Question about Speak Out Top Up

Hi, I just purchased a $25 Top up card and when I loaded it I got $21.65 instead of $25......has anyone ever experienced this?

My last Top Up purchase was Dec 12, 2015 which means it expired on Dec 12, 2016 which was exactly 29 days ago. I topped up today, so only 29 days have passed of no voucher. I know their FAQ's state 45 days in inactivity they charge a Government Regulatory Recovery Fee but that is only $1.25, still does not make sense, I am missing $3.35....
I did have a remaining balance on my previous voucher, I cannot remember how much but it was a lot! $12-15 I think..

Does anyone know what's going on?/ has anyone had this happen before?

-Thanks!

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Originally Posted by JDI007

I did have a remaining balance on my previous voucher, I cannot remember how much but it was a lot! $12-15 I think..

-Thanks!

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First, let's address the "remaining balance" on your previous voucher. as per their terms (below) You went more than 7 days from the end of your service before topping up... that forfeits and previous balances... see here:

Attachment 325838

So the balance from previous vouchers was forfeited by you not topping up within 7 days of your account expiring, so that cannot be calculated. It's gone.

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Originally Posted by JDI007

My last Top Up purchase was Dec 12, 2015 which means it expired on Dec 12, 2016 which was exactly 29 days ago. I topped up today, so only 29 days have passed of no voucher. I know their FAQ's state 45 days in inactivity they charge a Government Regulatory Recovery Fee but that is only $1.25, still does not make sense, I am missing $3.35....

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Actually, you seem to have mis-interpreted their terms of service... You actually pay the regulatory fee regardless if you are active or inactive. It's part of cellular service and has nothing to do with the 45 days of inactivity. It's billed at a monthly fee of $1.25 (or prorated, likely if you are in a partial month). You owe any fees that would have been incurred in the time you were inactive, if you top-up and 'return' to the service... which you did.

Here's the bit on expired accounts and fees and "loaded top ups being less" from their website...

Attachment 325835

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Originally Posted by JDI007

My last Top Up purchase was Dec 12, 2015 which means it expired on Dec 12, 2016 which was exactly 29 days ago.

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If your service expired on Dec.12. that was actually MORE Than 29 days ago. By my math, Dec 12 2016 was 50 days ago... that's more than 45 so a few things have happened here:

You likely owe for the past 50 days (not just short of a full 2 months) as well as the next bit going forward that you JUST "topped up" for.
If you want to talk in terms of months, it's a partial fee for part of December... a full month of January, and a Full month of February (going forward on your Top Up)

That probably works out to the $3.35 you're looking for.

Remember, the balance from previous vouchers was forfeited after 7 days of your account expiring, so that cannot be calculated.


Does that work out?

(darnit! I'm so sorry I wrote the wrong date!! it's not Dec 12 I was looking at the wrong number, it's Dec 31,2015-bought new voucher, and Dec. 31,2016-voucher expired. I don't know why I wrote 12, my mistake, Dec 31 is the correct date, have my old receipt near me. So from Dec. 31, 2016 till now Jan. 29 is has been 29 days.)

Yes, I am very aware that previous balance is gone, I just thought it had something to do with it.


So, there is a fee you have to pay on the voucher weather it's active or not...but if you have no voucher then what are you paying for? that does not make sense..that's a scam to me!
So I could stop using Speak Out and still have to pay their monthly fee's? how do they know if I'm going to return or not? ...what is going on........this does not sound good at all.


Voucher expired Dec. 2016...it has not been 50 days../so that means you have to top up while you're still active and have a balance.....but what's the point of that, you're just wasting money there...unless you actively use your phone before the year is up, but you have a whole year to use your voucher! what happened to you have 465 days.
Expired means end, therefore end of voucher, not beginning of voucher.. Dec. 31 2016 voucher ended and is when it start counting expired days.


It's so easy for them to charge you something that you can't see, there are no fee's listed anywhere for these things they could just be making them up. I like to see what I'm paying.


So there is a fee for topping up a new voucher too? and we don't know what it is?....why is SpeakOut so...mysterious about it's fee's? I have to see everything.


So there is a monthly fee....which is not shown anywhere on their page and we have no idea what it is.....what is that about? and they charge you for months when you're off their network too? how the heck does that make sense..I shouldn't be paying for something I'm not using...
....so much confusion and I am not liking the sound of this. Fee's of any kind should be displayed everywhere on their website.

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Originally Posted by JDI007

So, there is a fee you have to pay on the voucher weather it's active or not...but if you have no voucher then what are you paying for? that does not make sense..that's a scam to me!
So I could stop using Speak Out and still have to pay their monthly fee's? how do they know if I'm going to return or not? ...what is going on........this does not sound good at all.

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I think you might want to go over their terms of service again, in detail so that you understand thoroughly what you're getting involved with (or have gotten involved with), but I'll try and relay the points here that answer your questions:

(Just FYI, I'm not a customer of Speak Out, and in fact I've never heard of Speak Out until today. We dont have 7-11 where I live. I went researching for the answers because I was curious myself on what it was. This is how I found out about the fees and the rules in order to relay them back to you and perhaps help you solve your issue.)


If you let your service expire with Speak Out... you have 7 days to re-activate it in order to maintain any balance that may still exist on the account. After 7 days, you lose that balance. (we already discussed this)

Then, you have up to 45 days after your service expires to re-activate it and still maintain your phone # and original account information. (I'm not sure if that's 7days + 45... or if it's 45 all inclusive, but regardless...) --- If you do reactivated within 45 days, then you must pay the government regulatory fees that would have incurred in that time frame. Speak Out covers that fee in your idle/inactive period, but they expect you to pay it if you come back using the same account. It's not a scam by Speak Out, it's how the regulatory fees work as they are holding your # in the event of re-activation. Should you never re-activate that account, not your problem to worry about.

That being said, If you do not re-activate within 45 days, your number and previous account info are forfeited. Speak Out can request a credit from the regulatory authority(ies) stating that the account was inactive from the initial termination date and not reactivated and that the number is no longer reserved. This is the same for any provider.

You can activate a new number and new account after that time, but you will STILL pay a "new" regulatory fee... and you will have to buy a new SIM as well.

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Originally Posted by JDI007

So there is a monthly fee....which is not shown anywhere on their page and we have no idea what it is.....what is that about? and they charge you for months when you're off their network too? how the heck does that make sense..I shouldn't be paying for something I'm not using...

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For one, the fees are in fact clearly defined in their terms of service, and are told to you. And no... they cant charge you for "months" while you arent on their service because your ability to return only lasts for 45 days. If you return in that time frame, they collect it from you then. As previously mentioned, your account is closed completely after 45 days of inactivity.

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Originally Posted by JDI007

....so much confusion and I am not liking the sound of this. Fee's of any kind should be displayed everywhere on their website.

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In can be confusion, but the information IS there. Some people dont like to read all the terms, but they are indeed there. As well, the fees ARE listed online. As I mentioned, I've never heard of Speak Out before today, but I was able to find this info pretty easily and quickly on their website... so it's definitely there.

You might consider either calling their customer service or review their terms of service again for yourself, and maybe go over the FAQ for yourself. It's all there...

http://www.speakout7eleven.ca/terms/

http://www.speakout7eleven.ca/faq


Good luck!


*(Note: The Government regulatory fees are set by the CRTC and may also incur additional charges by each province for 911 access, taxes, etc. The service providers, be it Bell, Telus, Rogers, or even Speak Out have no control over this. These are always clearly documented in the terms of service.)

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were a customer. I appreciate your help. Sorry if I seem frustrated.


Yes, I know about my previous balance being lost, I do not care about that I know it's gone, I bought a new voucher.


Oh well that makes even more sense that it was not 45 days because my phone number is still mine and my account is still up with my phone number. Dec 31, till now was not 45 days. It was only 29.


So....is that why they're charging me even when I'm not topped up, because of the online account and having an active phone number?
that would make a little bit of sense but I don't think other companies do this? charge you for just having an account? or do they?


because when my dad used to be with WIND, he was on a $30 plan and after a while he stopped using his phone/did not top up, his account is still active even though it's been years, every time he goes on his phone it lights up WIND and reminds him to top up, but he has not topped up, threw out his phone too I think, but if he did go and top up today then he would be charged a fee as well?
But it's been years, it should have been cancelled/deactivated then? that's odd.


Yea, just the fee's are what's confusing me..Speakout charges you a fee when you're inactive because they think you will re-activate, and after 45 days they cancel your account.
otherwise you would cancel your account altogether if you wanted to, right? can you even cancel your own account, I'm assuming so.


I just wish there was like an invoice or something so we can see the fee's and the updated changes to them, that would be really helpful.


If you do reactivate then you have to pay the regulatory fee for the time frame, which is 45 days? but what if it hasn't been 45 days, then you just pay for the days that you were inactive? but isn't it a monthly fee? then why did they charge me more? I guess extra taxes? of course..
I was charged $3.35


Thank you for the links!


-It says that fee's may be increased. taxes and other fees that will be debited from your account as the law provides. I wish we would know what they are! if they know it why can't they tell us!


Reading further it says,
-Emergency Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee of $1.25 will be debited from your account on a monthly basis, subject to change from time to time as the cost of compliance changes.
(this makes sense why I was charged more than $1.25) but how do I know the changes of fee's? they should let us know or let us know where we can find them. I want to see what they see.


I would like to see some kind of updates list on what the current charges are since it's not a standard fee. (this is the most frustrating) because it could change and be so high and how would I know if it's correct or how high is too high.


Then it talks about insufficient balance, there is a fee for that, so if your voucher/account is at 0 which mine was not. But then it says If the account is refilled(within 45 days? yes mine was) the remainder of the fee will be deducted, what does that mean? If you don't have enough for the fee, your next voucher will cover it and more? darn..that's a lot of fee's, it's not just a $1.25 that you're paying/or maybe it's just me. I guess that goes back to having an account/phone number.




So they charge me for my leftover balance? the more I had the bigger the fee? or was it just the extra taxes?


All rates are subject to change without prior notice....yea I do not like that. We should be fully aware of the charges/fee's/taxes that we are paying and any changes to them. Otherwise how are we supposed to know how much we are being charged...it just says fee's, taxes, chages etc etc. but no actual numbers or percentages. I like to calculate things myself to make sure they are correct and I understand them.

Anywho, thank you so much for this information and thank you for your patience.
Sorry for the long post!

Suggest OP that you call their customer support line and ask them about the charges. http://www.speakout7eleven.ca/contact-us
If you have already done so, post the outcome of your discussion in the thread.

I noticed a change posted for mid-March 2017-the per minute local talk rate and Cdn long-distance rate will be $0.30/min for incoming and outgoing calls. I thought that Government Regulatory Charge was a bogus fee-I recall reading another cellphone provider collects same fee but there is no obligation to remit it to CRA.
http://www.speakout7eleven.ca/phone-rates.html

I'm starting to think that Speak Out is not a cheap option at all...
I just set up my voicemail, went to check 3 messages that took all of 1 min. if not less(probably 30sec) had $7.75 and now I have $2.80? where did all that money go? I thought voicemail was supposed to be "Free"...I find it extremely hard to believe that they charge $0.30/minute when I don't even use my phone that much! my phone calls take less than a minute, 30-40sec. max.
This is very not cool...I have never spent so much money than I have when I am with Speak Out..at least with Wind you pay a flat rate and that's it, this is becoming much more costly here..am really starting to re-think my time with Speak out..getting a lot of surprises that I do not like.

Does anyone else ever notice they charge you a lot more than what you're using?

JD, I think you need to do much more reading about what the services and rates are for you.

Having voicemail service is the free part, however there are charges to retrieving messages from your SO phone - from a landline it's free.

I don't have SO, but our son had it for a very long time and it was the best and cheapest option for him then.

I also do not use Speak Out but here is how to check voicemails for free which stops the 30c/min airtime charge

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To retrieve voicemail messages from a landline phone without incurring any charges to your SpeakOut account, dial your SpeakOut mobile phone number and press the pound (#) key when you hear the greeting. Enter your personal voice mail passcode and follow the voice prompts.

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I am not sure how you used around $5 just checking messages unless some kind of charges came out at the same time. However, SpeakOut is not a good deal if you use any data or make more than a few calls and texts a month. At 30c/min (and the timer starts when it starts ringing) and 15c per text I would max out a $25 card easily in a day even without data.

For my grandma who uses her cell to call a taxi if she is out but mostly uses her home phone (which she calls my mum to tell her to text people for her), this type of service may work but for regular use, especially calls, a plan is a better idea. Speakout does have a $20 plan with unlimited text and 100 minutes that should negate you worrying about per min charges

setting up voicemail cost me a lot and retrieving my messages cost me a lot..at this point I don't know if I want to continue having voicemail, this one thing is costing me the most. Does anyone know how to remove voicemail? (I contacted SO still waiting for response)
If I'm at home I can check it but if I'm on the go...not so much without being charged a lot which really sucks :/


I have looked at their other services but they're all monthly charges, I think I just would rather pay for what I use..because if I don't use my phone in a month then I would still have to pay..for nothing.
I don't use my phone a lot..I think for now I will cancel my voicemail and if anyone wants to leave me a message they can text me..:/ becuase sometimes I cannot check it until I get home but texts I can always check on the go and they cost less..certainly not $5 for one text. (I don't know where that amount went but it went quick! within seconds!)

Does anyone know how I can cancel my voicemail for the moment?(still waiting on SO's response)

-Thank you! I will also look around other options..can I even get voucher to a different company and just activate it the same as I did SO? or do i have to go in and sign up with another company in order to use their vouchers?

You would need to be on another company's system, so at least buy a SIM card from them and ensure your phone works on their networks. All of the "cheap" pay per use options are similar though so not sure changing will save you any money.

Looks like you need to call 611 & speak to someone to remove voicemail once set up (but you could always just check it when you get home)

Thank you, I just wanted to know how it works. / Thank you will do.

Speak Out Wireless will have maintenance going on as of 8PM Pacific Time until tomorrow.

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System Maintenance Notice
My Account, Value Plan Purchases and Phone/SIM activations will be unavailable between 8:00pm PST - Saturday January 20th and 10:00am PST - Sunday January 21st
as we are performing scheduled maintenance.

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