Worst service when you want to cancel your service

[yanlantao]

I was trying to port out my number from Fido to other service provider, and received a port out message from Fido saying if you don't response the port out request within 90 minutes. The request will be rejected. But it is not what has happend. When I call Fido to cancel my service, they are saying you can not do that since there is a pending porting out request. It is ridiculous since as a FIDO customer I only have 90 minutes window to reject and after that, I can not reject a port out request anymore. The FIDO customer has to wait 30 days to close the account. The most terrible thing I have experienced and there is no pay to suspend the account. As a customer, you need to pay for FIDO another month for a service you are not using anymore. What a bad experience! Not sure all other providers do the same, at least their service doesn't disappear for a full day suddently! Writing this for other people's reference to avoid the same situation as me.

[khouya]

Hi @yanlantao 

Sorry for your situation. Normally u should respond the transfer request to transfer the phone number within a considerable delay. It's normal to wait 30 days to close a account, it's for fraud prevention.

Hope my answer resolved your situation 

Have a nice day

[yanlantao]

Thx for your reply, I don't see how it prevents fraud prevention though. I can only see a poor customer experience and the willingness Fido keeps charging its customers for one more month.  

[Cawtau]

Hello Yanlantao,

  Welcome to the community!

  I can understand how this fraud prevention policy might seem like restrictive measures to prevent you from cancelling your account. However, process is indeed meant to prevent fraud.

  Fraudulent behaviour tends to include multiple access attempts to a particular line or account. While it's true that making multiple changes to an account can be for legitimate reasons, they cannot overlook the possibility that nefarious actors may have access to a customer's information.

  The port-out request time limitation is designed to reduce SIM-Swap scams. Generally, customers who choose to port their number to another provider are able to respond to that text message in a timely manner. If there is no response within the specified time, it is possible the customer was not the party requesting the port-out. The system cannot determine whether the port-out request was made by the customer or some other party. To protect the customer's account, they system would limit activity (ie cancellation, plan changes, device purchases, etc) for the 30 days. Nefarious actors would not usually be willing to wait the 30 days and move on to their next potential victim.

  As mentioned, there may be legitimate reasons for account changes in succession. In order to make those changes, I think customers would need to endure a more strenuous verification process. Fido isn't trying to keep you for another month. They need to make sure you are the one wanting to make the changes and not merely someone who may have some of your information.

  You should also note that if you cancel your services, you will unlikely be able to keep your phone number with any other provider. In order to port-out a phone number, the line and account need to be active (see here). Cancelling services following a port-out attempt could also be viewed as a red-flag as well. Most customers who had requested a port-out to another provider wouldn't want to cancel services since they would lose their phone number. In addition, your services would normally automatically get cancelled with a successful porting process. There usually no need for a cancellation request following a port-out request.

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers