Bell Mobility in Breach of Contract?

[Professor Successor]

I was just wondering if anyone with a better understanding of the telecom landscape than I might be able to help me out.

I'll try to stick to the details to keep this short, but I noticed this month Bell raised my VM+Caller ID feature from $5 to $10 without notice (via mail, text, email, or any other means).

I've got 15 months left on my contract and have been toying with the idea of paying the cancellation fee and moving to Wind. I crunched the numbers and right now I'll save a a small amount of dollars if I pay the fees and port my number. So I called to inquire what this might cost and was told it'd be $300 for the 15 months remaining (as I expected) and another $80 for my hardware subsidy. This is the first I'd heard about paying the subsidy, so I wanted to take a look at my contract.

I signed up to a 36 month contract in July of 1012. In it it states that my cancellation fee is $20/month to a maximum of $400 or minimum of $100. It also says that Bell is, more or less, within their right to change prices so long as I'm given 30 days notice.

So my question is: given that I haven't received notice and that there seems to be an added subsidy fee since the time of my signing the contract, would I have a case for breach of contract? I feel like Bell must have a loop-hole somewhere to fall back on.

Thanks in advance, any insight is appreciated.

[Anduril]

A possibility but they may have sent a letter to the old address on the account which is different than where you currently reside. Just a random guess.

Did you have a chance to ask them what methods they use to notify you of that change? Also I do find it unusual that they would change that add on feature because generally increasing the cost is equivalent to adding the new one and removing the old one at the other rate. Assuming it wasn't a promotion that expired at a specific date.

[Professor Successor]

I was wondering about the address change, but looking online, they do have the correct mailing address on file. I didn't think to ask how they attempted to notify me as the rep offered to fix the error when I started challenging them that it was not a promotional price. I asked her to just leave it for now until I investigate this further.

Just to be certain it wasn't a promotion that ended after 21 months, I double checked the contract. I did have a free local calling promo for 6 months--at least I assume that's what the "6M" added to the end of that line meant--but there isn't any such indicator stating that my $5 VM package/pricing was set to expire or change.

If they did send a letter by mail and I never got it, is the onus on them to prove I received it, or me to prove that I haven't?

[stampsx2]

Cell phone contracts are only one way contracts. That means you can't make any changes legally but the cell phone companies can do whatever they want. Sometimes you don't even have to sign the contract, it automatically goes into affect when you walk into the store/kiosk. Suprised you didn't know that.

[Anduril]

Originally Posted by Professor Successor

I was wondering about the address change, but looking online, they do have the correct mailing address on file. I didn't think to ask how they attempted to notify me as the rep offered to fix the error when I started challenging them that it was not a promotional price. I asked her to just leave it for now until I investigate this further.

Just to be certain it wasn't a promotion that ended after 21 months, I double checked the contract. I did have a free local calling promo for 6 months--at least I assume that's what the "6M" added to the end of that line meant--but there isn't any such indicator stating that my $5 VM package/pricing was set to expire or change.

If they did send a letter by mail and I never got it, is the onus on them to prove I received it, or me to prove that I haven't?

Okay, looks like it wasn't a promo (and you're right about the local calling bit). If they say they did send a letter, generally companies in this case will say it's out of their hand once the letter is sent so there's not much you (or they) can do about it if they say they did.

Good to hear the Rep did offer to adjust it but it's hard to say what happened exactly to cause the price jump in the first place.