On May 28, 2011 I walked into the Bell store locate at Woodbine Shopping Centre 500 Rexdale Blvd., Etobicoke, ON M9W6K5 1551Hrs. FYI: I have receipt and contract which I signed for. I had Chat-r pre-paid account and I requested to Robert J(customer service rep at the desk at above mentioned location) that I want to use my iPhone that's why I need to switch to solo. Solo is a company own by Bell. This store is basically Bell and they help you for solo because bell owns solo. Now as decided upon Robert offered deals, I requested for unlimited incoming & outgoing calls and text messages. Robert explained to me about the deal solo has to offer. It includes unlimited incoming & outgoing local calls, unlimited global and local text messages, and then I requested to add caller ID and voice mail feature which cost me extra money and the total bill comes up to $35 plus tax. So as reads on the contract Total Monthly Charges $45. Robert also confirmed no activation charges and no hidden fee. As the receipt reads $0.00 and I didn't pay anything at this time for activating my line with solo. FYI I had my own iPhone so I didn't buy cellular set from the store and this all hook up of sim was done by Robert who took the previous sim out and inserted the new sim from solo. He mentioned it is a month to month plan no contract if you need to disconnect give us(meaning solo) a 30 days notice and that's it. On June 03, 2011 I get a txt msg on my phone telling me Your data usage exceeds $250. If your data charges reach $500 your service will be suspended (which was not suspended even I get an email on June 7, 2011 of $921.67). So I called a customer service and they ask for my wife permission as this contract is on my wife's name. She authorized me to speak on her behalf as my credit didn't approve at the time of activation and I was asked to pay $200 security deposit. The customer service rep told me that I have used a mobile browser meaning these charges are for a data usage. I explained to him that I never had a data plan, it was never included in my plan. I never requested one. No one told me about it. And on top of all I can't even surf internet when I'm out of home WiFi range anyways. From May 30, 2011 till now I have my iPhone with me and no one else used it so it clears the doubt that someone else used my phone. Upon several request and phone calls to solo they are still telling me that you used data and you have to pay. I told them numerous times I don't have a data plan. Today Jun 14, 2011 I took my contract and phone to the bell store at woodbine centre and explained to them about my bill of $921.67 they got shocked. One customer rep girl called solo but couldn't do anything but the same story. When I handed over my phone to her to let her check if I have a data plan when she checked it she sees that you can't use the internet because there is no data plan. At the end she said there is nothing we can do about it now and you have to contact to the billing department at solo. She connected me to the solo and rep told me the same store as aforementioned. I've spoken to solo supervisor and no result same thing. They are now saying ok sir we can adjust the data usage charges and bring it down to $100 and you pay one time only and they it will be ok. I responded I will not pay anything which I didn't use I didn't sign up for and my plan didn't include data.
My concern here is to kindly tell solo to remove all extra charges from my bill and make their customer and billing service more professional and efficient. I'm just bound to pay what my plan is which is ultd no zone $35.
I've filed my complaint to BBB and they told me it will take upto 6 weeks to get back to me. Now, I don't know if BBB will be able to get those charges removed from the account or I end up getting my wife's credit ruined...which I definitely don't want at any cost. will there be any accountability for these cellular phone service provider companies so me a customer can sue them or teach them a lesson. I've been in Canada for the past 8 years and more than half of my life has gone dealing with these giant's frauds, system errors, poor customer service, agents on a regular basis hang up phone on you, rude, ill mannered, un-professional, un-trained, always throwing extra charges or the charges which were never made by user and then you are like ohhh...now you have to sit down and talk to them on the phone explain everything and spend hours and hours facing their un-professional behavior. Just because they made an error and you end up paying the price in term of loosing your credit or wasting your time resolving the issue which you have nothing to do...