By Yasser
I came to Canada 3 years ago. On my first week, I started a couple plan with fido with a three years agreement. They gave us two phones for free (Nokia 6555) but they asked for 200$ as a deposit because we didn’t had credit history in Canada at that time. They took 200$+Tax=226$ … They promised that they will return that after two years. We got the phones and it worked.
On the next day, they deactivated the phones. I called them and they asked me to Fax my photo ID. … Can you imagine that the guy in the store have copied that two days ago?
I faxed the ID and they returned the service on the next day … After month and half, I called them to ask why did not they send me a bill?? They had my address missing the Apartment number and all the bills returned back to them … So, why did not they call me to inquire about that !!?? … What was funny is that we had a bill like 5 times of our expectations … First, they started our bill cycle on the next day of signing the contract (we signed on 20th and had our first bill on 21st as if we were using the phone for the whole month) … Second, My spouse was recieving some annoying text messages on her mobile phones … and she sent them an SMS to stop that and they did not stop … and the bill included all these text messages as if we asked for it.
I started the fight over the phone and I told them that I will not pay what I did not ask for … and this is the law in Canada … After I told them that, they removed the text from my bill … then I started to talk about the first month bill. The guy told me that he has nothing to do with that … I asked for his supervisor and she said the same … so I told her that your company policy is that one day in the month is equal to a complete month, right? .. she answered yes … so I told her that you stopped your service for three days … this means that you owe me by three months. After that she removed the bill for the first month …
After 2 years they returned the 200$ paid as deposit but without taxes … (I paid 226$ and I am pretty sure of that) … I called them, they asked me fax the reseat … I couldn’t find it (after two years) and they didn’t return the 26$ … and on that day I decided not continue with fido after my contract.
45 before the end of the contract, I called them to ask give a notice for cancelling in the last day of my contract …. They asked me to call back in 15 days … I had nothing to do but making fun of the guy saying at what time exactly should I give the notice … Finally I am free of Fido
Eric says...
First, there shouldn’t have been tax on the deposit - that was a mistake on the guy who sold you the phones.
Second - those annoying text messages - those are from various places like horoscopes, trivia, etc. that may have been associated with the number before you got your phone. Not from any cell phone company.
Third - billing is done for the month in advance for regular charges (plan, features), but them month afterward (data or sms overage). They are not the only company that do this.
It sounds like the main person at fault here is the guy at the store. He screwed up royally which caused a cascade of mess ups along the way.
I’ve had Fido for over a year now and have never had any issues.
Hashimotos says...
I am a landed immigrant in Canada too and had a similar issues with Rogers which is a parent company of Fido now. They don’t tell you when you sign up that your billing cycle starts on the next day and you get only a proportional amount of minutes for the first day. So if you signed up for 600 minutes a month you would get 20 minutes you can use on the day of your sign up and everything what is over is calculated at their full price which is currently 20 cents per minute. However, when I received my first bill I called Rogers and they waved the payment for first day because the agent who signed me up didn’t tell me about it. I have a feeling that it is doesn’t really matter what phone company you are with in Canada they all have low customer service and limited features if you compare it to Europe. At the end I canceled my contract with Rogers and switched to Fido because Fido offers services that nobody does such as per second billing, you can send and receive text messages to and from major phone providers abroad, cheap package for unlimited phone calls and free international text messaging etc.
Leo says...
I too experienced something like that from Fido too a while back. However, mine had a sinister twist. I had received text messages on my pay as you go phone and I never did read them thinking they were junk text messages. My balance on my phone had been reduced by more than $80 dollars and Fido said that I should text them back with the word STOP and this should solve the problem, which it did not. At the end Fido gave me back half the money that was stolen from me and they gave me a new phone number.
It is true that when you get a reassigned phone number these type of problems can occur since the phone number has once again been activated and you will never know why that number that is now yours was canceled in the first place and you happened to be the unlucky person who got it now. and you will never know
Tone says...
The fact is that Fido’s policy is informed by the racial notion of preserving white supremacy. All their thieving behaviors including forming and perpetrating the activities of scams such as horoscopes or trivia is targeted at fleecing immigrant populations. Achieving this objective requires that the company engages in racial profiling par excellence. Recently I was surprised that they know my country of origin although I have never offered that information to them. In Canada, however, knowing somebody’s date of birth creates a wide range of possibilities including determination of other personal details. No wonder they keep asking for your date of birth. The only way to contend with these companies is to shun their products. They are racists who should not be financed but rather dealt with by hitting them where it hurts most-their bottom line.