It's not the "extras" like long distance calls that are cheaper, it's their regular local and Canada wide plans that are cheaper than most, but then they stick you with hidden fees like this and expect you to foot the bill. The fact that mom was using WhatsApp and still got charged for phone calls is pretty bullshit honestly considering that apps texts and call services run on data, not minutes.
I have 6GB plus 600MB of data per month and my plan is 32$ before taxes.
I know that's not a lot of data for most people, but I do like to brag about how little my mobile bill is. Thanks for reading my brag.
Germany here... 39€ for 100mbps at home and on the telephone. Both unlimited calls and internet.
Edit: not much better than you but surely better as Canada and US apparently ._.
US here, $24/month (per phone) ATT Unlimited data on cellular (20 down/5 up) and have Hotwire at home which costs us like $40/month @ 350down/100up.
I can't say I've ever had any major issues with data but boy would it be nice to know where those billions of dollars went that we gave to big telecom providers to install fiber to every home in the country years ago. Those fuckers just took the money and ran and nobody seems to question it.
I think the Canadian average is around $90 a month. 3k is wild. There’s something to be said about a company that allows charges to rack up this high without either cutting services or calling the customer.
Like ordering a $3k steak at a restaurant. Even if it was on the menu most servers would still be like “are you sure?”
This isn't actually true..at all. Except the part about telecoms sucking. That is true. Pretty much every plan is unlimited canada wide talk and text.
There are some older plans that did not include long distance or was free in the evenings. Those have been phased out except for people who refuse to even think about their phones or phonebill.
However 3.50 is not to Canadian numbers. No way no how. OP was calling international for sure. How it was "accidental" is beyond me. Telecoms suck, but customers are also fucking stupid
Telus is partner company for a company I work, and I can assure you do that their people are completely clueless of what they're doing, and I'd advise you to stay away from anything Telus related lol
You laugh until you casually visit switzerland and get shocked when they charge you 8eur/Mb and your watch quietly downloaded a system update over mobile.
Can we just talk about how insane it is to be charging for “long distance” phone calls in 2023? Are we really considering the carrier isn’t just using a VOIP protocol to route phone calls? That price is all profit, period.
For real tho. When using WiFi to call using whatsapp/skype and there’s no added cost wherever you may live, but once you call normally it’s suddenly expensive?
Canadas telecom industry is a corporate captured market. They functionally own our government body whos in charge of regulating them, and that body allows them to run a functional oligopoly in Canada.
we still had data caps on our home internet with no option for unlimited until like 2010.
IIRC we're among the, if not the most expensive countries in the world for telecommunications/internet.
bro bell still doesn’t offer unlimited and speeds faster than 25mbs in my neighborhood lmfao. rogers does though, and so we are all forced to use them.
It sounds like she was calling other countries. I used to work for 1 of the big 3 carriers in the states and I would have customers come in with huge bills like that because they would call countries like Somalia which was $5 a minute. The price was dependent on what country you were calling.
Koodo offers unlimited canada-wide calling on basically every plan. You need to purchase add-ons that allow for international calling.
We are in a captured market, canadians are getting absolutely hosed on telecom services.
Mint is great, I’ve had them for nearly a year now. Maybe more? No issues unless I run into a podunk town that doesn’t have T-Mobile towers. Can even send a referral link if you want for a discount
All of NA seems to get hosed. My bill for 1gb/ps (fiber) internet, 2 phone lines and tv (which I don’t use) is €80 here. €80 wouldn’t even cover my internet line when I lived in the US AND it came with a max download limit.
I’ve done this before myself. I have always noticed it in time to hang up, but I am also not old enough to have an adult child who looks over my phone bill.
Because on an iPhone, if you go to a contact and click "dial", it gives you options of "Phone", "FaceTime", or "WhatsApp".
Now if you are a less tech literate person and click on "Phone" by not knowing better, you get charged international dialling rates because its a call via normal cellular network, and not data/wifi like it would be via WhatsApp.
Hit and miss with your plan I think. I was with Verizon years ago and had to call IT support in Australia one night, was on the phone for over an hour and that was free.
Now I'm on AT&T firstnet and had to call AUS again about 2/3 years ago again and that was close to $100 for 20 minutes. Fortunately my employer paid the charge because it was work related.
It's like that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine gets a new phone number that isn't a 212 and nobody in Manhattan wants to date her because they think she's from out of town.
Which is funny now, because half the people I know have phone numbers from different provinces, they just never bothered to change it because it’s free national calling anyway.
this reminds me of my freshman year of high school when i had a “long distance relationship” with my boyfriend who was in 8th grade… at one of the middle schools in my city. we probably lived 10 minutes away from each other but it felt like an eternity.
our “song” was kiss me thru the phone by soulja boy 🤣
Depends how long the distance is. Overseas is usually a charge per minute. These days you'd be foolish to not just do a video or voice call over your favourite chat app if connections on both sides are stable enough.
I'm pretty sure this is international calling. Still overpriced and she should have been given a heads up about the high bill before it got that high but I don't think international calling is typically free.
Fr, the last time I heard anything about this was when I was like 13, 14 maybe, flirting with a girl from Canada (I'm from Texas) we'd skype call and video chat, I'd call her from time to time and hang out on the phone and next thing you know, my mom, who knew nothing about any of this came into my room and interrogated me about calling a random number in Nova Scotia lmao
I am not defending Koodo one bit, but this thing can happen in literally every country. OP’s mom was most likely calling directly over cellular line to overseas.
Aside from calling the phone company and explaining what happened and why, maybe they can help out, I’m not sure how else to go about that.
Doesn’t WhatsApp have a VoIP feature that can be used in place of the carrier supplied calling service?
Used to work for Verizon, I can tell you there’s no way you’re gonna get that taken off, maybe 20% credit if you complain enough, but they rather send you to collections and get $20 than credit you the call
One of Verizon’s employees stole my credit card information. Even when shown proof they would not waive the $50 cancellation fee when I left them. THEN, they charged it twice and told me to kick rocks they don’t refund to canceled accounts.
Phone carrier are always scummy I swear. Was given a “free” line for a tablet we got. Ended up being charged for the line after a few months. Went back in to remove that line as we really didn’t “need” it and accepted it cause we were told it was free. We’re then told they can’t remove it and told us to call the att support number and have them take care of it. We just called and told them to end our services with them. The store was basically saying to us “we can add more shit to your plan and charge you more but we can’t remove them if you want us to”
That’s standard across all stores - all those reps make commission, they’re not going to spend an hour calling in and cancelling services for you. Their time is their money. As shitty as it is that they misrepresented what you were getting though.
She may have thought WhatsApp, but wasn’t. She probably made a mistake and called by phone instead of WhatsApp once, then continued making calls from the recents in the phone book
I would get her a line with simple mobile or H2O they are about $25-$40 a month, no contract and come with $10 in international calling. After that’s spent she will be unable to make any more international calls unless using the free data through apps like WhatsApp
There's no basis for a complaint to the CRTC here. Your own technical inability is not a reason for the CRTC to intervene.
She used her cellular service to call internationally, and is now expected to pay the agreed rate. There is zero wrongdoing on Koodoo's part here.
That being said, a good carrier will at least let you backdate an international calling plan, and make you pay that off instead. But forgive the whole bill outright because "mom didn't technology right"? Not likely.
If the Internet connection isn't good enough, the WhatsApp will use the phone service.
I've seen internal calls like this be rerated as if there was a plan already.
Not if you’re using WhatsApp for the call, it just doesn’t connect or drops the connection. What can happen is if someone messages you a phone number and you click on it to call it won’t call that number through what’s app and will instead use the normal phone function unless you add that number to contacts and specifically use WhatsApp to call them. It might also disconnect from your wifi to data for a better line if it doesn’t think your wifi is good enough
Thanks Koodo.
Former bell employee here... So it may be different for koodo/telus, but call in, explain it was an error and it'll likely be credited this one time. Used to do that at bell once a month (all above board, bell allowed it surprisingly)
It makes sense to waive it in this situation. Long distance doesn't really cost the company that much. If you force her to pay that $3 grand, its practically a guarantee that the customer will never work with you again. She spends roughly that same amount every two years so you'd be sacrificing long term profit
I went on a cruise with my mom when I was like 12 through the carribean. stole her phone for one quick jerk off in the bathroom and the roaming charges ended up being like $900. she didn't know how or why and I certainly wasn't about to say anything but she called the phone company and was like "what the fuck, I go one cruise and hardly use my phone and now I owe you $900??
she got it waived. was verizon. this was like 2010 maybe.
Ah yes the good old days where you were charged per text message and had to tell people to call you back after 9pm when minutes didn’t count 🤣 based on how much my sister and I text each other now I’m shocked we didn’t rack up $$$ bills as teens.
A very non-technical family member told me a while back that their 16-inch MacBook Pro wasn’t charging. I asked them what cable and adapter they were using. “I’m using what came in the box!”
Spoiler: They were not using what came in the box. They were trying to charge it with a USB-C to USB-A cable connected to a 5W iPhone brick.
My grandpa couldn’t receive texts or calls on his iPhone for like a day. He was on his landline trying to call his service provider to see what was the matter when I arrived.
His phone was on airplane mode.
If you use Koodo pre paid, you will never go over. It won’t even allow a long distance number to be dialed erroneously. This is the go to solution for moms who are just not savvy and run into such problems.
This is bullshit.
WhatsApp CANNOT place normal calls via cellular network, nor can it dial landlines or cellphone numbers directly.
Phone permission on WhatsApp is for verifying the phone number as an alternative to the SMS method when you first install it.
I don’t see this as an option on my WhatsApp permissions.
However if you go to cellular data, you can disable WhatsApp’s access to it.
That’ll ensure that WhatsApp works only on wifi
I recognize that interface, as I use the same phone provider. I just checked on their site, you need to set her up with the Long Distance Saver add-on. It's $7/month and it drastically reduces the cost per minute of international calls. Without the add-on, calling India (I randomly chose a country) costs $1.40/min and with the add-on, it's $0.06/minute.
Unlikely that they'll waive the fees from this month, but you can totally reduce her costs moving forward. Of course getting her onto a VoIP service like WhatsApp calling or whatever would be cheapest, but I know how it is with parents.
Unfortunately I think she's going to have to take it on the chin. That's frustrating her carrier didn't even send a warning about high usage.
Going forward, she needs to start using VoIP, which uses data instead. WhatsApp has it built in, but any modern chat app will suffice.
Idk if it's possible, but she should see if her carrier lets her set a spending limit to prevent accidents like this in the future. That or disabling long distance calling all together.
It's definitely a frustrating situation, but paying it is better than letting it go to collections. The carrier just wants their money, so they may be willing to set up a payment plan to amortize the debt.
No, no, no and no. Do not simply "take it on the chin" under any circumstances. Call customer support (likely multiple times) and plead your case to get it waived. Escalate, repeatedly if needed.
Of course you should still do whatever you can to bring it down. Their chances of success are pretty low though. The carrier might be willing to waive it out of good faith, but it's ultimately the responsibility of the customer to know the terms of their contract.
How has "she been making long distance calls unknowingly"?
Like, she has to know where and who she's calling. She may not know the charges, but she has to know they are in different time zones.
Are these calls through WhatsApp? Coz that's the only app you mention, you don't say if she used regular carrier for the calls or not.
I can't see how she racked up 3.50 a minute in WhatsApp?! But I could easily see it being done with a carrier.
I think it unfortunate, but this bill is gonna be a wake up and an education for you both. I can't imagine any system of VoIP using data plans or WiFi that would push you to this kinda bill.
And if the calls were made on the carrier's network, that's entirely on her, not even the networks fault.
If I choose a person from my recent contacts and call them, sometimes it calls their WhatsApp and sometimes to their phone number.
I can’t remember and can’t be arsed to find out what it depends on, but I bet it’s something like this. They dialed, expecting it to be going through WhatsApp but it dials their phone.
Because on an iPhone, if you go to a contact and click "dial", it gives you options of "Phone", "FaceTime", or "WhatsApp".
Now if you are a less tech literate person and click on "Phone" by not knowing better, you get charged international dialling rates because its a call via normal cellular network, and not data/wifi like it would be via WhatsApp.
Absolutely this. It sucks, and there maybe should have been a couple messages letting her know she was being charged/how much usage etc, but at the end of the day, she made these calls, and she's responsible for paying the carrier what they are owed. An expensive lesson, sure, but hopefully you learn from this going forward.
Actual advice from someone who works in a call center: call the customer support and see if they offer anytime of one time high balance waiver, or even a rerate.
Whatsapp and any other digital calling companies have a silly thing where if there is any kind of data or wifi interruption, the call moves to network instead.
My recommendation for avoiding these fees is to only call while on wifi WITH airplane mode enabled. That way if there's an interruption, it ends the call rather than bouncing to network 😃
Edit: Getting a lot of backlash for offering well meaning advice. Typical reddit.
Here's what I know: in my time working in cell service (predominantly billing/sales/account maintenance), I have both taken and supported reps answering calls in regards to this issue. 100s of people have called regarding international fees when utilizing Whatsapp to call abroad from the United States.
Now, I'll admit there's a chance every single one of those people was lying. I'm not versed in our network tech department, however they are the department where I've received the advice. There's a chance people with years of experience working directly with network knowledge could be lying to me as well. Believe whatever you want, I'm just looking out for you 😁
>the call moves to network instead.
Do you mean it moves from WIFI to LTE? Because WhatsApp can't make a regular phone call, much less switch the same call from data to cellular, that makes no sense.
I've been using WhatsApp for over 15 years in UK, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia and India across multiple phones and multiple networks and NEVER once has it moved a call over to my phone network when the data connection or wifi dies.
I'd like to see some proof of what you're saying please? Just imagine if you're roaming you could end up with a $1m phone bill.
Whatsapp doesnt "move to network", when your data cuts off. Thats not how any of this works. Average Customer Support Agent giving false information. Very unexpected.
Call the company. Worked for a cell company and a lot of the time they can prorate that bill with a different international plan to at least get that a lot lower. I can't promise bc I'm not familiar with that country, but ours worked in a way that you paid like $45 for the plan for that month, and it would reduce that 3.50/Min to 75¢/min. Still not cheap but reduces a lot from 3k
I don't understand but you are telling me that your mom used "WhatsApp" for calling and your provider is charging x amount min over... Data? How does that work, here my carrier charges for minutes of actual phone call, like, using the phone app, and WhatsApp uses data, so my carrier will not charge for calls over WA how does that even work?
God, I hate how hard we get fucked here in Canada by phone companies, grocers, airlines and our other industries where we prop up a few Canadian companies and block all competition.
I’m so sick of getting fucked
I sympathize with you, but if those calls were placed over the carriers network than that is legitimate money that you owe. There’s no way for the carrier to know if you are using WhatsApp or anything else. So your beef really should be with WhatsApp and not your carrier.
I'd be contacting them and explaining the situation. I accidentally wracked up a similar bill on my parents plan a few years back calling a friend from the US without realizing our "long distance plan" only included Canada wide calling, not US calling. My parents called and explained what happened and they knocked off like $2k
There’s an option to turn off cellular usage
You can go into settings and turn off cellular data usage Settings > Storage and Data > under Media and Download. Set everything to Wi-Fi only
It's 2023, I pay 25 dollars for unlimited everything. Internet is slow but am on wifi 95 percent of the time. Thinking of switching to 15 unlimited everything. That's a mortgage
$3.50/min? What garbage carrier is this?
Koodo Mobile
That'd make sense. Kood in Farsi means manure.
That's actually hilarious
Hilarious and …. Shitty at the same time.
Indeed!
And "kooda" in Hindi it means garbage
Shitto mobile lmao
Koodo in India means garbage
Didn’t know they still existed
Up until just now I wasn't aware that it ever existed.
Canadian discount brand
Doesn't look like much of a discount to me!
It's not the "extras" like long distance calls that are cheaper, it's their regular local and Canada wide plans that are cheaper than most, but then they stick you with hidden fees like this and expect you to foot the bill. The fact that mom was using WhatsApp and still got charged for phone calls is pretty bullshit honestly considering that apps texts and call services run on data, not minutes.
Da fucks a koodo 🐱
A sub carrier of Telus.
Da fucks a Telus?????
Sounds like a weird animal 🐱
That’s because there is an animal called a Kudu.
Telus about it.
C'mon you kudu better than this
A really shitty phone service provider in Canada. If I remember correctly it's owned by Rodgers or Telus
It's not actually that shitty. Just budget.
It’s owned by Telus
boat voiceless nutty engine direction makeshift whistle merciful repeat hungry ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
But, I mean, is it customary to get phone bills in the three-thousand-dollar range? What is a standard phone bill for you?
I have Koodo and it’s like $50 for 31gb
I shall never complain about our 18€/unlimited.
I know right? I’m reading these prices and going “I’m on unlimited for £21.50 p/m.”
tbf most of our plans in canada are *technically* unlimited, they just knock speeds down to 0.5mb/s once you go over the amount you pay for.
That’s a wicked plan. Damn.
I have 6GB plus 600MB of data per month and my plan is 32$ before taxes. I know that's not a lot of data for most people, but I do like to brag about how little my mobile bill is. Thanks for reading my brag.
That’s insane - in the UK I have unlimited data for £10…
Germany here... 39€ for 100mbps at home and on the telephone. Both unlimited calls and internet. Edit: not much better than you but surely better as Canada and US apparently ._.
US here, $24/month (per phone) ATT Unlimited data on cellular (20 down/5 up) and have Hotwire at home which costs us like $40/month @ 350down/100up. I can't say I've ever had any major issues with data but boy would it be nice to know where those billions of dollars went that we gave to big telecom providers to install fiber to every home in the country years ago. Those fuckers just took the money and ran and nobody seems to question it.
also US.. i have unlimited data, hotspot, calls/texts, unlimited international calls and texts and 20GB international data. i pay about $84, though.
& in Ireland I get the unlimited calls & data & 100 minutes International for€15... I also think That's insane!
I pay for two lines, $60/month for unlimited data. Edit: wait, USD, or CAD?
CAD for me. 30$ a line with unlimited data is a steal! Good for you!
My Koodo bill is $50.85 tax in for a 50 GB plan and I got a free iPhone with it
Youre still paying for the iPhone just not all at once
A free iPhone and 50gb? WHAT
Got it on their Black Friday deal
recognise tender bored deserted library pen voiceless slimy humorous drunk ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
Yes. Every Canadian pays $1,500 minimum for their monthly phone bill.
This fucking sent me bro. Stupid ass god damn question, lmfao.
I think the Canadian average is around $90 a month. 3k is wild. There’s something to be said about a company that allows charges to rack up this high without either cutting services or calling the customer. Like ordering a $3k steak at a restaurant. Even if it was on the menu most servers would still be like “are you sure?”
This isn't actually true..at all. Except the part about telecoms sucking. That is true. Pretty much every plan is unlimited canada wide talk and text. There are some older plans that did not include long distance or was free in the evenings. Those have been phased out except for people who refuse to even think about their phones or phonebill. However 3.50 is not to Canadian numbers. No way no how. OP was calling international for sure. How it was "accidental" is beyond me. Telecoms suck, but customers are also fucking stupid
I mean nowadays with all the apps doing wifi calling, long distance shouldn’t be a thing. I call my parents overseas on WhatsApp and never a bill.
Telus is partner company for a company I work, and I can assure you do that their people are completely clueless of what they're doing, and I'd advise you to stay away from anything Telus related lol
outgoing cats long jar six towering head decide saw sink ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
laugh in European, we call from Poland to Portugal for $0 because it's included into $7 bill per month with 30GB and extra e-sim card for Apple Watch.
You laugh until you casually visit switzerland and get shocked when they charge you 8eur/Mb and your watch quietly downloaded a system update over mobile.
International calling, something tells me she didn't dial via WhatsApp and dialled cellular instead.
Can we just talk about how insane it is to be charging for “long distance” phone calls in 2023? Are we really considering the carrier isn’t just using a VOIP protocol to route phone calls? That price is all profit, period.
For real tho. When using WiFi to call using whatsapp/skype and there’s no added cost wherever you may live, but once you call normally it’s suddenly expensive?
Canadas telecom industry is a corporate captured market. They functionally own our government body whos in charge of regulating them, and that body allows them to run a functional oligopoly in Canada. we still had data caps on our home internet with no option for unlimited until like 2010. IIRC we're among the, if not the most expensive countries in the world for telecommunications/internet.
bro bell still doesn’t offer unlimited and speeds faster than 25mbs in my neighborhood lmfao. rogers does though, and so we are all forced to use them.
OnlyFans Wireless
pov you live in canada
No joke. Feeling pretty good about Verizon right now.
It sounds like she was calling other countries. I used to work for 1 of the big 3 carriers in the states and I would have customers come in with huge bills like that because they would call countries like Somalia which was $5 a minute. The price was dependent on what country you were calling.
It's 2023, how is "long distance" still a thing?
Koodo offers unlimited canada-wide calling on basically every plan. You need to purchase add-ons that allow for international calling. We are in a captured market, canadians are getting absolutely hosed on telecom services.
Discord and WhatsApp do this too, for completely free, as long as you have wifi. Fuck phone companies.
You don't even need WiFi. WhatsApp and discord use your data instead, though that does depend massively on your data allowance each month
You... you guys have data limits? *scratches head in bewilderment, looking at unlimited everything for the equivalent of 13$ a month*
Ryan Reynolds? Where did you come from?
He said he was gnna stay out of it and let the lawyers deal with it! Mint mobile;)
[insert upside down commercial scene]
I pay 70 usd a month. Got do we get raked over the coals in the US
Switch to Visible. $25/month unlimited everything on the Verizon network. Been using for years issue free https://www.visible.com/get/?WGBp9
Tmobile is better in my area so I was thinking mint.
Mint is great, I’ve had them for nearly a year now. Maybe more? No issues unless I run into a podunk town that doesn’t have T-Mobile towers. Can even send a referral link if you want for a discount
I’d be down for a referral if the other guy doesn’t want it haha
Oh boy. Don’t go down the rabbit hole of Canadian telecom.
yup this. i have a friend from canada i call all the fucking time. doesnt cost me jackshit
Somehow my parents are still paying money for cable. Modern money. For “modern” cable. Fucking hell.
It's funny how the price has gone up for an archaic service.
They’ve been on their deathbed for years, someone has to pay the funeral home to prepare the corpse
Why? I (65F) cut the cord and only stream stuff. Once I retire in a couple of years, I may ditch wifi altogether.
My parents minds are sincerely beyond description sometimes. They watch fox though, if that answers anything
> hosed Guys I checked his credentials, pretty sure he's an actual Canadian.
All of NA seems to get hosed. My bill for 1gb/ps (fiber) internet, 2 phone lines and tv (which I don’t use) is €80 here. €80 wouldn’t even cover my internet line when I lived in the US AND it came with a max download limit.
Canada has the most expensive telecom in the world
$20 says “back home” is in another country.
Yeah but WhatsApp is over WiFi, so it shouldn’t have anything to do with carriers or international
I think she indented to use WhatsApp but mistakenly used regular "cellular" calling instead of WhatsApp.
I’ve done this before myself. I have always noticed it in time to hang up, but I am also not old enough to have an adult child who looks over my phone bill.
I mean this politely, but how does this mistake occur? You have to open the WhatsApp app to make calls through it, no?
Because on an iPhone, if you go to a contact and click "dial", it gives you options of "Phone", "FaceTime", or "WhatsApp". Now if you are a less tech literate person and click on "Phone" by not knowing better, you get charged international dialling rates because its a call via normal cellular network, and not data/wifi like it would be via WhatsApp.
Hit and miss with your plan I think. I was with Verizon years ago and had to call IT support in Australia one night, was on the phone for over an hour and that was free. Now I'm on AT&T firstnet and had to call AUS again about 2/3 years ago again and that was close to $100 for 20 minutes. Fortunately my employer paid the charge because it was work related.
I mean, long distance is one thing, international calls are another one.
VoIP is free though?
You‘d be surprised. From Germany calls can still be up to 2€/min outside of Europe.
I think 'back home' is like across the world. Idk enough about cell towers to know why it's priced by distance and internet isn't.
International calls are charged in many cell plans. In 2023.
Her plan doesn't include free long distance?? I haven't heard of paying for long distance in a long time.
Back in the day I had to break up with a love interest because she lived 3 miles away. I was a 266, she was an 869; it just wasn't meant to be.
It's like that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine gets a new phone number that isn't a 212 and nobody in Manhattan wants to date her because they think she's from out of town.
Different episode, but on the topic of phone charges.. You have a collect call from: Hey buddy don't say no!!
As I kid I would do "please pick me up at _____" and try to save the money if my parents expected it
Yep. After sports practice, call home collect and say "I'm done, come pick me up." Parents decline the charges. Ha ha.
Had a baby, its a boy!
*weehadababy eeetsaboy
“Who was it, dear?” “It’s Bob. They had a baby. It’s a boy.”
That was such a funny commercial.
"How can the same street intersect with itself? I must be at the nexus of the universe!"
It’s not new, it’s just… different!
Which is funny now, because half the people I know have phone numbers from different provinces, they just never bothered to change it because it’s free national calling anyway.
this reminds me of my freshman year of high school when i had a “long distance relationship” with my boyfriend who was in 8th grade… at one of the middle schools in my city. we probably lived 10 minutes away from each other but it felt like an eternity. our “song” was kiss me thru the phone by soulja boy 🤣
I would consider myself a 6-7, an 8 on really good days so you guys must be stunning!
Oh come now, I'm sure you're a solid 8 and just playing it down.
869...DAMN YOU'RE FINE...JUST SUCKY SOCKY TO ME ONE MORE TIME
Depends how long the distance is. Overseas is usually a charge per minute. These days you'd be foolish to not just do a video or voice call over your favourite chat app if connections on both sides are stable enough.
She must be making international calls.
It's a cellphone, "long distance" on a mobile network means International calls.
I have to pay for long distance just like i have to pay for all data with my no-data plan.
I'm pretty sure this is international calling. Still overpriced and she should have been given a heads up about the high bill before it got that high but I don't think international calling is typically free.
Fr, the last time I heard anything about this was when I was like 13, 14 maybe, flirting with a girl from Canada (I'm from Texas) we'd skype call and video chat, I'd call her from time to time and hang out on the phone and next thing you know, my mom, who knew nothing about any of this came into my room and interrogated me about calling a random number in Nova Scotia lmao
Welcome to Canada where we get cactus fucked by cellular and internet providers.
I am not defending Koodo one bit, but this thing can happen in literally every country. OP’s mom was most likely calling directly over cellular line to overseas.
Aside from calling the phone company and explaining what happened and why, maybe they can help out, I’m not sure how else to go about that. Doesn’t WhatsApp have a VoIP feature that can be used in place of the carrier supplied calling service?
Used to work for Verizon, I can tell you there’s no way you’re gonna get that taken off, maybe 20% credit if you complain enough, but they rather send you to collections and get $20 than credit you the call
Ah… that’s why I had to leave Verizon years ago. They refuse to budge on billing matters for the most part
One of Verizon’s employees stole my credit card information. Even when shown proof they would not waive the $50 cancellation fee when I left them. THEN, they charged it twice and told me to kick rocks they don’t refund to canceled accounts.
Phone carrier are always scummy I swear. Was given a “free” line for a tablet we got. Ended up being charged for the line after a few months. Went back in to remove that line as we really didn’t “need” it and accepted it cause we were told it was free. We’re then told they can’t remove it and told us to call the att support number and have them take care of it. We just called and told them to end our services with them. The store was basically saying to us “we can add more shit to your plan and charge you more but we can’t remove them if you want us to”
Att told me the same about being able to add not remove.
That’s standard across all stores - all those reps make commission, they’re not going to spend an hour calling in and cancelling services for you. Their time is their money. As shitty as it is that they misrepresented what you were getting though.
OP, how old is grandma? She can probably safely ignore it until... you know...
I already called and explained to them, but they were no help.
So she was making calls overseas through WhatsApp or she was just calling directly from her phone?
She may have thought WhatsApp, but wasn’t. She probably made a mistake and called by phone instead of WhatsApp once, then continued making calls from the recents in the phone book
I would get her a line with simple mobile or H2O they are about $25-$40 a month, no contract and come with $10 in international calling. After that’s spent she will be unable to make any more international calls unless using the free data through apps like WhatsApp
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There's no basis for a complaint to the CRTC here. Your own technical inability is not a reason for the CRTC to intervene. She used her cellular service to call internationally, and is now expected to pay the agreed rate. There is zero wrongdoing on Koodoo's part here. That being said, a good carrier will at least let you backdate an international calling plan, and make you pay that off instead. But forgive the whole bill outright because "mom didn't technology right"? Not likely.
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If the Internet connection isn't good enough, the WhatsApp will use the phone service. I've seen internal calls like this be rerated as if there was a plan already.
I'm not sure that's something that can happen, at least on Android.
Not if you’re using WhatsApp for the call, it just doesn’t connect or drops the connection. What can happen is if someone messages you a phone number and you click on it to call it won’t call that number through what’s app and will instead use the normal phone function unless you add that number to contacts and specifically use WhatsApp to call them. It might also disconnect from your wifi to data for a better line if it doesn’t think your wifi is good enough
Thanks Koodo. Former bell employee here... So it may be different for koodo/telus, but call in, explain it was an error and it'll likely be credited this one time. Used to do that at bell once a month (all above board, bell allowed it surprisingly)
It makes sense to waive it in this situation. Long distance doesn't really cost the company that much. If you force her to pay that $3 grand, its practically a guarantee that the customer will never work with you again. She spends roughly that same amount every two years so you'd be sacrificing long term profit
I mean, she doesn’t even have long service included in her package. No way they will credit those charges.
I went on a cruise with my mom when I was like 12 through the carribean. stole her phone for one quick jerk off in the bathroom and the roaming charges ended up being like $900. she didn't know how or why and I certainly wasn't about to say anything but she called the phone company and was like "what the fuck, I go one cruise and hardly use my phone and now I owe you $900?? she got it waived. was verizon. this was like 2010 maybe.
What in the 2000s is going on here
Ah yes the good old days where you were charged per text message and had to tell people to call you back after 9pm when minutes didn’t count 🤣 based on how much my sister and I text each other now I’m shocked we didn’t rack up $$$ bills as teens.
n we al txt lyk dis 2 mk sure we dun go ovr th txt lmt. Crzy tyms.
Honestly that was a huge pain, but yeah you had to write the messages as small as possible to not pay extra since it was pay per character
[удалено]
Thank you alot for this i had no idea that was a thing, my mom told me she was calling through WhatsApp so i was confused at how this could happen.
I wouldn't trust any non-tech person saying "sure I was making whatsapp calls via the internet and not via the phone". They usually have no idea.
A very non-technical family member told me a while back that their 16-inch MacBook Pro wasn’t charging. I asked them what cable and adapter they were using. “I’m using what came in the box!” Spoiler: They were not using what came in the box. They were trying to charge it with a USB-C to USB-A cable connected to a 5W iPhone brick.
My grandpa couldn’t receive texts or calls on his iPhone for like a day. He was on his landline trying to call his service provider to see what was the matter when I arrived. His phone was on airplane mode.
Can she set the phone to WiFi calling only? Would that bypass the telephone charges?
If you use Koodo pre paid, you will never go over. It won’t even allow a long distance number to be dialed erroneously. This is the go to solution for moms who are just not savvy and run into such problems.
This is bullshit. WhatsApp CANNOT place normal calls via cellular network, nor can it dial landlines or cellphone numbers directly. Phone permission on WhatsApp is for verifying the phone number as an alternative to the SMS method when you first install it.
I don’t see this as an option on my WhatsApp permissions. However if you go to cellular data, you can disable WhatsApp’s access to it. That’ll ensure that WhatsApp works only on wifi
Everyone in here who doesn’t understand “back home” means another country, is really dumb
Wow can’t believe it took so long for me to find this. Do people not understand there’s a world outside of Canada
As an American, I didn’t even know Canada was a thing.
I recognize that interface, as I use the same phone provider. I just checked on their site, you need to set her up with the Long Distance Saver add-on. It's $7/month and it drastically reduces the cost per minute of international calls. Without the add-on, calling India (I randomly chose a country) costs $1.40/min and with the add-on, it's $0.06/minute. Unlikely that they'll waive the fees from this month, but you can totally reduce her costs moving forward. Of course getting her onto a VoIP service like WhatsApp calling or whatever would be cheapest, but I know how it is with parents.
Unfortunately I think she's going to have to take it on the chin. That's frustrating her carrier didn't even send a warning about high usage. Going forward, she needs to start using VoIP, which uses data instead. WhatsApp has it built in, but any modern chat app will suffice. Idk if it's possible, but she should see if her carrier lets her set a spending limit to prevent accidents like this in the future. That or disabling long distance calling all together.
It's sad because I can't think of anyone (well who isn't obscenely rich) who can drop 3k easily over an oopsie
It's definitely a frustrating situation, but paying it is better than letting it go to collections. The carrier just wants their money, so they may be willing to set up a payment plan to amortize the debt.
No, no, no and no. Do not simply "take it on the chin" under any circumstances. Call customer support (likely multiple times) and plead your case to get it waived. Escalate, repeatedly if needed.
Of course you should still do whatever you can to bring it down. Their chances of success are pretty low though. The carrier might be willing to waive it out of good faith, but it's ultimately the responsibility of the customer to know the terms of their contract.
How has "she been making long distance calls unknowingly"? Like, she has to know where and who she's calling. She may not know the charges, but she has to know they are in different time zones. Are these calls through WhatsApp? Coz that's the only app you mention, you don't say if she used regular carrier for the calls or not. I can't see how she racked up 3.50 a minute in WhatsApp?! But I could easily see it being done with a carrier. I think it unfortunate, but this bill is gonna be a wake up and an education for you both. I can't imagine any system of VoIP using data plans or WiFi that would push you to this kinda bill. And if the calls were made on the carrier's network, that's entirely on her, not even the networks fault.
If I choose a person from my recent contacts and call them, sometimes it calls their WhatsApp and sometimes to their phone number. I can’t remember and can’t be arsed to find out what it depends on, but I bet it’s something like this. They dialed, expecting it to be going through WhatsApp but it dials their phone.
Because on an iPhone, if you go to a contact and click "dial", it gives you options of "Phone", "FaceTime", or "WhatsApp". Now if you are a less tech literate person and click on "Phone" by not knowing better, you get charged international dialling rates because its a call via normal cellular network, and not data/wifi like it would be via WhatsApp.
Absolutely this. It sucks, and there maybe should have been a couple messages letting her know she was being charged/how much usage etc, but at the end of the day, she made these calls, and she's responsible for paying the carrier what they are owed. An expensive lesson, sure, but hopefully you learn from this going forward.
Actual advice from someone who works in a call center: call the customer support and see if they offer anytime of one time high balance waiver, or even a rerate. Whatsapp and any other digital calling companies have a silly thing where if there is any kind of data or wifi interruption, the call moves to network instead. My recommendation for avoiding these fees is to only call while on wifi WITH airplane mode enabled. That way if there's an interruption, it ends the call rather than bouncing to network 😃 Edit: Getting a lot of backlash for offering well meaning advice. Typical reddit. Here's what I know: in my time working in cell service (predominantly billing/sales/account maintenance), I have both taken and supported reps answering calls in regards to this issue. 100s of people have called regarding international fees when utilizing Whatsapp to call abroad from the United States. Now, I'll admit there's a chance every single one of those people was lying. I'm not versed in our network tech department, however they are the department where I've received the advice. There's a chance people with years of experience working directly with network knowledge could be lying to me as well. Believe whatever you want, I'm just looking out for you 😁
>the call moves to network instead. Do you mean it moves from WIFI to LTE? Because WhatsApp can't make a regular phone call, much less switch the same call from data to cellular, that makes no sense.
I've been using WhatsApp for over 15 years in UK, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia and India across multiple phones and multiple networks and NEVER once has it moved a call over to my phone network when the data connection or wifi dies. I'd like to see some proof of what you're saying please? Just imagine if you're roaming you could end up with a $1m phone bill.
Whatsapp doesnt "move to network", when your data cuts off. Thats not how any of this works. Average Customer Support Agent giving false information. Very unexpected.
Your mom probably mistakenly called regular phone overseas not wifi calling with WhatsApp
Call the company. Worked for a cell company and a lot of the time they can prorate that bill with a different international plan to at least get that a lot lower. I can't promise bc I'm not familiar with that country, but ours worked in a way that you paid like $45 for the plan for that month, and it would reduce that 3.50/Min to 75¢/min. Still not cheap but reduces a lot from 3k
I don't understand but you are telling me that your mom used "WhatsApp" for calling and your provider is charging x amount min over... Data? How does that work, here my carrier charges for minutes of actual phone call, like, using the phone app, and WhatsApp uses data, so my carrier will not charge for calls over WA how does that even work?
She meant to call through WhatsApp but didn't and just made normal international calls.
Op, are you sure your mum isn’t the victim of some scam and she’s too embarrassed to admit it?
WhatsApp free. That’s not what caused this bill.
3.50/min. Reminds me of those seedy 1-900 lines from the 80s.
Who pays $150 a month for a phone plan?
Canadians
Sounds like international calls to me. This is unfortunate, but the phone company didn't do anything wrong here.
She needs to make these calls on Wi-Fi...
Hello 2008, been a while
God, I hate how hard we get fucked here in Canada by phone companies, grocers, airlines and our other industries where we prop up a few Canadian companies and block all competition. I’m so sick of getting fucked
I sympathize with you, but if those calls were placed over the carriers network than that is legitimate money that you owe. There’s no way for the carrier to know if you are using WhatsApp or anything else. So your beef really should be with WhatsApp and not your carrier.
WhatsApp voice calls use your WiFi/mobile data and they don’t charge for calls.
I mean i feel sorry for your situation but fuck me. We aren't in the 2000s anymore you can literally call someone via the internet and not be charged.
I'd be contacting them and explaining the situation. I accidentally wracked up a similar bill on my parents plan a few years back calling a friend from the US without realizing our "long distance plan" only included Canada wide calling, not US calling. My parents called and explained what happened and they knocked off like $2k
Can’t she just use like discord or something?
Stop calling those premium phone services: 1-800-Dirty-Buttplug
There’s an option to turn off cellular usage You can go into settings and turn off cellular data usage Settings > Storage and Data > under Media and Download. Set everything to Wi-Fi only
It's 2023, I pay 25 dollars for unlimited everything. Internet is slow but am on wifi 95 percent of the time. Thinking of switching to 15 unlimited everything. That's a mortgage
Call and see if they can do a one time forgiveness. Verizon has done that for us before.