So as my regular readers know, I have been grappling with how to lower my cell phone costs. I am hoping to do this without getting rid of them altogether. Back in 2008 my wife took the bold first step of going from a Bell “Contract” over to a Telus “pay per-use” phone.
This was done as an experiment to see how things might work, and we found out that:
- Setting up the new phone is relatively painless, but know which phone you would like first and make sure you use the online system management capabilities to track your account.
- Number Portability is easy to use but has a few pitfalls. If you are going to port a number, make sure you bring a Customer ID or your old phone bill to the NEW carrier (to make this work faster).
My wife had her new phone working with her old phone number within an hour or two. She was pleased with her new phone and has been happily texting and using her new setup.
This all transpired about two weeks ago.
Then, the Bell bill showed up. That is when I lost 66 minutes of my life and about $36.
I checked the Bell Wireless bill online and was confused to see the total on the bill was about as much as it usually was. My wife and I were “twinned” on a single plan. However, given my wife’s phone number was no longer running on Bell, I suddenly needed to read much closer.
So two main things looked like gouging wrong on my bill:
- My wife’s old phone number was still being billed by Bell, even though it was connected to the Telus network
- My phone (which was still connected to the Bell network) was running a different “service package,” and I had been billed for $22 worth of texting charges
I was confident that if I called the Bell 1-800 number, I would get satisfaction and get these charges reversed. However, I was only 1/2 correct.
Tomorrow: How hard could it be to right such obvious wrongs? Oh, naive reader, you wait.
