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ShetiPhian
join:2011-12-29
Belleville, ON

ShetiPhian

Member

[Serious] I'm looking for a new Cell Phone Carrier

So I've got three feature phones (unlocked Samsung Impact)
I was with Bell but I left them, looking for something cheaper (was doing $140/month)

The phones are almost unused for voice calls, data is never used, text is used a lot.

I found Fido to have a perfect plan for us, $113/year unlimited text, 100 yearly minutes, But that has been a total disaster

--- Start of Issues aka Mini Rant ---

Day 1
5:00pm
- Set up all three phones at a Fido booth, chose plans, registered visa, number transferred our old Bell numbers. (I'm assigned temporary numbers)
8:30pm
- get a text one one phone telling me there was an issue transferring the phone number.
- called asap, was informed all three ports where rejected and the call center closes at 10 so I need to be quick if I want it fixed tonight.
- turns out my account number was for billing and all three phones had a different number.
- called Fido back, and they do the ports.
9:50
- off the phone and log into the my Fido pages (couldn't do so with temp numbers)
- find credit card not registered, no balance, plan is correct but not active due to lack of funds.
- registered credit card to first two numbers and add funds, credit card rejected for third.
-could only call Fido support number, and call center is now closed.

Day 2
- sorted out first two phones, the rate plan just needed to be removed and re-added
- was told my Visa was rejecting their system preventing me from adding it to my third account.
- called my Visa was told the transactions where approved and pending retrieval from Fido.
- called Fido, was told by them I needed to cancel the pending transaction before I could add my card.
- called Visa again, was informed I can not cancel a pending traction, either the vendor rejects it or it times out in 7 days, rep decided to open a conference call to get everything sorted out.
- After almost a 1hr conference call everything finally looked good. (it was an issue with Fido's system)
- noticed my account was basically out of its yearly time due to the calls needed to fix the issues, opened an email ticket to get reimbursement because I should not have had to use time to fix these issues.

Day 3
- Fido looked at the wrong account and refused to give anything, I pointed them to the correct account.

Day 4
Their Response:
I understand that your line has used much minutes to clear and activate the other line. However, this is part of your service, I understand that our system was acting and it was not our intention to make you waste minutes. However, the service was still used therefore we are in no obligation to credit you for those minutes as the call to Visa was of your decision.

However, since I feel that the whole situation may have started the relationship with you and Fido on the wrong foot. I offer you a final credit of 15$ on the line 613-###-#### to cover for most of the minutes you used. This is our final offer and will wait for your answer to apply this credit.
My Reply:
Actually the call to my Visa (which resulted in the long conference call) was instructed by your rep.
But seeing how that's would be just arguing $5
I'll accept the $15 so this ticket can be closed and everyone can move on.
Finally everything is sorted out.

NOPE
My phones just are not keeping a charge anymore,
I was getting 10-14 days standby with Bell, but now only get 2-3 days standby, and if I use the phone less then 1 day.
After trouble shooting I discover Rogers network coverage is crap, my phones are always in high power mode -_-
Requested a cell booster from Fido (suggested by a guy in the USA who needed to do the same thing with his provider)
I was told they don't provide them and I need to buy it myself.

It Gets Worse
Got my Visa bill, there are 6 charges where there should be 3.
After a long session with a Fido rep it is discovered the temporary numbers correctly got charged when I setup my accounts, but when the number port happened the credit was never transferred which resulted in the need to add balance to the accounts. Problem reports where filled with the accounting department, and I was told it would take 3-5 business days to get a response. Rep said I might need to do a charge-back.

- 6 business days later I file an email ticket requesting an update.
- told they couldn't find anything under my numbers, responded with temporary numbers (figured it was there instead)
- got a response today telling me they don't refund prepaid, but they can transfer the balance over.

I responded
The balance should have been transferred, but it wasn't I was charged again.
Go against protocol and refund me, or I will do a charge-back.
At this point I've dealt with enough of your shit I should just charge-back all six charges (not just the extra three) and get service elsewhere.
--- End Mini Rant ---

So now I'm looking elsewhere. (Belleville Ontario)

Anything on the Rogers network is out, their coverage sucks in my area and I don't want to buy a booster.

Needs unlimited text, minimal voice minutes (less if the phones can call each other without using any)
Data is not required.

I only know of these ones in my area.
Rogers Network; Rogers, Fido
Bell Network; Bell, Virgin
Telus Network; Telus, Koodo

As far as I can tell, Koodo has the next best plan costing $203.40/year

Anyone know of a better one?
BrianON
join:2011-09-30
Ottawa, ON

BrianON

Member

Koodo prepaid has a $15/month Unlimited Messaging (Text and Picture) base plan with everything else as pay per use. »koodomobile.com/en/on/pl ··· rs.shtml

Can add boosters that don't expire for minutes and data.

dirtyjeffer0
Posers don't use avatars.
Premium Member
join:2002-02-21
London, ON

dirtyjeffer0 to ShetiPhian

Premium Member

to ShetiPhian
i had a line with Fido for about 3 years before...on a monthly plan, never any issues...have two with Rogers now (for about 7 years), a could of minor hiccups when it was first set up (corporate plans merged with home services), but it was fixed relatively easily and haven't had any issues since.
ShetiPhian
join:2011-12-29
Belleville, ON

ShetiPhian to BrianON

Member

to BrianON
@BrianON
Yep that the one I was looking at.

@dirtyjeffer
Once everything is finally cleared up, or if the issues didn't happen in the first place, I'm sure Fido would work okay.
But combined their oh well attitude, with the poor cell service in the middle of Belleville, leaves me looking for a new carrier.

You can't double charge and not give a refund, I ended up paying for two years of service on each phone, yet the time is only good for a year.

If they will fix the double charge I'll stick with them for a year and move to a carrier that has better coverage (maybe in that time upgrades will happen and I won't need to), but if I have to do a charge-back, I'll do a full charge back and find someone else now.

In three weeks I spent many hours with customer support, 15 emails, several days waiting
As far as usage goes, one phone has none, one has 3 outgoing text messages, and the last is almost out of time, with 10min used personally and the rest was used sorting out their crap.

I'd also never use Rogers due to problems 10 years ago, monthly plan was $124 "all inclusive" over the phone, $136 in email confirmation (called but they couldn't figure out how $124 was given), first bill $167 screw that.
They wouldn't honor the email price so I cancelled, they attempted to charge me $600 ($200 per phone) for early termination, fought that one, had service for 4 days, still waiting on a phone (needed to RMA one because the screen was falling out), SIM cards not punched out. (I reported them to the CRTC for that stunt)
I see Fido inherited their customer service from Rogers
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

Would you consider a pre-paid carrier such as Petro-Canada Mobility or 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless?

(Yes, I know that those MVNO both sit on Rogers network).
ShetiPhian
join:2011-12-29
Belleville, ON

ShetiPhian

Member

-_- hit 'Reply OP' rather then the 'Post' button under the quick reply.

I'll summarize.
In both cases Koodo appears to be a better deal.
I know the Rogers network is bad but I don't know about the Telus one.
I need to get my hands on a Telus SIM and see how long my phone lasts. (lol my phone just gave me the I'm dead beep)

It doesn't have to be prepaid, I just couldn't find a monthly around $10-15.
Prepaid mobile is billed in a way you always pay more the the plan price.

Pay $25 for this $15.75 plan, sure the remainder is kept if you top up but by the time you have enough for a 'free' month if you don't top up it expires so you never get it.
OR
Pay $100 for this $94/year plan but we'll only charge you $85 up front, so don't spend any of the other $9 or you'll be paying $15 to keep your service alive.
I'd rather have the plan fee fully charged or the remainder held, and run out of minutes.

I like the way TSI bills my prepaid internet.
Monthly fee every month, and overages are charged with the next months fee.
This is prepaid done right, if mobile doesn't want to carry over the overage require a $5 top-up instead.
ShetiPhian

ShetiPhian

Member

Thinking about it some more unlimited text is not required either.
50 outgoing a month is enough for the heaviest used phone.
(better if it was 600 yearly as some months use more then others)

If I could make it so the one phone could only call and text the other two that would be perfect as well, because that is all it is has been used for in over 10 years.
yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON

yyzlhr

Member

said by ShetiPhian:

Thinking about it some more unlimited text is not required either.
50 outgoing a month is enough for the heaviest used phone.
(better if it was 600 yearly as some months use more then others)

If I could make it so the one phone could only call and text the other two that would be perfect as well, because that is all it is has been used for in over 10 years.

Koodo sounds like a good option for you as someone else mentioned.

Unlimited texting is $15 a month. You can also add on minute "boosters". $5 will get you 25 minutes, $10 will get you 100, and $25 will get you 500 minutes. The best part is the minutes don't expire as long as you continue to pay $15 a month for the unlimited texting.

For the most part Bell and Telus share their HSPA towers, so coverage should be very similar.
ShetiPhian
join:2011-12-29
Belleville, ON

ShetiPhian

Member

From reading the forums top-ups are in $5 increments, and the monthly plan fee is what you see.
So the $15 month plan cost you just that (plus tax obviously).
said by yyzlhr:

For the most part Bell and Telus share their HSPA towers

Didn't know that, and that makes me want to kick myself even more for being so cheap.

I looked at that Koodo plan several times, but after seeing Fido I thought "why pay 15 a month when I can pay 94 for an entire year"
hap86
join:2004-11-03
Montreal, QC

hap86

Member

you could also consider Telus prepaid (by the minute plan) with a text add on. For $5 you can have 250 outgoing unlimited incoming; for $10 it's 2500 outgoing and for $15 it's unlimited. Note that this is texts to Canada only, if you need international texts then Koodo prepaid is your best option. Telus is currently offering a $30 credit if you bring your own phone

Speakout
@131.137.245.x

Speakout to ShetiPhian

Anon

to ShetiPhian
said by ShetiPhian:

It doesn't have to be prepaid, I just couldn't find a monthly around $10-15.
Prepaid mobile is billed in a way you always pay more the the plan price.

Pay $25 for this $15.75 plan, sure the remainder is kept if you top up but by the time you have enough for a 'free' month if you don't top up it expires so you never get it.
OR
Pay $100 for this $94/year plan but we'll only charge you $85 up front, so don't spend any of the other $9 or you'll be paying $15 to keep your service alive.
I'd rather have the plan fee fully charged or the remainder held, and run out of minutes.

Speakout Wireless is $15/month for unlimited SMS. I would assume you can keep the calls pay-as-you-go (no plan) since you say you don't use much at all. If you want some minutes they have a $20/month plan with 100 minutes and unlimited Canada/US SMS.

Speakout credits don't expire for a year (longest in Canada) after you buy them. They've also had a "Buy $100 and get an extra $25 and a free SIM" promo going for a very long time.
BrianON
join:2011-09-30
Ottawa, ON

BrianON to hap86

Member

to hap86
Telus per minute rates are very high, especially for long distance, 50c airtime + 50c LD = $1/min.

Koodo the $15/month unlimited texting lets you add $25 for 500 Canada wide minutes which works out to 5c/min which doesn't expire as long as your paying the $15.
yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON

yyzlhr to Speakout

Member

to Speakout
Speakout is a Rogers MVNO so that isn't going to work for the OP given the coverage issues
hap86
join:2004-11-03
Montreal, QC

hap86 to BrianON

Member

to BrianON
Not with an addon, it's only 15cents per min for local calls with the Telus pay by the minute option