Like many people in this country, my mother has a cell phone contract and thankfully that contract will expire this October. She’s been with Telus for the last three years and like the other two big cell providers in the country, she gets very little for what she pays for. She gets no data, no long distance, and nothing of value for the price she pays. I arranged for her to switch over to Wind Mobile when her contract ends. Since my mother rarely travels outside of the coverage zone for Wind, it’s an ideal solution for her. She gets way more value and services but pays less per month.
The plan is to port her number over to the her Wind account once her Telus contract ends in October. To ensure there were no surprises once that day arrived, I suggested she give Telus a heads-up that she would be letting her contract expire and that she would porting her number to a new carrier. She went to a Telus store at her local mall to figure out if she was missing any steps. The representative there listened to her intentions for that day in October. He replied that there was no way for her to keep her number if she went to another carrier and that her only recourse if she wanted to keep her number was to continue have Telus as her cell provider. This was a blatant lie. Cell number portability is well within her rights as a consumer. She clearly meets all the conditions of porting as she is not leaving the general area or moving to another city.
I didn’t call the store she went to but I did call their corporate number to inquire about anything in her account that would prevent number porting. I was told that nothing in her account currently would prevent her from taking her number elsewhere. The only condition was that she still needed to be a Telus customer on her last day of the contract when the porting would be done.
I get that cell phone providers will try to retain their customers. What I don’t like is when they outright lie to people in an attempt to keep their business. I’m sure this guy wanted to pull the wool over my mother’s eyes and then she’d sign another contract with him so he could get the commission. What a smarmy way to do business. I’m going to call the actual store she went to this week to find out why they decided to tell her the lies they did. I am sure they will have a good answer.