Pizzawheel

Had the lovely Bell people banging on the door yesterday (honestly, I prefer the Jehovah's witnesses) talking about a $45/ month hi speed internet plan. I'm pretty sure that'll be three months only, leading into a 2-year contract you can only get out of by dropping dead or fleeing to Afghanistan.

Got me wondering- didn't they ban those deals in the UK/EU because so many less astute peeps were signing up then getting into serious financial shit?

I might tell them that next time....

BristolUK

Might be a good idea to double check.
I took a Bellaliant tv/phone/internet package (but it could have been any individual service, a pairing or all three) with a big reduction for three years, with no minimum or other tied in conditions.

During the three year period they have upped the internet speed with no charge and I've made two changes to the TV package which haven't changed the underlying price at all.

I was already a phone only customer and was still eligible for the deal, which is quite unusual as these offers tend to be new customers only.

scrubbedexpat091

That is why we stick with Shaw. None of the contract nonsense.

MillieF

Note your geographical location...here in NB we have Bell or Rogers...I am NOT a happy ex Rogers client! Bell have just treated us better...so far.

You have to renegotiate everything here or you get shafted.

Zoe Bell

we are incredibly lucky to have a local company, Beanfield.
so far am incredibly impressed with them.
Customer service has been incredibly helpful. We had a small issue with our router, they pushed through a firmware update, and kept trying various things, each time asking us to monitor the situation for a few days before contacting us again to see how thigns were going.

BristolUK

I have nothing but good to say about BellAliant.
Are you available for hire?
Everybody talks about playing one off against another but I'm just not that sort of person. I don't have that 'front' at all.

It's a great deal we got but when it ends I will be looking at alternatives (including cutting back TV) because the price jump will be quite noticeable. That's logical enough, if we got a great saving, there's bound to be a big increase after the there years.

Partially discharged

If you don't have an email account tied to a provider (ie a sympatico account or a bellaliant/rogers/telus email account it's pretty east to switch. Cancel with one company as of a certain date (say 30 days from now) saying the services are too expensive, you're just going to stream tv content when you cancel internet, cancel the landline and just get a VOIP line etc and watch the counteroffers come in from your existing service. Don't necessarily take the first one but take one with about a day to go before they turn off the service.

Believe me these companies are odious to deal with but you have to fight fire with fire as their billing practices, hidden costs, bait and switch pricing is the reason so many try and get a better deal.

Alternatively, cancel the services in your name and then sign up again as a 'new customer' in the name of another person in your household (a different surname helps).

BristolUK

But that's just it, none of this matches my experience. I even qualified for the offer as an existing customer without threats and name changes.

I've been very happy with the internet service. My only real objection is paying for channels not wanted; the only live TV I watch is the footie, my stepson streams everything he's interested in and the other two rely on live TV less and less. Most of the live TV they watch is reruns anyway.

In a perfect world the 'skinny' packages with the ability to add the footie channels would be great, but unless things have changed you can only do that with the next level up from 'skinny' and this seems to be the same with all providers.

Danny B

Sounds almost as bad as when I signed up for Readers Digest in 1999.

That's the main reason I moved to Canada in 2007, I couldn't stop my 'free' subscription.

BristolUK

When I couldn't get the necessary attention for stuff like that I used to send the envelopes back "Return to sender: Deceased"

It seemed to work.

Danny B

Does it work for bills as well?

BristolUK

Possibly but probably wouldn't do your credit rating much good.

Pizzawheel

According to FB friends still legal, and prevalent on TV contracts.

They did ban "auto renew" contracts, and also gave a "cooling off" period once you'd signed up.

Almost Canadian

Seems fair to me.

scrubbedexpat091

These companies could do a lot for their image if they didn't play games and have contracts one needs a lawyer to understand.

That is why I like Shaw, I can call and suspend service today without penalty if I need to.