1. #1
    bs9999
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    I am with Bell Mobility (in Canada) and finished a 2 years contract with them back in late November 2005. Without my knowing i was auto-renewed with a new contract despite my efforts to call and set up something to cancel the service when my contract ended. I am not sure how long this new contract lasts but it is there. I have currently filed to have my contract terminated and finally they have placed the termination request but are now charging me $200 to terminate early. Its a shame because i wanted to terminate my service back in November when my contract ended but they apparently didn't take it seriously and just placed me into this new contract. Anyway, sorry for babbling.

    My question, am i entitled to a new cellphone when my 2-year contract finished back in November and had begun my new contract? I have not received word if i am entitled because it seems sad that i must pay $200 to terminate early when i don't even have a new cellphone to justify it.

    Thanks for all the details you can give me.


    See More: Do I get a New Cellphone when my Contract Expires and i Stay?




  2. #2
    Abom
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    Re: Do I get a New Cellphone when my Contract Expires and i Stay?

    Ummmm, this is interesting. Yes, after 24 months (2 years), you do qualify for what's called a hardware upgrade. You renew your contract, and you get a discount off of a new phone again. The discount is usually only available when you actually renew the contract, although Bell might make an exception in such a case as yours. You would have to phone Customer Care and see about that one.

    Now, on to the part about your contract being renewed on it's own ? This is not possible, as you have to request it to be renewed. If you requested the account to be terminated, and they renewed your contract instead, then this is absolutely wrong and you should clear that up. Contracts cannot be renewed on their own without your consent. A contract is a legal binding document that you have to sign, be it verbal or written. If you never authorized a contract renewal, then you can get out of it without paying the $200 termination fee.

    But again, Customer Care can't just renew it on their own, the request must come from you, so I don't understand how this happened. Again, I'd phone into Customer Care and find out what's going. Ask them to tell you the date you renewed on and how it was done (if it was done over the phone, there will be notes on your account by the rep who did the renewal).



  3. #3
    bs9999
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    Re: Do I get a New Cellphone when my Contract Expires and i Stay?

    THanks so much for your reply! Its very reassuring that i am right in my thinking. I wil lbe calling them on Monday (its Sunday morning right now) when they open and get more info. I tried cancelling long before the contract ended in November and NEVER renewed it. I wanted out! But oddly i did find out that the rep recently told me that the contract is "AUTO-RENEWED" when the contract is ended and i have to "opt-out" before the contract is up or it will take effect. Of course my trying to cancel apparently never got through and after the contract ended it was only then i found out this "Auto-Renewal" thing. This is BS! I am pissed!

    If i at least got a new phone out of this it would have been fine paying the $200 early termination but now not only do i not have a new phone, on a contract i tried ending several months before, but now i must pay $200 for absoultely nothing but their error, and a $40/monthly fixed charge on a phone i haven't used since the contract ended in November.

    Yea i will call them and see whats up. THis feels like a long up hill battle ahead. Ah Well.

    Quote Originally Posted by _Abom_
    Ummmm, this is interesting. Yes, after 24 months (2 years), you do qualify for what's called a hardware upgrade. You renew your contract, and you get a discount off of a new phone again. The discount is usually only available when you actually renew the contract, although Bell might make an exception in such a case as yours. You would have to phone Customer Care and see about that one.

    Now, on to the part about your contract being renewed on it's own ? This is not possible, as you have to request it to be renewed. If you requested the account to be terminated, and they renewed your contract instead, then this is absolutely wrong and you should clear that up. Contracts cannot be renewed on their own without your consent. A contract is a legal binding document that you have to sign, be it verbal or written. If you never authorized a contract renewal, then you can get out of it without paying the $200 termination fee.

    But again, Customer Care can't just renew it on their own, the request must come from you, so I don't understand how this happened. Again, I'd phone into Customer Care and find out what's going. Ask them to tell you the date you renewed on and how it was done (if it was done over the phone, there will be notes on your account by the rep who did the renewal).



  4. #4
    Abom
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    Re: Do I get a New Cellphone when my Contract Expires and i Stay?

    Quote Originally Posted by bs9999
    THanks so much for your reply! Its very reassuring that i am right in my thinking. I wil lbe calling them on Monday (its Sunday morning right now) when they open and get more info. I tried cancelling long before the contract ended in November and NEVER renewed it. I wanted out! But oddly i did find out that the rep recently told me that the contract is "AUTO-RENEWED" when the contract is ended and i have to "opt-out" before the contract is up or it will take effect. Of course my trying to cancel apparently never got through and after the contract ended it was only then i found out this "Auto-Renewal" thing. This is BS! I am pissed!

    If i at least got a new phone out of this it would have been fine paying the $200 early termination but now not only do i not have a new phone, on a contract i tried ending several months before, but now i must pay $200 for absoultely nothing but their error, and a $40/monthly fixed charge on a phone i haven't used since the contract ended in November.

    Yea i will call them and see whats up. THis feels like a long up hill battle ahead. Ah Well.
    I doubt it'll be a long uphill battle. When a contract is over, then yes, it is correct in the fact that it is "auto re-newed". The auto-renewal renews you onto a 30 day contract. Meaning, if you wish to cancel at anytime, you can, but you must give 30 days of notice. Technically, this is considered a contract, but it's only a month to month one.

    You said you'd be fine paying the $200 term fee had you at least gotten a new phone. I don't think I'm understanding you properly, since these phones are only usable on Bell Mobility's network, hence you'd have to keep going on with service from Bell, which you say you don't want to.

    If what you've said is what happened, then you should have no problem terminating your service without a termination fee. Keep posting in this thread on how you're making out, I'll help you out as much as I can.



  5. #5
    jasmine11
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    Re: Do I get a New Cellphone when my Contract Expires and i Stay?

    Abom: that is interesting. I am curious. Sorry to intrude on this conversation but i have to ask something. Let's say my contract ends next year then if i don't sign up again for another yearly contract i will be automagically placed on a month-by-month plan where i only have to give a 30-day notice to cancel out? What about this $200 termination fee this thread author is referring to. Will i be responsible for paying $200+ in early termination despite being on this 30-day micro contract or will i jus tbe responsible for paying my last monthly service charge? I assume a customer would be entitled to a new cell phone if and only if they sign up again for another yearly contract (not this 30-day month-by-month thing). If this were all true then i would presume the bs999 should only be charged for his/her monthly bill and not this $200 charge. Interesting.

    Quote Originally Posted by _Abom_
    I doubt it'll be a long uphill battle. When a contract is over, then yes, it is correct in the fact that it is "auto re-newed". The auto-renewal renews you onto a 30 day contract. Meaning, if you wish to cancel at anytime, you can, but you must give 30 days of notice. Technically, this is considered a contract, but it's only a month to month one.

    You said you'd be fine paying the $200 term fee had you at least gotten a new phone. I don't think I'm understanding you properly, since these phones are only usable on Bell Mobility's network, hence you'd have to keep going on with service from Bell, which you say you don't want to.

    If what you've said is what happened, then you should have no problem terminating your service without a termination fee. Keep posting in this thread on how you're making out, I'll help you out as much as I can.



  6. #6
    Abom
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    Re: Do I get a New Cellphone when my Contract Expires and i Stay?

    Quote Originally Posted by jasmine11
    Abom: that is interesting. I am curious. Sorry to intrude on this conversation but i have to ask something. Let's say my contract ends next year then if i don't sign up again for another yearly contract i will be automagically placed on a month-by-month plan where i only have to give a 30-day notice to cancel out? What about this $200 termination fee this thread author is referring to. Will i be responsible for paying $200+ in early termination despite being on this 30-day micro contract or will i jus tbe responsible for paying my last monthly service charge? I assume a customer would be entitled to a new cell phone if and only if they sign up again for another yearly contract (not this 30-day month-by-month thing). If this were all true then i would presume the bs999 should only be charged for his/her monthly bill and not this $200 charge. Interesting.
    No problem, it's a good question and belongs in this thread. No, you are not responsible for the $200 termination fee in your case. Take this as an example:

    Scenario 1: Mrs. TalksALot decides to buy a cell phone. She decides she doesn't like long contracts, so she only signs for 1 year. After 8 months, she moves to an igloo at the north pole where there is no cell phone service, so she wants to cancel her 1 year contract early. This would be when she would pay the $200 early termination fee.

    Scenario 2: Mrs. TalksALot decides to buy a cell phone. Again, she only takes a 1 year contract. After 1 and a half years, she decides to move out of the country, so she needs to cancel her cell phone. In this case, the 1 year contract has ended, and she is only going month to month now. Her only obligation is to give Bell Mobility 30 days of notice to cancel her service (this is allow time for the accounting department to come up with the final bill and cancel the account out of the billing engine). She would simply phone in, and the following month her service would be cancelled, no additional fees are incurred to her.


    Hopefully this makes it a little bit more clear. In your case, no, you are not liable for the $200 early termination fee if you have completed your contract. The only time a person pays a termination fee is if the contract is cancelled before the term is up (ex: you agreed to a 36 month term and you cancelled after 20 months). Most of this termination fee is to recover the cost of subsidized phone that you would have gotten (what company would want to hand out a free $300 phone only to get 3 months of $35 service back in return).

    Feel free to reply if you have any other questions



  7. #7
    bs9999
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    Re: Do I get a New Cellphone when my Contract Expires and i Stay?

    Hi Abom. Thanks very much for your very useful replies! I talked to bell mobility and it is starting to look like they made an error in their records. As it stands they are charging me $200 termination but their records show problems of some kind and they said they were going to get back to me tomorrow (or the next day) to resolve it. Wow things are looking up! =) I will keep you posted. I never realized this 30-day contract should have been in place. I just assumed i was renewed on a new 2year contract without my consent. Should be interesting what they say.

    Thanks very much for your expertise



  8. #8
    Abom
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    Re: Do I get a New Cellphone when my Contract Expires and i Stay?

    No problem, I see these kinds of errors everyone once in a while. Surprisingly enough, with the mega-corporation that Bell Mobility is, I haven't seen many errors like this. They're pretty good actually with that kind of stuff.

    I do have to say tho, $5 says they won't call you back (they're not the quickest at that), and you'll probably have to call in. Next time you talk with someone, assuming they're helpful (just like everywhere else, there are people who like their job and those that don't), get their employee ID number and first name. This way, you can always ask for this person next time you phone in.

    It is a good thing tho that they do recognize the error. I spend quite a bit of time in the call center for NMI Mobility up here (I have personal friends who work there), and I know that when accounts are terminated, the call center rep either checks or un-checks the box for whether or not to charge the termination fee. Well, actually, it's not exactly the same as that, as the software they use is completely different from something that we are used to in the windows environment, but you get the basic idea, wrong click of a mouse and you're charged on the bill.

    The thing with the billing engine, is that it's automated. The billing engine takes the current charges and call detail records from the account, converts it to a printable format, prints it, envelopes it, then it's taken by the bag full to the post office. No one actually looks at the physical bill until it arrives at your house and you open it.

    People always get mad at us when they run over their minutes in excess and get charged a lot of money and "no one suggests a plan with more minutes to save them money". Then we have to explain to them that no one actually looks at the bills before they do, and if someone did, their monthly fee would go up to cover the salary of the person hired to look at their bill.

    Whew, that all said, glad to hear that you're making positive progress. Keep the thread updated



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