All of this happened February 11 2010, The call was made on January 18th 2010 at 6:51PM. Complaint is with Fido Canada.
Greetings! Thank you for viewing my complaint!
I would like to start off by when i viewed my Invoice on the Fido Site. (attached is a photo i took from my computer today. When looking more closely at the invoice i was charged 72.44 for 297:32(MINUTES:SECONDS) for a call placed on January 18th 2010, 6:51PM. As for my 2 year contract with Fido, it is a 2 year plan with free Evenings and weekends starting 7PM.
The issue is that i started my call at 6:51pm and it went past that time into my evenings and weekend time. When i made that call i only assumed that after 7 i would be given free minutes according to Free evenings and weekends advertised by Fido. The company boasts a Per Second Billing system; should it not be obvious that after 7pm, all my seconds are free of charge?
Anyways, believing i could find some information about this discrepancy on the website, i proceeded to view the "Plans" page, it stated Unlimited after 7pm to 7am evenings and weekends. They did NOT state, as shown in attached pictures taken FEBRUARY 11TH 2010, that calls made before 7pm are charged wholly, even if the call proceeds PAST 7pm. They did not state it in the bold print, NOR in the find print under "Terms and Conditions"
Identifying the issue, i proceeded to call the Fido billing information helpline. I was answered by KATHERINE, Customer Service Representative, reluctantly stating her ID as 1811597. I asked her many times if the ID was correct and she stated yes.
She, rather rudely, while cutting me off, continued to say that calls made before 7PM are charged wholly whatever the duration is. Ignoring my question, "where on the site does it clarify that it is unlimited CALLS made after 7 opposed to MINUTES like how it states how many daytime minutes there are available to my 25 a month plan(100), or even SECONDS as advertised by "per-second billing".
She rudely, raising her voice proceeded to tell me that it is the customers responsibility to "use common sense". I believe this is UNACCEPTABLE. SUCH ambiguity that can lead to charges of large amounts of money. SHOULD be stated on the site SOMEWHERE, even if it IS in fineprint. IT WAS NOT. Eventually, after yelling at me she proceeded to say "one second" and put me on hold rather abruptly, not waiting for my reply. Such customer treatment is unsatisfactory, unacceptable, and deceptive when reading the "fido cares" section of the website. i hope employee training is redone after this issue is resolved.
Furthermore, i have sent a copy of this email to FIDO, and have talked to multiple customer service representatives, only to be met by rude people. The employees are unable to justify the charge by showing me the LEGAL PRINT stating that all calls made during daytime calling is charged wholly. NOR have they shown me anything of ANY kind, relating to my query. Nothing beyond stating multiple times, with a raised voice that Evenings and weekends start at 7pm. THey completely ignore my query about the discrepancy between minutes/second billing and calls made before 7pm.
NOTE: i am more than happy to pay the 9 minutes before 7PM but i refuse to pay the 280some minutes after. It is not my fault that something like that is not cleared up by terms and conditions on fido.ca . I would also like to state that such an issue about calls made before 7pm has NEVER been brought to my attention before, none at either the Fido branches, the website, or even through previous mistake by making a call before 7pm and completing the call after 7pm. this has never happened before and i cannot be held accountable over such a discrepancy and unacceptable ambiguity.
I apologize for my emotion and length of this complaint, i would not normally make such a big deal about 80 dollars or so but as you already know, the recessive nature of our Canadian economy has not treated myself and my family well. I do not know whether you can check this or not but my parents have filed for child support and welfare and we are barely making the 35dollar a month payment already.
Thank you very very much for your time, i sincerely hope that no one else runs into this issue again, and that Fido retrains their employees on customer treatment and proper telephone etiquette, that they put a ONE LINER under Terms and conditions clearing up the discrepancy, and that my 72 dollars and 44 cents charge be removed from my account at Fido. My account number is 574528170, phone number 7807167469.
This overall experience has caused my family and i emotional distress and grief, i expect to be compensated for the treatment i received by KATHERINE 1811597, and the irresponsibility of Fido training their employees unacceptably. Again i apologize for the length of this letter, i just don't want to be held accountable for lack of detail or a legal practicality. I just honestly didn't know. Thank you very much, please try to help me before my next billing cycle? ( March 5th 2010 i believe) I do understand how busy you are.
Heres Hoping,