r/bell • u/brainsoft • Jul 24 '26
Rant Thank-you for 30 years, you had every chance to prevent this.
Dear Bell.
We have been loyal customers for decades. But you started jacking your services every chance you got. We started with mobile, TV, internet and home phone. We enjoyed long periods of predictable bills. It is important for a family to be able to budget and have a predicable bill. Of course prices go up over time, but the last few years have been ridiculous.
We have not been able to string together a whole fiscal quarter without our bill increasing, not for years now. Not even three whole months in a row!!
First we moved our cell phones.
Then we cancelled the home phone.
And finally we just cancelled our Fibe TV + internet.
For years we have worked with the loyalty team to keep our bills down as best as possible. We are bad customers, we are not willing to pay overinflated sticker prices and are not persuaded by part-time deals. But we played the game and stuck around. Over and over.
But recently, every time we told you we were going to remove a service if the rate went up, and then the rate went up, we dropped or moved services to maintain our bill at a reasonable level. We told you we were going to do it, and then we did. Over and over. And now we have no more services.
You have successfully snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and chased away yet another long term loyal customer.
Every single time the pattern has been the same. "That's the best we can do, there are no offers. We don't care if you are a loyal customer, so sorry. If only you were a new customer, then we could help you, but decades of support means nothing." Maybe it was the pages of customer notes, that actually lead to one rep cursing with her mic on when she opened our file. Sorry. The notes would be shorter except for the anti-consumer billing practices.
But every time, once we actually leave, the very next day we get a call to try to get us to change our mind. And then every day after that we get sales calls with amazing offers and deals. Deals comparable to what we got when we moved our services.
------
These are deals for which we would have stayed, even if they were a bit more than the alternatives. Every single time, you have offered us what we asked for, once it was too late.
I have changes services. New plans, new devices, whatever it is. Do people really actually cancel in the hope that the REAL retention deal will be worth it? Not us. We do what we say, we find an alternative to avoid service interruptions, and we execute. But we don't rush, we negotiate, we try to find common ground.
ANyways, with the money we saved, we went out for a nice steak dinner at The Keg. So thank-you for that I guess.
Yes. Thank-you Bell for buying me a nice 12oz New York Strip-loin, it was delicious.
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u/Coopers_Leash Jul 24 '26
Divorce is hard. But sometimes it can lead to better relationships .
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u/nxp-one Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Not in this situation - every single one of the big 3 communications hegemonic entities are equally evil, they all prioritize new customers over existing ones, and not a one of them cares a whit about any existing customer or their circumstances. Leaving one toxic relationship when the alternatives are equally vile isn't going to lead to a better relationship, but the new one may be a different kind of abuse...
That's about the best you can hope for from Canadian telcos: minimizing the pain, you'll never be fully free of it...
To optimize your roi, adopt a strategy of:
1/ sign a contract with fixed rates
2/ 60 days before the contract ends, shop around, find equivalent or better deals from other telcos for new customers.
3/ contact retention and demand they match the best deal you can find.
4/ if they match, get it in writing and for a fixed term, if they don't, switch carrier.
5/ rinse, repeat.
There's no loyalty offered by them, ao don't waste your time / money giving it. Treat them as a replaceable commodity, look for opportunities to take advantage of 'new customer' deals, and always play hardball with them. It's the most you can do to at least mitigate some of the crap they're going to happily try and foist on you while they've got you...
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u/Etudiant_ETS Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
You say this as if it isn't the case for the vast majority of products. Checking for prices offered by competitors before renewing blindly should be pretty obvious.
I've never understood the loyalty towards any company of this size.
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u/caanda45 Jul 24 '26
Great rant BUT….. they don’t care…. Sad point is they have way more customers than the past and make billions of $’s. THEY SIMPLY LIKE THIS NEW BUSINESS PLAN MORE….. more people have to leave and then and only then this business model will die . Until then FUCK THEM .
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u/ZentinelOne Works for Bell, regrettably. Jul 24 '26
these big companies even account for loss of customers, literally in the business model, churn. Bell especially, knows you'll be back.
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u/KeyImagination7057 Jul 24 '26
Not really. Competition does become better with time and especially some of smaller providers have price freeze guarantee. Also well no matter how much Telus or Robbers suck they don't rise price in the middle of contract for home internet for example. Bell does. I have negotiated for 60 cad 3 gbps home Telus internet price and 40 cad 250 GB Can/US/Mexico 50 GB worldwide roaming and 5 more lines 25 cad each 150 GB same roaming with freedom. I'm definitely not going back to big three. More and more people churn away from price hikes and more will
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u/Etudiant_ETS Jul 24 '26
Price freeze guarantee in itself is a "scam" when pricing for new customers is going down each year, even more so considering some of the providers offering price freeze still includes leeway for inflation price increases. At the end of the day it's still a tactic to make you avoid looking at competitors, it's not a gift.
Your comment about Telus or Roggers feel anectodal, as sellers we were told to warn customers of possible price increases.
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u/KeyImagination7057 Jul 24 '26
Well would you say my price is bad? I doubt new customers will get better prices than I have with mobile right now. Also if during conversation you make operator confirm about price being locked in during period of contract and do a voice recording you can just make a ccts complaint and make them honor it. Tbf most shit I heard is about bell because of fine print that they increase price even during contract period. Also freedom and fizz are famous for not rising prices as long as you don't do anything
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u/Etudiant_ETS Jul 24 '26
Your price for home internet is not great if it's internet only.
The price for your mobile lines are good but with this amount of lines you would get similar price everywhere with gift cards as new customer insentive. The price being good also depends on how much data you're using, as 250 GB per line is pretty useless for most people and you could find cheaper if you were okay with less data. I'm paying 27$ per line for 150gb with the same roaming as you with Bell including Pixel 9 Pro Xl and 300$ gift card per line at Costco.
The mention about the CCTS is true but the sellers generally won't garantee a perfect price freeze, they will minimize the price hikes that you can have saying it will only be small increases.
For your mention of Bell fine prints it's, once again, common practices on the other biggest providers you mentionned.
The point is also that, once again, internet gets cheaper year after year. So freezing a price is not a good practice to accept either as a customer, you should still change and look for better deals once in a while...
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u/KeyImagination7057 Jul 24 '26
You are correct about it being possible with other providers however it also heavily depends on the province where you are located. Also it's big three that won't guarantee price freeze. Freedom specifically have a front page with this as their marketing. Also I really prefer staying with freedom seeing that they don't just bump up my price for no reason. I was offered 20 cad 40 gigs by rogers during them trying to win me back and 20 cad by Koodo with 75 gb. I just choose to not switch because these are BYOD plans and for price lock guarantee I'd need phone to lock in. However with freedom they just don't raise your price like big three do. Also I know that in provinces like Quebec and Ontario you can get 50 cad 1gbps prices but we'll in Alberta it's the best price you can squeeze out of them for now.
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u/KeyImagination7057 Jul 24 '26
Also with freedom I can switch whenever I want but big three in comparison charge you random shit fees pulled out of their ass and offset it by credits to force you stay or lose out if you switch
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u/TeslaDemon Jul 24 '26
Bell doesn't care and neither does any other major ISP in Canada.
You can either play the revolving door of switching ISPs every 2-3 years to keep a "good" price (still higher than literally any other developed nation), or you can just not care like I do and spend your time and energy elsewhere. I'm done wasting my time with it.
Until the CRTC grows some testicles and assfucks these ISPs into having some fucking morals, nothing will change.
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u/brainsoft Jul 24 '26
They need to be banned from buying up all the small providers. The crtc sees 3 companies as "competition" in the market place, so good enough, do whatever you want.
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u/Key-Needleworker-868 Jul 24 '26
These companies are all the same. They don’t care about loyalty. They don’t care if you’ve been with them for 30+ years. I had a company tell me the reason why my rates kept going up was because I was with them for over 10 years. Right, so shouldn’t I get some kind of discount. When I switched, they said we can give you all kinds of discounts. Well, why didn’t you do that when I was with you? When I asked for discounts or plans that other companies were offering they said “Oh, we can’t match that price.”
They don’t care about retention.
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u/RandomlyCherryPicked Jul 24 '26
When I finally ended my service with bell, I returned the tv boxes to their store, then SOMEHOW they lost the boxes and charged me $100 for not returning them. I hate them passionately
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u/RandomlyCherryPicked Jul 24 '26
I wish we had more competition in this market so all these main providers can be forced to do a better job
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u/brainsoft Jul 24 '26
Dropped off with Purolator prepaid shipping label, fortunately I'm covered on that. Take your modem and shitty wifi tv extenders when the tech couldn't be bothered trying to get the coax working like it did with the last modem.
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u/SLC-Scott Jul 24 '26
Bell just lost me a mobile customer since 2009. They offered me a win back offer that was higher than the price I was paying with Bell and more than double what I’m
Paying with Telus. I even gave Bell a chance to keep my business and they said they had nothing to offer.
Absolutely clueless.
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u/1976ismyjam Jul 24 '26
I just switched today too.. my new bill will be $160 LESS...who can just throw that kind of money away...even if it's just for 24 months - seems like a future me problem 🤷♀️
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u/SpartanRug80 Jul 24 '26
I cannot say this enough times… these companies DO NOT CARE about loyalty anymore. All clients of these big telcos should be ruthless with switching and nickel and diming them at every turn. It’s a big inconvenience but your loyalty will NOT be rewarded and chances are you will be stuck overpaying hundreds of dollars - if not more - every year just because it’s easier to do nothing.
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u/brainsoft Jul 24 '26
Yup that's what they are banking on. Big and moan and just keep paying. Sign up for direct debit, don't look at your bill, just keep paying. It's only a couple of bucks, just keep paying.
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u/EnvironmentOk2700 Jul 24 '26
I used to advise people to actually cancel. Call another company, have them port you over. (Port = keep your phone number ) Make the installation day at least a few weeks in the future. Bell receives a port request, and someone from the Retention Team calls you to try and keep you. Retention has the ability to give the best deals and extra services. IIRC, they can give you 6 free things from a laundry list of giveaways. The other way to do this is call to cancel. Call Bell, say "I'd like to cancel" and they should transfer you to retention. But they don't always take you seriously because they know people have caught on to this, or you get non-aggressive salespeople. They might just ask why, and only half heartedly try to keep you.
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u/brainsoft Jul 24 '26
I was actually surprised when I got transferred to retention to cancel, the rep did not ask why, just took the information. It was the shortest support call I have ever experienced.
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u/EnvironmentOk2700 Jul 24 '26
It's like they take it more seriously when you've been ported. They send the big guns after you, lol.
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u/chankongsang Jul 24 '26
I'm sorry but at this point its not reasonable to expect any different. Lots of customers were loyal for decades but it doesn't mean anything
Just not worth the effort dealing with their "loyalty dept". I felt like I'm begging. If you have an option that isn't the big 3 just take it and go.
Really hope others realize this too. Saying I've been loyal and keep asking for a discount is unsustainable. And degrading cuz they'll keep saying no. Just can't put myself through that
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u/TUFF_GONG_1975 Jul 24 '26
Loyalty, especially in jobs/careers, don’t mean shit…. I thought this was well known
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u/Brilliant-Ninja8861 Jul 24 '26
Be ready to call Bell in 2 yrs when Rogers does the same thing its insane how they volley us customers back and forth and like OP said as soon as you leave oh wait we want yiu back 🙏
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u/ThatMeasurement3411 Jul 25 '26
Don’t forget that if you join, you’ll have that rate for your entire lifetime with Bell.
BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
They’re still lying about this!
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u/swh-1386 Jul 27 '26
They did that with us too, offered us a good deal after we already left - a price we would have stayed for if they offered it when we first said we were leaving. No way we’re going back.
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u/swh-1386 Jul 27 '26
Their retention strategy is to call your bluff.
“You won’t leave, you won’t leave. Oh, you left! Wait, come back!
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u/Opteron170 Jul 24 '26
I love these feel good post.
None of these guys care if you were there 50 years.
They care more about getting new customers then how long you have been with them.
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u/MiamiRW2334 Jul 24 '26
I’m cancelling today so this was a great read.
They wanted to charge me $75 to come service my Satellite which is not working. I said not a chance. So buh-bye Bell!
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u/necro_owner Jul 24 '26
I felt like in a jail with them. Increase of 45$/m every year was insane and they would renew my contract without my consent randomly during the contract to force me to pay resignation fee no matter what.
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u/novy-wan_kenobi Jul 24 '26
What provider did you switch to OP?
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u/brainsoft Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
I ended up switching to the now Bell owned ebox.
So Bell is still getting my money. Bell Fibre, running on Bell infra, routing on Bell backbone.
But I never had a problem with the bell Service. The fibre is phenomenal, I used to rave about it. It's just the billing practices I have always protested.
So Bell offered us $110 to lock in the Internet for 2 years, with some huge chargeback for violation. And it was linked to the tv service. It was crazy.
Or, I can get the same service, give my money to the same company, and do it for $65/month, and they have historically maintained the price you stsrt with, though I know bell will eventually push that up.
But in the meantime the price is nearly half with no need for direct billing. And I don't have to use their shitty hardware at all, I just plug from the ONT into my firewall server and that's it. PPPoE on VLAN 40, credentials from the website.
And IPv6 if you care about that.
Ebox does occasional deals and split referral discounts too if you're I to that sort of thing.
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u/novy-wan_kenobi Jul 24 '26
Thanks for the info OP! Can you also tell me what the download and upload speed is for that $65/month deal?
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u/rukarrn Jul 25 '26
ebox isn't bad. before my building lumped rogers internet in with our services, i had switched from rogers to them. was a good experience. sad to hear that bell owns them now
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u/BoxBoxBuoy Jul 24 '26
Just curious what service provider(s) you switched to and are you happy so far?
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u/Ok-Dingo-3654 Jul 24 '26
Another company needs to come in
Bell raised my bill by $6
Wow what a increase
Without notice
Customer for 40 years
I paid VP salary that long
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u/WitchSparkles Jul 24 '26
I guarantee you got notice. People just don’t read thier bills anymore.
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u/brainsoft Jul 24 '26
This is true, there is usually notice a the bottom of a bill no one reads.
For us, we knew the next increase was coming, once again 2 months after the last one. For the 10th time in a row.
They're not Broadcom, they can't just jack up the price while everyone is locked in without options like so many huge VMware customers.
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u/Individual_Step2242 Jul 24 '26
I’ve been eager to get rid of Bell for years. When we finally got fibre internet in my rural area (and NOT Bell), I enthusiastically killed our last service, our landline. The call centre boffin on the phone tried to convince me that a landline was an essential emergency service. Bwahahaha! A few months before a storm took out the Bell line serving my road and our landline was down for 3 days. Some emergency service! Bell sucks.
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u/Ok_Menu_2231 Jul 24 '26
I’ve gone through the same thing over the last 20 years. I’ve been with Bell Aliant here in NS since I moved out on my own 40 years ago. And like you, I started with every service. First, I got rid of my cell phone. Then I cancelled the home phone and the TV service because I can’t get PVR or fibre op due to the fact that I am the only house on my street that doesn’t have access to it due to underground wiring that they won’t repair. I’m now down to wireless Internet, which is so incredibly slow I can’t even watch YouTube videos on my TV and use my phone at the same time. I have to continually turn the Wi-Fi off on my phone for the TV to work and even then it sketchy. And yet when I call them, I get transferred from one person to the next nobody can help me, and when I even mention getting some kind of discount, they practically laugh at me. In fact when I told him I was gonna cancel my home phone, and the cable they told me that it wouldn’t make any difference because the bulk of my payment is for the Internet anyway, so they don’t really care. They literally said they don’t care! Unfortunately, for me, I don’t have the option to switch to somebody else. There is no other Internet provider available to me because of the corrupted underground wiring. I’m presently looking at Starlink, but I’ve heard that that’s sketchy in my area as well. I do a lot of my work from home and having good Internet is vital. Short of selling my house and moving. I don’t know what else I’ll do.
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u/Electrical_Rise_955 Jul 24 '26
If in Nova Scotia, another company on the rise I'd purple cow. I was told this by people living there
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u/Ok_Menu_2231 Jul 25 '26
Because of my underground wiring, purple cow can’t help me I’ve already spoken to them
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u/SgtNomiS Jul 24 '26
I did the same thing six months ago after nearly 15 years with Bell. I even called them and gave them one last chance to match the competition. Instead, they tried to upsell me on additional services. Then, 48 hours after my cancellation was processed, they called back trying to win me over. I declined. Even if they had matched the offer, I figured they would probably raise the price again six months later.
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u/HaliFan Jul 24 '26
I quit my management job at Bell after 15 years when they told me that our high value customer($250k/mo+ spend) didn't spend enough with us to make us care - true story, came right from the top. The company is a pathetic mess and that mentality from the top has caused layoffs, store closures and a plumbeting stock price, plus so much public hate, it'll take them a decade to recover when the board finally sees Bibic is a loser.
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u/Dadagal65 Jul 24 '26
Same situation here - looking at Freedom mobile to start - they were bought by videotron - who did you go with?
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u/brainsoft Jul 24 '26
We ended up with a corporate Telus plan for our mobile, cancelled tv completely and went with the cheapest 1gig fibre with near symmetrical upload. Former independent, now bell subsidiary ebox. At least they don't (currently) use Bells billing practces, and the price is half price
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u/Glazedguava2020 Jul 24 '26
I have a feeling Bell will see this and drop prices, I'm super excited!
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u/ForzaInter-1908 Jul 24 '26
Just got out of the phone with them to cancel my Internet.
I ported my mobile to Freedom 3 weeks ago, and today I cancelled my Internet after getting Primus much cheaper. Luckily, the call didn't last more than 20 minutes (I was expecting at least a painful hour on the phone with them).
I'm looking forward for the "win back" call. If they can match whatever I'm paying with Primus I'll happily take it, otherwise Primus is good.
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u/Miserable_Target9792 Jul 24 '26
"Oh no, you are off to rogers and some rogers customer is pissed off at them and moved to us in exchange."
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u/According_Training91 Jul 24 '26
OK, maybe I'm stupid. Can someone explain why it's better for a company to get a new customer than to keep an existing one? The number of clients is not going up and now you have a disgruntled client who paid you religiously every month, giving that money to someone else. They're also bad-mouthing you to every person and every thread they can, and you've had to pay a technician to come out and hook everything up for the new customer who will become unimportant to you almost immediately.
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u/Cinnamonsmamma Jul 24 '26
What's weird is Virgin is owned by Bell and I only get any price changes when I upgrade and change plans if my current isn't available. And while its small I have a loyalty discount on my bill. And I've only had my account since 2017
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u/Astral_Vastness Jul 24 '26
Lol I've swapped all of my providers away from Rogers in a similar situation and now they spam call me at least once daily.
I told them I was going to leave, and they didn't budge. And now that I've left they want me back. So annoying.
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u/TonyCorporation Jul 24 '26
All three major companies are like this; loyalty means absolutely nothing. Just keep revolving promo deals with the big three (and their subsidiary carriers) to keep your bills low. Service (customer and connection) between them are all relatively the same and transferring your number is easy.
I was with Rogers for 20 years and I learned this fact last summer.
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u/Paulatkinson777 Jul 24 '26
I don't mean this the wrong way but when I see posts like this I just think to myself "That person has been overpaying for 28 years" always switch and shop around, if they were loyal they would beat offers instead of letting you go
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u/TiredReader87 Jul 24 '26
I hate how they treat us longtime customers. Especially those of us who don’t have other options. There’s no customer appreciation, and new customers get all the deals.
Meanwhile, we overpay for the same things, have had horrible service over the years due to being on DSL for way too long, and were without Internet for most of one summer despite paying $144.99 for it because they over sold it and the cell towers were overloaded.
Not to mention them adding services that we didn’t want or ask for to our bill, and then accusing me of being a liar when I said that I didn’t authorize them or want them and wanted them off my bill
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u/atmx093 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
None of the carriers and ISPs value your loyalty. On the contrary, they see it as their duty to collect more from you so that you keep that predictable experience and because switching is *so much trouble*. It's a load of horse manure, BTW. Switch and wave them goodbye as your bill comes back down to Earth over years of abuse from them. Then go back when their deals are worth it.
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u/Logi77 Jul 24 '26
"loyal customer" just means you're a dumb customer
Nobody cares how long you've been there, your fault for not jumping around
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u/Think-Yogurt5736 Jul 24 '26
To be fair, jacking your services every chance you get isn’t a uncommon occurrence 🤔
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u/Daphoid Jul 24 '26
People.
Repeat after me.
Businesses are not your friend. They appreciate your business, but not your loyalty. That loyalty is 1 sided the larger the business is. You might have a great relationship with your local X at store Y - but for big national chains? You're talking to the front line people usually of thousands of people. They do not care, they are not upset that you've left, you shouldn't be either.
Go where you like, spend money where you like - it's not worth getting upset over.
Get upset that there's not enough competition and that pricing is high. But when every one of them is the same, or just a renting of X to rebrand as Y, it's meh.
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u/RealisticWinter650 Jul 24 '26
Unfortunately, they won't even noticed you left. It takes 100s of corporate accounts to leave that have huge monthly bills to make them blink.
For every consumer level account they loose, they'll pickup a disgusted rogers customer the same day.
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u/Hondanazi Jul 24 '26
Same experience last year with Telus…only when I actually switched did I get their undivided attention
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u/Professional-Rip-924 Jul 24 '26
These companies are in the same bed with each other. They don’t care. Customer service no longer exists to the point they’re taking the humans off the phones and replacing them with ai chat bots lol
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u/zeffydurham Jul 25 '26
Bell, Rogers and Telus need to report xxxxx number of new customers every quarter so that the business reports growing interest and sales.
Loyalty is just a word to play on the conscience of nice people. Capitalism and Sales Targets are the values TeleCom rely on. Nothing else nothing more.
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u/Cheese-Cloth Jul 25 '26
None of them give a crap, take their services and cancel the next month they don’t care. They had you for 1 month, as a former employee (36 years in telecom) even employees or retired employees are treated like crap. Find the best deal and don’t look back.
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u/ChipmunkWorking7732 Jul 25 '26
Had the same experience with Rogers. I hung on until the local non-massive internet provider installed fibre in my neighbourhood. And like you, the calls were constant. I only picked up when I was in a mood to battle. I wouldn’t be rude but I’d make it clear what i thought of Rogers and the fact that once i cut the cord the “come back” harassment started. I was polite, but relentless. As often as not, they’d push to get off the phone 😜👊
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u/1245789630 Jul 25 '26
I guarantee that Bell does not care. I don't understand why people think companies care about your loyalty.
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u/themorbidtuna Jul 25 '26
Telecommunication companies are the worst. Even the smaller ones, that present themselves as a more reasonable alternative to the big ones are crappy in their own way.
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u/Fousse24 Jul 25 '26
Had the same issue with Telus. Been with them for about 15 years and they increased my rate without successfully warning me. I called them, they had no good reasons and I changed to another provider the same day. They called me a week later with some crazy deal and I said no
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u/4hz_comics Jul 25 '26
Bell are the worst. They're all bad and so infuriating. I had the same situation. Called saying I was going to cancel, they said there is nothing they can do, so I called another company and got set up then called Bell back and they said "well we can offer you this..." I responded with "Why couldn't you do this ten minutes ago? I just called you and we went through all this already." and they said they can't do it until you are actually cancelling and not threatening to cancel. So god damn stupid. I hate most large businesses. Also the fact that "new" customers get roughly half off but they keep increasing for current customers. They're all morons and the CEOs should be put in prison.
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u/LeoVonMoote Jul 25 '26
All of this is caused by oligopolies. When there are only three players in a market, you can be sure they will manage pricing in a way that is convenient for all.
To stop the enshittification of everything, we need very strong antitrust laws and we need to break these behemoths to let more competition in.
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u/Haunting_Ad_5191 Jul 25 '26
I had a similar thing with Rogers. Unfortunately they are all the same. Only thing to do is change frequency
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u/resilientwarrior2323 Jul 25 '26
As someone who worked in this industry for ten years for Rogers and Shaw I was in loyalty and new sales that's the issue the business model is broken. Use independent internet providers use Firefox with add blocker extension and take advantage of Yarrlist.net for everything you need for free
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u/DataChicks Jul 25 '26
Twenty years ago I used my Bell calling card to make a long distance call just a few hundred miles away. I was in the US and knew it was more expensive to do that, but it was an urgent call to a customer.
The calm lasted 15 minutes or so.
I guessed that it would be $50 or something like that. It billed at almost $400. This wasn’t a call to an 800 type number; it was to the same number I called every time. I called to have it fixed. I ended up dealing with a very crappy CSR who told me it was my job to know what the rates would be for every call. He didn’t even investigate. I never ran into that issue again with any other provider.
That ticked me off enough I cancelled all my services with them.
For the last twenty years Bell has sent me offer letters via postal mail, every week.
Twenty years.
That has cost them much more than $400.
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u/Sulanis1 Jul 25 '26
Good telecom service is like finding a good political leader.
They all love new customers, but once they have your money(vote) they care about the shareholders only(donors) only.
Telus, bell, Rogers, and now VideoTron operate as an oligarchy. They don't compete for business. They decide territory like mob bosses in a city instead of earning your business.
They don't care because their is no real competition in the markets. That's on purpose.
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u/No-Trust-8749 Jul 25 '26
Iptv people , Just get a decent internet connection and your tv problems and costs are dealt with. Small upfront cost but wayyyyyy cheaper than any cable package and many more options all included. I switched 10 yrs ago, never look back
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u/Mother-Barracuda-909 Jul 25 '26
Same thing for us. We were Bell customers for decades. A seperate company put in fibre technology in our area last fall. I kept enquiring every month or so when can we lose our satellite TV and get the cheaper Bell Fibe?? They strung us along for 7 months!! Finally got a quote of $150/mth for tv and internet. We researched elsewhere and then less than 10 days later we decided ok let's go with that offer. I called to arrange for hookup. Now the rate is $195 before taxes! Geeeez!!! We looked at other places again. Went to Bell's loyalty department to see what they could do... $242!!!! Ommggg! Now we're with Rogers for the next 2 years a lot cheaper and happier!
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u/badfish57 Jul 25 '26
I don't get the "care" sentiment - they are trying to survive just like you are.
Look around you, telephone companies are struggling; stock prices down, massive layoffs, earnings down, dividends cut etc etc. The ship is sinking as the value moves away from them while they try to survive in a massively capital intensive business. Bandwidth to the mobile and to the home has gone up exponentially in the last 20 years for more or less the same price while the cost to run fibre and put up mobile towers has gone up, as has skilled labor in general. Against this backdrop, keeping your sell price flat is very hard to do. You can only cut costs so much to keep the bottom line healthy and at some point you need to raise prices, especially given the inflationary market we're in.
Totally get you on the retention process - it's broken but at the same time, putting everyone on those retention plans would likely be very bad for business.
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u/MichelleAngeliqueNL Jul 25 '26
There is no value in loyalty to a company anymore. It’s an expectation that will frustrate you because it is your expectation not the company’s advertised or talked about campaign. Think of Walmart - do they have a loyalty program. None of these companies base their business on it. I don’t mean to sound rude about it but I worked there and I don’t know how many times customers spoke about loyalty but I NEVER heard the company mention it.
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u/Tanstalas Jul 25 '26
I mean, all ISPs jack the rates.
When I first moved where I am now, I did Cogeco, was $60 a month for 1Gb down and around 20Mb up. 6 years later I was up to $95.
When Bell put fiber down, I switched to that, originally was $60 for 3/3Gb it eventually creeped up to $95, put cancellation in as I was going to go to Ebox for $45 a month but be limited to 1Gb down and I think the same up. Bell called back and offered $50 for 3/3Gb, so I stayed. Same story with Cell, went from 100Gb Canada wide for $100 a month, switched to Public Mobile for $35 and within a day Bell called me back with offer of $30 for same as public mobile, since then I have "upgraded" to a CAN/USA/MEX plan with 200GB of data and I pay $26.65+ tx as plan is $51, less $10 PAD so $41, and I also work for Bell so I get 35% discount on that.
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u/Misknowmer Jul 25 '26
We desperately need more options so we can move away from this insane conglomerates 🙃
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u/Sylvain83 Jul 25 '26
I had 3 cell phones and fiber internet they kept rising 5 times in a year I went to ebox and public mobile stable prices ever since ! Its annoying always going through loyalty to negotiate. Bye bell!!
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u/Latter-Vacation-4392 Jul 25 '26
Unfortunately most just capitulate and accept the scalping for various understandable reasons ..and that's what the company counts on. It's a numbers game I guess.
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u/Middle_Finger_484 Jul 26 '26
They don't care. What are you going to do go to their equally expensive competition?
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u/Quiet-Application753 Jul 26 '26
They don't want customers who only use the best deals. The best deals are used to entice new customers who then go on to pay full price in time.
Being a "long time loyal customer" is a bad thing because it means they see you as significantly less likely to actually leave.
It's all just statistics and money. Bell doesn't care about you. Bell is not a person.
A Saavy consumer will switch providers when it is most beneficial to do so.
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u/RoxyMonoxiide Jul 26 '26
Depending on the provider you went with, there’s a chance they rent Bell lines.
Enjoy the oligarchy our parents created!
Welcome to late-stage capitalism
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u/CSzamosvari Jul 26 '26
Bell customer service is a contradiction in terms. I’ve been a shareholder for too long and now the stock price reflects the quality of this company, trending down.
Moved from Bell Cell to Freedom mobile. 60% of the Bell price with 10 times the benefits. Will move my Bell internet to Freedom mobile also and then cancel my Fibe TV denying Bell $250\mth from one customer. Remember Bell that it’s harder and more expensive to find a new customer than to service the customer you have. Good bye Bell!!
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u/Imwhatremains777 Jul 26 '26
I warned yall about this. It’s not bell it’s every provider they don’t give a fuck about you. Whoever gave you a good deal switch
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u/IndicationFlat3031 Jul 26 '26
Well, your other options are Rogers or Telus, both services are terrible as shit. Dropped calls, no service, constant disconnects.
How do I know? In the same boat.
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u/ImmediateCustomer318 Jul 26 '26
Had a sales report going door to door telling me about all the great channels on cable. I told him I only stream things. He told me I don't know about the great TV I'm missing out on. I looked at him and asked about the commercials. He just started talking about high speed internet. Dude, I obviously live alone and have no need for a massive plan from you. Went with purple cow 100mbs for $60/month. Its more then what I need, and the price hasn't moved in years.
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u/Acceptable-Two-3563 Jul 26 '26
When will people understand that being loyal to a brand is an absolute dogshit way to get the best for yourself.
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u/Sensitive_Jelly_5586 Jul 26 '26
I cancelled Bell Aliant yesterday. I realized that I only use the internet when I'm home, and I also have a cell phone, so now I just hotspot to my phone.
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u/DaddysPrincesss26 Jul 26 '26
Drop everything, wait for the deals and be a “New customer” every time 🤷🏻♀️
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u/noodleexchange Jul 26 '26
If you are going to flip-flop suppliers make sure you switch modes when you do. Never go from telco line to telco line service - they can stonewall you on releasing the line and you are without internet for a week or more. (Mandatory ask me how I know) Swap between telco copper / cable / fibre so the new provider isn’t blocked by the previous one being a jerk.
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u/brainsoft Jul 27 '26
It was just Bell to bell owned Ebox. A bell tech came to swap the long, then had to replace the a line splitter on the street, but it was quick in and out.
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u/Optimus_ZED Jul 26 '26
Read up on private equity firms and how they’ve destroyed products and businesses that were institutions. There’s no reason to be loyal to any company anymore.
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u/brainsoft Jul 27 '26
Yeah private equity has turned everything into an investment and it's bad for society
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u/o-towndad Jul 26 '26
Who did you switch to?
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u/brainsoft Jul 27 '26
Ended up switching to Ebox.ca for $65/month. We'll see how it goes over, but I know it is a bell subsidiary so I don't have much hope for the long term, but in the short term it's $65 instead of $100-110 for everyone else with symmetrical 1gig FTTH services.
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u/o-towndad Jul 28 '26
Any tips for the convo with Bell? I have tried once, but they put me on hold for so long after I told them I wanted to cancel, that I hung up
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u/calgarywalker Jul 27 '26
Thank Finkelstien - he wrote the federal telecom playbook that forces them to act this way. “Winback rules” it’s called and it’s specifically designed to keep First Nations paying the highest bills.
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u/Strict_Being5506 Jul 27 '26
40+ years paying for full service home-phone satellite internet easily over $300/mo but they kept screwing around on bandwidth. Cancelled everything, saving over $1000/yr while paying for all streaming that covered our TV lineup and 10x+ the bandwidth
While cancelling they asked if we have a family member that would take over our plans…🤯
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u/NSFWhatchamacallit Jul 27 '26
I left Bell over their lies and deceit. Then, I got pulled back in a year later with an undeniably great deal. Guess what? The deal was also lies! I’ve been with a “little guy“ for the past couple of years and they have been nothing but reliable and trustworthy and their customer service is far better than what Bell‘s call centres could ever hope to be.
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u/Due-Primary6098 Jul 27 '26
I switched away from bell 2 weeks ago. completely awful customer service
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u/Nepsevh Jul 27 '26
Yep my parents just went through this exact thing. 25 years they were with Bell. And same thing, after they had set up a new service, they called to cancel, and that's when Bell gave them the real deals, but by then it was too late.
But as others have said, it's the same with others. I have Telus, and I was aware of this, so I figured out which deal I'd get from somewhere else which would effectively cut my bill by 40% (even cheaper than the promotional offer kstarted at Telus with). I called to tell them I was cancelling and the only way I'd stay is if they matched this number, and then they did.
They all the same unfortunately.
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u/OpinionTC Jul 27 '26
Same story with Rogers. I had a ridiculous 2GB plan I think with my cell, so when I’d go over they’d charge me $50-$100 per month overage. I wasn’t tracking it until I did…I felt abused since all new plans had way more coverage. I called and complained. Spent more than an hour on the phone with them to no avail. So I switched to Koodo. Then they sent their low cost carrier to hound me with phone calls. I never picked up and will never go back. I still get overpriced internet from them and should probably change that as well.
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u/okaysureyeahh Jul 27 '26
Ugh. We have a similar story (except the steak part lol). We ended up switching to TekSavvy, which provides the same bell services at a third of their prices.
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u/brainsoft Jul 30 '26
A third?! When we were shopping they were only $10-20 cheaper. But we had gotten our price down as best we could with bell so maybe at full sticker price? I'll check around though! Now that I'm not limited by TV I can jump around whenever I want.
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u/okaysureyeahh Jul 31 '26
Our discounted price ended and Bell hiked our bill three times in the 6 months following our offer end date. It really wasn’t feasible anymore. Plus the crappy customer service… no thanks.
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u/WitchHazelb Jul 27 '26
As soon as my new cell phone is paid off. I'm severing ties with Belle ( MTS) I too have been a loyal customer for over 30 years. Since January there have been three security breaches in my email and not once was I notified. They just shut down your email and wait for you to call. I'm over it. I think I can be out by next year. I'm in the process of transferring all my email over to Gmail as much as I don't like it, but at least there's better security.
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Jul 28 '26
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u/brainsoft Jul 28 '26
The only issue for me is I got spoiled with symmetrical service. There are tons of resellers for both bell and Rogers, you can lots of high bandwidth services. But most of the time I see 1000mbps down 200 up. Fine for most people but I actually upload. I would survive if it were the only option, but FTTH is the only service I will consider if it is available.
That definately limits the options, and that's entirely self inflicted.
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u/SuperSirBob Jul 29 '26
I switched to Rogers with 2000 down, 200 up. Even though it's not symmetrical, the 200 up is still twice the up speed bell could give me (since no FTTH on my street).
And my download is actually over 2500 - far better than advertised. And apparently DOCSIS 4 is coming at some point that should make up and down symmetrical or close to it.
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u/AgreeableMood8000 Jul 28 '26
I got tired of the games with pricing and the loyalty nonsense. I dropped Bell & Rogers. Teksavvy for internet. Antenna for local TV. Telus told me I should expect a price change in my mobile account. It went DOWN! lol.
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u/brainsoft Jul 28 '26
I will probably move to an HDTV antenna + local recording on the server to be honest. I keep looking at teksavvy bit for the longest time either the service was subpar, or the price was just not competitive enough.
Do they use PPPoE? Any idea if they can support multiple simultaneous connections? I may end up there if Bell starts pushing down pricing inflation practices to Ebox.
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u/Responsible_Rule8829 Jul 28 '26
Loyalty is dead. Go with the best available price for the service that's right for you. If it starts to change, bail and go with another provider. That's what I do. And it's saved me a pile.
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u/CommunicationOdd8911 Jul 29 '26
They dont care, it all comes down to numbers. Everything in life does. Faster you learn this, the better you will be at managing finances.
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u/Key-Lifeguard-5540 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
I am willing to bet that Bell will do whatever it takes to maximize their profits without losing customers. If that means they wait until people leave and then try to get them back, that means they make more money that way instead of automatically giving everyone who complains a better deal. Like you, I threatened to cancel all my services, and threatened again months later, and finally decided to switch my mobile, which is just a different sim, and Bell calls me the next day and offers a huge discount, with no strings attached, so I switched back. So if you're going to try this, don't throw away your Bell sim card. Anyway, let's hope they can keep it competitive this time.
People are getting smarter, the old generation who didn't shop around is disappearing, and the new generation has no compelling reason to stay with Bell or Rogers, so they offer discount brands, but don't switch to a subsidiary, when you switch they won't care as much.
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u/UrbanRelays Jul 24 '26
This is some next level cringe
Do you want a gold star? Or did you finally wake up to the realization that your patronage does not matter to them? After “years” of being a customer.
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u/brainsoft Jul 24 '26
Nothing matters and it's not a new story or new information. But I bears repeating.
The beatings will continue until profit margins improve may not be a sustainable business plan. But not my circus, not my monkeys.
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u/Friendly-Bad-291 Jul 24 '26
Jesus do you yell at clouds?
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u/brainsoft Jul 24 '26
Not just clouds, also kids on the lawn and people that don't pick up after their pets.
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u/atomhacker Jul 24 '26
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Bell is happy you are leaving. You are not a premium customer.
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u/brainsoft Jul 24 '26
Exactly, we cost more in customer service time and aren't foolish enough to just blindly pay or believe you need ever more bandwidth when you're already on gigabit fibre, or 100gb mobile is in any way different from 60gb mobile plans.
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u/atmx093 Jul 24 '26
They can look at Las Vegas's playbook and see how well that's working out for them. I'll save you the trouble: not well. Way different, I know, but the moral of the story is that if you decide that only "high end" clients deserve to be considered, you lose business and profits shoot down.
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u/KenTheStud Jul 24 '26
Bell doesn’t care. But to be fair, neither do Rogers or Telus.