In other Telus news, this week the wireless company has updated their Early Cancellation Fee policy effective November 21, 2010. The new policy applies to Telus clients who activated or renewed their account on or after November 21, 2010.
The new policy is based on three areas of Telus and your account:
Let’s take a look at an example:
At original activation, a client received a $490.00 discount on a 36 month contract term. After 15 months their cancellation fee will be:
In the example above, the Telus customer would have paid $204.19 to cancel their contract. In contrast, before this policy, that customer would have paid $420.00 ($20.00 x 21 months) but the cap is $400.00.
This new policy does make sense in that customers pay a cancellation fee based on the original hardware discount. Previously, paying the $20.00 per month, did not make sense if, like in the above example, your hardware discount was $490 making your monthly cancellation fee $13.61 instead of $20.00.
Note: Customers who activated or renewed their contract before November 21, 2010 will continue to pay the regular cancellation fee of $20.00 x the months remaining on the contract.
What do you think of this change?
Ed. Note: I find it humorous that Telus charges a $35.00 fee to simply start an account and then a $50.00 fee to end that same account.
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Random question that doesn’t REALLY apply. But I’m curious.
I bought my 3GS last November as a new customer on a 3-yr. This summer I almost ‘renewed’ my contract by switching to the ‘student’ plan. I was told at the time that this would have renewed my contract so i didn’t do it. So let’s just say hypothetically that Telus came out with the same deal tomorrow (must renew for 3-yr) and I took it. What would my cancellation policy look like then? I’ve had the handset for 12 months, but now have 3-yrs left on my contract? Any ideas?
This is pretty amazing and perfectly fair. I hope the others will follow suit.
Why would they do this? Is it to try and get more money out of people canceling cheaper devices? I mean, this is Canada – cell phone carriers don’t give us deals! What am I missing here? 🙂
No they in fact get less money from people cancelling on ANY device. Say it’s a phone worth $200 you cancel with the same 15 months remaining… before it’d be $300 (20 x 15) now say you got that $200 phone for free you’d pay
$83.33 (200/36 x 15) + $50 = 133.33
so there is a new VLC remote app thats free for a limited time, i think iphoneincanada should make a post about this…i found it by luck! its called VLC remco & it has all the paid versions features!!!
I think your Remaining Discount formula should be:
$490 – ($13.61 x 15)
Otherwise at 36 months (0 remaining) you pay:
$490 – ($13.61 x 0) + $50 = $540
After 36 months you can cancel and walk away without paying a dime.
And no the formula listed is correct.
You multiply by months REMAINGING not completed. Yours is wrong and as you can see doesn’t make sense.
🙂
wrong calculation guys!!! if you got 490$ discount and you have 21 months left it equals to
(490/36) x 21 months remaining =
13.61 x 21 = 285.81 + 50$ admin fee = 335.81$
it ‘s still better than 400 but it’s more accurate then what you are describing above…
Just read it again and realized that you are right. No need to subtract.
So using Ex’s example:
-Monthly pro-rated discount = $490 / 36 months = $13.61
-Amount remaining = $13.61 x 21 months = $285.81
-Cancellation fee = $285.81 + $50.00 Admin fee = $335.81 (in Quebec, exclude the $50 administration fee)
Good find Mathieu.
i hope all companies (specifically rogers) adopt this policy, unlikely that it will happen but i can still be hopeful.
Basically, the new policy is inline with the Quebec’s new law effective since June of this year regarding excessive cancellation fee to protect consumer. So I guess they want just to sync with other provinces.
Telus has been making a few steps in the right direction lately: phone unlocking, reduced cancellation fees, minor plan improvements… hopefully they’ll keep it up. What’s next, here’s some suggestions in case they’re listening:
– free incoming texts, rather than charging for them in order to strong arm people into text plans
– fair unlocking fees ($30ish), no arbitrary restrictions on premium phones (like iPhones) to hold those users hostage on your network unless they jailbreak
– included caller ID, rather than breaking it out as an additional fee so you can charge people more, I’m guessing the percentage of people without it is pretty low
– no arbitrary restrictions on prepaid service to prevent premium device owners from using email or web surfing add-ons in an effort to force them into postpaid data plans
–
can you still renew your contract?
can you still renew your contract?