Hello Jjj6,
Welcome to the community!
Sorry to hear you're disappointed and feel like you've been taken advantage of. However, I'm not sure what you were expecting.
@jjj6 wrote:
...I was told that the maximum suspension period is one year, which translated into "automatic cancellation after one year" for me at the moment...
You are correct in that the temporary suspension would automatically cancel after one year. Once the temporary suspension ends, your plan would return to it's original active state. That's what happened.
I'm sorry, but what else did you expect to happen once the suspension ended? If a moving car momentarily (ie temporarily) brakes, the car stops. Once the brake is release, the car moves again. It isn't something which was buried in the fine details of Terms of Service. You had the temporary suspension for a year; the suspension had ended. No other provider would have treated a temporary suspension differently.
**edit** Did you expect them to cancel your services? If that's the case, it would have also cancelled your phone number and you could have lost access to your associated accounts. I don't think any other customer would expect to have their services to cancel after their temporary suspension had ended.**
I understand it might be frustrating to pay for services you might not be using. However, that is the nature of post-paid plans. If you wished to keep your phone number and plan available for when you returned, the temporary suspension would have been your only option, other than keeping it active.
On the other hand, if you did not need to keep your current plan, you might consider migrating your services to pre-paid. You should note, though, Fido no longer offers a purely pay-as-you-go pre-paid service. Their pre-paid services also have monthly fees and require regular top-ups. You should also note that there are likely fees to migrate to different plan types. You should further note that upon return, a plan with your current plan details might not be available anymore. You would need to get a new in-market plan.
Alternatively, you might consider porting to a pay-as-you-go pre-paid service. While most, if not all, pre-paid services have expiring balances, some offerings can have longer expiries. You should note that account balances would not be refundable.
You also mentioned:
@jjj6 wrote:
...3. Fido failed to inform major changes on accounts...
Having a temporary suspension end is not a major change on your account. The change was to add the temporary suspension. Having the suspension run its course, is not a change on your account. If they switched you from an X dollar plan to a Y dollar plan, that would be a major change on your account. However, from what you note, it reverted back to your original plan. It isn't a company's responsibility to remind customers of the details of their accounts (ie contract length, promotion length, temporary suspension duration, etc).
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
