checked in it was at 29mb, weird, but went down again a few days later, and again, only on my tablets, never on my phones. I have nothing using background data either. It's minimal usage, and won't run anyone over any limit, but people should be aware it may happen and don't panic, the usage will disappear because it;s not actual usage.
08-22-2017 01:42 PM
This EXACT same thing happened with me. I had 2 GB of data for 5+ years, never went over once. Then my boyfriend and I got shared data and it's 6 GB and all of a sudden I use 4 GB in a month and he used 4 GB in a month. Our bill is $260!?!? I have wifi at home and at work. So I rarely have to use data. How in the HECK did I used 4 GB!? Something VERY fishy is going on here. I am strongly considering switching providers as well.
Are you KIDDING ME!? I have been trying to get a hold of someone at Telus for TWO WEEKS!! Every time I call I am on hold for 20+ minutes and no one comes to the phone and I have wasted my whole lunch at work, and have to hang up. Or I go on the online chat support and there is 120 people in line ahead of me!?
Telus used to have such amazing customer service. What the heck happened?!
08-22-2017 05:24 PM
@Porter, @kingkillkannon. Switching providers is not going to help your situation as the data usage could be a multitude of factors. Firstly, Telus has the cheapest data overages of all the providers. Bell and Rogers charge $7 per 100mb. Telus charges $5 per 100mb. So if you think $50 per 1gb in overages is expensive, try $70 per 1gb. It's the same rate with fido, virgin, and all the other carriers at $7 per 100mb. It's in the fine print on all their websites. Telus also uses easy to understand text messages and a usage manager that the customer is in control of to control data usage. You are sent text messages at 90%, 100%, $10 in overages and blocked at $50 in data overages. You must consent to data overages past the $50 per line either through text, online or by calling in to continue on with data overages. You can use your usage manager to make it so that only one line or no lines can accept overages past the $50 if you do not want each line to be able to consent to data overages through sms. You can also start notifications earlier at 50% and 75%. Telus also offers mid cycle top ups and sends out texts to advise of these top ups before you go over your data and once you are incurring during, advising you purchasing these, as they are cheaper than overage rates. They come in 300mb for $7.50, $15 for 1gb or $25 for 2gb. They can be purchased through the Telus app. The data manager can be monitored through the app where you can now add a free data block until the end of your billing cycle if you do not want to incur overages or want to stop incurring overages. The text messages come in a timely manner however, they can carry a delay so it's advised that you monitor your usage through the Telus app or desktop site to keep track of your usage.
The most common ways that customer's incur data usage by accident or without their knowledge are:
By keeping data on while using wifi. You must turn the data off to guarantee you are using wifi services. Even if the phone shows you the wifi icon at the top, this means that wifi is available but, does not guarantee you are connected to it.
Turning wifi assist off in iphones. This feature, if turned on, means you will be put back onto the cellular data network if it is faster than the wifi network. The cellular data network is always faster than wifi so you can guarantee you will always be put back onto it. To turn this off go to settings > cellular > scroll to the very bottom and wifi assist is there. In this same section you can see reset statistics. You can press this button on the first day of your bill cycle each month. If you do this, in settings > cellular > your iphone is going to tell you which apps have used how much data in that cycle. It does not automatically reset every 30 days though. So you need to press it on the first day of each cycle to find out what is using your data.
Facebook auto play. This feature in any phone means that your videos on facebook are automatically playing on cellular data as you scroll down your facebook feed. This eats up a lot of data even if you are not paying attention to these videos or wanting to watch them. You can easily switch this to wifi only to reduce an incredible amount of data. Open your facebook app > click on the menu button (little hamburger looking button) > account settings > videos and photos > auto play on wifi connections only
Android devices have a fabulous feature called Data saver. Turn this on! Your own phone will monitor your data usage for you and warn you before you go over. It will also turn off your data when you reach your limit. Go to settings > Connections > data usage > Data Saver on > Now make sure your bill cycle dates are correct. You need to know these or it will not work properly. You can find these in the Telus app or desktop site. If it says Aug 11- Sept 10. Then start the cycle on Aug 11. You can put your warning where ever you want but, you would want your data restriction where ever your data runs out. So if you have 4gb in your plan, have it end at 4gb.
11-28-2017 08:44 PM
11-28-2017 10:19 PM
I couldn't see the quote you posted in the link you provided. Are you maybe thinking of the revised code which applies December 1, unless the carriers are granted the extension they have requested?
11-28-2017 10:39 PM
11-28-2017 10:44 PM - edited 11-28-2017 10:57 PM
08-19-2018 10:29 PM
We have 4 phones. With Rogers for 8 yrs. Largest bill ever was $500.
I switched to Telus for better signal, rates were comparable. My second bill was $942.00!!!
WTH is going on? We have an 11 Gb plan. We burned 16.6 Gb. DOUBLE our worst ever!
Turns out the default setting seem to favour Telus. Most phones switch to wifi automatically, but not Telus.
"You must turn the data off to guarantee you are using wifi services"
Thanks. You guys are thieves!!
Also, the overage fees should be $50 x 5.6Gb = $280, but my overage charges TOTAL $739.00!!!!
Please man-splain for me.
08-23-2017 07:13 AM
Also in Facebook settings there's "data saver." Enabling that allows the app to do all the separate data saving things for you.
As to what happened to Telus customer service. For one thing customers can't do simple things on their own, like disabling voicemail, a thing we should be able to do from within voicemail and not have to take up chat and phone time to do it. Every time Telus "improves" their website, they remove user functions, forcing people to chat or call. It's 2017, and instead of progressing, Telus is reverting to 1990. This is the main reason I won't switch my TV and internet to Telus--there's no email for customer service / account services with Telus TV and internet, so I'd have to do everything by phone or chat, and I refuse to be held hostage that way. Everything with Shaw can be done by email, which is always preferable for non-emergencies.
08-23-2017 01:52 PM
You can communicate with shaw through email now? Yikes! Home services is in trouble! They need to step up their game. It is like being held hostage sometimes haha. That was a pretty good analogy @Lola. I'm going to send some feedback about the email and link it to your idea here! You should put the voicemail idea in the ideas forum! That's a really good idea too! This latest update was pretty rad! Now customers can block their own data for free finally! It lasts only for the current cycle so they don't have a permanent data block which is usually what most customer's are seeking.
08-25-2017 08:46 AM
@Mobility_Princess-- From within my Shaw account I have links to chat (with voice), email, phone numbers, online support, service updates, all listed very clearly in the sidebar. Plus of course there's Facebook and Twitter to reach them.
For email, the message says: "If your situation isn't urgent fill out the form below and an eCare representative will get back to you within 48 hours."
And really, many, way many situations are not urgent. Last week I altered my TV package (we can add services online, but can't remove services online) and changed my contact phone number. I love being able to shoot off my email and get on with my life. It's important though to really detail what you want, or the help you need.
Telus mobile is great for the ability to email. I just got my contract // billing error settled by email, 30 emails in all, and it gave the Telus rep and then the team a chance to really look into it without time pressure. I was in no hurry. I do think if a rep or team can take their time, they work better. Most issues are not emergencies.
08-25-2017 04:44 PM
Yes exactly! Especially since nowadays everyone is so pressed for time!
12-13-2017 06:42 PM