You are hereTelemarketing is the Root of all Evil
Telemarketing is the Root of all Evil
Today, I received a very important call on my cell phone. This call was from Rogers, using an automated dialer no less, to tell me that my internet account was approaching my monthly download limit, and that if I wanted to avoid any surcharges, I should upgrade my account.
Realising that yes, this month I went on a download spree for a couple of days catching up on some demos, I said to myself that it was quite possible that it was true, and that I should speak to someone just to make sure, and see what, if any, charges would apply once the 6 month free period that the recorded voice told me about would expire.
So I press "one" to speak to an agent. Lovely. No agent is presently available to take my call. I decide to wait, well, because my account is close to the monthly limit, and I do want to know how much I have actually used to see how much space I have left, so I listen to the hold music. I stayed on the line for approximatly 5 - 10 minutes before another call came in. Ah well, I guess I can always call them later. I activate the screen on my iPhone, and select the Drop current call and answer new call option.
Click.
Toodooloolooloo (Sound effect)
Hello, this is Rogers calling to let you know that you are approaching you monthly limit of Internet usage. blah blah blah.
WTF?!?!?!?!
I just hung up and lost my place in the queue to answer a call which would put me back at the end of the line? To hell with that!
To cap this story off, when I got home, I logged into my Rogers account, and went to see exactly where my usage was:
Monthly limit: 60GB
Used to date (billing period ends March 17th): 26GB
Wait a minute here. I am being told that I am dagerously close to my monthly limit and that I should spend $15 + tax per month more after the 6 month free period for an extra 30GB of bandwidth when I have barely even reached 50% of my cap?
I called Rogers and spoke to both an agent and an internet speciallist, and they were both baffeled as to why I would even receive such a call. I think the Marketing group has some quotas to meet, and they are doing blanket scare calls to get some unsuspecting people to upgrade their accounts when they don't even need it. And worst of all, if they get called on it, they just say, oops, sorry was just a mistake.
Marketing is the root of all evil!
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What kind of f**ked up country do you live in anyway? Crap, and I'm coming home to that??
The scandal now that has ISP groups in a tizzy is "traffic shaping". Apparently all the big carriers are doing it now (illegally).
My favourite is when they BILL you for something erroneously, then say "oops, sorry, the charges will be reversed within 30 days".
What kind of "demos" are you downloading, anyway? My cap is 200GB, and I rarely go over 20. Maybe I should sell you some spare bandwidth.
Your provider and how much are you paying?
Good service, $30/month for premium: http://teksavvy.com
They're based in Toronto, and are strong supporters of Net Neutrality!
Teksavvy $30 plan is a 5M/800k, 200GB cap/mo DSL.
I only use cell phone (Roger). I hate Bell with a passion and I am so happy I don't need to deal with Bell at all.
If you don't have a land line, you have to add a monthly band rate (range:$10-$30) for dry-loop DSL. Most likely it's going to be Band B for $10 (actually, this go to Bell at the end, no matter what). At the end, around $40+tax.
I am using Roger Express 7M/512k, 60GB cap/mo. Cost: $42+tax. Never over the cap because I don't download much. I saved more when it bundle with my cell and cable TV (my building won't let me install Sat dish)
But Teksavvy is the way to go if you download a lot and only hear good things about them.
They also have phone, wireless, and long distance, so you can get rid of Robbers (I mean Rogers) too.
Any DSL in Ontario has to go through Bell in the end, which is most of the $30/month you're paying, dry loop or not. At least there are DSL reseller options here, if not true DSL competition. I don't think there's any such option for Cable yet.