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RobinK
join:2004-04-16
Canada

RobinK

Member

[Grandfathered Plans] How to swtich to cheaper plan without payi

My parents are currently on a Fibe 12 plan. The cost of this plan has become ridiculous. It is costing my parents $60 + $5 modem rental and comes with 50GB usage.

I have urged them to switch to Basic 5/1 or Fibe 15/10 to save their money. But that has it own costs associated with it too.

Bell is punishing long term loyalty with one time modem fees which are only waived for new customers. Because my parents are using my ST516+Asus RTN16, there is no need to rent a 2wire from Bell anymore. It is only being rented now because it was forced when they signed on to Fibe 12 a long time ago.

I talked to a Bell rep and asked if I could just return to the 2wire and not pay a one time rental or ongoing rental and just use my own modem. Unsurprisingly, that was a no go.

I feel like wants to send their existing customers to teksavvy and just take up new customer elsewhere.

Anyone know anything I can try to avoid this unnecessary fee? I want to tell my parents to just cancel the account and sign up again as a new customer to have the fee waived. But that might be an issue because they been using their @sympatico.ca e-mails for a long time.

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

Re: [Grandfathered Plans] How to swtich to cheaper plan without

Set them up with gmail, forward everything from the @sympatico to it, and notify friends/family whoever they correspond regularly with of the email change, go like that for a few months then change ISP.

dont be held hostage by the email addy...

corster
Premium Member
join:2002-02-23
Oshawa, ON

corster

Premium Member

or even easier, just call Bell and say you want to cancel because it's too expensive - and see what retentions deal they offer you.

We called to cancel our student plan last week and they offered us Fibe 5/1 for $35 a month, no modem rental fees or contract.

MFido
Montreal
join:2012-10-19

MFido to RobinK

Member

to RobinK
I would still go with HiVolt suggestion

corster
Premium Member
join:2002-02-23
Oshawa, ON

corster

Premium Member

said by MFido:

I would still go with HiVolt suggestion

So would I. Just waiting for the Videotron tech to show up to install my TekSavvy Cable once again

jasmo34
join:2008-03-20
~ London ~

1 edit

jasmo34 to RobinK

Member

to RobinK
As "550v" mentioned above, go the GMail route, and don't let the 'old beloved email addy' be a deterrent to leaving Bell. I have switched emails 2 or 3 times in 13 years with very little disruption. Now, finally, I ONLY use the generic email services (GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Mail.com), and don't even have an email from my ISP.

The call to Bell retentions is worth a try too. Actually, unless they are in a 'package deal', they might just be able to say they have long since 'paid' for the bell modem, and no longer will pay for the modem rental. I've heard this does work.

Basically, here's how I did my changes, or would do them again...

Get a Gmail account, and get things set up for POP3 access for your parents; I'm guessing they are using a traditional email client, like Thunderbird (I wish I still was; changing back soon!).

Then, while both emails are operational, (forwarding your old sympatico email to the new one, if you wish), send an email out to everyone, from the old address, asking folks to use the new email address. Recipients will hopefully recognize the name and old email address of the sender, and accept it and read it. Display the new email address 'prominently' in the body of the email, ensuring it is 'clickable', for easy addition to the address book by the recipients.

Then, maybe 15 days later, send out a second set of emails from your new email address, saying "We have now switched; please use THIS new email from now on." The advantage to the second email FROM the new address, is that many email clients will give the recipient the option to 'Add Sender to Contact List'. Again, I would put the new email address in the body of the email as a clickable (or right-clickable) link.

Of course, this is a good opportunity to 'purge' the old address book of old inactive contacts (print off a copy of your old address book, and SAVE an electronic copy too, in csv format?). You can do more notifying, or you can do less. You can speed up or slow down the process. You can decide whether to ask the recipients to 'reply' or 'confirm' the email change, or not.

I usually sent the notifications out in groups of 20 recipients. I would also BCC each email to my new email address, as a 'record', and to be sure it actually gets sent out (SOME anti-spam filters MIGHT flag these multi-recipient emails being sent within a short time period as spam, or 'email abuse', like teksavvy's Ironport!).

Harder than friends and family, are the business, banking, and shopping emails. For many of these, you will have to log in to your accounts and put the changes through one by one. (you could set up a separate Gmail account for shopping, banking, etc.?)

edit: forgot to mention the updates to any/all 'social sites' they might be involved in... for me, this involved a grand total of ONE messenger service!

Keep both operational for a while (35 days?), to catch the 'stragglers', arrange your service with a new IISP, and give Bell their 30-days notice. That time for Bell simply avoids the inevitable arguments and fees.

.

And... If I may suggest an IISP, and your parents are in Ontario, I would suggest they consider switching to Start.ca ... $0 Installation on 6/1 DSL, Free Dry Loop on higher DSL FTTN plans, cable internet also, and excellent customer service, IMHO.

The main thing is to prompt more users to get away from Bell and Rogers, and onto SOME IISP.

RobinK
join:2004-04-16
Canada

RobinK

Member

I setup my parents a gmail many months ago. But I am not sure how much usage they are still getting on their sympatico accounts. I know they are still pulling a few from there. But I am not sure if they are important or not (or just need address updating).

Teksavvy is the first ISP I would like to switch them too. But their new start up cost for VDSL is $130+$50 and that is too much. I am not familiar enough with the service quality of other ISPs to recommend them to my parents.

So I am going to try again with Bell and see if I can get the modem fee waived and switch to Fibe 15 before looking at other ISPs again.

MFido
Montreal
join:2012-10-19

MFido to RobinK

Member

to RobinK
now you compare oranges with apples ...

You said in your 1st post: "I have urged them to switch to Basic 5/1 or Fibe 15/10 to save their money."

Now you say:"But their new start up cost for VDSL is $130+$50 and that is too much."

So you jump from 5/1 to 15/10 ... define 1st what you want and then look at the right service and prices

RobinK
join:2004-04-16
Canada

RobinK

Member

I have talked to my parents about it. They are fine with the price of 15/10 so as long as they don't have to pay the modem charge. Plus they use my netflix account. So it would 15/10 would be preferred over 5/1.
taraf
join:2011-05-07
Ottawa, ON

taraf

Member

Netflix will actually work on a 5/1, but the usage cap is so low you'll want to spring for the unlimited monthly package. You won't be able to pull the SuperHD content, but everything else will stream just fine.

My Netflix usage is still low enough that the included bandwidth on 15/10 is enough, but that will probably change as more content gets uploaded in HD.

I'd second the idea of calling retentions and asking them to make a deal for you. Bell would probably prefer you don't switch to TekSavvy, even if ultimately it still goes into their pockets at the end of the day.