It has now been as
little over three weeks since I announced in this
blog entry that Bell had started taking orders for the Deferral Account
program. What have we learned so far?
Basic Plan
The basic plan costs
$36.95 bundled and $41.95 per month (or billing period) and includes 20 GB of
data transfer. This is consistent amongst all Bell Customer Service
Representatives (CSR).
Bundling
One supervisor pointed
out that a bundle price could only apply to one contract within the four principle
product categories - Mobility, Internet, TV, and Home Phone. Since the Deferral Account plan was a Bell Mobility
offering, it could not be bundled if the user already had a cell phone bundled
with another product category such as TV or Home Phone. She could not provide a
website reference when I pressed the matter but said it was "policy."
If this is indeed the
policy, I guess it would be possible to remove a cell phone from the bundle and
substitute the Deferral Account plan although I am not sure there would be any
advantage as both offer the same $5.00 saving.
Data Overages
It is the charges for
overages that vary from CSR to CSR. It is all over the place.
In some cases, a CSR
made the user aware of various options while in other cases only explained one
offer. The chart below identifies the
various offers as garnered from the comments sections of the blog entry
referenced above. It also shows how many times a CSR offered each variant to
users so far. It is obvious that more consistently is required in this area.
As previously mentioned, one supervisor indicated Bell replaced the $5 for 25GB plan with a $10 for 20 GB
plan around 27 Jul 2014 along with another fixed wireless plan similar to the
Deferral Account plan. She claimed this was the source of the confusion. How
much credibility you place in this Bell originated avowal is up to you.
Overage Charge Offer
|
Number of Users
Offered This Plan
Version
|
Flat Rate of $4.00 per GB
|
1
|
$2.50 per GB to maximum $80.00
|
1
|
Insurance $5.00 MRC for 25 GB
|
5
|
Insurance $10.00 MRC for 20 GB
|
6
|
Antenna Installation
So far, I am not aware
that anyone from Bell Mobility or Crossover, the designated Bell antenna
installer according to the Bell website, has contacted any Deferral Account user
to arrange for an antenna install. Many users have let Bell know they are not
happy with this situation.
On the positive side,
many users are having success operating their Turbo Hubs using the built-in
antennas or connecting antennas previously installed for other hardware.
My experience is the down/up speed without an external antenna is consistently above 5/1 Mbps. I am located about 3.5 km from the Goulais (Pine Shores) site.
Marketing Material
The marketing material
Bell promised the CRTC it would circulate before the 31 Aug 2014 has yet to make
its way to the postal boxes. I guess this is one way to keep the congestion
challenge under control - do not let anyone know the service exists!
Purchase or Not
Readers who have followed
the blog over the years will know I usually recommend a user purchases hardware
outright rather than sign a contract and get a reduced up front cost. I
compared the two-year cost of both the no contract and two year contract
options. Here are the results.
|
Plan
|
Data Hub Cost
|
Monthly Recurring Charge (MRC)
|
Total of 24 Monthly Payments (MRC x 24) + Data Hub
Cost
|
|
No Contract
|
$199.95
|
$36.95
|
$1086.79
|
|
2 Year Contract
|
$79.95
|
$41.95
|
$1086.75
|
No contract Data hub price = $199.99. MRC = $36.95. Two year total = 199.99 + (36.95 x 24) =
1,086.79
2 Year contract Data hub price $79.95 MRC
= $41.95 Two year total = 79.95 + (41.95 x24) = 1,086.75
The 2 year contract basically saves you the rate
of inflation or around $4.
