Background
First off, Canada isn't like most other countries - we have essentially three mobile network providers - Bell Canada, Rogers and Telus. There are also a couple of independents like Wind Mobile but they are small fish and they are pretty much limited to big urban centres or certain provinces (e.g. SaskTel and MTS). If you stray out of those areas, you are "roaming" and pay through the nose to use "partner networks" (i.e. Bell, Telus or Rogers). You could say it is a BTR monopoly (but it's not BeTteR)... it's actually a TRB monopoly (TeRriBle).
All three have subsidiary companies that make it look like we have more providers: Fido (Rogers), Virgin Mobile (Bell), Koodo (Telus). Fun, eh? So, getting a cell phone in Canada looks something like this:
You approach a provider, you look at phones and are enamoured with the Samsung Galaxy S6. You are shocked by its sticker price ($700) but happily notice that if you sign up for a 3 year contract, the phone will only cost you $200. You choose a monthly plan based on your needs (data, calling, texting, etc.), sign your three year contract and walk out the door caressing your new S6. Unfortunately, you don't notice the titanium chain that is attached to your ankle... a chain that trails all the way back to your service provider.
Over time, you realize that your monthly plan is not such a good deal but... you are chained to your provider. Your phone is actually locked to their network and you can't unlock it unless you're at the end of your 3 years.
So if you travel, you can't just pop a US SIM card into the phone and use it in the States. Nope, won't work. And if you want to break your 3 year contract, you are paying heavy, heavy fees.
As the end of your three years looms in the near future, your provider phone you with "exclusive" deals to re-commit for another 3 years of indentured servitude... with a new phone thrown in, of course. You have 3 years of "loyalty" built up with this provider which does count for something. If you go to a new provider (one of the other Big 2), you're unlikely to get a better deal... so the story goes. You stick to your guns and your contract ends. You continue as a month-to-month customer but do a happy dance because your vintage S6 phone is now yours! You try to use a US SIM card in it... still locked. You contact your service provider - "Oh, yes, we have to unlock it. That will cost you $50). What?
Some New CRTC Rules
A couple of years ago, the CRTC (Canada's Telecom Regulator) brought in new rules for the benefit of the consumer. The Big 3 had their wrists slapped. Customers now had 30 days after signing a contract to cancel the whole deal with no penalty (buyer's remorse). After 90 days of being in the contract, customers could ask the provider to unlock their phones (but providers could still charge $50 for this "service". Oh, and if you bought the phone outright at the beginning... it was still locked and you still had to pay $50 to unlock the phone that you just bought and now owned. Go figure. Finally, the CRTC ruled that 3 year contracts were too long and limited the term to 2 years.
Now, last week, it was all over the news that people who were in the last year of their 3 year contract (those poor souls who locked in prior to the new CRTC rulings) were in a position of power. They could technically call their service provider and cancel their contract with no penalty as they had fulfilled 2 years of their contract. But of course the Big 3 would offer incentives to retain the customers! Of course...
Our ears perked up at this... my 3 year contract had lapsed in November and I was on a month-to-month plan ($57/month + taxes) and my partner was in the 3rd year of her contract ($57/month + taxes). We decided that today was the day... we would brave the den of the Bell Beast and wield our Sword of Customer Power!
First Negotiation
We pulled straws and my partner, Anne, won (or lost). Actually, given that she was the one with the contract... we decided that she needed to phone, being in the position of more power.
Tip - write out your current wireless plan and component costs on a piece of paper.
So she phoned Bell. She spoke with Customer Service Agent (CSA) #1.
Tip - Get the agents name and Customer Service Agent ID number at the start of the call.
She explained her situation and CSA #1 offered her a "deal" that was something on the order of $80/month (all prices do not include taxes). Anne pointed out that this was way more than what she was paying now.
Tip - make notes of what the agent says - what the "deals" include.
Tip - tell the agent you are making notes
The price dropped by $10... still not good enough. Anne then threw me into the mix. There were actually two of us and we wanted a Shared Plan with 2 GB of data combined. Another deal was offered - $121/month (unlimited nationwide calling, unlimited texting, picture, video messaging, message centre, 2 GB data). We could get Samsung Galaxy S4s but we would still have to pay $$ for them. although CSA #1 did offer a $100 rebate on the two phones. Anne finally asked if that was the best CSA #1 could do? Apparently it was. Anne asked to speak to someone else.
Tip - when you don't get what you want from the first person, ask to speak to someone else.
We got passed on to CSA #2 (in the Loyalty/Retention Department). This gentleman went backwards with us. He offered $140/month for the same deal CSA #1 had offered us for $120. Anne pointed out that CSA #1 had offered us a $120/month contract. But the sticking point turned out to be the new phones. He couldn't give us S4s for free if we were only paying $120/month. He put us on hold for 10 minutes while he went to consult someone else.
Tip - stay calm - they are playing mind games with you. Use the time to do some research.
CSA #2 came back and offered the Samsung Galaxy Core for free. I looked it up online while Anne was talking with him. It was a piece of sh-t phone. I wrote "NO!" on the paper.
Tip - have someone on hand who can do quick research online while you negotiate
He wouldn't budge. Anne wouldn't budge. Anne finally said that if that was the best he could then she would have to check other service providers. We hung up.
An hour on the phone and we had nothing to show for it. We sat out on the deck, our tails between our legs. Sh-t. Now we would have to call Telus and Rogers and... more hours wasted. We felt like we had been ripped off. We were loyal customers - we were supposed to get a deal! What the heck.
We slowly realized that this was exactly what Bell is probably counting on. Who is going to spend hours on the phone trying to find a better deal with another service provider? Most people will just cave and take the best thing Bell offers them.
I went inside and had a look at Rogers and Telus - just the plans that they offer to new customers on their websites. This was extremely helpful.
Tip - Do this research AHEAD of time! You'll have way more power with Bell.
Sooo... Rogers and Telus both had the S4 for $99.99 (2 year contract) not the $149.99 (2 year contract) that Bell was hawking it for. Which meant the $100 "rebate" that CSA #1 offered us on two phones was a big fat nothing. We could get that at Telus or Rogers as brand new customers.
I dug deeper. With Rogers, we could sign up as new customers on a Shared Plan and get two S4 phones (paying $225), unlimited nation-wide calling, unlimited texting, picture, video messaging and message centre, AND 2 GB of data - all for $120. Oh, and they were waiving the connection/activation fee - $20/phone). What??
We compared this with our notes... Bell was offering us virtually the same thing. But Rogers would give this deal to us as new customers. And Bell was calling this a "loyalty" plan. Where was the loyalty incentive?? We knew the new phones were the sticking point but when we looked at the $225 price tag for two S4's at Rogers... we divided that by 24 months (the length of the 2 year contract) and realized the figure was less than $10/month. Was that not a reasonable loyalty incentive amount?
Second Negotiation
We looked at each other. Anne asked me if I wanted her to phone Bell again? Up to her. With a sigh... she picked up the phone - once again into the breach. Anne asked to be put through to the loyalty department.
Anne reached CSA #3 and told her that she had just spent an hour on the phone with Bell and really didn't want to repeat everything again. That was OK. CSA #3 could see the previous notes on her computer. Anne repeated the gist of the deal we had been offered and then referred to the Rogers deal. Back and forth it went... and finally CSA #3 agreed to throw in the two S4s for free. High-five!!
Anne then asked about the activation fee - $35/phone. She threw the Rogers amount out on the table - $20/phone and Rogers was waiving that fee. CSA #3 agreed to take $10 off of each connection fee and then give us a credit for the remaining $25/phone. Excellent! We reviewed the deal... yup, it was what we wanted. We could go and get the phones in-store and all would be well. The only hiccup was that we needed to add me to Anne's account. Before we left CSA #3, I told Anne to get her name and number. And I asked if something could be sent to us via email.
Tip - get EVERY CSA's name and ID number!
Tip - get the deal/agreement sent to you via Email (not text!)
Erin (CSA #E.....) said she would send Anne a text. In hindsight... we should have insisted on an email. We had to show the text to the in-store CSA and it wasn't all that helpful. After thanking Erin, we were passed along to CSA #4 who was going to combine our accounts. I had to get on the phone and give him my PIN and agree to be added to Anne's account. No problem. He then told Anne that there was a $35 Transfer of Responsibility fee. Anne put her foot down very firmly. She had just spent over an hour negotiating a deal and there had been no mention of this fee. She was not willing to pay this fee. He said there was nothing he could do. She asked to be transferred back to Loyalty.
Tip - stand by your guns. If you don't like what someone is offering - go to a higher-up
CSA #4 put us on hold and then less than minute later, the line went dead. Anne stared at the phone in disbelief. Either he was hopeless at phone transferring or he had just given us the finger. But at this point, we were not backing down. If Bell thought they were getting rid of us that easily... they had another think coming!
Third Negotiation
Anne phoned Bell again and asked to be placed through to Loyalty. She asked for Erin but was told we couldn't be passed directly to a specific agent. Fine... so we ended up with CSA #5 - Cecilia. Anne went into her spiel again summarizing the conversations that had gone before. She let Cecilia know she had been on the phone for almost two hours, had been transferred to someone who would combine the accounts and was then told about the Transfer of Responsibility fee. No one had mentioned this fee to her previously and she was not going to pay it. If she signed up with Rogers as a new customer, they wouldn't charge her a fee to create an account. Besides, in combining our accounts, Bell would actually save money since they would only have to send out one bill. Cecilia hestitated and then agreed. She pulled up the file and without even a murmur, agreed to waive the Transfer of Responsibility fee. She also said that she could combine accounts. Yay! A few minutes later, she came back to say that she couldn't do that - didn't have the correct access. So we were transferred to CSA #6, Jason, who combined our accounts. Finally! We hung up the phone and looked at the clock. Another hour gone... but we had a deal we were happy with!
At the Bell Store
We decided to trot right over to the Bell store and get the phones. First, we drove to a mall with a Bell kiosk. They had no S4 phones and one guy actually said they weren't affiliated with Bell. What? Turned out they were a franchise... Uh-huh. Betcha Bell would love to hear that. They were wearing Bell t-shirts and everything. Anyhow... they phoned the actual Bell store and... yes, they had three S4s!!! Back into the car and drove to another mall.
We walked into the store and were served by Alanna. We told her that we had negotiated a deal with Bell and were there to get the phones.
Tip - Be VERY specific in summarizing your deal. Ask agent if she/he can see it on their computer.
Alanna was happy to help us and began the process of registering our phones to our combined account. Minutes went by... but the S4s were not wanting to be registered... finally, the store manager told Alanna to just give us S5s instead. Secret High-Fives! We were being upgraded at no cost to us!
Tip - don't gloat. It is not becoming.
Mind you, as we got into the nitty gritty of the contract, it was clear that Alanna did not have access to the deal that we had negotiated. She was going to give us $100 off the phones but we said, "No, we are paying nothing for them.". And then, after printing out a contract, Anne noticed that we were actually being charged $150/month not $120!
Tip - Review your contract with a fine-tooth comb.
Tip - Bring your notes to the store
Alanna was perplexed by the deal we said we had negotiated. She said it was an impossible deal! We showed her the text from Erin- but it wasn't helpful. Alanna phoned Bell and CSA #7 wondered at the S5s - so Alanna had to explain the problem with the S4s and that this was a store decision.
Tip - Be patient, polite, friendly and understanding. This could take a while.
Finally, Alanna got off the phone. She would now have to cancel the contract she had just entered (via Buyer's Remorse) and do it all over again. She phoned Bell again (different department).
Finally... after much to-ing and fro-ing... we signed a contract for $120/month. We did add insurance for each phone - $7/month/phone. Now... Erin had told us that insurance would be $7-10/month depending on the deductible. Alanna said it was $7/month with $150 deductible. She had never heard of the $10/month with no deductible. We could have pushed it but at this point, we figured we had put her (and ourselves) through enough! We spent almost 2 hours in store...
Tip - wear comfy shoes and be patient
End Deal
- Shared Plan
- 2 GB data
- unlimited nationwide calling
- unlimited texting, picture, video messaging
- Message Centre (call display, voicemail, etc.)
- $120/month
- two Samsung Galaxy S5 phones - no charge (listed at $199.99 for a 2-year contract)
Total Savings
$30/month on the listed plan.
$400 for the phones
$75 for the connection fees (2 phones)
$35 for the Transfer of Responsibility fee
Final Advice
- Do your research ahead of time. Knowledge really IS power.
- Know what the competition offers.
- Have an idea of what you want - and think BIG!
- Realize that your loyalty is your biggest asset - flaunt it.
- All fees are negotiable and waivable.
- Be polite but firm.
- Don't settle. If you don't get a deal from the first line people (and you won't) ask to be passed to the Loyalty department. Let them know you're a loyal customer... that you've done your homework... that you are taking notes.
- Get everyone's name and ID number.
- Get it in writing.
- Make sure the store agent is very clear on the deal you have hammered out.
- Review the final printed contract with a fine-tooth comb. Twice. Maybe thrice.
- Be patient. This will take time. A lot of time.
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