Telus dispute leads to CRTC ruling - disconnect not allowed
Telus threatened to disconnect my phone line, a basic 'land line' phone, due to unpaid charges for a high-speed modem that was not returned.
The short story is this ruling from the CRTC - Telus cannot disconnect your phone line due to unpaid "peripherals" like internet and so on!! GOOD NEWS eh?
I bet not many people know that.
Telus certainly isn't telling us [pun!].
Here is the actual wording, copied from the correspondence from the CRTC to me:
"In May 2004, the CRTC clarified that incumbent telephone companies, for example TELUS, are not permitted to suspend or terminate (disconnect), or threaten to disconnect, a customer's tariffed services (for example, local service and features) if that customer has made partial payments sufficient to cover that customer's outstanding arrears for tariffed services, whether or not there remain outstanding arrears for non-tariffed services (for example, long distance and internet)."
So Telus backed off, the extra charges erased [the modems were returned a long time ago]. As it should be.
More details ad nauseam -
It was a complex situation, and I went to the CRTC to complain about several things to do with Telus, including the fact that they were charging $150 for these modems that can be had for $15.
Also, the modem was returned anyways, but we didn't have a receipt and Telus just ships them off to a warehouse and does not identify them at all, so we could not prove that Telus allready has it!! Silly eh?
Then there was the way those charges got onto my bill - a freind of mine calls Telus and somehow gets them to put his outstanding amount for unreturned modems ON MY BILL. As evidence, I have never ever had high-speed internet on my computer, something Telus can check themselves.
In the end, the lady at Telus simply said "I will credit your account with the balance", and that was it. They could have done that at any time, but for all those months they made it sound like it is impossible to change a phone bills mistakes.
So it pays to ask questions. The rules that protect the public seem to be known only to industry people, and not the public.
Karlin
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Telus threatened to disconnect my phone line, a basic 'land line' phone, due to unpaid charges for a high-speed modem that was not returned.
The short story is this ruling from the CRTC - Telus cannot disconnect your phone line due to unpaid "peripherals" like internet and so on!! GOOD NEWS eh?
I bet not many people know that.
Telus certainly isn't telling us [pun!].
Here is the actual wording, copied from the correspondence from the CRTC to me:
"In May 2004, the CRTC clarified that incumbent telephone companies, for example TELUS, are not permitted to suspend or terminate (disconnect), or threaten to disconnect, a customer's tariffed services (for example, local service and features) if that customer has made partial payments sufficient to cover that customer's outstanding arrears for tariffed services, whether or not there remain outstanding arrears for non-tariffed services (for example, long distance and internet)."
So Telus backed off, the extra charges erased [the modems were returned a long time ago]. As it should be.
More details ad nauseam -
It was a complex situation, and I went to the CRTC to complain about several things to do with Telus, including the fact that they were charging $150 for these modems that can be had for $15.
Also, the modem was returned anyways, but we didn't have a receipt and Telus just ships them off to a warehouse and does not identify them at all, so we could not prove that Telus allready has it!! Silly eh?
Then there was the way those charges got onto my bill - a freind of mine calls Telus and somehow gets them to put his outstanding amount for unreturned modems ON MY BILL. As evidence, I have never ever had high-speed internet on my computer, something Telus can check themselves.
In the end, the lady at Telus simply said "I will credit your account with the balance", and that was it. They could have done that at any time, but for all those months they made it sound like it is impossible to change a phone bills mistakes.
So it pays to ask questions. The rules that protect the public seem to be known only to industry people, and not the public.
Karlin
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