Cell Phone Providers in Calgary

[4X4]

I googled it and CP was the third link, but the thread was really old, so I'm looking for new info on who I should switch to because I'm done with Rogers.

I have two BB Bolds that are locked to Rogers, so I guess I'll sell one of them to help cover cancellation fees (anyone interested?) and the other one I'll need to unlock (any recommendations?).

But most importantly, I'd like to find a provider that stops with the nazi-esque contracts. Fricken Rogers re-ups your contract every time you call to tweak your service unless you manage to talk the CSR out of it, and if you don't, bang, another three years.

F*** that. Not only is their coverage getting worse and worse, they're now pulling these little scams to keep you in a contract forever and ever?

I would like to switch to Wind, but the idea of paying $400 in cancellation fees and then have to buy another phone, because Wind is on a different kind of network than Rogers, doesn't appeal to me all that much.

Are there any other options?

[Mazrim]

Well I certainly wouldn't want to recommend Belus to you, so Wind is a likely option.

I've never had to extend my contract with Rogers when changing my plan. Only when getting a new phone early. I recently made a huge change to my plan and there was no extension required.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Mobilicity just entered the Calgary market, very similar to Wind in terms of deals and phones. No idea if your current Rogers phones will work on their network though.

[fleudian]

If you're thinking of switching to Wind, be prepared for extremely patchy reception. You will find yourself roaming or completely cut off in many areas that should be part of their network. A couple really frustrating ones are at the UofC and inside Market Mall.

If you can get past that frustration, Wind is a good option.

[Sinny Darino]

I am happy with Virgin, No contracts, and what you see is what you pay. I am on a $25 a month plan right now, and I pay $25 plus tax. No damn "paper fee" "911 fee" "service fee" "put the CEO's child through school fee" "administration fee" (ect)

The service has been pretty good as well. If you have to phone in to them, they give you options of what kind of music you want to listen too. No more crappy elevator music.

[SuperMatt18]

Honestly Wind and Mobilicity are only a good option if you stay within there "Zones" if you plan to travel at all or go outside the city for a weekend prepare to pay an arm and a leg on roaming fees.

Plus when you consider their phone selection and how no real phone subsidies are available the pricing starts to equalize fairly quickly.

Telus is a good option and I feel offer the best support of the big three, the new Data Flex 55 plan is half decent and gives you a lot of value for the price.

Of the Value brands Virgin and Fido provide the best options especially since you can get a variety of different plans from them and with Fido your Rogers phones will work fine without even needing to be unlocked.

[yads]

FYI your phone won't work with Wind. Or rather it will, but you will always be roaming since their network is 3G only and they use a different frequency than Rogers for 3G.

As for the phone subsidies that SuperMatt mentions, they do have the WindTab plan. Also keep in mind that the three telecoms mark up their no contract price to make it seem like a really great deal if you sign a 3 year contract. Just check out the difference in prices between their pay as you go phones and the no contract price on the same phone.
Just as an example The Blackberry Curve 8520 is $350 pay as you go, but for some reason is $450 with no contract. On ebay This phone can be had for $200 brand new unlocked.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Sinny Darino

I am happy with Virgin, No contracts, and what you see is what you pay. I am on a $25 a month plan right now, and I pay $25 plus tax. No damn "paper fee" "911 fee" "service fee" "put the CEO's child through school fee" "administration fee" (ect)

The service has been pretty good as well. If you have to phone in to them, they give you options of what kind of music you want to listen too. No more crappy elevator music.

Virgin is wholly owned by Bell.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Well I certainly wouldn't want to recommend Belus to you, so Wind is a likely option.

I've never had to extend my contract with Rogers when changing my plan. Only when getting a new phone early. I recently made a huge change to my plan and there was no extension required.

Belus? Are you telling me that they're somehow intertwined? I was considering Telus, even if there's a contract, but no way in hell Bell gets any of my money. Please clarify.

As for not extending your contract, you should just try calling to cancel. They tell me that I last got a hardware upgrade in may of 2010. Not true. I got the hardware upgrade in Dec of '09, but in May they replaced my phone because it was a POS and I had to call about 10 different times over that 6 month period because of technical issues. Lol. They sell me a faulty piece of equipment, and then when they get sick of fixing it, they give me a new one and restart the contract clock.

Then in Feb of this year, I called and changed up my plan. Needed more minutes. She was so nice. She increased my minutes and ditched the call forwarding. Just called this morning to find out my payout; lo and behold, my contract restarted in Feb. $400 cancellation fee.

Bullshiz, IMO.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Belus? Are you telling me that they're somehow intertwined? I was considering Telus, even if there's a contract, but no way in hell Bell gets any of my money. Please clarify.

Just called this morning to find out my payout; lo and behold, my contract restarted in Feb. $400 cancellation fee.

Bullshiz, IMO.

Yeah sounds like you got screwed. Maybe I should check, but I made sure to ask the question at the end of the call about if my contract would be restarted and they said no. I've had minor adjustments made over my previous 3 year contract before I got the iPhone 4 and I can guarantee you that they never extended my contract, otherwise I would have never been able to upgrade to the iPhone 4.

I say "Belus" because our experiences with Bell and Telus from a customer service standpoint are very similar - in a negative way. When it comes to getting results for my problems, Rogers has handled them best.

My girlfriend left Telus because of their piss poor service (might be better now, that was 3 years ago), and went to Solo (owned by Bell). Bell later on offers a BlackBerry and will waive the cancellation fee for Solo. She takes, but 3 months since she's still getting Solo bills and can't even check them online because her account is now cancelled, and they "can't seem to know exactly why" she gets them. Weird!!

Her new blackberry is not doing well already. It's repeating button presses and it's very frustrating to try to type. She calls Bell to find out what she should do and they tell her to go to the store she got it from. The guy proceeds to do a ton of things like clearing caches and resetting the phone from scratch, but it still happens. She comes back again and they still refuse to send it in. He spends 30 minutes going through basically every menu in the blackberry while we watch, and we're wondering wtf he's doing (I am very familiar with the BlackBerry having owned one for 3 years. He had no idea what he was doing). He then says she will have to pay for a loaner phone ($50) while it's sent off to be fixed...3 months in? Ridiclous!

Basically, after a half dozen calls with Bell (including myself calling for her a couple times to try to better explain her issue), she can finally send off her phone and have a free loaner. Why are they making it so difficult to fix a brand new phone? Rogers has never asked me to pay or made me waste so much time going back and forth with them for issues with my phone.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

3 months since she's still getting Solo bills and can't even check them online because her account is now cancelled, and they "can't seem to know exactly why" she gets them. Weird!!

Get ready for a couple years of dealing with collection agencies. The same thing happened to me with Bell. I ended up paying the bill multiple times and still never got confirmation that my account is closed.

Bell is the devil. Bell is a bunch of liars and thieves. Bell should be investigated for fraud. Bell steals from their customers and then lies about it and then steals more and more. Then Bell sends bills to collection agencies and refuses to acknowledge it afterward and thereby STEALS FROM THEIR CUSTOMERS even more.

[ericschand]

I posted this over at RFD about Mobilicity and why I chose them:

One thing to note, I am in Calgary, so only 5% GST for me to pay.

plan = $45 - 33% for one year pre-pay = $360
phone = $500
($500+360)*1.05 (GST)= $903.

Also, there is a $50 credit for porting my phone number. I did not include that in my calculation, as it is YMMV. I do have it and can use it for anything I want.

I could not get the $50 credit for monthly charge prepayment plan, as I prepaid one year and took the 33% off. It's one or the other, not both.
I believe today is the last day you can do the prepay discount.

Also of note, I phoned Rogers, with whom I was with before. They had no plan that could touch this one, and they knew it.
I was up to $85/month with limits on voice, data, text and so on. Plus you have to pay $450 or $100 for the phone depending on how long you want to lock in for.

If you take $903/12 ~= $75 *after tax* per month. Mobilicity's purchase the phone and pay for one year is cheaper than *just the plan* at Rogers!
After one year, you have a free phone compared to the big 3.

Do a quick 3 year calculation, that's what I did.

Rogers 3 year plan:
36 months @ $85/month = $3060
Phone cost is $100.
Total is $3160

Rogers 1 year plan:
12 months @ $85/month = $1020
Phone cost is $450
Total cost is $1470

Mobilicity 1 year prepaid:
12 months @ $30/month = $360
Phone cost is $500
Total cost $860

Now, they do charge if you leave their area, but it's 20cents/min voice, 10cents/text. I don't think I'll get $55 in charges unless travelling.
Even then they are cheaper when roaming than Rogers, for example 25cents/min roamin USA on Mobilicty, 1.25/min Rogers.

You know what? For $600+ in savings, I'll take a chance for one year. I know there will be growing pains, but I'm willing to put up with it for one year. Worst case? I have to get rid of Mobilicity, losing my $360, and switch to Rogers or Telus or Bell or Fido or or or. The Nexus S phone is unlocked.

Edit: Because others are asking, there were no additional charges. One line for the phone, one line for the plan, GST and Total. That's it, no hidden charges, no SIM fee, nothing. I walked out with $903 off my credit card as explained above.

ers

[SebC]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Honestly Wind and Mobilicity are only a good option if you stay within there "Zones" if you plan to travel at all or go outside the city for a weekend prepare to pay an arm and a leg on roaming fees.

Unless you do a ton of roaming, you can take the occasional trip out of town and still come out ahead on Wind because your base plan is so much better.

Reception is definitely worse though.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Get ready for a couple years of dealing with collection agencies. The same thing happened to me with Bell. I ended up paying the bill multiple times and still never got confirmation that my account is closed.

She fortunately still had her Solo account set up on her online banking and is paying it to avoid this kind of situation. They said they can receive payments from her even though her account is cancelled and she can't view the bill. Funny, eh?

[WilsonFourTwo]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Bell is the devil. Bell is a bunch of liars and thieves. Bell should be investigated for fraud. Bell steals from their customers and then lies about it and then steals more and more.

I worked with someone that had been an executive level employee for one of the Bell Companies on the financial side. I won't go into major details, but will provide more info to a Mod (via PM) if necessary.

He led the development of the customer billing model (a project we later worked on at our common employer), and some of the stories/methodology/thinking he detailed is unreal. Many "mistakes" are pre-determined processes designed to extort incredible cancellation/penalty fees, or oppress customers into 'staying'. I was amazed.

Me personally.....I won't do any business with a Bell company.

[MacGruber]

Could you be more specific, wilson?

[4X4]

Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo

I worked with someone that had been an executive level employee for one of the Bell Companies on the financial side. I won't go into major details, but will provide more info to a Mod (via PM) if necessary.

He led the development of the customer billing model (a project we later worked on at our common employer), and some of the stories/methodology/thinking he detailed is unreal. Many "mistakes" are pre-determined processes designed to extort incredible cancellation/penalty fees, or oppress customers into 'staying'. I was amazed.

Me personally.....I won't do any business with a Bell company.

I am soooooo not surprised. I am actually convinced (not just randomly pissed off) that Bell ACTIVELY and PURPOSELY lies and steals from their customers. They sure did it to me.

No chance in hell that I'll ever use Bell for anything ever again. Lifetime suspension for those incompetent a-holes that screw up a bill, then refuse to fix it, then lie about it, then send it to collections, and then send it again and again, even after you keep paying the same bill. Bell is run by fraud artists and they train their employees to lie and steal from their customers.
And if it pisses you off that you're getting stolen from and you call Bell to get it figured out? They just send you from department to department to department until you get so pissed off, that you end up being the a-hole and then they flag your account and hang up on you and that's it for you.

Someone should file a class action lawsuit against those thieving, lying con artists.

[Eddie Bronze]

I don't mean to hi-jack your string 4x4 but I didn't want to start a new one. I'm looking into getting a cell phone. I'm going to be buying a F-150 later this summer and want to be able to take full advantage of the Sync system.

I've never had a cell phone before, so I come into this with no predetermined biases outside of hearing nothing but bad stuff about Bell and knowing I won't consider them. The priorities for me are to be with someone who has a good long distance plan and won't make me sign a contract. I know that means I'll have to buy a phone which I'm prepared to do.

I'm looking at Koodo right now who have a Nationwide Talk&Text Combo for $50/month with no roaming charges in Canada. Oddly, I also looked on Telus' site who I gather are linked with Koodo but no such offer on their site that I can see.

[pylon]

Rogers has a pretty much unlimited plan that I am on that requires no tweaking, just see if you can switch to it.

Unlimited voice anytime
6 GB data
Unlimted text.

I pay $71 / mth, and am perfectly content with it.

When I do my next phone upgrade, I will see if I can lower the monthly cost a bit, but other than that, there is nothing to worry about anymore, as far as if I have the best data, voice or text plan.