Telus Mobility is so expensive
My cell phone bill this month came to $101.65. I used to keep it around $70 or so… But man. It just keeps getting worse and worse each month.
Here’s what I used :
- 409 minutes of chargeable daytime airtime
- 1,300 + evening/weekend airtime (6pm~8am)
- 100 Text Messages sent (thankfully I didn’t go over the 100 threshold)
That came out to $101.65.
Here’s a breakdown.
- $40 for my basic plan.
- $7.45 for SAf/911
- $17.xx of extra chargeable airtime
- $24 in extra bundles services etc. (many of these used to be included but now I pay for them as the promotions run out)
- Add taxes and a $0.91 late fee.
I have to keep my airtime down by using my houseline whenever I can (I have my cell forward to that line mostly) to save airtime and what not, and I still go over. My friends who are with Rogers or Fido have a significantly higher usage of their airtime, not to mention text messages, and their bills come out to less than this.
Here are some key factors that make Telus/Bell more expensive than their competitors. And I know this because I used to be a call centre agent for Bell Mobility in the Corporate Accounts Department.
- Most new accounts (meaning signed up within the past few years) are on per minute billing on the Telus/Bell platform.
- Evenings and weekends with many of the Fido or Rogers accounts start as early as 6 or 5 at no extra charge – I was paying $5/mth for the extention, and now it’s up to $7.
- By default, the Rogers/Fido plans often have more airtime than Telus/Bell (it adds to the lack of airtime in the Telus plans).
Here are the reasons why you SHOULD use Telus/Bell, even though they are more expensive.
- If you use your cell phone in the outskirts of the city a lot, you should stick with Telus. If your business relies on you being accessible on the Sea-to-Sky high way and in the valleys and creeks where your construction project is going on (for those of you who don’t live in Vancouver, that connects Vancouver to Whistler), you’ll have to stay with Bell or Telus.
- If you’re on a contract like me, and your phone number is stuck with Telus – you cannot switch.. yet!!!
Note that the Wireless Number Transportability clause enforced by the CRTC (Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission) is supposed to kick in soon (it was supposed to take effect as of March of 2006 but I guess the project had a slight delay), and for guys like me who cannot afford to change their numbers due to the businesses we already have, it will open up a whole new option of dealing with this problem.
I’ll probably go with Bell Mobility because of these reasons :
- I still like the reliability and the strong signal, even at remote areas.
- Bell offers extra airtime bundles at $10 per 100 minutes, which is very reasonable. Telus doesn’t – you have to change your whole plan to another step up, and for me I need to take a big jump for more airtime. It’s very unflexible. Since I know the flexible options that Bell Mobility offers, I can take full advantage of that and reduce my prices more.
- I am getting my real estate license soon, and as a registered Realtor in BC, I get a special promotional plan with Bell Mobility (I know all about this plan because I was in the corporate account department a while ago) and it’s a killer plan.
But then, WHEN the wireless numbers become transportable, and carriers realize that it’s much easier to lose clients to competitors at that point, they might get more competitive. Perhaps Telus will offer more reasonable rates and flexibility in their wireless products. That would be quite nice, because then I don’t have to go through the transfer etc.
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
(4.67 out of 5)
I totally feel your pain Jeff. Telus is a high quality but very expensive service. I used to suffer from their high monthly bills. Since you run a business, you can always write off the hefty bill
.
I am now a happy Fido customer with their old City Wide Plan (Unlimited local minutes). Too bad they ended this plan two years ago. However, I can still renew my plan infinitely after every 3 years.
Up till last month, you could have purchase an old City Wide Plan from a re-seller and have it transferred to your name; therefore, owning the plan. These old City Wide plans were commonly found on eBay, Craig’s list, etc, for about $300 – 700 bucks. But Fido caught on to this tactic so they don’t allow anymore name transfers for this plan anymore. I have a lot of friends who were reselling these plans for a healthy profit but now they’re screwed.
Fido always has a good deal or special promotion. Perhaps you can talk to my friend Peter. You met him last month during our meeting. Maybe Peter can get you a good deal on a plan or a new phone. He owns a Fido Franchise called Orange Wave Wireless. http://www.myorangewave.com. They have locations in Richmond and Langley.
Ya that’s one deal I missed out on – the City Fido plans. i wish i had been on the bandwagon when those were available but oh well.
In any case I cannot change my phone # so I’m stuck with these guys for a while.. not to mention I still have about 21 months left in my contract which translates to $420 in cancellation fees right now with Telus.
oh man, you’re getting screwed with the 1,300 + evening/weekend airtime (6pm~8am). I bet it’s because your in Canada though. Most carriers here are free night’s and weekends. That must be one of the few things that are good here.
No Jane, my evenings’ weekends are free.
I have 350 minutes daytime, and 409 put me at 59 minutes over, that’s all.
If I went over by 1300 minutes… that’s $325, cause it’s usually 25 cents a minute.
What did you think of Chow’s request for review of the OhMiBod…hahaha
you should do it!!! hahaha I’ll read it for sure.
Chow wants a video review, you think???
!!!!
Jeff, the only reason why you are paying 100$ is because you’re not on the right plan for you. I see a lot of people like you complaining but in fact, the real problem is that we often dont want to take our responsabilities and it’s always easier to bash the others (in this case TELUS) . That same bill would have cost you 60$ … you are the cause why it went to 100$ …not telus …I’ve been with TELUS for years and i dont think i will ever go else where. BELL are the worse sharks of the industry (trust me…you’ll go back to TELUS in less than 1yr) I’ve done my research and if you shop you rate plan correctly TELUS is the best place to be pricewise AND networkwise. You don’t have to believe me but i hope (for you) that you will
take care
Actualy Kevin that’s the best plan for me out there as far as I checked, unless they have new plans available for me right. All cell phone companies offer the special promotional plans ONLY to the new subscriptions, which means I cannot take advantage of the unlimited incoming plan, or free telus-to-telus plan etc. WHy? cause I’ve been with them, I have a contract so they don’t need to offer me anything.
I was a call centre agent for Bell Mobility analyzing plans for people and observing trends for 14 months – I know VERY well of the pricing structure between different cell phone companies, and how the promotions are offered etc.
With Telus, I have the Supertalk $40, which gives me 350 minutes.
The next step up is the Talk $50, which gives you 500 minutes, BUT unless it’s a new activation, I have to pay extra for free evenings and weekends. I think that’s about $15 or $20 extra. So essentially to go from 350 daytime to 500 daytime, I need to pay an extra $25~$30 more, which basically puts my bill to the same as what you see above.. if I go over that much again I’d switch over anyhow, but still this is much more difficult than it is with Bell.
Thats why it’s so difficult to set the right plan with Telus unless you’re a new subscriber. With Bell, I can add 100 minutes per $10 bundles as much or as little as I like.
A Small Correction :
Telus mobility DOES offer free evenings/weekends on the Talk $50 plan, so I switched to that one. The website did not specify it properly – but if you are currently on a 1, 2, or 3 year contract, they do let you have the evenings/weekends unlimited even if its not a new activation.
So I switched to that one, and now I pay $10/mth more for 150 more daytime minutes, which is solid for me!
I always thought I can’t get the evenings/weekends with the Talk 50 – I would have switched over a year ago so I don’t have to worry about saving airtime all the time haha!
You people are all wrong. Simply complain to Telus loyalty department and threaten to switch carriers and you will be rewarded with a much better plan.
When I wrote this, the carrier switching was not an option. Business people cannot lose their phone numbers.
However with the numbers being portable between carriers, customers have much more leverage and the loyalty departments have become much more powerful and flexible. There were days when they wouldn’t budge, calling the customers’ bluffs!