Falling Out of Love with Telus
I used to be a big supporter of Telus. Great customer service, competitive plans, and…well, I really didn’t need anything else!
But that is quickly changing.
I recommended Telus to my business partner, and she has had nothing but problems with them. Billing problems, delayed delivery of voicemail notification, delayed delivery of text messages, and god knows what else. This is a huge problem for us, as we can’t conduct business efficiently if she can’t get her messages promptly (some of them were delayed by almost 48hrs).
Their customer service has degraded quite a bit. Not that I ever had to call them much, but service was always with a smile. The staff at their stores used to be more knowledgeable and better mannered. I used to be able to understand the person on the other end of the phone. None of that is true anymore.
Their new “Clear Choice” plans are what really did it for me, though. I was excited when Telus announced they were getting rid of the system access fee, and expected the new plans to be 2 or 3 dollars off either way. Instead, I found that the closest approximation to my current plan is a whopping $17 more per month. That’s $204 more a year! Of course, I realize that I can keep my current plan, but the prospects of changing my plan are more than a little distasteful. The next plan up from what I have now will cost me $34 more per month — or $646 over the course of the remainder of my 19 month contract.
What’s worse is the equivalent to my plan on Bell is actually 81 cents cheaper per month, and Rogers’ is only 32 cents more per month. An upgrade of my current package to Bell? $16 more per month — that’s a dollar less than what my current package would cost with a “Clear Choice” plan.
So the real clear choice seems to be leaving Telus whenever I can get a sweet deal and a new phone from Bell, Rogers, or one of the new telcos opening up shop next year!
Math overview:
| Bell – match current | TELUS – current | Rogers – match current | TELUS – Clear Choice | TELUS – upgrade | Bell – upgrade | Rogers Upgrade |
| My 5 Nationwide | My 5 Nationwide | My 5 Nationwide | My 5 Nationwide | My 5 Nationwide | My 5 Nationwide | My 5 Nationwide |
| 200 minutes | 200 minutes | 200 minutes | 200 minutes | 350 minutes | 350 minutes | 400 minutes |
| 500MB | 500MB | 500MB | 1GB | 2GB | 1GB | 1GB |
| Voicemail | Voicemail | Voicemail | Voicemail | Voicemail | Voicemail | Voicemail |
| Call Waiting | Call Waiting | Call Waiting | Call Waiting | Call Waiting | Call Waiting | Call Waiting |
| Call Display | Call Display | Call Display | Call Display | Call Display | Call Display | Call Display |
| $72.30 | $73.11 | $73.43 | $90.40 | $107.35 | $89.25 | $101.68 |
(all plans except Clear Choice include System Access Fee, 911 Fee and Taxes; prices are current as of November 26, 2009 and are monthly)
