It seems Canadians were exceedingly receptive to the $60/10GB promo plans offered by Bell, Telus, Rogers, Virgin, Koodo and Fido over the weekend — the majority took to social media to thank customers for braving long waits after an ‘overwhelming’ response.
“We’re absolutely floored by your response to our current promotions!” wrote Telus, with sub-brand Koodo adding: “Thanks for bearing with us.”
We're absolutely floored by your response to our current promotions! Rest assured, our super team is working hard to assist everyone as soon as possible. Thanks for being with us.
— Koodo (@koodo) December 17, 2017
Meanwhile, Rogers advised customers that “due to an overwhelming response to exciting wireless offers, we are experiencing longer than normal wait times if you’re reaching out to our Customer Service teams.” It apologized for the inconvenience. Its sub-brand, Fido, thanked customers for their patience.
Social media posts from consumers show a high amount of traffic directed at Bell, Virgin Mobile and Freedom Mobile, as well.
Over the weekend MobileSyrup readers reported call centre wait times of over an hour. One person calling in to Bell reported they were told an “emergency circumstance” had caused them to suddenly close the call centre after they had waited one hour on the phone. Another shared a screenshot of Telus’ online chat service showing 299 people in line.
As of late afternoon Monday, December 18th, many Canadian consumers reported they were unable to even wait on the line with carriers including Rogers, Fido, Telus, Koodo and Virgin Mobile. Instead, they encountered a busy tone, or received an audio message telling them to try again later.
Upon testing the call centres ourselves at 2:30pm, MobileSyrup found it was unable to connect a call to Rogers, Fido, Telus, Koodo, Virgin Mobile or Freedom Mobile. The call to Bell was successful, but we were still put on hold.
Look at that number of people waiting on Telus Chat.. pic.twitter.com/p4vEt1E6iS
— Bala Yogesh (@Yo_Bala) December 16, 2017
The deals are not available through self-service options and must be purchased over the phone or in stores — an option carriers have been heavily pushing.
Beginning Thursday last week, the major Canadian carriers took the public by surprise by suddenly offering promotional $60/10GB BYOD plans for new customers. Most of the promotions have an end-date of December 18th or 19th.
The plans, seemingly a response to Freedom Mobile’s $50/10GB ‘Big Gig’ plan launched in October, were kicked off by Rogers and its sub-brand Fido. The $60/10GB plan with unlimited Canada-wide calling and text began in Alberta in British Columbia, and was quickly taken up by competing Bell and Telus brands, expanding to Ontario not long after.
Below are the details of the plans by brand. All are for BYOD no-term plans. With a device subsidy, most are available at the price of $85. None of the promotional plans have a specific expiration date. Rogers originally stated the offer was a 5GB of data plus a bonus 5GB that would drop off after 24 months, but eventually removed the expiration date.
Rogers
Provinces: AB/BC/ON.
End date: December 18th.*
Find more details here.
*Note: Rogers extended this deal for existing customers to December 19th, but has confirmed it will not extend it any further.
Bell
Provinces: AB/BC.
End date: Not explicitly stated, but Best Buy Canada’s flyer indicates December 18th.
Find more details here.
Telus
Provinces: AB/BC/ON.
End date: December 18th.
Find more details here.
Fido
Provinces: AB/BC/ON.
End date: December 19th.
Find more details here.
*Fido has confirmed the promotion will not extend beyond the 19th.
Virgin Mobile
Provinces: AB/BC/ON.
End date: December 19th.
Find more details here.
Koodo
Provinces: AB/BC/ON.
End date: December 19th.
Find more details here.
Freedom Mobile
Provinces: AB/BC/ON.
End date: December 19th.
Find more details here.
Update 18/12/17 2:30pm: After receiving reports that support services were down, MobileSyrup investigated and encountered busy tones or messages telling us to call again later at Telus, Koodo, Rogers, Fido, Virgin Mobile and Freedom Mobile. Find more details on the support issues here.
Update 19/12/17: Updated with information about about length of promotions.
