Free of the Hostage Tax at Last!

I finally realized it. People are prisoners of their cell phones. That’s why they’re called cell phones.

Spirit Science

Canadians pay among the highest cell phone rates in the world because we’ve been held hostage by the Big 3 - Bell, Rogers and Telus. These bandits operate as a cartel, supported and sanctioned by the CRTC. Not only are we ripped off on our cell phone plans, but on the actual cell phones themselves.

In Canada all cell phones are locked to a certain carrier (unless you get a Google phone). There’s no such thing as free enterprise when it comes to the cell phone industry. You can’t just go out and buy a phone in a competitive market and go to any carrier and get a plan. If you’re on Bell, you have to buy a phone that’s locked to the Bell network. And I’m sure you guessed by now that the cartel also controls the prices of cell phones which are astronomical. If you want to change carriers, you have to pay a $50 dollar fee to unlock your own phone. It’s legal extortion! This fee is affectionately referred to as the Hostage Tax or Ransom Tax.

The CRTC has finally come to the aid of the consumer, and over strenuous objections from the cartel, are removing the hostage tax. As of December 1, 2017 the hostage tax will be gone and all cell phones will be sold unlocked from that day forward. For those of you longing for a time when you could shop around for a deal on a cell phone, your day will soon be here. I can’t wait to see retailers offering legitimate sales and specials on cell phones. Bye bye hostage tax. Hello free enterprise!

We live in the era of smartphones & stupid people.

Keywordssuggest.org

Make someone smile today.

Geri

Canadians Are Being Held Hostage By Cell Phone Providers

People are prisoners of their phones. That’s why they’re called cell phones.

SpiritScience

In Canada we unfortunately have almost no options when it comes to cell phone providers. If we want full coverage coast to coast then we have to use Bell, Rogers or Telus. All of the smaller players are at the mercy of the Big 3 (a cartel sanctioned and enabled by the CRTC) who grant them the minimum access allowed under the law. And you guessed it; the law is the CRTC. This explains why our cell phone bills are among the highest in the world.

I had a recent incident with my cell phone provider – one of the Big 3 – that had steam coming out of my ears! I’m on a two-year plan and it’s a loyalty plan. I’ve discovered that means I’m loyal to them; they’re not loyal to me. The cost of a plan during a contracted period is, or should be fixed. Much to my surprise last month my plan went up $5. I got my hostage taker on the phone and demanded to know why my plan had been hijacked while I’m on contract. They decided to raise one of my features (unlimited long distance to the U.S.) from $15 - $20 a month. At a time when long distance prices are coming down dramatically or disappearing with the ability to call over WiFi, it boggles the mind that not only did they tamper with my contract but they had the unmitigated gall to raise this option by $5. This is out and outright thievery!

In a less than congenial fashion I told them exactly what I thought of them and informed them that if they didn’t remove the charge immediately from this bill and from future bills that I was cancelling my plan and going to one of the other cartel members. Of course they credited my account immediately; but that really isn’t the point. The point is that they do anything they want and get away with it. And we have no options. In the U.S. almost every major cell phone provider offers WiFi calling which allows for FREE long distance as long as you make calls on WiFi. Here these Canadian bandits are raising cell phone long distance and do not offer WiFi calling North America wide. What recourse do we have? NONE! Canada, we are screwed when it comes to cell phone plans in general and cell phone long distance. If we want or need full coverage then we’re stuck with the cartel which makes us all hostages of a rigged system.

Today’s generation will never know the satisfaction of slamming down the phone during an angry hang up!

geezerplanet

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Geri

FREE AT LAST – FROM ROGERS

Dear Customer Service,

First of all, you should know I’m typing this with my middle finger.

SomeECards.com

Many of you already know I got rid of Rogers for Internet and cable TV (thankfully they were never my mobile provider) some time ago and have been more than delighted. However, I was still left with one indirect tie to Rogers which I have now severed most completely.

When I changed Internet Service Providers to Start.ca, since I already had a cable connection in the house the easiest thing to do was to connect the new modem to the existing cable. Unfortunately this only solved half of my problem. The good news was I no longer had to deal with Rogers, which was a tonic for my nervous system. Start is a model of excellent customer service. Unfortunately Start uses Rogers cable so although I now had excellent customer service, my actual service was no better.

I seem to live in one of several areas where Rogers has had ongoing problems; we experience frequent, lengthy outages. Instead of solving the problem, Rogers manages to put a Band-Aid on it each time and hope that it will go away. Of course, it never does. Recently I’ve been experiencing outages on a weekly basis and I was not prepared to deal with this anyone. So, I contacted Start and asked to be changed to a DSL line from Bell. The deed is done and now I am totally and completely free from Rogers. My computer, that I thought had become sluggish as a result of being five years old, is humming along and my TV never freezes or has trouble loading (I stream TV) anymore.

I should have cut all ties with Rogers years ago instead of tolerating bad service and bad customer service for the sake of convenience. As consumers the only voice we have is with our dollars. Spend your money wisely.

A satisfied customer — we should have him stuffed!

Basil Fawlty from the series Fawlty Towers

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Geri

Life After Cable TV

Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television.

Woody Allen

It’s been months since I cut the cable TV cord and ended the blood-letting by Rogers. For years I paid an outrageous amount of money for 100s of channels and nothing to watch. How is life without cable? In a word – great!

In the process I’ve made some interesting discoveries about myself. I always said that I didn’t like watching television, and in fact I didn’t. But, now that I’ve gotten rid of cable, I’m streaming my TV via a Roku device with 2 paid subscriptions – Netflix and Acorn TV – and I love watching TV. I discovered that it wasn’t that I didn’t like watching TV; I didn’t like how it was presented to me. I have no patience to wait a week for a TV show and I won’t waste my time recording. I detest commercials. I want to watch what I want to watch, when I want to watch it. And, I want to watch it commercial free. Streaming, on demand TV was made for me. I’ve also discovered that I’m a binge watcher – a term that I never knew existed before. I can happily watch an entire season of a show, or seasons of a show before moving on to something else. The other bonus is that with Netflix and Acorn TV I have an enormous amount of terrific programming not available with cable and my monthly subscriptions total $13/month.

Now my problem isn’t that I have nothing to watch; it’s that there is so much to watch I don’t know where to start. So many options, so little time…

If a Martian came down to Earth and watched television, he'd come to conclusion that all the world's society is based on Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. He'd be amazed that our society hasn't collapsed.

Michio Kaku

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Geri

Cut the Cable TV Cord & Set Yourself Free from Ridiculous Cable Bills

Cable companies aren't bad because they're parts of unwieldy media conglomerates. They're bad because they're monopolies (even where they are no longer legally exclusive) and because the government policies that made them monopolies rewarded lobbying over customer service.

Virginia Postrel

Canadian consumers are finally getting smart and I’ve joined their ranks. Many of us have cut the cable tv cord and have found better and MUCH cheaper ways to watch tv. Although I don’t know if I’ve ever been considered “trendy”, I now find myself part of this very fast growing trend.

According to new research from Ottawa-based Boon Dog Professional Services:

• Canadian TV providers are losing customers six times faster this year than they did last year
• The country’s publicly-traded broadcasters lost a combined 113,000 subscribers in the first half of their fiscal year. That compares to a loss of 19,200 in the same period last year

I was a long time, unhappy customer of Rogers. All of this unhappiness didn’t come cheap; I was paying $70/month for what could best be described as 100s of channels and nothing to watch. As my frustration with Rogers reached a new crescendo, I cancelled my cable tv service several months ago (I cancelled Rogers Internet a year ago and switched to Start.ca - FANTASTIC!). Although there are many options for watching tv without cable, I chose Roku and I couldn’t be more delighted. Roku was a one-time cost of $80. I subscribe to Netflix and Acorn TV for a grand total of $13/month as opposed to $70/month. Now my only problem is what to watch. There is an incredible amount of excellent programming out there and I now have it available on-demand and commercial-free. If you’re paying huge cable tv bills and complaining that there’s nothing to watch, consider cutting the cable tv cord. You’ll be happy you did.

[Television is] an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn't have in your home. 

David Frost

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Geri

How Can Masai Tribesmen Afford Cell Phone Plans?

I was reading an article by someone who had just visited Tanzania. One of the things that struck her was the sight of Masai tribesmen wearing traditional costumes, herding their animals and carrying cell phones. The thing that struck me was how could a Masai tribesman afford a cell phone plan? So I did a little digging and quite frankly, I was astonished.

Pew Research Center did a survey in 7 sub-Saharan African nations - Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Approximately 2/3 or more say they own a cell phone. Ownership is especially high in South Africa and Nigeria, where about 9 in 10 have a cell phone. I don't begrudge anyone a cell phone but I am constantly being bombarded with requests for money for clean water in Africa (Nigeria in particular). So how can they afford cell phones if they can't afford clean water?


Then it occured to me; cell phone plans aren't really expensive. If they were, the Masai tribesmen wouldn't be using them. We're being ripped off by the Canadian Cartel of Rogers, Telus and Bell, and with the blessings of the CRTC, who governs these bandits. According to the Wall Report, Canadians pay among the highest wireless prices in the industrial world. Why you ask? To make Rogers, Telus and Bell rich. There is no other reason. When a competitively priced company like Wind enters the market, the Big 3 make sure that Wind can't offer enough coverage to really capture market share or force the Big 3 to drop their prices.

So Canadians, we're being royally screwed! I don't know about you but if I'm going to get screwed the least I expect is a smile and a cigarette. And what can we do about it as long as the CRTC allows this price fixing? Nothing, except move to Africa. And that's farther than I'm prepared to go for a bargain.

Make someone smile today.

Geri