Bell and Virgin to Introduce New Cancellation Policy Feb. 10th

It appears Bell is set to change its cancellation policy to move in line with carriers such as Rogers and TELUS, as described within internal documents, reports MobileSyrup.

Bell customers looking to cancel will have to pay remaining handset subsidies, known as the Service Agreement Price Adjustment (SAPA), on their contract. The formula is similar to what we have seen implemented via legislation in Manitoba and Quebec. Below is the example Bell provided to illustrate how final cancellation fees would be calculated:

“customer received $250 in total device credits upon activation, and is cancelling their service 15 months into their 36 month term. Their SAPA would be $250 divided by 36 months (term duration), multiplied by 21 months (number of months remaining) = $145.82.”

As for customers on contracts but have zero subsidies, early cancellations will have their final SAPA calculated via the following:

“SAPA is 10% of their monthly recurring charges (MRC), multiplied by the number of months remaining (to a maximum of $50).”

These new cancellation policies will be effective for new contracts signed starting February 10th, 2013.

With the CRTC seeking public opinion on its draft wireless code, our incumbent carriers appear to be making changes towards wireless policies prior to the finalization of the code. Earlier, the Competition Bureau provided feedback to the CRTC and commented on cancellation policies, contract lengths and more. Just yesterday, Rogers revised their cellphone unlocking policy to 90 days after activation, set to start in March.

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