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.