Hello again,
@Bev67 wrote:
... If I've over paid for my cell phone for over a year ....
I understand it's not what you want to hear, but as previously explained, you did not over pay your cell phone for a year. Since your plan was subsidised, you continued to pay for a subsidised plan. That is not a system issue. You might just consider that semantics, however, that is the type of agreement you entered into. You chose to get your device with a subsidised plan.
With any contract, it would be the customers' responsibility to monitor their own contract details. Therefore, it would have been your responsibility to keep track of your contract end-date and to have switched to a BYOP plan, if that is what you wanted. That said, Fido would have informed you that your contract end-date was nearing via your bills.
Again, not what you wanted to hear, but hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello again,
@Bev67 wrote:
...Fido took more than $600 of my money for a service I did not receive. ....
I'm sorry, but you seem to be missing the point. You keep separating services and device cost. As previously stated, the subsidised plans incorporate both services and device cost. They are inseparable. By continuing with that subsidised plan, your phone services would have continued so you did receive services. Whether those services includes subsidy towards a device does not matter since it is a part of the plan. As mentioned, you would have needed to switch to a BYOP plan if you wanted to change to a plan without subsidy.
I understand you have already discussed the matter with customer service. If they have already provided you their position on the matter, I don't think laying out your expectations here will change that. This forum is community-driven and not a venue for customer services. If you wish to take further action, that would be entirely up to you. However, I don't know if the outcome would be in your favour. The issue with subsidised plans is not new. People would have tried to escalate matters with varying results. That's probably one of the reasons Fido switched to their financed Payment Program in recent years.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello again,
Glad to hear you have now switched your plan to one without subsidy. Unfortunately, I don't think there is any credit amount to get back. As already explained, the subsidy amount is not separate from plan costs. As such, you were paying for a subsidised plan for that year, not a plan plus financed amount. While a certain amount of a subsidised plan went towards a device, it is not possible to determine how much of the plan cost that would be. That is the nature of the subsidised plan model.
Not what you wanted to hear, but hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello Bev67,
Welcome to the community!
Sorry to hear you did not fully understand your contract details. From what you note, it sounds like you have a subsidised plan. For a while, any mobile providers used a subsidised model for their contract devices. This model is different from a tab or financed model or the more recently available leasing model (ie Upfront Edge etc).
With the subsidised plan model, the cost of devices was incorporated into the cost of plans (ie Small, Medium, Large, etc). You should note that Fido has recently switched from their old subsidy model to a financed Payment Program. With the new model, the cost of devices is separate from the cost of plans. Since the costs are separate, you would no longer have a monthly finance charge once you have paid-off the balance of the phone. However, as far as I am aware, the Payment Program didn't arrive until after you started your contract (see here).
While there may have been some overlap between the two programs, it sounds like your plan was subsidised. If your plan is a subsidised plan, your monthly billing would not automatically be reduced once you have paid the balance of the phone (see here). It is not possible to simply remove the subsidy from those older plans so you would have needed to have switched to a BYOP plan -- one without subsidy. However, you should note that the details of the new plans may not be the same as your current plan. If you did not switch plans, you would not automatically get a new cellphone. In order to finance another device, you would also need to switch to a new plan as the old subsidised plans are not compatible with the new financed model.
You should note that this forum is community-driven and not intended as a venue for customer services. If you would like to discuss your plan, you would need to contact customer service. In addition, they can also be contacted via Live Chat, Facebook, or Twitter. Those methods can be accessed via the contact page posted above.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello @Bev67,
I'm sad to learn that no changes were made to your plan for quite some time after your term was completed.
@Cawtau covered basically all the points necessary.
One of the reasons our new financing model was introduced was to make sure situations like yours don't happen again as once your phone is paid for, the financing portion of your charges is automatically removed from your account so you simply pay for your monthly services afterwards.
As for your plan changing immediately after your term ended, we won't have the option to do so. It is stated in our terms that we cannot change your plan without your consent. There has to be a request made from the customer for any change to take place.
If you wish to discuss your account futher, you're welcome to reach out using the methods shown here.
