One of the things I wanted to do this month was lower my monthly cell phone bill. And the best thing about working at an AT&T Wireless call centre when I was 19 is that I learned how to assess my monthly bill and figure out exactly what I need and what I don’t need. So, last week I did just that.
After going over the last three months of my bills, I knew I needed about 200 minutes, unlimited evenings after 5pm, unlimited weekends, call display, visual voicemail and, of course, some data. What I didn’t need was call waiting or how much data I was paying for. So I found the plan and add-ons I wanted to switch to and called Fido.
Worst. Call. Ever. I have never yelled at a customer service rep, because a) I’ve done their job and b) it’s not their fault you’re calling, but I lost it. First, he told me that the $30/m plan didn’t include unlimited local calls, even though I told him that’s what I was looking at on the screen. He told me I must have been looking at the wrong website (see below). By the end of our conversation, I had to yell, “STOP SAYING WHAT I CAN’T DO AND START OFFERING ME A SOLUTION!” Yikes.
He didn’t budge on the unlimited local calls so I asked him about lowering my data. Last month I only used 68MB, so I wanted to downgrade to the $10 option with 100MB of data, but apparently with Fido you have to pay for at least $25 of data per month.
I wasn’t really impressed with that and ended our conversation thinking I was going to start researching Rogers’ plans, as you can switch between the two providers once for free, even if you’re under contract. But I have always loved my service with Fido, and have only heard horror stories about Rogers, so I decided to accept paying $25/m for data and planned out my next move.
On Thursday, I used Fido’s customer care online chat tool and spoke with a much nicer rep. Not only did she confirm that the $30 plan does have unlimited local calls (so the first rep was either misinformed or a total jerk!)
but she made all the changes I asked for and gave me my first month of the $15 value pack free! Before, my monthly bill was on average $87-89. I’ve got it down to $78.40 including HST. Saving $10/month may not seem like much but that’s $120/year (+$15 in my first month) I can put elsewhere… like, in my Emergency Fund!?
