Tales from Telus: a descent into madness

I have been a Telus customer since 1997. I even recently found a rate plan brochure outlining their offerings at a time when the dollar was worth (adjusted for inflation) 36% more than it is today.

The Burden of Proof

I recently divested myself of the burden of paying for a now adult step-child’s phone, reducing my phone bill from 4 devices to 3. In doing so, I successfully made my bill go up, and this is how.

1 year ago I had the following devices:

• 2 2-yr old Iphones (on contract)
• 1 1-year old Android (on contract)
• 1 brand new windows phone. (on contract)

I was paying $250 a month on average with the following plans:

VOICE/TEXT	FAVORITES* Included	Data	Price per Month(before tax &fees)
200 Local	8 favorites #’s(local & LD)	6 GB/month	$70 (promo plan only offered for 60 days)
200 Local	5 favorites #’s(local & LD)	500 MB/month	$50
200 Local	5 favorites #’s(local & LD)	500 MB/month	$50
200 Local	10 favorites #’s(local & LD)	1 GB/month	$55 (student promo)
		TOTAL	$225

*Favorites are local or national long distance numbers that once declared do not count against chargeable call time.

Having done the retention dance with Telus for years I had a maze of legacy products that were tacked on to my plans pointless, items that were meaningless as my plans evolved with smartphones (like call display and voice-mail which now ubiquitous with smartphone plans). However the most egregious thing about the above was the brutal abuse of data pricing, which I have discovered has only gotten worse.

Bad Timing

I now have 3 devices and I owe the following:

• 2 year old Android (on contract)= $152.44/9 months left
• 1 brand new Android (on contract)= $479/22 months left
• 1 3 yr old iphone (off contract)=$0
• 1 wife-destroyed windows phone (on contract)=$294/19 months left

Why am I paying for a broken phone? It’s complicated.

In the process of replacing the broken phone I discovered several things, the key of which is: TELUS HATES DATA USERS

My current plans

VOICE/TEXT	FAVORITES* Included	Data	Price per Month(before tax &fees)
200 Local	8 favorites #’s(local & LD)	6 GB/month	$70 (promo plan only offered for 60 days)
Unlimited nationwide	n/a	1 GB/month (promo)	$55 + $20 data (promo)
200 Local	10 favorites #’s(local & LD)	1 GB/month	$55 (student promo)
		TOTAL	$205

The Lesson

I had fully expected that divesting entire plan and phone would reduce my pre-tax bill to $175 but due to some bad luck I now have a more expensive data plan, an expensive unusable phone and a new contract. If I make any changes to other phones, I am forced to take a more expensive plan. Clearly this is unacceptable.

I had to start shopping around and make a plan...