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Welcome to the new Canadian Cellular thread, wherein we discuss the cellular industry in Canada, which is probably the worst in the world. Any questions related to any of the Canadian carriers is welcome here. I'm a sales rep for Bell so that's my area of expertise, but I'm somewhat familiar with the other carriers, and there are plenty of knowledgeable goons here. So let's get started with my personal rundown of the carriers. THE BIG 3
Q: What's this new cell phone legislation everyone's been harping about? A: The CRTC finally did a thing. A new set of rules that all carriers must follow has been put into place, and has been slowly implemented throughout 2013 and is fully in place as of late November 2013 with all carriers. It fixes some, but not all, of the big complaints of the Canadian cellular industry. I'll provide a quick rundown, but let me begin by saying that IT IS NOT RETROACTIVE. YOU CAN ONLY APPLY FOR IT BY RESIGNING A CONTRACT, CHANGING YOUR RATE PLAN, OR WHEN YOUR CONTRACT RUNS OUT
A: It depends on your needs of course. At the end of the day, most of the Big 3 carriers are the same. Google “Bell complaints”, “Rogers complaints” and “Telus complaints” and you’ll find dozens of people accusing each carrier of being the worst company on the planet that is only interested in sucking out all your money and eating babies. There’s no way a carrier can screw you over that any of the Canadian carriers aren’t guilty of at some point. They all hire lovely call center reps who have zero accountability and hire sales reps who are incapable of remembering all the poo poo that they need to give you correct information. That said, Koodo is the best if you need long distance, and has decent coverage for being a discount brand. WIND is great if you want everything unlimited with a decent price, but beware of reception issues. Bell is used by large companies because they have a powerful network. Telus is a good alternative. Rogers is good in the heavily populated areas but beware of traveling as they can lose coverage pretty easily. Q: Contract, tab, or prepaid?
A: Your carrier has no obligation to provide you with a working phone. They didn’t build your phone and thus cannot guarantee it. This means if your phone goes defective, even if it’s not your fault, they will not just give you a new one for nothing. All carriers are like this, and it’s probably one of the worst things about cell phone companies these days. Having said that, you can try to get it fixed, but this involves sending your phone away for a potentially long time, and loaner phones may be difficult to get. The repair center is a third party who never answers emails/phone calls, and their diagnosis is final. If they said it got wet but your phone never left your bedside, too bad. Carriers have no say in this. If your phone is out of warranty, you should try to see if there are any local, independent businesses that repair devices. With so many phones now falling under the category of “iPhone” or “Blackberry”, it’s getting easier to find people with the means to repair them locally, often cheaper than what the manufacturer would charge. Always keep a spare phone as a backup, especially if your cell phone is your only means of communication! Q: I just moved here/visiting from another country. What have you got for me? A: I’m so loving sorry. You won’t find any prepaid sim cards that you can just pick up and go. You’ll need to go to a store and buy a prepaid phone/plan. Your unlocked phone may not work with all providers, depending on the frequency the phone runs on. Rogers/Fido have always used GSM, so if you can’t activate on Bell/Telus, try them. Q: How do I get one of those sweet retention deals? A: Results differ from person to person, but you generally call up your customer service department and threaten to cancel. They will then try to haggle a new deal for you. After you find a deal it's wise to call them again and speak to someone else just to confirm your account is properly noted and that you're getting what you think you're getting. Q: Some guy from <insert random Middle Eastern country with a thinly veiled racist tone to your voice here> called me to offer me a new phone/plan. A: Hang up. Hang up now. Do not agree to anything, I don't care how good the deal is just don't. These guys have zero accountability and will say whatever they need to so you will say yes. They gently caress up plans constantly but oh well you can't ever contact them again anyway. Returning or servicing a phone is also nearly impossible as stores probably won't have a record of it. Q: I loving hate the customer service department? A: That’s a strange question, but if you aren’t satisfied by a customer service agent and they refuse to transfer you, hang up and call again. You almost never get the same guy twice, and some agents are better than others. Many spend 8+ hours a day getting screamed out by genuine assholes and have lost any humanity they may have had. If something sounds wrong, question it. This goes the same for in store reps. Never be afraid to get a second opinion! Q: How does phone unlocking work in Canada? A: Carriers can unlock any of their phones for a fee, usually between $35-$50, potentially more if you have restrictions based on your credit score. The waiting period is a maximum of 90 days before a phone that was bought on contract can be unlocked, or at any time if the device is not on contract. Q: Why is cellular service so bad here? A: A few reasons, but I'd say it's a combination of a lack of decent regulation to keep carriers in check, along with the unusual nature of competition in telecommunications. We're all used to companies trying to undercut each other in order to compete. This is because most companies only have the variable of price to compete with. The Kraft Dinner you buy at grocery store A is the same kind you buy at grocery store B. With cellular carriers this is not so. Carriers have many variables to compete with, such as network coverage (this is the main one), different devices, different plans, different services, and sales representatives trained in the latest techniques to make you not care about prices. Prices are important, yes, but cellular carriers will attempt to bolster these aforementioned variables first before they consider lowering their actual prices. This is why a carrier can raise their prices with no worries about what their competition will do, and why companies will wait a long time before matching a competitor that has launched a much cheaper service. Prices will go down in response eventually, but it takes a long, long time. I'm not defending these practices or saying that they are considered rational to a consumer in any way, but given my time in this field it's what I've noticed. Q: Where else can I complain online besides a comedy forum? A: http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/ The CCTS is an organization for resolving cell phone customer complaints. A goon or two on this thread tried this method and had some success, so it's worth a try. OilSlick fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Dec 23, 2013 |
# ? Jun 25, 2012 00:19 |
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# ? May 6, 2024 04:15 |
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Wind and Mobilicity are not the exactly same. Sure they used the same bands and so are compatible phone-wise, but Mobilicity usually has more generous plans, including promotional plans that are sometimes (but increasingly rarely) lifetime rather limited term, whereas Wind's tab basically pays for your phone if you stay with them for 3 years. Also Mobilicity offers increasingly generous discounts on your plan if you pay for multiple months (in advance?), which is roughly comparable to Wind's tab but locks you in for up to a year at a time. If you do pay for a year you can get unlimited everything for $30-35 right now, compared to $40 for Wind. However given that Mobilicity doesn't tend to discount all of their phones regularly it might be wiser to get a phone from Wind first and switch over if you don't like the service. Mobilicity's also -owned and so is for now safe from whatever fuckery Ottawa chooses to do with foreign ownership regulations. They use completely different towers so you may get crap reception with one but not the other depending on where you live. Both use higher frequencies than the big 3 and hence tend to suck indoors, although I've found I can use both Mobilicity and Rogers at some points in the subway in Toronto (Bloor and St. Clair station platforms, which I think are shallower than most stops). Precambrian Video Games fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Jun 25, 2012 |
# ? Jun 25, 2012 13:36 |
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I've found Wind actually pretty reliable since they stepped up tower deployments over the past year. I'm out in the Niagara region but I get great reception pretty much everywhere out here near except on top of the escarpment. When I visit my parents out in Oakville its a bit iffy in a few areas but other than that I rarely have problems. I don't really visit TO much so no idea what its like there.
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# ? Jun 25, 2012 15:28 |
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I would love to switch to WIND but they don't offer service in my area yet They've said "coming soon" for the past year or so, so who knows.
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# ? Jun 25, 2012 16:53 |
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Perhaps this should be added to the OP for people that want to sign-up with either WIND or Mobilicity. It lets you check the signal strength in your area. Although the caveat is that it's crowd sourced so some of the low traffic areas may not be up to date. http://www.coveragemapper.com/map.php?mccmnc=302490
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# ? Jun 25, 2012 17:04 |
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MoxSquad posted:Perhaps this should be added to the OP for people that want to sign-up with either WIND or Mobilicity. It lets you check the signal strength in your area. Although the caveat is that it's crowd sourced so some of the low traffic areas may not be up to date.
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# ? Jun 25, 2012 20:58 |
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CLAM DOWN posted:I would love to switch to WIND but they don't offer service in my area yet They've said "coming soon" for the past year or so, so who knows. Windsor, Kingston and Winnipeg should be this year around the fall if all goes right in testing.
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 05:38 |
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I live in one of Wind's unlimited service areas (London ), and I haven't had any problems with the reception so far, using my cheap & lovely Huawei. I gotta say though, Wind stores are more no-frills than... NoFrills. They're so bare and ghetto, you'd swear it was some front for acquiring your personal info, rather than a new and (hopefully?) growing phone service provider. Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Jun 26, 2012 |
# ? Jun 26, 2012 05:52 |
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Mister Macys posted:I live in one of Wind's unlimited service areas (London ), and I haven't had any problems with the reception so far, using my cheap & lovely Huawei. Odd. They're pretty nice in Vancouver.
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 06:12 |
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The ones downtown have that Microsoft surface or pixelsense or whatever it's called now.
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 06:19 |
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Lone Rogue posted:Windsor, Kingston and Winnipeg should be this year around the fall if all goes right in testing. I'm in a suburb of Vancouver and am in the "planned expansion" area
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 06:39 |
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less than three posted:Odd. They're pretty nice in Vancouver. London is the southern U.S. of Canada. Poor, cheap, conservative, fat, cheap, and with only bars for entertainment. Not counting the one semi-pro hockey team, and one university football team, of course. No joke, I didn't know "Red Lobster" and "upscale" could go together, until I spent two days in Toronto a few weeks ago. Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Jun 26, 2012 |
# ? Jun 26, 2012 06:51 |
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CLAM DOWN posted:I'm in a suburb of Vancouver and am in the "planned expansion" area White Rock/Pitt Meadows are marked as expansion but there is currently service there. They're pretty conservative with their map now, compared to before where they'd suggest service but it'd be spotty. My parents house is a decent distance from the coverage map, simply Away (with no planned expansion) but I get 4 bars there. less than three fucked around with this message at 07:19 on Jun 26, 2012 |
# ? Jun 26, 2012 07:16 |
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Mister Macys posted:I live in one of Wind's unlimited service areas (London ), and I haven't had any problems with the reception so far, using my cheap & lovely Huawei. Yeah the one in St. Catharines is hilariously barebones. I don't really mind if it means savings on my monthly bill I guess. I do wish they would start getting serious about accessories, they had like a half dozen Blackberry accessories and almost none for the flagship Android phones. The clerk told my GF "oh just hit up Ebay ". quote:I would love to switch to WIND but they don't offer service in my area yet They've said "coming soon" for the past year or so, so who knows. They are very slow at updating the official coverage map so I would check it out every so often on forums or Coveragemapper. My town was added for like 3 months but they still hadn't updated the coverage map, I found out totally by accident. The Gunslinger fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Jun 26, 2012 |
# ? Jun 26, 2012 14:09 |
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One of their stores in Waterloo only had lovely hard cases that crumbled into dust in a month as far as accessories go. At least the store was nice. Shame that the clerk fumbled my address and it took half an hour for her to realize that maybe I don't live in PEI.
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 14:43 |
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I'm sure you'll all be sad to know that Rogers' profits have slumped as they are signing up record numbers of quote:It [Rogers] estimates about 60 per cent of its subscriber base is now on smartphones, but chief financial officer Bill Linton, who retires Wednesday, said the newest subscribers are less willing to pay monthly fees that exceed $100, opting for cheaper plans. quote:chief financial officer Bill Linton, who retires Wednesday, said the newest subscribers are less willing to pay monthly fees that exceed $100, opting for cheaper plans. quote:the newest subscribers are less willing to pay monthly fees that exceed $100, opting for cheaper plans. quote:subscribers are less willing to pay monthly fees that exceed $100 No loving poo poo!
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 16:57 |
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The Gunslinger posted:
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 17:09 |
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Rogers is so goddamn crooked it's beyond me. I hope they crash and burn. Then I can get out of my disgusting contract.
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 17:09 |
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All companies are terrible, but I am seriously thinking about ditching Rogers for one of the others now that I'm finally month to month. Whoever will get me the best iPhone plan I guess.
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 18:50 |
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Rogers consistently seems like the worst of the worst, but maybe that's just grass is greener syndrome? All I know is I'm seriously considering paying the ETF to get out a year early and switch to someone else when the next iPhone hits.
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 19:19 |
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I'll move my post about Chatr and how Rogers owns them and you should never ever sign up with them over to this thread! Chatr was set up by Rogers as an immediate response to WIND and Mobilicity, trying to capitalize on the "unanticipated" welcome by Canadian consumers to new wireless competitors. Also, they were hoping nobody really looked into Chatr's ownership, so that people might sign up with them without knowing they were wholly operated by one of the Big Three. Their ads pimped their "reliability" until they were Huh, looks like Wikipedia has a really good summary of why they suck! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatr quote:Their "chatr zone" coverage is artificially limited to match the coverage of Wind Mobile, Public Mobile and Mobilicity, and so using a Chatr phone outside of these zones results in additional charges. quote:Controversy:
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 19:51 |
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What's the cheapest you can get for an unlocked 4s in terms of month to month plans that will give you all the features my current Rogers plan is giving me? Things like data, visual voicemail, call id, etc. I dunno, living in Toronto Rogers seems to be just fine except for the price. I have no problems with them when I call for random questions and I've never been hosed over by them.
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 22:10 |
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CLAM DOWN posted:I'm in a suburb of Vancouver and am in the "planned expansion" area Most of the suburbs already have coverage, they're just not on the map for whatever reason. The only place my phone doesn't work is parts of North Delta.
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 22:22 |
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Based on recommendations from the previous thread, my wife and I broke our Bell contract early and signed up with WIND. It is ~*NICE*~ to be completely Bell-free at last, I can say that much (my home phone and internet have been with TekSavvy for a while now). I work near the Eaton Centre and reception isn't fantastic, but it's serviceable, and it's much better where I live, since they apparently have a tower there (Dundas & Sherbourne [no stalkers plz]). So thanks goons for the recommendation...also the latest Galaxy Nexus is a drat sweet phone, especially coming from the Palm Centro I've been using for the past three years.
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 23:07 |
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Mister Macys posted:I live in one of Wind's unlimited service areas (London ), and I haven't had any problems with the reception so far, using my cheap & lovely Huawei. How is wind's reception on the edge of town? I live east dundas and my Rogers reception starts crapping out once pull into my street. It's to a point where I have to forward my calls to my phone. I'm looking to get out of Rogers once my contract is finished and wind looks good
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 23:29 |
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Looks like the telus team webstore has refurb iphone 4 for 250 without contracts. Thinking of jumping on that instead of buying used from some shady guy on craigslist.
rawrr fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Jun 27, 2012 |
# ? Jun 27, 2012 00:03 |
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rawrr posted:Looks like the telus team webstore has refurb iphone 4 for 250 without contracts. Thinking of jumping on that instead of buying used from some shady guy on craigslist. Wow, that's a good deal. I'm currently one of said shady guys on craigslist, selling a Rogers iPhone 4 for $320: http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/mob/3098494962.html. I'll let it go for $280 if some Vancouver goon is interested. (If this isn't kosher for this thread, please let me know and I'll remove). Lexicon fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Jun 27, 2012 |
# ? Jun 27, 2012 00:18 |
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I'm actually in Vancouver (and near Mount Pleasant) too. And I'm currently on rogers. Hmm, I'll shoot you a PM/craigslist e-mail if I decide to go that route. As far as I know, telus employees get some sort of perk if I order with their webstore login - I found one with crafty googling, but I'd prefer the perk go to a goon. Please PM me if you have one.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 00:25 |
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I'm thinking of getting the HTC One V from Koodo because it's doesn't have a contract with the 35 dllrs city koodo unlimited long with the 5 dllrs data saver add-on (because that's the only one that the koodo webpage lets me add). I don't plan in using a whole lot of browsing of facebook but it's nice to have it in there in case I need it. Is this the best I can get in Montreal without a contract and somewhat nice phones or are there better options? Trikster Thief fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Jun 27, 2012 |
# ? Jun 27, 2012 00:48 |
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Lexicon posted:Wow, that's a good deal. I'm currently one of said shady guys on craigslist, selling a Rogers iPhone 4 for $320: http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/mob/3098494962.html. I'll let it go for $280 if some Vancouver goon is interested. Would be in interested in this as well but in Ontario. If you don't get a local buyer, I wouldn't mind taking it off your hands
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 00:49 |
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iLikeMidgets posted:Would be in interested in this as well but in Ontario. If you don't get a local buyer, I wouldn't mind taking it off your hands Ok, preference would be to sell locally just to avoid shipping headaches, but I'll let you know if I don't move it in the next week or so. Cheers.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 00:55 |
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Lexicon posted:Ok, preference would be to sell locally just to avoid shipping headaches, but I'll let you know if I don't move it in the next week or so. Cheers. Sounds good thanks. I need an iPhone real soon but would rather avoid shady guys from Craigslist/kijiji as well.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 01:07 |
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Lexicon posted:Wow, that's a good deal. I'm currently one of said shady guys on craigslist, selling a Rogers iPhone 4 for $320: http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/mob/3098494962.html. I'll let it go for $280 if some Vancouver goon is interested. If only it was Bell. I've been looking at trading/selling my Desire Z to get an iPhone, and that's a really good price.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 01:15 |
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If anyone from Saskatoon wants to see an S3, I'll be in Midtown Mall tomorrow for most of the day. I'll be Regina on Thursday and Friday too.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 02:08 |
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God damnit, Telus. 50 minutes 2gb data unlimited text messaging caller ID $83 per month before fees.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 08:11 |
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jwoven posted:God damnit, Telus. Only 50 minutes? Good jesus.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 08:33 |
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iLikeMidgets posted:How is wind's reception on the edge of town? I live east dundas and my Rogers reception starts crapping out once pull into my street. It's to a point where I have to forward my calls to my phone. I don't own a car, so I can't say how that affects reception, but it was fine walking through NoFrills/WalMart in Argyle Mall. And texts weren't a problem on the 401 to Toronto. jwoven posted:God damnit, Telus. Yyyeah, I'll take my lovely Wind 25 with only 100Mb and unlimited local, or a Wind 40 with unlimited talk, text, AND data any day, over that bullshit. I don't care how much better the coverage is, that price is loving bullshit. Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 08:45 on Jun 27, 2012 |
# ? Jun 27, 2012 08:39 |
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Yeah, I can get by just fine on 50 minutes, but gently caress Looks like if I go with the 150 minute voice, it comes with unlimited text messaging, as well as caller ID and voicemail. Toss in the 2gb data, and it's at a mere $70. Promo plan has 200 minutes, unlimited text messaging, caller ID, voice mail, and 1gb data (the data flex) for $65. Right now, I'm paying $40 for 50 minutes, unlimited text messaging, caller ID, voice mail, and 100mb data. I'd love to go on Wind or Mobilicity (my sister is only paying $25 for unlimited everything) and they even have decent coverage in my area, but I don't want an android phone.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 09:57 |
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Anyone have any luck finding a Galaxy S3? My store didn't get any and we have no idea when more will come in. They only sent like 20 to our stores in Nova Scotia
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 13:54 |
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# ? May 6, 2024 04:15 |
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jwoven posted:Yeah, I can get by just fine on 50 minutes, but gently caress You can get the same thing from Koodo for $35 (plus tax) and it's $30 if you use 25MB or less in a given month.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 18:17 |