Another reason to hate Bell...

[Agrippa]

The bastards at Bell have lobbied the CRTC to increase the pay phone rate.

Since June 1st, the CRTC allowed a 25¢ increase, guess by how much Bell increased it... correct... 25¢. So now it costs 50¢... I have to lug around more quarters in case I need to make a call. What's that you say? Use your credit card? Pre-paid phone card? Well they raised those to $1... yes you read that right, it costs $1 to make a call now.

Spare me the "you don't have a cell phone?"s I don't have one, nor do I need one, or want one. I'm not cheap either... but a 100% increase is ridiculous. Notice how Telus and a few other providers I've never heard of did not increase their fare... anyone know if there are Telus pay phones in downtown Montreal?

Source

 

[Big Daddy Cool]

Bell is on their last legs because of bad business practices like this crap mentioned. I noticed it too and thought that it might be a maulfunction, but now you have confirmed it. The best thing to do is for people in mass to boycot all Bell products.

 

[eastender]

So ..................

So it was a dime in the early seventies and went up to a quarter over thirty years ago. Factor in COLA and we are well ahead of the game. Name another service or product that stayed at the same price for over thirty years?

 

[Techman]

I just switched my land line to Rogers and saved 25 bucks a month. I have a feeling many people are switching their land lines to other carriers, videotron also provides phone service now, so maybe they're trying to make up the lost money. But I don't think anyone can bitch about a measly 50 cents to make a phone call. At least they aren't limiting the length of the call. Besides...what else can you get for that price today?

 

[jacep]

The main problem with Bell (telephone service) is that they still think of themselves as being a monopoly and they act accordingly (telling customers to take it or leave it). Well, it was one thing when they were a monopoly and you couldn't have any other local phone service or any local long distance service but when they first started to lose their long distance customers, they still didn't change their arrogant customer service ways. Now, they are losing their local phone service customers and they still act like they are the only company that offers local phone service with their take it or leave it attitude.

Even if you want the reliability of a landline phone service (that doesn't require electricity/etc. and works with alarm systems), you can switch from Bell to a company like Primus or Sprint and keep all your existing equipment and line.

... and that is only the problem with Bell's telephone service. Don't get me started about their cellphone service, their satellite television service, and the internet service.

 

[Agrippa]

Besides...what else can you get for that price today?

I think I can still buy 10 Bazooka Joes...

But seriously, it's really not a matter of the quantity of money, just the principle. Is getting a few more quarters really going to help their bottom line? Are they really that desperate. I haven't thought about this at length, but I'm thinking of public pay phones more like an essential service... the issue, to me, is making something 'less accesible' the phones are in place, they are not maintained (Have you seen the grime on them? Right, probably not, since you don't use them), there is no reason to increase the fee other than to make more profit... it's not like they're losing money because they installed more of them...

 

[joelcairo]

Agrippa and BDC have it right: this is one more in a long line of reasons to hate Bell and everything it stands for.

The point is not that a call is still "cheap" at 50 cents or that the extra quarter will bankrupt someone. The point is that this is a fuckin 100% increase.

To anyone (hi ZoneAlarm) who says "find me another product that stayed at that price for that long" I say "find me another bunch of cocksuckers who raised their rates 100% (!) in a single move". Besides, if the price hasn't been raised in 25 years whose fault is it? Answer: the same fuckin bunch of cocksuckers who just raised the rates.

 

[Agrippa]

ZoneAlarm, you are missing the point. I refer you to jimace's post below yours... Thanks jimace; exactly.

ZA sounds like a brainwashed capitalist... that's great that they're making profits, really, it is... they charge us more, they make a profit for the sake of making a profit and some jackass who has stock pockets it... what a system! We should all embrace Ma Bell...

 

[Agrippa]

Wrong. Payphones are maintained, you think they leave the quarters in there for 3 years? lol

Maintenance would be making sure they work properly and cleaning the grime off of them. How many times have you (OK, possibly never, but this happens to me regulalry) tried to use a pay phone and don't hear anything... fiddle with volume controls... nothing still... you try another one next to it only to find actual dirt, grime, once I saw an actual piece of gum stuck to the receiver... they want me to stick that on my ear?

What you're talking about is just plain 'collecting money.' No maintenance involved there...

 

[jacep]

I have videotron for my phone line and its total garbage i lose electricity i lose my phone line. Videotron is lucky they have good internet or i would have dumped them a long time ago.

Actually, Videotron's internet phone service works for a few hours after you lose power since it has a built-in UPS. However, Videotron can also learn a few things about customer service. I agree with you that they have very good internet service (and I'm glad that I don't have to call them for support).

 

[Agrippa]

No matter what anyone says Cell phones are convinient.

So are pay phones.

And what happens when u get a cell phone? More money for Bell.

As if I'd give patronize them!

Maintenance costs or not, it is absurd for them to raise their rates because no one uses them anymore.

 

[jacep]

Did u also consider that by putting the prices of pay phones up it forces people to buy a cell phone because it will end up just becoming more convinient? And what happens when u get a cell phone? More money for Bell.

Bell is not the only cellphone service provider around. Now that Canada has wireless local number portability, Bell might lose some of their cellphone customers from people who are no longer threatened with the "you leave us for another cellphone provider and you lose your phone number" argument.

I personally don't have a landline phone. I used to have both a cellphone and a Bell landline phone. Since I live alone, when Fido offered something called CityFido in Montreal (they no longer offer this), I disconnected my home landline phone with Bell. When I'm not home, there is no one else who would use my phone so there was no point in me paying around $40/month to Bell for a home phone that I had access to for less than 5 hours in the day (if you consider work and sleep).

 

[joelcairo]

Im going to enjoy this

You want compagnies who do increases? What about coca cola back in the day it was 5 cents to buy a drink. Lets see what else what about gas? what about cars i can't remenber them cost over 30k in average 30 years ago. The bottom line is simple you dont like their product dont use it? Do you think they care that you are angry? Not only that the other compagnies will also put their rates up now that bell has because its the goverment that made it possible for them to do so.
So to ur question its the CRTC that put the prices up not Bell. Also following ur logic it would be safe to assume u also hate movie theaters? I remenber 2-3 years back i could go to the paramount for 5-7$ now its 13$ so it would be logical to hate them to and boycot them right?

You just don't get it, do you ZoneAlarm? Maybe you can find an intelligent friend to explain my post to you (the post you were "going to enjoy" responding to).

Yes, prices tend to go up for everything...but over TIME, not by DOUBLING (since you obviously couldn't figure out what a 100% increase means) all at once. Your joke of a response listed a few things that have gone up in price, but guess what genius: none of them doubled in price all at once. Your other posts here also reveal your inability to read and comprehend various points, but Agrippa and the other voices of reason have already shredded your arguments so thankfully I won't have to bother.

 

[Just-ass-weet]

Bell sucks for so so so many reasons

I won't give them a penny of my money - ever. Why they suck has much less to do with how much they charge, and more to do with the total lack of service. If they weren't such corporate welfare bums, they would be out of business within a few months.

xoxox
Anik

 

[joelcairo]

Do yourself a favor ZoneAlarm and heed my earlier suggestion to find an intelligent friend to explain all this to you. As another poster said earlier, it is the principle that is at issue here, not the freakin 25 cents.

Maybe you can use your stock profits to take some courses in reading, marketing, ethics, logic and economics. Nothing personal: I'm sure you know a great deal about some things, but they're obviously not things being discussed in this thread.

 

[joelcairo]

I won't give them a penny of my money - ever. Why they suck has much less to do with how much they charge, and more to do with the total lack of service. If they weren't such corporate welfare bums, they would be out of business within a few months.

xoxox
Anik

Bravo - exactly right and let's all hope that more people follow your lead and the good ship Bell sinks like a stone (taking ZoneAlarm's cash with it to the bottom of the sea).

 

[ck_nj]

Let me ask a question, relating to Bell itself. I'm American by the way, so I am not that familiar with Bell's news and practices.
If the Canadian government allowed an American company like Verizon to buy the company, would you have an issue with that?
Verizon already has ties with the European company Vodaphone, so such a buyout or partnership would be nothing new.
No bashing please LOL, just trying to be educated. Thanks...
And I am assuming we are talking about the land line and the wireless divisions.

 

[joelcairo]

As you know Principle vary from person to person. Therefore, i couldn't give a shit about ur principles . The fact of the matter is They increased the price of the pay phones and their really is nothing u can do about it? U can stop using the pay phones and get a cell phone or keep paying for pay phones. If people had to complain about every product that went up we would have 40 threads a day on here. But heh if you are so big on ur principles u might aswell start rioting.

In reference to my earlier suggestion about taking courses Zone Alarm, I'd suggest you take the course on logic first, since that seems to be where the biggest gap is. Good luck: no one is ever too old to learn.

 

[joelcairo]

Dang i can't find a university that teaches Logic Do you know one? Might wanna check the list of courses before u reccomend one

My mistake: I guess you really do need the reading course even more than the logic one. Best wishes.

 

[Turbodick]

Bell knows exactly what it is doing and like everything Bell does in isolation the consumer is going to bend over and take it because Bell knows when all is said and done the service is worth 50 cents to the consumer. This doesn't mean that you forget about this when they call and ask for your long distance business, internet etc. I flat out tell them when they contact me and ask why I wouldn't go for such-and-such a deal which is equivalent to my current non-Bell deal (with all on one bill) that I won't do it because I don't like Bell and would never give an extra dime to them if I can help it.