A buddy of mine was telling me today that he heard cell phone companies can no longer charge customers to break contracts. (I.e. buying out of a 3 year contract 1 year in.) He didn't know if this was true or not but was told by somebody that they brought this up with their provider and ended up getting out of the contract for free. Can anybody verify if this is true or has anybody heard anything about this? Apparently they will try to charge you to buy out but if you bring up this new law(if that is what it is) than they can't charge you. Seems a little too good to be true but I am curious now.

From a friend from a friend from a friend... It's rubbish from what I can see. The new rules and frequencies will force Bell/Rogers/Telus to maybe change the ways they do business to be more competetive, but there's nothing in place now that says they can't hold you to what the contract says.

While I couldn't find anything definite one way or the other, this is a quote from a section of Industry Canada's website: "Make sure you are aware of any fees that may apply should you chose to end your service agreement before the end of its term."

It is something they're looking at, since it's a primary cause of complaint to the US' FCC and to Industry Canada.

HAHAHAHAHA, call into Rogers today, right now and tell them you'd like to cancel your service.

THEN report back here...

I've been on the phone with Rogers Retentions twice in the last week alone bargaining down a price on my new N95 I picked up. I can without a doubt say that is complete and utter horseshit.

^ Bell is no better. They charged me for service even after my contract expired. Without a doubt a frustrating experience, but rest assured that they got nothing from me.

Pay as you go is far more enjoyable and convenient.

Bought a moto q from bell. signed 3 years paid 99 dollars plus taxes total bill was like 124.-- something like that. Got home recieved a text after not using it saying I had reached my 175 limit. Used my telus phone to call bell saying what is up with this they said it would be an 80 dollar activation fee why is my bill already 150. They had no explanation just saying it was the activation fee couldn't be changed. With the plan I got it was unlimited everything for the first 6 months.

So I used the phone for 2 more days. Day 2 got a text in the morning I was at 175. By the end of the day saying I was over my limit. Called them up told them I haven't used my phone and you guys suspended it. Asked me how I would like to clear up the bill. Told him to cancel the account. He seemed surprised I hung up.

3 months later my friend offered me 160 for the phone. I said the bill they gave me for 1 month was 1000 (with cancelation) He said meh he was just going to use it for games.

Got bored just recently went into bell. They completely erased my 1000 dollar debt and gave him the phone with no contract.

So I bought a moto q for 99. Sold it for 160. I ended up just making money off it and my friend got a moto q for 25% of the price at the time. No one got charged for the contract at all. Not even one bill they just told my friend its gone don't worry about it.

I couldn't stand there customer service and why no one could explain why the bill would go up while not in use.

Now with rogers, have had no issues and my moto krzr still works good after a year.

^ Sounds like your phone was ghosted, B! Phreaks have all kinds of new tricks thanks to all the new technology available. I also hated Bell's (lack of) customer service.

I am completely aware of my costs to break the contract. I was simply posting something I had heard and seeing if anybody else had heard about it or can confirm.

All cell phone companies will scam you. You just need to pay attention and call them on it whenever they do it. Activation fees are strictly profit. It doesn't actually cost them anything to re-activate your phone. 99% of the time they will credit it back to your account buy simply asking them too. They purposely make errors with billing hoping people won't catch. Think. If 1 in 10 people catch a 5 dollar billing error, that is a lot of money they make if you consider the amount of customers these companies service. I know quite a few people high up in Bell, Rogers, and Telus. It's all part of the business.

Would bell ghost there own phone?? when he took it in they waived my cancelation fee and bill for usage. Just so he could start racking up his bills through them. I just started talking about bell and couldn't stop. lol I can confirm I have gotten out of a contract cancelation fee

I've been with Telus for 10 years now. Since Clearnet was first around and I recently extended my contract with them for another 3 years. (Biggest mistake ever) I opt'ed to go with a palm treo product instead of the pcs product and they never informed me about the extra data fees or even informed me on how it works so my bills lately have been somewhat high due to the web usuage. I called them to find out how much to cancel the contract and they told me $540.00 I asked if they could do anything on the price since I am a long term customer and they basically told me to go fly a kite. What a good way to take care of your long term clients.

Never the less, I purchased a unlocked iphone, went to Rogers on a pay as you go basis and so far so good. As Gates was saying definitely the way to go.

Pay as you go here. If your disciplined with your phone, it's far cheaper than using a plan.

Or if you have a 6 year old plan that you refuse to change or allow to be changed and don't text like a retard (I hate texting anyway. Who in the f*ck uses a cell PHONE to text all day. MSN doesn't charge me anything and my plan includes a lot of free airtime).

EDIT: *uck. F*ck. Fu*k. Fuc*.

Lately I've seen a couple of the 'grandfathered' plans expire locally. The calls of, "You can't do that! We had an agreement!" Were met with, "What are you going to do about it? Go to another provider? We don't really care..."

I think it was Aliant (now Bell).

There was a neat article showing how much more we pay for our cells than Americans, Europeans, or even people in other parts of the World... The difference is HUGE!

How much is an Iphone unlocked??

I paid $385 for mine, but on avarage expect to pay between
$400 to $500 for a used phone. Well worth it IMO, I love the damn thing so versatile.

Are they easy to find in canada?

Yes they are. Just search kijiji or craigslist. You will find them for sure. If that fails, good old ebay will have them

I'll keep that in mind when I am done with the krzr. =]

I have a Nokia N95 and a 1st gen Iphone. It's a tough call, but I prefer the Nokia.

I'll stick with my treo

I love my Telus pay as you go. You can buy unlimited evenings and weekends with it for 30 dollars for 30 days. No contracts, no hassles and when I call there customer service I always get great service. Must be due to the fact they know if I don't want to be a customer, all I have to do is stop buying there pay and talk cards.

After Bell sent me 3 erronious bills for an extra $300 each and cut off my phone (do to me not paying the $900 that I did not owe) I told them to fix it or they would loose 10x that from me as a customer. They laughed at me. I switched away from bell satellite, phone, cell phone, and internet. I also convinced my housemates at the time to switch and my mother and sister both switched phone and internet providers. At around $50/month per service per person that's a lot of cash not in their pockets. Unfortunately Bell (and probably the otherguys too) just don't care, their business plan is to milk you of as much as they can then try to win you back after they screw you.

Usually cell providers will try to charge you for each month left on your contract but there is a set amount they *can* charge and it is usually not too too bad considering you *are* breaking a contract.

In respect to pay-as-you-go... about how much do you pay per month with that? I have a plan with about 250 daytime minutes, free evenings and weekends, free "in network" calling and a few other extras like voicemail, call display, 10c/min long distance. I've never gone over my minutes and my bill is usually about $30 all said and done depending on how much long distance and text I do.

My 3 year contract is up but I haven't seen a plan this competitive and it is definitely time for a new phone. The problem is that all the new phones I'm looking at I'd want a plan that includes data... but I don't wanna pay $80 for a shittier overall plan just because it lets be browse a bit and send email.

http://www.htc.com/europe/product.aspx?id=49918 <--- The phone I want to get

I've heard that with Rogers and Telus introducing a fee for recieving text messages, that they are actually breaking the contract they have with you. This may be the loop-hole your friend also heard about.

Although I can not comfirm if this is true, I can just add a little bit more info to the rumour.

~Collin