Back in August, we told you about Rogers increasing the rental price of its Ignite TV boxes. Further backlash over that Rogers story expanded when CBC News covered the price increases last month.
Now, in a follow up, CBC News says it has receive “hundreds of emails”, from customers of Rogers, Telus and Bell, fed up with price increases despite being in contracts. People shared stories of how their internet, TV and home phone bills have kept going up in price.
Besides angry customers from Rogers, Melani Norman of Toronto, who signed a three-year deal with Bell, was surprised to find her first bill was already $5 higher than the agreed price—before service even began. Bell ended up crediting Norman the extra costs after the CBC reached out.
Last week, Bell increased the price of its entry 5G wireless plans. Today, it announced it would invest $5 billion in cash to acquire a Pacific Northwest U.S. internet provider.
A key issue is that the ability for telcos to jack prices is often hidden in fine print, leaving customers feeling misled. Many describe hours spent with customer service, trying to sort out unexpected charges and deciphering legalese.
Contract law expert Marina Pavlović calls these contracts “a trap by design,” pointing out that they’re so complex you’d need specialized knowledge to understand them. She believes it’s time for the CRTC, to investigate these practices.
The CRTC told CBC’s Go Public news of price hikes within a contract is “concerning.”
On October 30, Scott Hutton, Vice President, Consumer, Analytics and Strategy (CAS), from the CRTC, sent a letter to telecoms saying, “It has come to my attention that customers have recently reported being surprised by increases in fees related to their services during their commitment periods and are frustrated at the situation.”
“I would remind you that the CRTC has put into place Consumer Protection Codes to – amongst other things – prevent bill shock and to make it easier for customers to understand the services they agreed to purchase. Service providers should not be surprising their customers with price increases beyond the price they had originally agreed to,” added Hutton in his letter.
Meanwhile, the federal NDP recently called out Rogers for hiking prices and misleading customers, saying the company should refund TV box price increases, while calling for Ottawa to ban the telco from federal contracts, if it doesn’t comply.
We recently asked you to email us if your Rogers bill saw any price increases, and our own inboxes were flooded with numerous customers citing their TV box rentals did hike in price, while still on contract. Share your recent bill statement price increases in the comments below.
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Canada Oligarchy capital of the world!!!! One of the most embarrassing things about Canada!!!
One of the many embarrassing things about Canada.
Ya I'm with Virgin which is owned by Bell and they increased my price so I called and complained and they offered me a new plan with more data and a phone I took it but then the next day I called and cancelled because I don't trust them
Exactly. It’s about the trust. I don’t either. Rogers prices have increased and for their 5G Rural Home Internet there is now a $25 shipping charge. No $70 connection fee for the online order. Highway robbery! None of them can be trusted.
People need to bite the bullet and only do BYOD month-to-month. Don't give these oligopolies any more than 31 days at a time. You can hop around chaseing the best plans or likely receive a juicey win-back offer from a previous provider. Bundling services can be very helpful as well. I have Telus for two cellular lines, internet, optical TV Essentials and Crave for much less than purchased separately, even within Telus. Most of the world operates on a byod basis and that is (among other reasons) why plans elsewhere cost less. Yes with a 2-year contract you may get a nice deal with a new device but that 2-years can expose you to too much nonsense
Suck part about now a day is they held your payment ransom by offering an "automatic payment discount" to guarantee that you don't run away. They will suck your wallet dry.
I am thankfully lucky I changed a plan to a "exclusive for you" offer, my family didnt, their price went up, so had to do the "auto pay" to even make it reasonable. Me? I snuck past the price hike, and the need for auto pay. AND STILL paying less then everyone else, HA. Shame back in 2013 I scrapped my promo 10% discount feature by hopping providers (with no end date) for a then steal Bell plan, that lasted a year or two before it was too raised. Still paying less then all that, but if I could have an extra 10% , thats 10%
Lucky you but not for a lot of people.
Before this ADP was implemented, i got the Koodo $35/60GB that was exclusive for me. I don't think they will ever offer anything better than this on Black Friday.
Quite right. Mine is a $30/50GB. The joke punchline? Im from the older internet phone plan age, so me using over 2GB a month is having more youtube breaks at work if its slow. HA.
You really can't do that, because they also tack on "service activation fees" which you can probably get waived once… But after that it's more expensive to switch. By design
I won't matter when dealing with the Telco mafia. I switched to Koodo on boxing day with the $29 plan , two increases later I'm now paying $36 for the same plan.
how many GB is that $29? 30GB?
Signed up with Bell Fibe in March of this year, had a $5 increase a few months after sign up.
Yes I agree with you on the savings with Public Mobile but expect heavy dropped calls. Signal loss as well but I guess what you pay is what you get.
They're on the Telus/Bell backbone. Sometimes, they're more reliable than Rogers; other times not. We could never call from home on Rogers, I can on Public (though my wife still can't)
Absolutely solid service with public ….$34/month Canada canada usa mexico
Absolutely solid service with public ….$34/month Canada canada usa mexico
Doesn’t affect me, never will. I only use an iPad cellular and a global eSIM plan for Canada. I don’t get as much data but I’m ok with that. I’d rather download my media from wifi and take it with me rather than stream it. Celluar is used to stay in touch. I use Fongo on my iPad for my phone. And no surprise price increases. Ever.
The only thing you need to do is keep using the service, if you stop long enough a period of time you can lose your number. I bought the no ad subscription and they took it way because I could not use it for a time. Now they do not get my money.
I'm on Public mobile here.
I went from paying $95 with Rogers, not including the phone, to $34. I'm saving close to the price of a new iPhone 16 over the course of 24 months, not locked into a contract, not having to return my device or pay absurd fees only for them to resell it for a prophit when I do.
Everyone can make noise as much as they want but it really comes down to voting with your wallet. I'm paying $34 for 50 gb in Canada and the US, unlimited calling and texting in both countries, too. No roaming fees.
The only thing I miss is wifi calling. Sadly this still goes to Telus, but it's a lot less money than they'd otherwise get – a starting price of $85 for a 2 year contract on a new iPhone 16 which is another $34 a month on top of that.
Funny thing about Wi-Fi calling. My wife and i are both on Public–and my phone does WiFi calling; hers doesn't
Got a bill increase and found out, like everyone else, it was because of the rental box price increase.
I spent hours in a chat queue, when I finally got to speak with someone they went over my contract and subscriptions and found a way to bring the price down closer to what I was initially paying. I was happy with that.
The next month I got my bill and it was almost $40 higher than what they told me it would be. Even higher than my unitial plan with the 3 boxes that increased in price.
i looked over my bill and noticed they took away one of my promotions, this promotion was supposed to last until my contract was up.
So yes I'm mad, and when my contract is up I'll be going with a different company for my internet
and cable.
I’m with Koodo on a byod $29/30gb. Last month they upped my rate by $5 to $34. Although there’s nothing cheaper to switch to, I’d like to leave now.
Freedom mobile; check them out
I received a price increase from rogers on my 2 cell plans 5$ each for a total 10$ in October we just finished agreeing on a plan last feb 2024, it has not even been a year and their increasing our prices in our plans. These price increases seem random whenever they feel like it. Im on byod no contracts. They give discounted prices only to raise the base rate later, making discount less effective. When i call the csr they are helpless and can do nothing, my budget cannot fit the increase. I heard if i complain too much they will retaliate and just cancel me.
I received a price increase from rogers on my 2 cell plans 5$ each for a total 10$ in October we just finished agreeing on a plan last feb 2024, it has not even been a year and their increasing our prices in our plans. These price increases seem random whenever they feel like it. Im on byod no contracts. They give discounted prices only to raise the base rate later, making discount less effective. When i call the csr they are helpless and can do nothing, my budget cannot fit the increase. I heard if i complain too much they will retaliate and just cancel me.
Rogers will offer you lower prices plans but data will be capped to 250mps watch out for that your 5 g data slow down drastically comapred to full speed 1000mps plans and 5g+. If ur an iphone user this is important if you wanna leverage your 5g speeds
I was the lucky winner of the expiring discounts lottery. Rogers lures you in by applying discounts that expire. If you don’t religiously check your bill, you miss the expiration and the bill jumps to an absurd level. I was paying $50 / month but when the discounts expired, they grabbed an extra $100 (price jumped to $150 / month) for the exact same service. It shouldn’t even be legal to do this but Rogers found the loophole. Make the regular price exorbitant, apply crazy discounts and wait for the customer to forget when the discounts expired. Collect $$$
I wish this practice were eliminated. I can only imagine how many senior citizens are getting caught by this practice.
I was the lucky winner of the expiring discounts lottery. Rogers lures you in by applying discounts that expire. If you don’t religiously check your bill, you miss the expiration and the bill jumps to an absurd level. I was paying $50 / month but when the discounts expired, they grabbed an extra $100 (price jumped to $150 / month) for the exact same service. It shouldn’t even be legal to do this but Rogers found the loophole. Make the regular price exorbitant, apply crazy discounts and wait for the customer to forget when the discounts expired. Collect $$$
I wish this practice were eliminated. I can only imagine how many senior citizens are getting caught by this practice.
I was the lucky winner of the expiring discounts lottery. Rogers lures you in by applying discounts that expire. If you don’t religiously check your bill, you miss the expiration and the bill jumps to an absurd level. I was paying $50 / month but when the discounts expired, they grabbed an extra $100 (price jumped to $150 / month) for the exact same service. It shouldn’t even be legal to do this but Rogers found the loophole. Make the regular price exorbitant, apply crazy discounts and wait for the customer to forget when the discounts expired. Collect $$$
I wish this practice were eliminated. I can only imagine how many senior citizens are getting caught by this practice.
Wild that the feds keep selling bandwidth to smaller players to add competition, to allow the big guys buying them all up a year or three later.
Feds & CRTC are just as guilty of causing rediculous TV, cell & isp costs as the companies themselves.
Bell is darned near bankrupt and has no business in buying up other players.
Rogers should never have been allowed to buy Shaw.
As someone who knows Bell very well they don't increase costs while under contract. Home Phone and Internet are never under contract. Television is, sort of. If you leave before a year it's $150 penalty, $75 after one year but still can get price increases. There are no price increases for mobility if you are under contract for 2 years after a device activation (while still paying for a device cost). Bring your own devices can always get price increases.
Can't wait until Elon comes out with his phone, I'll be happy paying him over the scum here
Although Elon is getting scary these days. Who knows what he'll do when he has all our mobiles and internet connections.. and on a world wide scale.
You can't trust him either he's a delusional salesman that will promise the moon and he's a liar
It's time to get rid of the CRTC the phone providers have no business on the regulating board
They raised my payment due date by 10 days earlier on my Bill. So rather than paying a month in advance, I'm paying a month and a half in advance. I'm a Senior on a fixed income and was only able to pay my Bill on the 27 of every month when I received my OAS. Now I think I have no choice but to end it with Rogers/Shaw after 37 years as loyal customer. What Greedy Mongers they all are.
I'm going back to the can a string communication method!!
Government-controlled oligopoly destroying service and increasing costs is the most predictable thing on the planet: how stupid are these people who keep voting for fabian socialism.
When we all go to T-Mobile Problem solved Maybe
Bell ended up crediting Norman the extra costs after the CBC reached out.
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What a messed up system when we get a government supported media outlet to play Cyber Police when the institution who should be doing, the CRTC are sitting around with a finger up their @ZZ.
I got a call from a Telus rep that said my contract was about to expire and to negotiate for a new contract to avoid a big increase .The best deal I could get was a 10% increase over my previous monthly bill.
I received the new billing and that was a whopping 50% increase over my previous billing and way over the new contract deal I negotiated.
I phoned Telus and they gave credit for the overage and lowered the monthly billing to the negotiated price.
Had to spend alot of time on hold and on the phone, but to their credit, Telus did respond and rectified the overbilling.
I recently switched from Roger's to Bell. Not because I expect anything better from Bell, but because I needed a break from 3 consecutive months of calling Roger's. After hours spent on the phone each month, and being guaranteed that the billing problem was solved, I quit.
I know in a few months Bell will start the same nonsense, but a few months honeymoon with them is what I need. Badly.
The CRTC is unconcerned, like most Government entities these days. This Bell/Roger's collusion is a National disgrace, but in my honeymoon months I'll be researching 'alternative' platforms.
Good luck to all of us.