‘Customized’ plans and Lack of Transparency

[SimoneBernadine]

Today I inquired with customer service about a new phone plan as the phone plans I am able to view as a current customer are limited to 2-3 plans around the current price I pay today.  The plans offered to me were around the same price or a few dollars more for more data etc than I currently pay.  I wanted to see what other plans were available because I wanted to 'shop around' the plans to see what now best suited my needs and budget and not necessarily settle for the 'customized plan' suggested to me. Once contacting customer service it became clear that I only have the customized plans available to me and am not able to view other plans.  The only other plans in the 'basic' plan are such terrible value to ensure the 'customized' plan is the only correct choice (they call that the decoy effect in marketing).   I find this type of marketing lacks transparency and is unfair to their customers to not know what alternate plans and prices are available. It seems they customize the phone plans and prices based on algorithms and do not have any pricing transparency whatsoever.  It basically only offers you plans around what you currently pay so dont have a realistic option of selecting a plan less than what you are currently paying.  I will be reporting this issue to the better business bureau and looking into the legality of this as it is extremely unfair, manipulative and non transparent pricing strategy.

[FidoAlex]

Hey @SimoneBernadine, Alex here! 

Please note that this is a community-driven platform and it's not intended for customer service. That being said, we do appreciate you sharing your feedback here and we're really sorry to see that you feel this way. 

You should know that the basic plans you mentioned are mandated by the CRTC and are only intended as an option for our customers with minimal needs. The plans that you can see in your MyAccount are actually the exact same options that our customer service reps can see when you contact us, there's no hidden plans or offers that you can't see on your end, everything that's available to you is available in your MyAccount. I can totally understand if the offers currently available aren't what you're looking for and in that case, I would just remind you that our offers and our promotions change very frequently so it's a good idea to keep an eye out, I'm sure we'll have something that fits what you need soon! 

I hope that this clarifies, but please don't hesitate to get in touch with our customer service again if there's anything you need help with!