Cell phone users are going to witness a change that will be affecting everyone that have contracts with both Bell and Telus. As of August 8th 2008, Bell will start charging customers 15 cents per incoming text message, and as of August 24th 2008 Telus will be following this fad as well. Over the past couple of years text messaging has become the new fad and has been growing immensely. People text more than they make calls now, and why not? Texting has become a lot more convenient. People are able to text during class, on the run, at libraries, at work, and in other places where it can be too quiet to use your cell phone to make a phone call.
People argue with this new charge and are very unhappy as they say that they cannot control who sends them text messages, so why should they be charged. People that even work for Bell are outraged about this new charge. And I don't blame them, people that give their number as a contact number can sometimes be sent random text messages and now people will have to pay for them.
People that are unhappy with this change are advised to switch to Rogers, as Rogers states that their company will not implement this charge to their company. Thank-god for Rogers. I am with Rogers and I never thought I would say this but I am soo happy that I swtiched from Telus to Rogers! At least I won't have to pay these ridiculous charges. I know that the NDP party has put a petition because of these charges, which I am happy to know that the governemnt is actually doing something about this issue.
Please feel free to state your thoughts on this issues, how do you feel about these charges? Do you think the governement is doing enough to see that these charges are abolished? Are you happy that at least Rogers is not following the other service providers?
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=3f0da576-e770-4b83-a2b0-1dca17bf9f1e
3 comments:
I was so shocked when I read your post. I cannot believe that Telus and Bell are going to charge $0.15 for incoming text messages. I was aware that they charge for texts that are sent through the computer, but now, they are charging for ANY incoming text!? That is ridiculous. Do they realize that they are setting themselves up for many many lawsuits? Customers are obviously not going to want to stay with Bell or Telus and it won't be easy to break the contract. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I highly doubt that these companies are going to allow consumers to break a contract just like that. This is not fair to them...they signed a contract stipulating certain conditions, and these companies cannot go against those terms.
On the other hand, let's say that the charge is only applied to new customers...well don't you think that Telus and Bell will see a decline in their customer base? Rogers will CLEARLY be getting all the business, especially because texting is SO common these days. EVERYONE does it, and pays a fee of $5 - $10 a month for UNLIMITED texting, which includes incoming as well. This is just ridiculous.
I personally don't think that the government can do much about this issue. A business is a business and they can pretty much do anything they want, once it is in the boundaries of the law...if they want to charge an arm and a leg for a plan, I'm sure they can do that. Once things start getting illegal, however, that is where the government can come into play. I am happy that the NDP Party is petitioning, but I don't think that there is much that they can do about this issue.
SS
I too got the fateful letter from Bell a few weeks back explaining that they were effectively increasing the price of sending a text massage. This is extremely irritating as I frequently get text messages from people who have typed in the wrong number. I know that the justification was the growing cost of maintaining the network, but I can't help but think that this is just a way to push people onto text message packages.
In any event, I don't think that the government need do anything about this situation as they have already done enough. By opening up Canada's wireless market to new entrants, the government has done the best thing it could to push cell phone usage fees lower. More competition will result in a more efficient market, and prices for text messaging should hopefully drop to the price level observed by American cell phone users.
This is as insane as the illegal negative billing that Rogers and Bell tried a few years ago. The simple truth is that no one should have to pay for something they didn’t ask for. I didn’t order it – I’m not paying for it. If I’m sending you text messages, for which you are being charged for receiving, then you no longer have control over your own bill. I, or say BELL, could send you hundreds of text messages in order to inflate your bill. I wonder how many text messages a Bell VP oe CEO could receive on the first day as a protest.
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