Fido

I will be the first tell you that I hate Fido. As in the cell phone provider, not any particular dog. When I got my first cell phone with them, everything was fine, then *cough I lost that cell cough* and I had to get another one. When I went back to the same kiosk I had originally gone to, the crappy customer service and the manage who was rude to me, should have been my first clue to back away and go to another provider. I did part of that anyway...I did leave, but I went to Wireless Wave, a store that works through a bunch of a different providers as well as sells phone accessories and phones and whatever else they sell. I went there and I went back to Fido.

It was stupid of me, but whatever. That is not the point of the story so moving on now. At first everything was fine. I was on a cheap plan, I had my voicemail and call display and everything was good. But then my long distance started to rack up, thanks to someone who shall remain nameless. So my phone bill got higher and higher and I started struggling to pay my bills, but I managed to always make a payment on the first of the month. Once in awhile, Fido would cut off my cell service and I would get it turned back on and continue on my way finding another job.

Cut to a year later (give or take, because not even the tools at Fido apparently know when I got this phone...was it September? Was it January? Who knows?"

Last week, I spoke to three different Fido tools. Each one telling me a different amount that was due (not the first time this has happened) Finally I spoke to someone who not only credited my account $25.00 but also assured me that if I made a minimum payment of $40.00 my cell service would once again be safe from being cut off. Fine, I made yet another $40.00 payment for this billing period.

Yesterday I got a phone call from someone at Fido asking if I would like to make a payment. I explained that "No I would not like to make a payment." I also gave my whole spiel about how I'm not working and only have so much money to work with and how i thought paying my rent was somewhat more important." My conversation with her ended with me stating that, two people I spoke with last week had basically lied to me when saying that if I made a minimum $40.00 payment, my service would be uninterrupted, because she was now telling me that no that was not the case and I would lose service on the 10th. Fantastic...NOT!

She transfered me to someone else who would be able to tell me how much it would cost to get out of my contract with them, because as I told her, I was sick of the bullshit and crappy customer service and I want out of my damn contract with them.

The next person I spoke to, was just as infuriating. Told me it would cost anywhere from $100-$300 to get out of my contract. Couldn't give me an exact amount though..he kept telling me the same stuff over and over again and I told him I want an exact amount, so he put me on hold so he could get someone who would be able to tell me an exact amount. After being on hold for like 15 minutes (I wish I was kidding) during which he came on the line no less than 4 times to apologize for the wait and to clarify when I got my phone, even though it was already established that neither of us had a freaking clue.

Finally, a manager came on the line and asked me to tell him the situation. He also wanted to know what my problems with Fido were. I asked him how much time he had, cus the problems were numerous. He laughed and said to start at the beginning, so I did. Afterwards, he said he could wipe about half of the amount owing on my bill. He then asked me some questions and apologized a bunch of times and then he asked me to hold for a second. When he came back on the line, he said he was going to wipe the whole amount and then he suggested looking at my plan, because part of the problem was my plan and my minutes. I upgraded my plan to include an extra 250 minutes for $10.00/month which should cut my overage every month.

So now, I'm not as pissed with Fido. I'm still not pleased with all the bullshit and crap I had to deal with and quite frankly the customer service still sucks, but at least for now I have a solution.