Doing battle with the telcos over price and service
By Peter Vogel
It’s as Canadian as maple syrup, the battle every year or two with our telecommunications and streaming providers, typically over monthly rates, but sometimes also over service.
In recent months I’ve taken on my cellphone service provider (Telus), my cable and internet provider (Shaw, soon to be Rogers if approved by regulators), my landline service provider (Telus), and vehicle music provider (SiriusXM).
Let’s look at some of these skirmishes, starting with my landline. I’ve alluded to this issue in a previous column. Telus, the one-time BC Tel, has been prodding customers with old-school copper landlines to upgrade to a fibre connection.
In my own case I don’t need a fibre connection. My cable TV and internet service are just fine. Although I have a cellphone and have had one for close to twenty years, I still prefer having and using a telephone connected to a copper landline when calling from home. It always works. I never have to reboot a device. There’s never a question of it working when I pick up a handset.
Over the past twelve months or so I’ve received four calls from Telus representatives telling me that my copper landline service will “soon” be ending. I’m told in these calls that I need to upgrade to a fibre connection. When pressed, in each case, the representative has been unable to come up with any deadline for when this reliable service will be terminated. In short, there is no set date insofar as I can tell.
Let’s face it, the only reason for the Telus calls is to get me using their fibre service, and then upsell me to their TV and security services and perhaps one of their health services. If I particularly wanted their TV service, sure I’d get the fibre into the house, but I know I’d be facing a higher monthly rate for my landline phone service, a phone service that may or may not work during power outages.
My copper landline costs approximately $10 a month. For a service that always works, is never down, never requires a reboot, that is peace of mind value.
Recently The B.C. Catholic contacted Telus public relations representative Liz Sauve to get some clarity on these calls suggesting landlines are being terminated, even though there is no timetable for this.
Here is part of the reply that came back: “We are planning to shut down our copper services in some communities where the vast majority of our customers are already on the PureFibre network. In these communities, we communicate about the benefits and improved service they will experience on PureFibre from the time we install it in their neighborhoods, and once we make the decision to turn down copper service, we will provide our customers with 30 days’ notice at minimum.”
Ms Sauve appeared to imply that some communities will have copper service terminated.
“We know that in some communities, we will turn down copper. Once we have a formal date to do so, we provide customers with a registered letter at least 30 days before the turn down. Prior to having the formal shut down date set in stone, we communicate with customers in advance to let them know the network will eventually be shut down, and to give them ample time to make the switch if they’d like to continue receiving TELUS services. If customers choose to wait until they receive the formal notice, they can do so.”
That’s interesting because the last representative who phoned to tell me that I must switch to fibre said the shutdown, if any, would be at least three months away. I asked Ms Sauve via email if copper service had in fact been terminated anywhere on the Telus network but did not receive a reply to that question.
I’m not taking a Luddite approach to the phone company here. I realize that the old-school networks and their huge battery backup systems are difficult to maintain. At the same time, however, I refuse to act because of pressure tactics that have no basis in fact.
Now onto the cellphone front. Back in 2017 I signed on for $65 for a 10 GB promotion during a telcos price war. The plan came with a “price will never increase” rider. Of course, two years later that wording proved meaningless, and the price jumped by $10.
Last year I decided I shouldn’t be paying Telus full rate for any plan when service in my particular area is basically unusable. The company agreed and dropped $15 off my monthly bill going forward. The clincher was reaching a Telus representative familiar with my area and knowing that service in a particular circle of about a kilometre in diameter has been poor for almost two decades.
Whenever I phone Telus to complain about my cellphone service, I’ve learned I can’t do so from the mobile handset while at home. Invariably the rep will say my voice is breaking up! Recently many Telus mobile plans were hit with a $5 a month increase. I felt this was over the top for my situation, given the previous reduction. Fortunately the company agreed to waive the increase when I pointed out that a $5 increase for “network improvements” clearly wasn’t applicable in my case.
When my mother observed this same $5 a month increase, for a mobile with a grandfathered $11 a month plan, also with a “price will never increase” rider, she became apoplectic. She has the phone mostly for emergencies, and I doubt it has made a dozen calls in its lifetime. It took a week of calling the company, several times being told she would be phoned back the next day, something that never did occur. Eventually she was guided to a “pay a year in advance” compromise at around $100, which, wonder of all wonders, is actually a slight reduction in the net monthly rate!
As for my SiriusXM car and home satellite radio service, well, that truly is an annual experience. Usually, a retention representative will come on the line and offer an acceptable price. My argument is that users in Vancouver’s core get pretty much perfect reception because they are actually connected to a land repeater located in the Robson and Burrard area. Outside of the city proper, buildings and trees will interrupt the service.
However, this time the retention representative had no interest in my account and issued an account termination confirmation number before I’d even had a chance to argue my case! A month later though came a phone call inviting me back at around $6 a month, much better than the $17 I was facing.
Now, if only the phone company would put a stop to all those Service Canada, Microsoft, and Visa scam calls! That’s for yet another column.
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