Telus has announced that they will begin charging users who go over their monthly cap. They also rolled out a new user website where people who use Telus can monitor their monthly data usage.

I am a Telus internet customer coming close to the end of my 3 year agreement with them, so I logged onto the new site to see how close I was to my 250GB monthly cap and was surprised to see this:

Wait a sec. Does that say my limit is 150 GB? But Telus, we have a 3 year agreement that says I get 250GB.

When I called Telus to ask them what was up, they said the plans were changed in October, and my plan was downgraded to the 150GB cap plan. The customer service rep on the other end of the phone said that she could upgrade me to the 250 GB plan for an extra $5 per month.

What? Wait a minute. You want me to pay an extra $5 a month to get something from you that we have already agreed to in a contract that you would provide? I mean, we have a contract! This is exactly the type of behaviour that contracts are supposed to avoid. I agree to pay you each month for a service, and you agree to give me what we paid for for the term of the contract which, in my case, runs until April.

But yet we have a situation here where it seems like Telus has arbitrarily changed the terms of the contract I have with them and downgraded my account by 100GB —– sh0rtly before they announce that they are going to charge extra for people who go over their cap? That is just….wrong.

My “contract” expires in April. Telus has given me a higher cap and increased bandwidth for lower price for the rest of my contract. But this is an appeasement (and even then the rep on the phone told me that they were able to offer this deal to me, not because they messed up, but because I was a good customer with an excellent payment record).  Customer service reps being customer service reps can only do so much. They can’t change corporate policy with a customer on the phone. The pisser is, I don’t know if I would get much better service or value if I take my business elsewhere, such is the state with ISP’s these days. But come April, I’ll be looking to switch.

Or maybe I should just switch now and drop Telus, despite having 2 months left on my contract? I mean, if they can arbitrarily change the terms of our contract, then why can’t I?

If you are like me and signed a long term contract with Telus many years ago that agreed to give you 250GB monthly usage, check your current usage cap and make sure you are still getting what Telus agreed to give you in your contract.

Poor form, Telus. Poor form.