They tell me they need a receipt before they can fix my cell phone. What, they think I stole it then brought it in for servicing? They say they can't fix it on the spot (didn't even look at it - last time it went dead, they showed me how to jiggle the battery, and it worked again), and it would take 2 to 4 weeks after they sent it away. Reasonable, I guess. But then they won't even send it away without a receipt. Hello? You have my name on file. I have ID. You can match these up, can't you? What's the receipt for? You can bill me without a receipt just fine. And even if I was getting someone else's phone fixed, what's the problem with that? The fact that the phone exists and is in your hands is proof that you sold it to somebody. It's not a virtual phone. Fortunately, I think I actually have the receipt, I just didn't think to bring it with me. So I didn't argue on the spot. I figured I'd waste your time instead. -- [jnc] <hr><b>[dcoombs] (2003/01/20)</b>: Which company is this? I'll avoid them if I ever get a cell phone. - <b>[jnc] (2003/01/20)</b>: Rogers AT&T. Mostly been very happy with them until now. I like their pricing scheme (base price + options, instead of a bunch of weird fixed combinations) and the fact that they're available in Timmins. <hr><b>[jnc] (2003/01/21)</b>: When I arrived at the store today, receipt in hand, it was closed and dark. According to the sign it should be open until 6:00. For a minute I was horribly confused, and thought I'd slept in even longer than I thought, but when I got into work and checked the time it was only 4:30. <hr><b>[jnc] (2003/01/22)</b>: When I arrived at the store today, receipt in hand, it was BOARDED UP. With an "a louer" sign. I was there on Monday, and it was packed! What's up with that? <hr><b>[jnc] (2003/01/23)</b>: The mystery is solved - there are two Rogers AT&T stores on St-Catherine. The one I was at on Monday is not the same one I tried to be at on Tuesday and Wednesday. With luck, this page will not need updating any more. In related news, I am back down to three Gamecube controllers. <hr><b>[jnc] (2003/02/10)</b>: It took nearly as long to pick up the phone as it did to drop it off. Slowest. Service. Ever. <hr><b>[jnc] (2003/02/20)</b>: I forgot to update the end of the story. Yes, it got fixed and I picked it up. The receipt said "replaced part, charged batteries, upgraded software". The first one is good - that's what I sent it there for. The second was kind of pointless, because they were dead again by the time I got around to picking it up. The third meant that when I opened the address book, it looked very different, and was empty. I called customer service to complain and ask for a refund. I had to explain it twice, and then the customer service drone finally got what I was asking for. She then took down my name and address and the number on the contract and stuff, and had me explain a third time to be sure she got the details right while she wrote it down. Then she said, "We're not going to give you anything for that, because sometimes it happens while upgrading the software." Then she hung up. Or maybe I hung up - I was getting sick of talking to her by that point. <hr><b>[jnc] (2004/01/19)</b>: ARRRRGH. If Rogers calls you up to offer you "6 months free unlimited local calling", RUN. It does not mean what it sounds like. It means you pay $40 a month for a 350 minutes a month plan, and you get unlimited minutes with that. I called up to complain that my bill had these charges on it, and I was supposed to be getting it free for 6 months. The guy said, "Yeah, a lot of people make that mistake." Gee, do you THINK? I was quite careful to look for hidden charges on the contract. I never dreamed that the charge was hidden right in plain sight! So, now I need to decide - do I want to pay a total of about $700 over the next 6 months, or do I call up and repossess my sister's Christmas gift? <hr><b>[jnc] (2004/01/19)</b>: Meanwhile, over at Bell... In November I signed up for a bundle of ExpressVu and Mobility. Then I got distracted and never called back to arrange a delivery date. In December they finally called me, and asked me to verify with the apartment that I was allowed to install a satellite dish. Turns out I'm not, so I called them back to cancel - they were very nice about it, and I wouldn't even have minded paying a cancellation fee. When I got back from Christmas I found a Bell Mobility bill waiting. I thought that was odd, since I'd never actually received a phone. I called them up, they confirmed that the phone had never been delivered, and said that I'd get another invoice next month with a credit. Today I got another bill - with a credit for December, and another monthly charge for January. What? Why would they credit me a month and then keep charging me? So I called them up again, and they said that it was because my phone was actually deactivated on Jan. 5, the day after the bill was sent out. That sounds like about the date I called last, so that makes sense - except if that's true, why is there a credit on the bill at all? Anyway, they said that next month I'd get yet another bill with yet another credit. We'll see what happens. (Ironically, I'm now actually thinking of switching to them for real, even though without the ExpressVu bundle it's not any cheaper. But I'll wait until everything's all sorted out first, because trying to simultaneously sign up and cancel would be confusing.) - <b>[chrisk] (2004/01/19)</b>: I recently cancelled my Bell Mobility plan because Bell Canada is the devil. I've had so many problems with them over the years, and at a premium $75/month for 400 minutes. Not to mention my complete loss of reception for a period of two months. Oh! oh! and the $275 I paid them that they never received (but my credit card company confirmed that they did). The 20 mins of being on hold for any problems, the redirecting of your phone call to 7 different departments because they don't deal with my particular problem... etc etc etc. Now I'm with Fido, I pay $45/month for 1000 minutes weekends & evenings, and 150 mins anytime (but i'm always at work during that time anyway). So far, the reception has been great, the price is great, and the few calls I've made to them have gone STRAIGHT THROUGH to a customer service rep who actually knew what he was doing, and had an answer to my problem. Bell is the devil, and I hear so is Rogers AT&T. I love my fido, and I don't even resemble my dog. :) - <b>[apenwarr] (2004/01/19)</b>: After several years, Fido still hasn't caused me any trouble, and I have experiences with them similar to [chrisk]'s. The other cell phone companies keep spreading rumours about them going bankrupt, though, which is kind of rude. And it doesn't even make sense: why would I care? Fido doesn't make you sign a contract or pay in advance, so even if they *did* go bankrupt, why would I care in advance? - <b>[jnc] (2004/01/19)</b>: Fido's not available in Timmins, though. When I got my phone, only Rogers was there. Now I can get Bell or Telus, though - I might try Telus. - <b>[rkogan] (2004/01/19)</b>: I couldn't agree more, Fido is the way to go. I got my v60i for less than free (paid $50, got $100 GC to BestBuy) and no contract whatsoever. Besides, where else are you going to get 150 daytime minutes, unlimited evenings and weekends, unlimited ANYTIME calling and SMS to any Fido subscriber ANYWHERE in Canada and cheap long distance for $30/month (+tax)? Some of you might like their unlimited GRPS package for $50/month. - <b>[adewhurst] (2004/01/19)</b>: Ah, but that's not REALLY $30/month... it's $30/month + system access fee + 911 fee + tax, and maybe another extra cost or two. I'm going to be very soon getting a new phone from Bell, and right now they have a promotion $35/month WITH all the hidden fees (but not tax), 100 minutes, unlimited evenings (8pm-6am) & weekends, and free wireless internet for the first 3 months. Getting a 2 year contract makes the Nokia 3586i that I'm getting cost nothing. This is a promotion though, and usually it's $45/month. Fido's probably the cheapest for non-promotional pricing though. What really got me is that this phone has GPS, 1X, and J2ME support. I must find a way to combine these somehow :-) All of this said, I'll have to write my rant on how hard it was to get this phone once I get it. Hopefully tonight. - <b>[chrisk] (2004/01/19)</b>: I doubt your phone has GPS.. maybe GPRS? bell is a TDMA cell provider. However, your unlimited evenings start at 8pm, instead of the 7pm by Fido. This may be only 1 hour, but it is 1 hour of useable time between getting off work and going to bed. So technically you now have 1 hour less every day to use your phone, or around 20-25 hours a month. 100 weekday minutes is also almost an hour less than Fido's plan. Bell even has a comparison of service plans against Fido which shows Fido to be $0.20 more per month (with the promotion from bell). However, this takes into account the 200min/month plan, and NOT the unlimited plan. This means you up the service plan to $25, but you take away that $8, so with the $3 + tax you take off, Fido is around $3.25 CHEAPER even with Bell's promotion. With the no contract clause, and the several phones you can get for $25, Fido still comes out ahead. - <b>[adewhurst] (2004/01/19)</b>: 1X is equivalent to GPRS for Bell, and I think the other CDMA cell providers. It really does have GPS, as per the [http://www.nokia.ca/english/products/3586i/3586i_features.asp features page from Nokia]. Now, the question is if it's accessible to more than just Bell for 911 calls. Anyway, my goal is the lowest monthly cost. I've already pretty much established that I don't use a phone often enough to warrant anything more than the bare minimum number of minutes. I had the cheapest possible plan with Rogers a few years ago (150 anytime minutes, $20/month + hidden fees). I rarely used more than 1/3 of my available minutes. So for most people, Fido's probably better. I don't use the phone enough for it to matter. Sadly, internet through the phone still costs ridiculous amounts. If it were cheaper, I'd use it quite a bit. - <b>[chrisk] (2004/01/21)</b>: Sorry to say, if you only use your phone for less than an hour each month, you should be on a pay as you go plan. When I "cancelled" my bell phone, they insisted I keep it and switch to pay as you go. I pay nothing each month now, and I only pay for the minutes I use (which is nothing). This turned out to be convenient for seeing who is still calling my old number. :) - <b>[rkogan] (2004/01/19)</b>: By tax I meant those standard fees that everyone charge the same for (system, 911, sales tax). You are going to be stuck on a 2 year contract while I'll be using CityFido for unlimited local calling anywhere in the GTA (it is $40/month in the GVA atm, it is coming to TO soon). Furthermore, my long distance is cheaper, my phone is triband and it is still cheaper than yours :) <hr><b>[akhan] (2004/01/21)</b>: Oh, don't get me started about rogers! I had a "build your own plan", where you pay a base fee of $10, airtime fee ($25 in my case), and you get $10 credit to spend on options. One time, I called in and they offered an option package to me, this was great! Everything was fine and dandy, until I realized they stopped giving me that $10 credit, which I had to call in and ask for every month because their systems are stupid. This went on for a while until they gave me a phone call saying that what they did was wrong, and they had to reverse the past three months of $10 credits manually granted to my account. I say good riddance & am a VERY happy fido customer. If you're a student, <a href="http://www.studentphonestore.com">studentphonestore.com</a> is great. I got the fido to fido package (100 mins wkdays, 1000 wknights/ends)with free call ID and voicemail and the Siemens M55 for only $25 with free accessories. <hr><b>[adewhurst] (2004/01/22)</b>: Well, I seem to be putting off acquiring a cell phone for the time being, out of combined exasperation, waiting for someone to have a good promotion, and desire to be cheap. My adventures with Bell are at http://www.sailorfrag.net/temp/cell.html - it's a bit long to post here -<b>[chrisk] (2004/01/22)</b>: Bell is riddled with horrible communication flaws.. Departments don't speak with one another, nor do they know what problems should be dealt with where. They don't share information, so every time you get transferred you have to give them your phone number, verify your identity, and completely re-explain the problem. This is even worse when you try to deal through the store, as it's almost as if the "store employees" and the "tele-employees" don't like eachother at all, and amuse themselves by referring you to eachother, fully knowing they can't help you. I'm done with Bell, and will avoid them at all costs if possible. <hr><b>[adewhurst] (2004/02/17)</b>: So I ended up getting a cell phone from Bell. I'm still somewhat stunned at what happened. After a week of trying to get it in person, then taking a week off, followed by two weeks of e-mails to their internet support, I found a payphone near the bus stop, thinking it was going to be at least an hour talking to them. 10 minutes later, they've finished setting me up, including the credit check, and it's mailed out soon after. Lesson learned: - Acquiring a cell phone if you have a phone: easy. - Acquiring a cell phone if you don't have a phone: hard. - Getting to a payphone to use for acquiring the cell phone if you don't have a phone: cold, but not as hard as I thought. Oh, and they have yet to make me sign anything. That seems odd, considering the Statute of Frauds. Ah well, that's their problem. -<b>[chrisk] (2004/02/17)</b>: after your "adventures with Bell", you still bought a Bell cellphone? It's lucky for Bell that the majority of consumers forget bad experiences very quickly :) - <b>[adewhurst] (2004/02/17)</b>: Oh, see the idea is that this way, if I have *any* problems in the future, I get to whine about it, and threaten to expose all my bad experiences and stuff. I've got it all well documented. Oh, and I have a feeling that due to the Statute of Frauds, I can cancel this at any time by simply returning the phone, as long as I am careful to not discuss it with them in writing. - <b>[adewhurst] (2004/02/18)</b>: Bah, it turns out that they included the thing I have to sign in the box after all. Though it doesn't look like a contract, it just lists the features and promotions in a "this is what you have" style page, rather than a "these are contract terms you will sign without reading" style page. So my argument may be weakened, but they still haven't given me anything to sign that says I have to stick with them for 2 years (or pay a penalty for cancelling early). <hr><b>[kjrose] (2004/04/01)</b>: Telus is pretty decent. - <b>[jnc] (2004/04/01)</b>: What kind of a rant is that? - <b>[kjrose] (2004/04/01)</b>: Anyone who uses any other type of service is silly. Telus is by far the most impressive service of all the services available in North America, and I'm not just aying this because I use it and I'm Albertan (for now.) I am saying this because I used Rogers and Bell, and Telus has the friendliest service (Bell hires evil satanic people to handle customer service), and Rogers overcharges for crappy service that has long distance charges if you leave within 100 meters of your house. While Telus has ultra-cheap roaming rates, and really really good friendly service. Two things I demand in a good company. Is that good enough? <hr><b>[jnc] (2004/04/08)</b>: Bell annoys me already. They just called my home phone - which never rings, so I assumed it was work trying to get ahold of me. I got out of the shower and stood there dripping on the floor to hear a recorded message talking at a glacial pace about how my voicemail service was going to be enhanced starting April 13, and during the upgrade the contents of my mailbox would be wiped out. They had the gall to call this a "critical notifaction", "very important" and take me through a menu to be sure they had the right person. Ok, I can see how it's important to let people know their saved messages are going away soon. But they already gave me this spiel the last time I tried to call my voicemail - *and* I was in a hurry at the time, having just missed a call! Also, why can't they just back up the voicemail and then re-record it onto the new system? Oh, and my phone's been acting wonky, too. Yesterday I got three voicemails but I don't think it rang once. One of those came in while I was out of the room, and one when I got off the metro, so I assumed I'd just missed the call, but the third time I was holding the phone in my hand, checking the time, when the voicemail icon appeared. What's up with that? - <b>[jnc] (2004/04/08)</b>: Rogers never annoyed me like this. On the other hand, Bell hasn't ripped me off yet, so they're still better. - <b>[pmccurdy] (2004/04/16)</b>: On my Bell phone, it can sometimes take a minute or two for voicemail to show up on the phone. For instance, when you got voicemail after coming off the subway, it was undoubtedly for a call you got while on the subway. - <b>[jnc] (2004/04/16)</b>: Yes, but what about the third time? I was waiting to meet people, so I'd been standing there with my phone in my pocket for half an hour, and finally decided to call, so I took it out and *just then* a voicemail came in. <hr><b>[jnc] (2004/04/18)</b>: GAAH! When they kept obssessively calling me about losing all my voicemail messages on the 13th, you'd think they'd have also mentioned the far more important point that they'd also be clearing my password! Now I have to dig out my contract to find the default password they gave me when I signed up. - <b>[jnc] (2004/04/21)</b>: ...and when I finally found the contract, the password written on it didn't work. <hr><b>[jnc] (2004/04/22)</b>: Today my phone keeps ringing once, and then stopping before I can get it out of my pocket. I dunno if it's getting cut off or if somebody's just calling me and hanging up. <hr><b>[hub] (2004/07/30)</b>: Then one shouldn't talk about French cell-phone carriers. First, you don't pay to receive call on your cell phone, but calling from a POTS line cost beetween 0.15 and 0.20 EUR / min. It used to be more than 0.30 EUR. To see how crazy it is, I pay 0.06 EUR /min to call Canada from France, and I could probably get 0.03 EUR / min. Second, their service suck: they don't care if you don't receive at home. Happened to me, happened to my in-law sister. But with one of the other carrier it worked fine. Third: roaming charges. It cost 1 EUR for roaming charges, in-bound or out-bound; they occur when your are outside France. Fourth: they try to rip you off. Basically they call you offering you to pay more, to get less minutes, and off-course you need to sign for two more years. They also request you to pay 2 more month before cancelling (may differ depending on the carrier). Fifth: they got sued several time for abusive clause in contracts, and consumers won. - <b>[hub] (2004/07/30)</b>: I forgot: SMS cost 0.15 EUR <hr><b>[deniz] (2004/07/31)</b>: I've had no luck getting good service from Telus. When I bought my newest phone from them, I was assured I could send messages to email addresses using an SMS to Email gateway they had on the network (like Fido has). It took me a while trying to figure it out on my own before I finally called them up and asked them to tell me how to do it. The tech support agent sat there and tried to get me to send email through the web browser. I told him that I refused to spend money on each page I loaded to send the email when I wanted to do it through SMS. I bounced between at least three people before somebody could tell me they had never had an SMS to Email gateway on their network. So I asked how much it would cost to send an email. The guy started telling me to do what he said and took me into the paid area. Again, I stopped and told him to just walk through it virtually and tell me how many pages I'd have to navigate (and thus, how much I'd have to pay) to send an email. After 5 minutes, he understood I refused to pay to do this when it was strictly for tech support purposes. It took another 10 minutes before he was finally able to tell me how many pages I'd have to navigate to send an email. Anyone who says Telus service is good obviously hasn't tried using it. - <b>[kjrose] (2004/07/31)</b>: I've been with Telus for almost a year now, and they have always had prompt service for me and I have not yet found a point where I am out of range. My SMS works perfectly fine (I use it constantly to msg my buddies in Waterloo and Edmonton,) and any complaints I have had (which I had one over a number change), have been handled promptly. Perhaps you've just had bad luck with Telus service, or perhaps I've just had good luck with Telus service. But having been a member of Telus, Fido, Rogers and Bell Mobility over my life I can guarantee you the best serveice I've gotten thus far is from Telus. Fido is cheap but has really shitty coverage. Rogers is expensive, and has really bad service, but they seem to also have the latest phone models, and decent coverage. Bell Mobility is as bad as Bell with ground lines. (which needless to say is horrendous.) Telus, while I have had 2 problems with them thus far, have come out well on top. Especially since the customer service I have received from Telus has been prompty and courteous. - <b>[deniz] (2004/08/01)</b>: I was with Cantel ATT (which then became Rogers Cantel while I was with them) for two years. Then, I was with Clearnet PCS (which then became Telus PCS) for nearly 4 years. Now I've been with Fido for 3 months. - With the Cantel conglomeration, I had very good technical coverage, but the customer service wasn't very good and I ended up getting charged for all sorts of nit-picky tiny charges. I lost my cell phone and closed my account at that time. - Clearnet was awesome. No bones about it. The coverage was good, the customer support awesome. Once Telus bought them, though, customer service went down the drain and the plans became a lot worse. I couldn't get anywhere near as good a deal as I had originally. Finally, I got sick and tired of having $80 extra on a monthly bill because the plans dramatically didn't fit me, so I moved. - Oh, and if you want to talk about being out of range, have you noticed that your service in the food court at the Eaton Centre is crap? I listened to a message I left on my home machine calling from there and it was literally decimated (and while I was making the call I could tell the connection was poor). But I've had conversations in that same location on the same day on my friend's Fido which were clear as a bell. There are a few other spots I've noticed gave me poor service, but I can't remember them now. Honestly, it's always seemed like pot-luck. Sometimes I'd be the one discovering my phone had service, sometimes my Fido friend was. - Fido so far has given me very good service. - I never went with Bell because every time I looked at their packages, they stood out for being much more expensive than any other provider's. That and I didn't feel like doing the whole "Back to Bell" thing every six months to get deals so it would be at a comparable price with others. : Remember, I'm not looking for something that will give me coverage in every last cranny of Canada -- city coverage is fine for me. But I do need a tri-band GSM phone with which I can hop onto networks in Europe. Preferably one which will have coverage in out of the way places in Turkey. I do not plan to travel into the US unless my brother needs me to. You will not convince me that Fido is crap because it has poor coverage in North America outside of cities as that is simply not a priority for me. <hr><b>[kjrose] (2004/07/31)</b>: Since I'm all for more data: http://www.canadiancontent.net/tech/mobile/overall_ratings.html While I don't agree with the final conclusions. I think getting more data then hearsay may be the best way to determine the best cell phone service in canada. :-) <hr><b>[hub] (2004/10/01)</b>: if you are a foreigner and want to get a cell phone don't go to Fido. They do the evil credit check and given Equifax is competent, they'll simply reject you. And apparently the Fido customer service pretend that nobody inside Fido knows about the selection critera for a customer according to the credit check (which is plain wrong). I'm gonna try Rogers. - <b>[jnc] (2004/10/08)</b>: No! No Rogers! Rogers is the spawn of Satan! Haven't you read the rant? <hr><b>Anonymous@64.228.184.51 (2005/05/03)</b>: Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware)for all Bell Mobility subscribers. If you buy a pre-paid card that states 30 days, you better top up within 30 days. Ignore the misrepresentation made by Bell's answering system that states you have "31 days including today". Your balance will be zero if you follow this misrepresented statement. Six weeks after I signed up for a plan and new phone I was still waiting for my phone. After spending approximately 15+ hours on the phone over several weeks dealing with their "customer service" department to no avail I told them I wanted to cancel. Their agent informed me that I would be paying for all the cell phone service or use that I had never used (remember, no phone!) as well as a cancellation fee for disconnecting from their "service" amounting to hundreds of dollars. In addition, Fido was unable to access UPS at any time to check on the status of my phone. As well, I received three conflicting accounts as to whether I could have my phone delivered to my place of work. The training of their employees was abismal and grossly inconsistent, except for the fact that the service was lacking in every instance. Fido is marginally cheaper than some other dealers, but like the adage says, you get what you pay for. Except that Fido wanted me to pay outrageous fees for essentially only months of wasted time and frustration. In effect they were trying to punish me for their own grossly lacking ability to provide in the most basic of service. After threats to report them to consumer watch dogs they agreed to waive my fees - this after being transferred to 3 separate "service" agents. At the end, even the agent I spoke to admitted that he did not know when they would be able to get me my phone... <hr><b>faust (2006/09/03)</b>: Um doesn't anyone know that rogers bought up fido say 2 years ago during this whole time you praised it and it was still rogers.. funny that. - <b>[pmccurdy] (2006/09/07)</b>: If you'll note, the rant is from 2 years ago, before Rogers bought Fido. <hr><b>Anonymous@154.5.37.100 (2006/11/22)</b>: does canadian fido pay as you go work in the usa?? - <b>[mich] (2006/11/22)</b>: According to [http://www.fido.ca/portal/en/packages/coverage.shtml fido.ca], U.S. roaming is automatically activated with montly packages, but it's not clear for the prepaid service. I'd recommend to [http://www.fido.ca/portal/contactus/contact.do call them], I'm sure they'll be glad to provide you this information.