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Help to improve friend's Bell bill?

Trying to help a friend get their Bell bill down. I see some obvious places to save (by dropping TV services, and they'll have to decide how much they want them) but is there any non-obvious, e.g. being grandfathered on an old inferior plan when there's something better available? I know it's unlikely.

Phone:
Home Phone Lite ($31.94), 30c/min LD (they're another carrier which is a separate issue), $4.00 bundle discount makes $27.94 net. Don't see much I can do for them here.

Internet:
Performance ($49.95) + HN Modem Lease ($4.95), $4 bundle discount makes $50.90 net. I don't even know what speed Performance is supposed to give. I know their computer is older and slow and they blamed the internet connection and asked for more speed.

TV: Digital Standard ($40.00), 3 Themes ($20.00), US Timeshifting ($3.00), DSF ($3.00), $8 bundle discount makes $58.00 net. Obviously they could save by dropping services and I'll work through which channels they're getting and which they watch, but it's possible they want the ones they get. It also says "2yr term renewal" though I don't know when it started, but maybe they're committed to some of that (e.g. did Bell offer a deal where you committed to 3 Themes and got a deal).

Thanks for any advice and info on what these things are.

=aw
--
Webber's occasional bargain blog: www.wwwebber.com

Drop the Phone/Internet.

Get VOIP from Anveo.com
»www.canadacomputers.com/product_···d=045506
Monthly, will drop the phone to 5$ or so depending on usage.

Swap the internet to TSI or another TPIA provider.
»teksavvy.com/en/residential/internet/dsl
»www.distributel.ca/en/cat/Internet
»www.electronicbox.net/en/

If they've got FibeTV you can do all this by switching to Zero-Rated, call into retentions, tell them you have another provider and don't need the internet anymore. If your friend has satellite, no issues then.
Discussion about zero-rated internet starts here, mid-way down the page, »www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthr···6&page=3

On the stand alone TV, you can call them after the rest of the switching is done, and tell them that you're getting an offer from another provider, they will give you another year of discounts (Generally 10-15$/mo), you can do this yearly. Call around to the other providers first so you know the offers.

You should be able to get a 30-60$ drop in overall costs at a minimum doing this, there will be a small outlay, you'll need to buy a modem and VOIP box, but in 1-2 months it will pay for itself.

If you need help getting zero-rated, PM me, I'll go over it with you, I've got several of my clients on it, no issues at all, retentions can do it.

Thanks, they're definitely not on Fibe, the modem is one of the white 2Wire ones and also I think the TV interface doesn't look like Fibe (another friend has Fibe but I haven't studied closely). Probably a dish on roof of the condo.

One problem is their email for everything is @sympatico.ca (I argued against it when they switched from an independent ISP to Bell and had to go through a lot of pain telling everyone they were moving from @[isp] to @sympatico.ca but they didn't get it.

For the TV, if they got the PVR --
Webber's occasional bargain blog: www.wwwebber.com

Get them a gmail, or outlook.com email account, for the next month or 3, setup an autoresponder on the old address that they have a new address.
You need to break them away from the @.isp.com address.

Yeah for sure, I was trying to get them on Yahoo or Hotmail last time and I think they were already reading their @isp.com email on Eudora (shows how long ago it was) but they just couldn't get it.

=aw
--
Webber's occasional bargain blog: www.wwwebber.com

I understand your pain, whenever I setup someone, I refuse to get them an ISP account so they have portability.

But yeah, Anveo works great, they can kill their phone almost right away, it will take 2-3 weeks to port the number over, and buy the box for $38. It works great, I've personally been using them for the last 6 months, my last bill was $6.47 CAD.

If they're a light phone user, they don't even need a subscription, it's free

edit: Just checked my Grand Parents account, they had a $3.98$ bill last month.

Thanks, they have a cell phone but it's a Speakout (7-11) prepaid which is $1.25/mo (for 911) + 25c/min or ($20|$25|$30)/(200|300|400)min/30days. Most of the time they're on 25c/min and come out ahead.

I had thought of TekSavvy Home Phone (POTS) which is $25.08 for what they pay $27.94, so about 9mo for breakeven on the $25 activation. Not the kind of saving they'd get from Anveo (or that I get from voip.ms with 99c/mo plus airtime) but still cheaper. There's the worry factor for them though (ditto for VoIP).

I think I may have had Performance at one time, it was about 6/1 or 6/800 or something? But what makes me scratch my head over that is their comments that they called Bell to get a faster package. Unless they were on Performance Lite, which is possible.

To the pricing, I'm seeing Fibe 5 advertised as $43/mo (in the Bundle) ongoing after 6mo. That's only $8 less than they're paying now, and Fibe 15/10 is $53 ongoing which is $2 more. Am I missing something? $8 is worth saving (though it's technically slower if my memory of Performance is correct) but I'd prefer to save them $20. TekSavvy DSL 7/1 is $25/mo (since they don't have DL) but with significant up-front costs (modem, activation).

And yeah, even without changing to Fibe they should be able to save money on TV but I guess that really depends on what channels they want. They hardly need US Timeshifting with a PVR though.

Thanks again!
=aw
--
Webber's occasional bargain blog: www.wwwebber.com