telus - deceptive business practice

[heartgirl99]

today i received notification that my balance of ($100.00) will expire tomorrow. i have a feature called 'messaging 250' that extends my balance by 30 days. it costs $5 a month and the fee is automatically deducted from my account.
when i checked online:

"Notification

Your balance will expire in 1 days. Avoid service interruptions by topping up.

Account Activity
Current balance: $99.80
Balance expiration: March 19, 2016"

i checked further and sure enough, $5 was deducted from my account for 'messaging 250' and it was still in force.

when i called telus, 'mary' told me that all was well with my account and it would indeed NOT expire. she explained that the notification was computer generated.

every month, i will receive notification that my account will expire even though IT WILL NOT unless there is not enough to cover the $5 for the 'messaging 250' feature.

this is an unfair and deceptive practice. how many people would automatically 'top up' their account without thinking? especially seniors?

i have filed a complaint with the BBB. we'll see what happens.

in any case, if you are a telus client be aware of this trick!

[SassyAshley]

This kind of reminds me of something I heard with a cable company.

He used to pay his cable bill for the year at once (he would get a bonus once a year and spent it all on pre paying his bills) about 4 months after his payment was made he received a letter saying he was going to be sent to collections. He checked his latest bill and he still had a massive credit which would continue to cover his use for the rest of the year so he called the cable company.

What he was told was that was the computer automatically sends a report of anyone who has not paid in 3 months and automatically letters are sent to everyone on the list. The letter states you have 30 days to respond so in 30 days an actual person goes over the list and would remove him once they looked into the account.

Now the real kicker was he was told this would continue to happen as once the person clears the message in another 3 months the process would start again. The cable company actually told him to stop pre paying his bills because if someone was not paying attention he might actually end up being sent to collections and that would be his problem not the cable companies.

Sounds to me like this might be a common practice with large companies, not sure if it is right or not but would not surprise to find this is some sort of loop hole and they are completely in the right. Do not get me wrong not saying I think it is right but it seems the company usually is "allowed" to do these things through some loop hole.

[DaveP]

Yeah, I get that with the power folks. We're on a budget plan that automatically sends them payments each month from my bank account They're slow in applying the payments and their computer generates overdue notices that they send to us. It's funny to get them because they say our bill is overdue and you owe us -$310.00. Please pay your full balance by x to avoid interruption of service, reconnection fees will apply. Yeah, you owe us $310 as of right now...

[tjthemanto]

Complain to CRTC too. also on their FB and twitter.

BBB has become a joke thesedays.

also step by step in writing escalate it with Telus too, all the way to the president.

[heartgirl99]

thanks
i did post on their facebook. and wrote to crtc too.

[freefreefree]

today i received notification that my balance of ($100.00) will expire tomorrow. i have a feature called 'messaging 250' that extends my balance by 30 days. it costs $5 a month and the fee is automatically deducted from my account.
when i checked online:

"Notification

Your balance will expire in 1 days. Avoid service interruptions by topping up.

Account Activity
Current balance: $99.80
Balance expiration: March 19, 2016"

i checked further and sure enough, $5 was deducted from my account for 'messaging 250' and it was still in force.

when i called telus, 'mary' told me that all was well with my account and it would indeed NOT expire. she explained that the notification was computer generated.

every month, i will receive notification that my account will expire even though IT WILL NOT unless there is not enough to cover the $5 for the 'messaging 250' feature.

this is an unfair and deceptive practice. how many people would automatically 'top up' their account without thinking? especially seniors?

i have filed a complaint with the BBB. we'll see what happens.

in any case, if you are a telus client be aware of this trick!

just switch another company if you can

[heartgirl99]

just switch another company if you can

absolutely!
as soon as his balance is depleted.

[tjthemanto]

just switch another company if you can

The other's are WORSE ! Like Bell & Rogers Telus is lesser of the 3 evils. Almost all the market is captured by these 3 guys and their sister brands like Koodo, Fido, Virgin, Chatr etc, creating a fake illusion of competition. You don't really have much choice, due to their huge monopoly.

Now even Wind Mobile is purchased by Shaw , one of the big guys. Even Manitoba Tel regional carrier is now purchased by Bell. Unless some big US guy like Verizon, AT & T etc come to Canada, we will continue to suffer.

[super807]

Now even Wind Mobile is purchased by Shaw , one of the big guys.

Oh, this explains the Wind ads I've been seeing on buses in Ottawa past couple of weeks. They are advertising a special plan for $40/month that gets you 5GB data + unlimited talk and text. Was confused by this as Wind always offered unlimited data. (we have been with Wind for several years and have unlimited data, text and province wide calling for 27.50 each)

Being bought out by a large company accounts for the increase in price while offering less service.

[tjthemanto]

Oh, this explains the Wind ads I've been seeing on buses in Ottawa past couple of weeks. They are advertising a special plan for $40/month that gets you 5GB data + unlimited talk and text. Was confused by this as Wind always offered unlimited data. (we have been with Wind for several years and have unlimited data, text and province wide calling for 27.50 each)

Being bought out by a large company accounts for the increase in price while offering less service.

Videotron in Quebec and SaskTel in Saskatchewan are probably the next 2 , which will eventually bought out by the big guys.

Sakatchewan has one of the best prices/plans from Bell, Telus and Rogers due to competition from the regional carrier SaskTel. But once they are bought out, the Big 3 in collusion will increase the prices .

watch what happens in Manitoba now, after Bell bought their regional carrier Manitoba Tel, just a few days back. The prices of Bell and Rogers, Telus will all go up in unision as they no longer need to compete with Manitoba Tel. The collusion and hand in glove cartel of Bell, Rogers, Telus is amazing !

Price gouging, Price Fixing and Anti- Competitive measures at its best !