WOW

So, when we moved to this house 5 years ago we couldn't get bell internet but, I had an option to keep my bell email address going (mike.nolte@sympatico.ca) for $5 a month, added to my phone bill.   Great!  Thats what I did.....

and so...less than 6 months later it goes from 5 to 22(and I never noticed)...now its $29 a month!  FOR and EMAIL address ONLY!   I just got screwed out of approx $1200 dollars because I didn't check my bill.  My wife takes care of that and not to blame her.  How would she know?  There was no warning, no email, nothing....WHAT A RIP.

I wonder if I have any legal grounds.  I'm going to look into it.  Thats robbery in my opinion.  They said its bacause they don't offer it anymore for $5, you would have the lowest internet fee to keep it which is Dial up...and I don't use BELL, so why would I pay $29 a month...just for a friggin email.  EIther i'm an idiot, too trusting or they are crooks.  Needless to say, i cancelled my email.  I'll be going to Hotmail soon, very soon or something else thats free!

Man, i'm really really angry that they can do that without so much as a warning on my bill.  I can't stress enough that i'm fuming....I feal sorry for the rep who I did appologize to btw, but i'm still po'd.

It seems so much these days is just a waiste of money.  Live and learn, i'll be checking every bill and questioning anything out of the ordinary from now on....F'me...

Anyone have any legal advice on this?

Mike

If Bell changes its terms or contract with you, you are able to legally cancel your original contract and not pay any of the additional billing since they broke the terms. When they issue a term contract they have to abide by the terms, just as you have to keep paying the service for the term... they can't arbitrarily change it (even with notice I believe).  I'm not a lawyer, but I do remember distinctly that that is one of the ways people look to get out of their cell phone contracts, they wait for some arbitrary change that the phone companies sneakl through and jsut cancel their contracts with no further obligations.

I may not have read far enough into your email.  If you weren't on an annual contract (sometimes preferred terms are given on an annual contract) then they can change the rates by giving you notice.  If you choose to ignore the notice and pay the bill, then you are agreeing to the rate and the service, so you are liable for the additional charges.  That's my personal take on month to month services.

Don't get me started on Bell.  We have our phone, internet, and television with them.  So I get a call about two months ago, offering a great deal (roughly $60 less my current billing), so I say "sure, switch me over, thats a great deal. Next they say "Oh sorry sir, your already a customer, your not eligible for the deal. NOT ELIGIBLE FOR THE DEAL, THEY CALLED ME. HOW CAN BELL NOT KNOW I'M THEIR CUSTOMER, THEY SEND ME A BILL EVERY MONTH. NOW THEY OFFER ME A DEAL, AND THEN SAY NO.

So I'm now determined to get the deal. I call them every day for a week threatening to leave if they don't lower my rates.  Sure enough I win, I get the monthly bill lowered $60 for a year. Now I've learned to compare my bill against the internet offers and dig in my heals. It's worth the fight, this year alone I will save around $720.

I have f%$?3% contract with Bell for one more year and after NO MORE BELL in my home

Well my cell is Rogers, but bell does my home line....bastards.

At the time the change happened, my wife reminded me she wasn't "well" and off work for 2 years with health issues.  It was not a good time back then.  

But I can understand that paying for it would possibly imply I agree but I still think thats bogus because i didn't realize it had gone up.  I never check my bank statements either!  Geeze, I need to open my eyes to the big world...I need to go off the grid....that would solve it.  RedneckG all the way

So, if you cancel your home line with bell, can you still call 911?  Thats the ONLY reason we keep the land line.  911 comes in handy from time to time around here   and cell phones don't relay your exact location as yet.  Or do they?  Reliably?

Be warned too that Bell will be trying to move all internet members to different plans due to the recent CRTC rulings.   The rulings which Bell pushed for allow Bell to charge the ISPs the rely on Bell by the Gigabyte.   But Bell cannot do this until Bell charges all their customers by the Gigabyte.   (Or something to this affect).   As a result, if people don't change their plans, folks can still get unlimited via Teksavvy and the like....

Quoted from Tuborg

As a result, if people don't change their plans, folks can still get unlimited via Teksavvy and the like....

Bell is appealing the decision.  I have unlimited with Bell..

Mike

Don't pay for email. Just use Gmail. It's free and better than any 'for pay' email service.

Or buy you own domain for about $10/year and a cheap hosting service another $10 and have unlimited email accounts without the gmail dependancy....

Want a MAACA email?

You don't even need to buy hosting. Just a domain. Most domain registrars offer email services on "parked" domains (that's a domain without an actual website).

Example:
http://www.hover.com

$15/yr. And it's not just 1 email address.

i have grandfathered unlimited bandwidth from bell too, and that's not because i work for them

Quoted from Tuborg

Or buy you own domain for about $10/year and a cheap hosting service another $10 and have unlimited email accounts without the gmail dependancy....

What I do is buy a domain, then get Google to host it, for free. And if Google ever turns evil, I can just switch hosts.

I can't believe people are so eager to waste money on something that is offered for free (and usually with more features) by Google.

Google's email hosting offers IMAP, POP, and even Activesync (MS Exchange) service. I get free push email for my iphone, constantly synced contacts and calendar.

As for the 911, do a search on crtc and e911.  Your coverage may vary based on your location and phone type.  If it has an built in GPS, then you're well off, otherwise they will have to use triangulation to determine your location.  It isn't  fool-proof, but it's reasonably comparable.

You can only call 911 AND Bell repair if you have your land phone line connected - but not activated. As in no phone service.

In regard to your e-mail situation... tell them you're going to cancel your home phone if they don't eat the charges for the e-mail address. If they wont take care of it for you - CANCEL..... and ignore all payment requests on behalf of Bell and any collection agency they use. I'm pretty sure you'll get a call to come back to Bell - with all fees waived.

Threaten to take the issue to the media if they don't refund the charges. It's ridiculous!

Quoted from Bally Boy

and ignore all payment requests on behalf of Bell and any collection agency they use. I'm pretty sure you'll get a call to come back to Bell - with all fees waived.

Are you insane? Or you just have a horrible credit history already?

Nah, I just work for Bell and see this mess every single day, tons of people are getting away with not paying all the time. This seems to be the way with most larger companies.

Customers invent new ways to by-pass the credit office all the time.
In fact, if you cancel the service and open up another account at the same address under a different name, you'll probably barely see a service interruption. Yes, Bell is that stupid, or they just don't care.

Also, always check your monthly bill and when something doesn't seem right or changes, always CALL them. It's worth the effort to call companies about every three or four months to see if there are any new offers, things are changing so rapidly in this business, you'll probably get a new promotion/offer that'll save you some $$$. They're not always going to call you - it's actually more profitable for them if they DON'T..... if you get what I mean.

Quoted from jonny_eh

I can't believe people are so eager to waste money on something that is offered for free (and usually with more features) by Google.

For $10 I get:

• hosting
  
• ability to nerd out a bit
  
• knowledge that the corporation that is hosting my domain is not hoping to earn their business by data mining my internet usage
  
• customer-care with a real person
  

Call their support like and b**** and whine.  Either it will work and they will provide you full/partial credit OR you'll at least get something out of that charge (the bitching and whining).  Just remember that the person that's talking to you on the phone, that's a real person with feelings so don't take it out on them. I had an issue with Rogers last year and although I was more abrupt than I usually am, I ensured I clearly stated "listen, this does not relate to you, you're doing a fine job, but from my pov, Bell sucks big time.  I did not see any information there was a change in service, so under the old deal you can't charge me more than X $ per month. IF you don't credit me for the difference or if you don't have authority to help me right now, then please connect me with your supervisor or someone else who can.  If they can't help me, I'm telling you right away, I'm cancelling every service and I guarantee you that's going to cost you guys more than the difference I'm seeking. Again, the point is, I didn't get your notice so you can't charge me something else than what I signed up for"

In my case, they apparently had sent me a notice via mail, but I subscribe to electronic billing so I told her "why the heck would I check a letter when I: A) get my bill via email and B) get emails from you on offers, etc all the time.  If you can't find a way to mass email updates to the service plan, NOT MY PROBLEM, don't push electronic billing then".

There's more to it than that, but that's the basic story.  Bottom line, they want to keep you, unless you're a total douche on the phone and unless it's not just you don't want to pay (ie: one can see from the circumstances this is not a typial issue), they will wnat to keep you so they will go to bat for you. Especially if you start quoting the opposition as a solution.

Quoted from Tuborg

For $10 I get:

• hosting
  
• ability to nerd out a bit
  
• knowledge that the corporation that is hosting my domain is not hoping to earn their business by data mining my internet usage
  
• customer-care with a real person
  

1) You pay $10 a year for web hosting?
2) What does this mean?
3) Google earns their money by advertising. And don't think that whoever is hosting your email isn't data mining you. Plus, your email is being mined by nearly every server it passes through (and it's probably passing through a Google server at some point).
4) In the 4 years I've been using Gmail I've never needed support. It always works.