Long Distance Charge Scam

[Toronto78]

I'm a single mother facing financial distress due to an unexpected $250 charge for a long-distance call on my recent invoice. Typically, I use free services like WhatsApp or FaceTime for long-distance calls.

On February 8th, amidst a personal crisis, I mistakenly dialled a long-distance call instead of initiating a FaceTime call. Today, when seeking assistance, I was offered a long-distance plan, which is financially unfeasible for me.

I'm struggling to understand why FIDO doesn't notify customers about unusual charges, especially for services they rarely use. Does this policy extend to data usage alerts?

This situation is affecting my ability to provide for my child, and I find it distressing that there was no proactive communication from FIDO.

I'm reaching out for urgent assistance. I even sold my phone last month to survive financially, this is a big scam to no notify a customer when you can see in your record they don't have long-distance calls,o or the cost of one call exceeds they total invoice by 4 times. This is not fair nad I am planning to take my complaint to consumer Canada. 

[KAPABLE-K]

Hello @Toronto78,

Welcome to the community!

You should note this community forum is not a method of customer service it is meant as for customers like myself to help each other.

It's unfortunate what has happened but you admitted you made the call accidentally or not it's not Fido's responsibility to notify you of calls you deem unusual, their job is to ensure your calls are connected. If it was the other way around and you had an emergency and wanted to call that number and Fido did not connect the call Fido would still be blamed.

You can contact customer service and ask to have an international long-distance block put on your line and going forward you will not be able to make any international calls. In regards to the payments you can reach out to the Credit Operations Team and discuss if they can do anything to help reduce the bill and if you are not able to make the payment in full you can set up and payment plan, see here for more information including how to contact them.