I see Telus has added a five dollar increase to the monthly Internet bill. Well, they're calling it five dollars, but its actually $5.60 and they're probably hoping nobody noticed.
They made this announcement with the new bill that already has the higher amount on it. I mean as opposed to say, in April they could have said that by July there would be an increase.
This seems to correlate with their earlier attempt to get people to pay for more bandwidth - it looks like that failed, so they did this instead. Recall that for months Telus was telling people they were going over their Bandwidth limit. They said that anyone going over the 100 GB limit would be charged an extra five dollars for any excess beyond 100 GB, up to 150 GB. Like many, I started 'counting calories' so to speak, to make sure I stayed below the 100 GB limit.
Naturally, they still kept pushing their 'get unlimited bandwidth' if you sign up for a higher paying plan. I guess not enough people - if any - bought into it. Then, out of the clear blue sky, they announced that people's monthly bandwidth allowance was being pushed up to 150 GB from 100 GB - for free! Okay, I thought a company was actually doing something good for once. Ah, but it was apparently only free for a little while - that $5 penalty they had before for exceeding the 100 GB limit between 101 GB and 150 GB is magically the same five dollars (ish) that now forms the price increase that they charge for their monthly rate for 150 GB. Funny how that worked out isn't it.
The other funny thing is, I didn't want, or need, the extra 50 GB that they gave me for 'free'. Even with it, I still stay below the former 100 GB limit. So when they gave me the extra 50 GB I shrugged it off since it didn't come with any cost. Now, it all seems like one of those 'reverse billing' scams. Perhaps many people got so used to having the extra 50 GB that now they couldn't live without it, so months after their so-called largesse, Telus suddenly announces a price increase that matches what the over-use penalty cost would have been. It's almost like they thought that once warned, people would not start watching their bandwidth usage and cut back - but people did, and since Telus didn't get the increased revenues that they thought they would from adding an 'over-use' penalty, they just changed their approach and forced it on you anyway.
Well Telus, you can call it 'high speed' and a 'world class communication service' all you want while you try to justify the increase. But I still only use 100 GB or less per month, and - this is the kicker - your 'high speed' internet is slower than ever. And yes, I have started looking at other options.
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