Can't believe I'm going back to Bell

[fox]

Well, my Cogeco discount is up and the new amount is an increase of 12% over what I was paying. So I called Cogeco and asked for Loyalty, which has worked for the last year in keeping down my cost to very close to the promo amount. This time they wouldn't offer anything better, so I warned them I would go shopping. They let me go, so I did. I went to Bell only to get a price I could take to Cogeco the next morning, but the offer was for better service at a slightly lower price than Cogeco was offering, locked in for a year instead of the 6 months Cogeco offers for their specials. I'm going from 40 mbps to 300, with more or less same TV and same phone service, and no connection or installation charges. So I took it. (NOTE Buster: I'll end up with what you have been bragging about!)

I have no illusions about Bell. I doubt that they have changed their stripes, but now that a court decision has gone against them, the written agreement should shield me from any price increases for a year. They told me what the cost would be after a year but wouldn't guarantee it. So I expect that a year from now I'll approach them again, and when they won't meet that cost, I'll end up switching again. PITA, but I have no loyalty to any firm that doesn't treat me right. My "new" service starts May 22 but to be honest, I am perfectly happy with 40 mbps I have now and I would go back to it if I have to if it saves enough money.

[ssfc72]

Mike, did Bell run fibre to your house so that you can get the 300 Mb/s speed or is it still just a twisted pair phone line going to your house and fibre at the street corner?

I am not sure what Bell has on our new street, in Lindsay.  I suspect it is just plain old twisted pair wiring.

Edit:  I just checked the Bell web site. Looks like the best internet they can provide is 5 Mb/s.  Pretty sad service!

[Jason]

How much will you be paying for the entire package? 300 Mbps must be sweet but sounds expensive.

And what court case are you referring to? Read that fine print carefully. I think you can back out within 48 hours if you don't like what you see.

[Jason]

Again, read that fine print. Found this on the Bell website at the under Bundles:

The Program, or any portion of it, including the Bundle Discount may be modified, discontinued or terminated at any time. We will notify you thirty (30) days in advance of any change that affects you. We may notify you of any such change with a SIM message on your One Bill or by any other method which is likely to come to your attention. You agree that Bell is not obligated to provide the Bundle Discount for the duration of any term contract for Eligible Services, including the Discountable Services.

That doesn't sound like a guaranteed lock-in price to me:

https://www.bell.ca/Legal_residential_services#EXT=OTH_Off_URL_bundledetails_bundlediscount_Mass_4232012_ig_qc_ont

[Jason]

Edit:  I just checked the Bell web site. Looks like the best internet they can provide is 5 Mb/s.  Pretty sad service!

Same here! They did all that street stuff but didn't connect the cables to the building. I know this, because I saw them wrapped around outside. Landlord figured they'd be coming back to do that but it's been almost a year. I said that he was probably responsible for doing the rest. The really funny part is that Bell keeps sending us flyers telling us about their amazing high-speed Fibe service and then stating we can get the amazing speed of 5 Mbps on the *same* flyer. So slimey. I wouldn't care if they had 300 Mbps service here; I'd never buy from them - they're so unethical.

[fox]

Glad you sent me this note, Jason. I checked the transaction summary, and there is reference to the Bell Terms of Service there. But what I did was to keep a transcript of the whole online conversation, not only Bell's version of the transaction summary, but also the online chat conversation that where I asked a lot of questions and even made reference to things that Bell has been accused of. The transcript states: "The promotion is guaranteed for 12 months, I can assure you that." Both the transcript and chat are in emails. I'm going to send these to you. Tell me what you think.

The package cost for all three services is cheaper, though not by much, than what Cogeco has raised my rates to; it's under $200 including residential landline phone service (not internet phone) with unlimited Canada and U.S. long distance calling.

If I want to get out of the deal in the 48 hr, how do I do it?

[fox]

I previously mentioned a case that Bell lost after trying to change an agreement. Here is a reference to this. Situation seems clear; an agreement like the one I made today except that mine is written and the guy won over an oral agreement. Both of us have the transcript that specifies the deal, plus my transaction summary says nothing about prices going up.

[Jason]

I think you're probably okay based on what you sent me privately. I find that online disclaimer kind of scary but I've also noted that you don't appear to be getting much of deal so I doubt they'd renege on it especially based on the court case to which your referred. However, you mentioned it being just a little less than Cogeco but you weren't getting 300 Mbps download speeds with Cogeco, were you? I mean, if you had gone with a slower service comparable to what you already had (40 Mbps, right) would it have been a lot cheaper? I was surprised to see you're willing to pay $100 for Internet but whatever turns your crank :-)

I'll email a couple of more comments about your package privately since it involves your specific deal and not sure you want it publicly mentioned. But nothing bad.

I don't know exactly about the 48 hours, whether it applies to door-to-door sellers or online. But you'd usually just call them back and cancel. If they tried to penalize you, then you one of the government consumer bureaus or the Better Business Bureau about the cool-off period. Probably not that helpful but all that I know.

[fox]

I meant that the price was lower than what the new Cogeco price would be but the internet service much faster and the other things about the same. I don't look at the price of the individual components but rather the price of the overall package. I don't need 300 mbps service but Bell has only 5, 15, 25, 150 and 300 as far as I can tell. My 40 with Cogeco is plenty fast, but I didn't want to go down. Bell priced it with 150 and later offered to give me 300 for the same price. So I took it.

I had better not get used to it because once my year is up I'm sure I will be going back to something like 40.