Today I got my Fido bill and was shocked to say the least when I opened up the bill. You see, Fido charged me for an incoming call while I was in Whistler. For all those that don’t know, Whistler is about 1 1/2 hour drive from Vancouver. Russ and I travel up to Whistler frequently during the summer as we like to camp near there, and during the Olympics we were blessed enough to get events tickets up in Whistler. I used be worried before about roaming fees, but from the past Fido has never charged for incoming or outgoing calls while I was in Whistler, until now.
When I saw this bill I quickly logged onto their site to see if anything had changed regarding calling area and was shocked to see the following.
You will notice that if you have a Vancouver number and travel up to Whistler or call Whistler it’s considered a long distance call, yet if you have a local Whistler number and call Vancouver it is not. Why the difference in standard I ask? Why gauge Vancouver residence who travel up to Whistler and not the reverse? This makes no sense at all to me.
My call to Fido customer service was treated very professionally and Eco was of great assistance to me. She did let me know that they had changed their calling maps in December of 2009. She did reverse the charges, but I did let her know that since this change makes no sense to me, they will not be getting my business when my contract runs out next year.
I will be looking for a different provider. So Telus, Bell, Wind be ready for me, the one that makes the best deal will get my business! But be warned – I’m tired of companies changing the contracts that we as consumers sign in good faith. Why is it so hard to adhere by your own rules?
I get long distance charge with Telus when I’m in Squamish or Whistler. Pretty annoying as I often go there for outdoor trips.
Hi, this is Mary with Fido. I’m glad to hear you had a good experience with our customer service, thank you for that feedback.
Let me try to answer some of your questions. These changes were made to align our local calling areas with standard boundaries across the industry as noted above. You can also view them at http://www.fido.ca/callingareas.
To clarify, the boundaries for Vancouver CityFido zone have not changed and local calls made within that zone are still well within the LCA.
As per our terms and conditions of service, we did provide all our customers with a Fido number in an affected LCA advance notice before the change took effect.
.-= Mary Pretotto´s last blog ..Fidomobile: @GusF Hi Gus! To sort this out u can look at: http://cot.ag/ci4D1P & if you have more questions cust service should be able to help ^mv =-.
Hi Mary,
First of all thank you for replying on my blog, this truly is amazing what Fido is trying to do in the Social Media space. I know it can’t be easy with all the negative feelings out there.
That said, I don’t see why Fido, and as you put it “standard boundaries across the industry” wouldn’t see the double standards here. If your local calling area is Whistler, you can make local calls including the lower mainland, but if your local calling area is Vancouver it doesn’t return the favour. This to me is what makes no logical sense. There are double standards here. I feel that Fido is just trying to gauge it’s Vancouver clients.
I need to check on this as I use my cellphone a lot up in Whistler when I’m snowboarding or attending an event.
If Fido is charging.. is Rogers charging long distance too?
.-= Tyler´s last blog ..Spring Is Coming =-.
@Tyler – yeah looks like the Local Calling Area for Rogers has changed too – exactly the same as Fido’s. I’m expecting a lot of complaints coming from others about it soon.
@Rebecca – coming from you I take that as a great compliment! Glad you like the new design (still will be tweaking it as I’m not completely happy with it)
Weird, it’s typical that they would make a change without letting you know.
On an unrelated note (sorry I haven’t noticed sooner) but your site looks slick with this theme
Phone companies and their hidden charges. When will it end? I’ve had good success with MetroPCS but not sure if they have that up in Canada.
I live in Whistler and have to put up with same BS when visiting the city, which is often. I pay a flat fee for long distance. Ridiculous, eh? Toronto has a larger calling area than Vancouver–>Whistler, yet we get charged LD because get what, there’s basically no competition in Canada.