Ma Bell...you ARE a Muther!! argh!!

[Shwa Girl]

Hey walkonby. Our turn.
Emergency cell phone
was $15/month
Now $20/month
25% increase if my math is corrent

[walkonby]

Hey walkonby. Our turn.
Emergency cell phone
was $15/month
Now $20/month
25% increase if my math is corrent

I hear ya Shwa! No matter what it is now, there are higher prices at every turn and yet the paycheques/ pension amounts stays the same.

[greeny]

Hey walkonby. Our turn.
Emergency cell phone
was $15/month
Now $20/month
25% increase if my math is corrent

I'm with Virgin Mobile. I used to pay 15 bucks a month for my emergency cell phone. They just recently changed the price to 20 bucks as well !

[tjthemanto]

Ughhh I can't tell you how many times this company has raised prices ! It's insane. In the past 3 years my bill has gone up by A LOT. They are tricky. They give you "discounts" but then raise the prices !

Yup. And their discounts are just credits for a fixed time, they don't really permanently reduce the price .

so even with credits if the actual price goes up, they increase your bill anyways.

[tjthemanto]

Lack of competition in Canada, that's pretty much it. The other alternatives like Rogers and Telus (slightly better ) are often just as bad as Bell.

just my landline ( home phone ) is with BELL. no other service with Bell. I want to change my landline to Teksavvy, but Bell has prevented and blocked Teksavvy from converting Bell landline customers to Teksavvy !! So Teksavvy doesn't take Bell landline customers ! I don't need VOIP. So I am forced to kepp my landline with Bell . Rogers landline in my area is just as bad and as bad a company as Bell

Funny how Bell can be so hated and yet they still get business. I remember being a student and they had a monopoly on all the student residence lines. We had to rent the phone from them, pay their rate, long distance fees, ... Every so often, they would unfairly charge random students an extra dollar on their bill for who knows what. Then if the student noticed, he/she would have to call in and get it reversed.

How are they one of the only companies that have a loyalty department to try and keep the irate customers they have? Or the secret department one step above loyalty that claim access to have better deals than anyone else in the company can see?

Oh the most satisfying call ever was the one Bell rep who phoned after we cancelled to ask what they could do to salvage the business. I told the rep it wasn't personal, and it was just the company he worked for, but basically don't increase fees every three months for either phone/internet/cable and treat your customers like a cash cow. Then to even call in to complain, the 45+ minute wait times are not realistic. When they do give credits, they don't refund the tax amount either. DH suspects the phone wait times are so long to make you hang up and give in.

I had a cellphone with Bell where you had to pre-pay one month in advance or $50. They would credit this amount to your "other" Bell accounts when you cancelled. Well I did, but it couldn't be transferred because the phone was in DH's name. So, in their words, they just took the $50 to "zero" the account. In any other business, that's considered theft!

Yes, they will always hand out discounts and credits while on the phone with you. Then with their fingers, they're typing out your next notification of a bill increase. That's always been the case with our "credits and special offers".

As soon as DH says we can give up our $45 phone line with Bhell, I am not looking back!

[tjthemanto]

I got rid of Cable for this very reason. Went with an indoor Terk HDTV amplified antenna for $ 39.99 and I get close to 12 HDTV crystal clear channels . Outdoor I can probably get 20 +, if I go for that.

rest I try to stream online . Various options like Chromecast, Roku, Hulu etc. Netflix Canada I don't think is worth it for me, Netflix US is much better.

[anisa]

Honestly I don't even stream shows and movies anymore. When we had cable I was hooked on a few shows that I would PVR and watch religiously. Now I don't even care about catching up on my shows, I haven't watched Big Bang in 3 years lol.

It has been freeing. I read a lot more now.
And the kids are back to watching cartoons only after school and on Saturday, just like when WE were kids... and they didn't die. Go figure lol

Bell and Rogers and other so-called discount providers all make a healthy profit. They know that people have been hesitant to cut their cords, and they try to keep those doubts alive in your head by bombarding us with advertising showing ALL the sharrty shows we would miss if we didn't have the latest entertainment packages.

The cable companies have great interest in dumbing down the public, they own so many other companies that they need us to not pay much attention to. That is why channels like the History channel, TLC, etc don't open our minds with informative programming, they get us in a dumb trance for a few hours in the evening.

[sweet sparrow]

Hey walkonby. Our turn.
Emergency cell phone
was $15/month
Now $20/month
25% increase if my math is corrent

@Shwa Girl : Your phone bill went up by $5 from $15, which is a price increase of 33.33%.

[tjthemanto]

Its more like 33 % increase ! 15* 1.33 = $ 20

Hey walkonby. Our turn.
Emergency cell phone
was $15/month
Now $20/month
25% increase if my math is corrent

I'm with Virgin Mobile. I used to pay 15 bucks a month for my emergency cell phone. They just recently changed the price to 20 bucks as well !

[tjthemanto]

Pretty much every 12-18 months, they seem to sneakily increase the price of each service by $ 2/month,
so around 25 bucks per year per service.

I can't wait to get rid of their landline, luckily my only service with them

I am with Distributel for my internet, they are much cheaper than Bell and haven't increased my price in the last 5-6 years, I bet Bell would have increased my price by couple of bucks each and every year with their BS.

[johnb56789]

My turn, I got lucky, but Virgin mobile is scary.

My plan I got less than 2 years ago with the following:
300 minutes
300 megabytes
Unlimited text and Evenings and weekends
FOR $39/month

NOW, for the EXACT same plan they want $50, or at least they did up until now apparently
It was an increase of about 28% (+$11 / $39 = 0.28), Now the plan doesn't even exist anymore
So, now I can't grandfather If I need to later on and HAVE to jump to the $50/month plan with
500 Min & 500MB, or jump ship. It just pisses me off how much it costs in Canada, Ontario
especially for a decent cell phone plan for a university student

[tjthemanto]

Try Chatr or Public Mobile or Koodo, they have some great talk and data plans. Wind Mobile is not bad if the reception is good in your area, they are improving after Shaw took over.

My turn, I got lucky, but Virgin mobile is scary.

My plan I got less than 2 years ago with the following:
300 minutes
300 megabytes
Unlimited text and Evenings and weekends
FOR $39/month

NOW, for the EXACT same plan they want $50, or at least they did up until now apparently
It was an increase of about 28% (+$11 / $39 = 0.28), Now the plan doesn't even exist anymore
So, now I can't grandfather If I need to later on and HAVE to jump to the $50/month plan with
500 Min & 500MB, or jump ship. It just pisses me off how much it costs in Canada, Ontario
especially for a decent cell phone plan for a university student

[tjthemanto]

More and More people are cutting their Cable and Landlines, the more and more Bell is trying to recoup those losses by gouging the existing customers.

hey out of 10 , 2 quit due to our lousy prices and customer service, you know what lets make up for it by price gouging the remaining 8 !

[Shwa Girl]

I hear ya Shwa! No matter what it is now, there are higher prices at every turn and yet the paycheques/ pension amounts stays the same.

we are thinking of suspending our internet for the summer and use the library internet
we're going to be 'living' at the library anyway, due to the May hydro increase

[kmontgom]

We have a 2yr guaranteed contract for $120 for all services with Bell. They cannot raise the price but sure enough our bills are always incorrect and I have to spend at least an hour on the phone to have them correct to the proper price. What part of the price will always be $120 a month with no changes do they not understand??