Bell/Telus - As of August 28th, every incoming text will be .15 cents

[dianne_101]

Ok so did everyone hear, that as of august 28th, Telus/Bell is going to start charging .15 cents per incoming text message unless you have a texting bundle, whats everyone think about that? I know Rogers isn't doing it!

[Smash]

Yeah, I got that letter from Bell about that too....... I dont understand it at all. I cant control who sends me a text message... so how do I control my costs? At least with a phone call, you have the option to answer it and get charged for the call or not. But with text messages, anybody can send me a text, and I cant stop it from coming into my mailbox. I get lots of text messages now from friends, family etc.... only because I was never charged for them. I have to let everyone know now that even though I loved getting messages from then before (when they didnt charge), I dont want to get them anymore cause they are gonna charge me for them. Its funny how they can continue to change things to make more money off their customers, but they sure as hell dont let us change a contract or agreement that we have made with them. All the reasons why I originally decided to deal with Aliant have all been wiped out by Bell, but yet I am stuck with them. Never again will I get into a contract, even if its only for a year. They are definately a FAR cry from NBTel and Aliant when it comes to customer service and they dont care if you stay with them or go to another company. Bell is definately a miserable company to deal with and I have noticed it with Mobility as well as Bell Express Vu....

[inuit]

Not to mention the ad texts I keep getting from bear or whatever.

[skittlez511]

I too, am stuck with a 3 yr contract with 2 phones!!!! I choose Aliant because they seemed the most reasonable and with phones that I liked!
Some people are saying, why not change companies, and go with Rogers? Ok, who's going to pay around $800.oo for breaking the contract? We all know that Bell isn't going to do, or Aliant, whatever they are going by nowadays, lol.
How do we know that Rogers' isn't going to do the same thing?
Like others are saying, how am I suppose to stop this messages from incoming. Call customer service, and have them stop it, I don't think they can do that. Also, I'm pretty sure, that Bell will come up with a way to put a stop to ( close to all their customers ) from calling to have all their messages recieved removed from their bill. I don't think, this one has been thought through, thanks alot Bell, way to screw us all up. ( bravo )

[dan j]

You can turn off messaging on www.bell.ca but it stops your ability to send and receive messages that you actually do want to use.

www.bell.ca > sign up for online acct (you'll need your Bell account number which is on your bill and should start with 51.... and then your billing date which is also on your bill) > On your "My Bell page" > My Services > See or Change Features > Manage my Features > Change Features > uncheck "E mail and Short Messaging > Continue....etc..

It's not the best alternative but if someone really doesn't want to be bothered by text messaging ever again, go for it.

[trinity]

I agree, for once I am glad to be with Rogers, it is like charging people who receive a phone call, how the heck could I control who phones ME? they should up the charges big time on outgoing texts, make the people who send stupid crap pay. I had one friend who just could not get it, he would call and call while I was at work, and not leave a voicemail, and then text me. HELLO, I DON'T work in a place where I am free to frig around with my cell phone on company time. One positive thing occurs to me, it might cut down on the amount of time teenagers and employees waste on texting at school and work, if the recipients have to pay every time they get a message they might cut down on frivolous chit chat.

[sanstu]

I never thought I'd say it , but I too am glad my cell service is through Rogers. Charging for anything, incoming, that you have no control over is wrong! Now all Rogers has to do is sit back and wait for the Aliant/Bell customers to switch. No marketing necessary which is an even sweeter deal for Rogers! cha ching

[Smash]

You are right about people leaving Bell, anybody I have talked to lately has found a huge difference even in their attitude when you call for help with something. And lots have said they will leave as well as soon as they can, just out of principle. You get the help when you can understand the person you get on the phone, but its almost as if you are putting them out for asking anything. I will definately be leaving Bell as soon as I can...... even if Rogers does follow suit, I would still move my business from Bell just because of their nasty "customer support" employees.....

[dan j]

When you spell the word definite think of it as spelling the word finite and putting the letters D and E in front of it. It's NOT that hard to try to spell properly and we all make mistakes but continually spelling this word wrong just makes you look pretty stupid especially when trying to say something smart.

[Smash]

dan j I honestly dont think that people are sitting back and worrying about my spelling of one word. And I dont believe that they are sitting back and shaking their heads about how stupid I am. I made a mistake, and I apologize. I really dont think that you need to be so rude.....

"It's NOT that hard to try to spell properly and we all make mistakes but continually spelling this word wrong just makes you look pretty stupid especially when trying to say something smart" . That was really uncalled for!!!! You need to get a life, because obviously you have way too much time on your hands. I didnt know that ISaint John was sooooo strict with their spelling policy.
We all cannot be perfect, but you should really put your attention to more important things than to worry about me not spelling a word correctly. If you dont like it, dont read the post!!! You could have easily sent a PM or even a nicer post.

[sanstu]

The spelling error didn't change what was being said. Bell is pulling a fast one on it's customers. Competition is too fierce in the marketplace today for a company to pull this kind of BS with it's customers. Roger's customer care centre is gonna get busy!

[NoseToTheGrind]

Back to the topic here : I just called Bell/Aliant or whoever they are today, and was furious with my new bill.....2 picture texts, 5 txt messages, and 5 TXT Msgs 24, whatever that is.....but I found out the TXT Msgs 24 is a third party text which you receive every couple of days or everyday for that matter, more or less SPAM.
I aked them to make sure they filter ALL spam to the text msgs being sent to me if they are going to charge the 0.15 per message as of Aug. They told me unfortunately they said they cannot do that (must have a deal going with the spammers or something), but they did credit me for the TXT'ing on my bill, cause frankly...I didn't do it, BUT they did take ALL form of TXT msg'ing OFF my cellphone programming. I also asked how much for early termination of my contract, as I still have a year to go...and its $20 per remaining month...SO In my own opinion, it will be worth trying Rogers out for a change.,all in all though the person I talked to was polite, and helpful and didn't give any hard time to me at all, after the first guy conveniently hung up on me "accidentally" of course...LOL...cause he couldn't find my account....LOL

P.S> and DanJ, my spelling was horrific, thank God for Spell-Checker.....ROFLMAO

[Smash]

That is right, Rogers is going to get busy. They may in fact do the same thing in the next few months, but hopefully not. Does complaining to the CRTC do any good? I am going to contact Bell in the next few days to ask how much it will cost to get out of the contract. Is that what the penalty is, $20 per month remaining on the contract? Is that for everyone? If that is the case, it may be worth my while.



The spelling error didn't change what was being said. Bell is pulling a fast one on it's customers. Competition is too fierce in the marketplace today for a company to pull this kind of BS with it's customers. Roger's customer care centre is gonna get busy!

[sanstu]

I would think that there should be a "grandfather clause" associated with "old customers"; otherwise would a contract with Aliant not be considered null and void? Try contacting consumer affairs, #is in the phone book.

[shadoww]

Back to the topic here : I just called Bell/Aliant or whoever they are today, and was furious with my new bill.....2 picture texts, 5 txt messages, and 5 TXT Msgs 24, whatever that is.....but I found out the TXT Msgs 24 is a third party text which you receive every couple of days or everyday for that matter, more or less SPAM.
I aked them to make sure they filter ALL spam to the text msgs being sent to me if they are going to charge the 0.15 per message as of Aug. They told me unfortunately they said they cannot do that (must have a deal going with the spammers or something), but they did credit me for the TXT'ing on my bill, cause frankly...I didn't do it, BUT they did take ALL form of TXT msg'ing OFF my cellphone programming. I also asked how much for early termination of my contract, as I still have a year to go...and its $20 per remaining month...SO In my own opinion, it will be worth trying Rogers out for a change.,all in all though the person I talked to was polite, and helpful and didn't give any hard time to me at all, after the first guy conveniently hung up on me "accidentally" of course...LOL...cause he couldn't find my account....LOL

P.S> and DanJ, my spelling was horrific, thank God for Spell-Checker.....ROFLMAO

I just left Bell. I started shopping around 2 months before my contract was up and was told if I left early it was 20.00 a month for each month of the contract left BUT with a minimum of 100.00!! SO instead of a 40.00 payout for 2 months it was 100.00!! The girl in the store knew nothing of this and a friend of mine that worked for Aliant Mobility said she had never heard of it so it must be a Bell thing. So I had to finish out my contract and then switched to Rogers.

[NoseToTheGrind]

I just left Bell. I started shopping around 2 months before my contract was up and was told if I left early it was 20.00 a month for each month of the contract left BUT with a minimum of 100.00!! SO instead of a 40.00 payout for 2 months it was 100.00!! The girl in the store knew nothing of this and a friend of mine that worked for Aliant Mobility said she had never heard of it so it must be a Bell thing. So I had to finish out my contract and then switched to Rogers.


I just called bell again to confirm what you said, and it is correct, minimum of $100 and maximum of $400, I asked them what are you people some kind of nuts ?? I told them also they are giving Rogers a big boost in business..... LMAO

[puppyluv]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Rogers following suit to charge for texting eventually either. My uncle warned me of this as well as he got his notice in Ontario regarding the texting. He said he can just use his long distance package as it is cheaper...Now I had better go and check MY package too. Although I certainly will never go back to Rogers. they drop ther service calls all over the city. One can not get to KV without a call being dropped!.

[puppyluv]

No problem on ours, we get 100 texts out and unlimited free in as part of our fun 10 package. We never have gone over our texts out either.

[Smash]

Thats too funny... I must tell them that too, that Rogers is going to appreciate the free marketing....RFLMAO!!!

:rofl:


I just called bell again to confirm what you said, and it is correct, minimum of $100 and maximum of $400, I asked them what are you people some kind of nuts ?? I told them also they are giving Rogers a big boost in business..... LMAO

[Camaro]

Aliant is going to lose customers hardcore Unfortunately. I went with Rogers about 4 months ago, regretted it but now I am quite happy I did. What is Aliant/Bell thinking? Blagh, Way of the world I guess... Anything to make a penny.

[sanstu]

I have been with Rogers for years with my cell; I live in the Valley and don't seem to have a problem with dropped calls with the exception of the highway on the Crown St. exit.

[puppyluv]

Hm perhaps they have changed their service, We kept dropping calls, so they offered us call answer..which wouldnt help if it was in the middle of an important call. And their cancellation fee was almost $300. Never again will I use their cell. Internet, cable etc, no problem, cell..Big problems.:p

[nasoj007]

I love how Aliant (or any other cell company for that matter) can change your contract as they see fit but if you want to leave because of said change that's a breach of the contract. It must be nice to make all the rules and hold all of the cards.

[Smash]

I love how Aliant (or any other cell company for that matter) can change your contract as they see fit but if you want to leave because of said change that's a breach of the contract. It must be nice to make all the rules and hold all of the cards.

You are so right.... and there is nothing we can do about it that I know of anyway. It's like the price of gas, we get told how its gonna be, without any real explanation, and then we have to live with it. It's just so frustrating.

[andrea]

i work for bell..and rogers is as well doing it,,if u read what it says on their txt page when u want to add a text bundle it now states,,,for incomming.text...i am sure they are just waiting to see how much the others are gonna charge before they say what they will be charging,,,no one in this world gives away anything any more..and it is a service..if you are not wantin txt msg just call in and we will remove it from your account,...as to the premium ones and spam..we will take off the charges to your account for them and inform them how to block em...
:P..i kno bell has some bad agents...but i can garentee if u call in and talk with me i will do my best to straighten any thing out..as long as u aint cursin at me!

[Smash]

I hope that I get you the next time I call in for help... :D

I just find it very frustrating that we have to stick to our end of the bargain, yet they dont. They can change things when and if they want. I signed with Aliant, based on the service that they were offering at the time, the plans that they had, their reputation and the service I had always received from them..... I have talked to some of the people that work at the Aliant store in Saint John and a few in NS, and they have all said the same thing, that they have never received so many complaints as they have since Bell took over. I myself have had only bad experiences every time I have called Bell. (wait times, hang ups once I did get through, transferred numerous times, not getting called back from a supervisor/manager) And yes I understand that somewhere in the contract, in very small print, that it probably said "prices are subject to change", it really doesnt seem fair at all. I want to be able to receive text messages in some cases, but not in all cases. From what you're saying, the only thing I can block is the spam, or else block everything. Like my telephone, if it rings during the day, I can decide whether or not to answer it and be charged for the call. With texts, I can't decide, cause Bell is deciding for me.

:) And I promise, I didnt started cursing and swearing until time I was on hold for 38 minutes... :mad:

[kaj27]

Clearly no one was with Aliant 5+ Years ago.

Aliant or even NBTel at the time charged 10¢ per incoming text messages. Rogers was free to receive. Nobody really complained then.

[sanstu]

kaj, I don't think texting was anywhere near as popular 5+ years ago.(so you weren't apt to get text messages back in the day.lol) That could be why customers are upset now.

[kaj27]

kaj, I don't think texting was anywhere near as popular 5+ years ago.(so you weren't apt to get text messages back in the day.lol) That could be why customers are upset now.


You're right. When Digital Cell Phones came out I was first in line. It did not have a texting function. That was my second and last phone with NBTel at the time. Yes, it was NBTel at the time.

I doubt Rogers will start charging for text messages. When you send a text message via a Rogers phone it 'normally' sends it through their IP system, some phones still send to a central server number. This cuts down costs on your end and theirs.

But hey, they might get money hungry too.

[love_my_baby_girl]

I can say I was with Rogers and paid my bill evry month and they decided to cut me and hubby off before the end of the month for a few month's in a row because they were acusing us not to pay the bill...well the last time they did that we said screw them we're not gona pay the fee to be reconected again!!! They are bad for there support service you wait on the phone for ever then explain starts with one agent then that person has to transfer you (working in a call center here knowing they got to explain the situation to who they transfer...)drop you to wait then the next person has to be explained again who does the same thing and you all that time remain patient calm and polite untill the 5th person you tell them I've been speaking with numerous people and keep repeating myself who is your supervisor to be told they can not pass one to us??? Wathever...I guess no cell company is better than any other cuz they will try to screw you over no matter what...The one I curently have has already disconect me for a mistake on there end cuz I have a lock before getting dc which hasnt been reached after my first bill and they charged me for reconection...wtf??? So I am going to see them and explain them I am not paying for something I shouldnt be charged for and my text are free in my 5 who I can only text 2 ppl out of my 5 and I was charged for my text messages...So dosent matter who it is...Rogers, Alliant, Bell, Telus...whoever else there is you will find the same crap evrywhere I guess!!! It's a money maker for them to have a right to charge you just cuz they want so they can have your money or atleast that is how I feal...

[dianne_101]

Rogers as of august 1st, will start charging for incoming picture messaging...

[dan j]

as in a straight up fee or charging for the data needed to download the picture? if it is for just because someone sent you a picture message then that is as dumb as the text messaging situation. however, it it is for the data used to actually download the file to the phone, then yeah, makes sense.

[KRS]

I remember when I was younger I worked for Rogers in Toronto and when I got irate callers on the phone I would transfer them to a Mandarin agent and mute my phone and listen. good times, this is also why I don't work for Rogers anymore

[dianne_101]

Just the .50 cents to accept the message... and thats the thing, you don't have a choice to accept them... they just come into your phone... they aren't going to charge for data usage.. so thats a plus i guess.. and yeah Rogers won't be too far behind charging for incoming text messages, any way for Rogers to make another buck, they will certainly do it...

[kaj27]

Bell and Telus customers can avoid the charge by switching to Rogers, which says it has no plans to institute a fee to receive a text message.

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=638556

Rogers claims to be sticking to free messages.

[love_my_baby_girl]

Rogers will disconect you for no reason and keep doing it just before you pay your bill just so they can make you pay reconection fee...Im with Telus and they actully recredit me if they make a mistake!!! Atleast with this phone I dont loose service in between houses or in the back road to go somewheres where there is service on other phones...I like rogers home phone but not there cell besides i have free txt with my 5:D

[kaj27]

Rogers will disconect you for no reason and keep doing it just before you pay your bill just so they can make you pay reconection fee...Im with Telus and they actully recredit me if they make a mistake!!! Atleast with this phone I dont loose service in between houses or in the back road to go somewheres where there is service on other phones...I like rogers home phone but not there cell besides i have free txt with my 5:D

Sure...ok. They do it to everyone.

I've had a Rogers mobile phone for over 7 years and not one issue with them. I now have my phone, cable, internet and moile services through them. All together every month it comes to about $125.

Aliant couldn't touch that price.

[sanstu]

I have always had my cell through Rogers, pay my bill the day it comes in and I've never been disconnected. Maybe the key is to pay the bill in full by the required date.

[dianne_101]

Lol at Sanstu

[trinity]

Every place has made a billing mistake at one time or another. I was so mad at Cantel cellular back in about 1995 that I brought my phone (yup it looked like a big walkie talkie)to their office in a box and threw it on the floor in front of the desk and left. They had promised to retroactively switch my personal plan to a business one as I started using it for my business, in fact they contacted ME when my usage started to increase, "we noticed you seem to be using a lot of daytime minutes, you should consider our 89.95 business plan" but my bill continued to climb at a per-minute usage rate. I called and was told they would fix it, but then it reached $500 (which was a whopping pile of cash in 1995 when my full time weekly paycheque was like $180), they then said "oh, we can only make that change for THIS month", not the past 3 months. And yes, I still had to pay. I also threw a fit at Rogers back in 2002 over a cell phone whose battery was defective-it stopped holding a charge after 10 months. They kept referring me to the store on Rothesay Ave, who kept having my battery on "back order" for 4 months(while I continued to pay) before finally saying it was no longer manufactured (on a year-old Nokia phone?). Then I got a woman on the phone who promised me a new phone for free, so I hopped in my car and drove to the storefront on Westmorland to happily pick out my new phone. Once there I was told that it was not close enough to the end of my contract to get a new phone, that since I was not within 2 months of it I would have to pay for the phone. I cancelled my contract and paid the $20 a month to get out of it. However, on a positive note, I bought the phone for a cross-Canada drive to Vancouver and coverage was excellent all the way across.
As long as there has been phone service, there have been issues.
I do think it is a size issue, I had no phone issues all the time it was NBTel. I had a phone of my own three separate years in university, no problems. A pager with them back in 1993/1994, cancelled it no problem when I got the cell phone. (BTW I was a substitute teacher, not a dealer LOL, for those who might be wondering why I had so much tech so early in the game so to speak. When I first got a pager, the only people who had them were doctors, lawyers, contractors and dealers, pretty much).