Mere days after Videotron announced it was capping its “extreme” high-speed internet (but not its “extreme plus” high-speed service, which is $15 more a month a cap that’s curiously larger than its “extreme plus” service, with a much lower overage fee), the Union des consommateurs is trying to get a class-action lawsuit going against the company for false advertising and breach of contract.
If successful, such a suit would set a huge precedent for telecom companies changing the terms of their contracts. Currently these companies announce the change, give people 30 days to cancel (without fees), and any use after that time is considered to be acceptance of the change.
We’ll see how this plays out.
Pingback: Videotron… why do you hate your customers too? » Bob Goyetche
A correction….
Extreme high speed + at 20 mibits is capped at 20 g dl, and 10 up, after that a charge of 7.95$ per g no fee cap.
Besides the equipment investment of close to 200$ for modem and cable box, the sole reason i signed up was for unlimited access, otherwise i would have went dsl and satalite.
This isnt a raise in price, or a minor modification, this is dishonest buisness…. even after we recieved the letter their home page was advertizing the unlimited sign up, until it was mentioned in the class action lawsuit. then it was changed to the link below.
When signing a 12 month contract if you terminate your contract early they charge you the full price of your contract, they also bill you one month in advance, but they can change the deal anytime they pls? this is abusive.
from videotrons site
http://www.videotron.com/services/en/internet/comparer-xtmplus.jsp
Wow, that just makes no sense whatsoever. Why is the cap lower for a higher-priced service? And why does it cost more per GB when you go over?
Videotron needs some plan re-adjustment
(via email):
I have found an alternative in radioactif . They are offering the same connection by cable for $64.95 unlimited. I am switching this week. Fuck le videotron this company is offering the same service and no yearly contract.
Thanks
Greg
p.s. i am not affiliated with radioactif in any way.
A bunch of liars work in Videotron. Guys, be careful. The agents of Videotron do not tell the truth. I had a residential account with Videotron. Then I changed the type of account from residential to business when I was moving to a new place. I asked the agent if there would be any issues because I was not continuing the residential contract. He assured me that there wouldn’t be any problems as long as I’m with Videotron. After couple of months I got a letter from a collection agency (NCO Financial) saying that I owe Videotron $136. This is a rip off and weird. No one sent me bill of that $136 before… this is clearly a bad practice … without advsing me about any dues they sent the file/account to the collection… what a joke
i hate videotron
i just wish there was something legitimately better..
sympatico sucks
colba is a joke according to reviews
im going to check out this radioactif
Go with the regular high-speed service, it’s 7mbps but the max additional charge is 30$ so it comes to the same price for a slightly lower speed. Until those b@stards make up their frigin’ minds.
I’ve heard that videotron is getting rid of the $30 surcharge cap on the regular highspeed thus making it not unlimited either…. anyone else heard this?
also, does radioactif.com plan to service the sherbrooke area anytime soon?
Albany (NY) – Verizon has agreed to reimburse New York customers $1 million dollars for deceptive ads. The company had advertised that its broadband services offered unlimited downloads, but began limiting speeds after excessive downloading. In addition to the cash settlement, Verizon has agreed to change its ads to only say “broadband access” instead of unlimited broadband access.
so what is going on with the class action suite????
So what happening with this and how can we join in on the class action law suit. They false representation. I signed a contract for unlimited uploads and downloads and now im being charged. I’m FURIOUS!!!!!!!!!! Signed a contract and then they pull this crap. SO how can we join in on the class action.
This is the latest message sent out from the Union des consommateurs about this issue in October.
no way to get that message in english?
Google translation does an acceptable job. It basically recommends refusing the changes and refusing to pay any extra charges because of them.
This is ridiculous. One of the determining factors for me to get Extreme High Speed from Videotron was the unlimited dl/ul capacity. To change the contract terms after I already signed with them is just not acceptable. I can’t stand when companies like videotron take advantage of their clients. I’m joining the class action suit and switching internet providers.
I am extremely concerned the way Videotron has handled this capping business. I did not see any papers or was notified in any way about his and got a huge bill from them. I want to fight back as this cannot go on. You cannot change your agreement from one second to the next. They said I got a letter with my bill. I never saw any paper only a the bill. How can I fight them? The previous comments were written with the rong e-mail address. The one now is good.
I signed up with videotrash on may 8, 2008. After they screwed up my installation date three times, making me waste three full days, I cancelled my service before it could start, on may 24, 2008 and waited for my 200$ deposit to be mailed back to me. To make a long story short; I just got off the phone with an agent who has told me that another agent cancelled my cancellation on June 10th and that he now had to enter a manual reimbursement that will take between 2 and 3 weeks. I am now waiting for a supervisor to call me back…
Great customer service videotrash!
Well i am using the High-Speed from Videotron and guess what every month i have to pay the 30$ extra cause i passed my 20gb of download.thats bullcrap and they are one of the worse companys in the world.for 58$/month i should have 100gb download+upload like the extreme high-speed and the extreme high-speed should be unlimited.one of the worst companys.oh yea i forgot Extreme Plus high speed now thats the shit you pay 90$/month for what ? 20gb download and 10gb upload?who the hell seen something like that.
I cannot stand Videotron incompetence. They limit you to programming. Customer Service sucks. Does anyone know besides Videotron cable service in Quebec, what other cable services can we have? Unfortunately because I live in a condo, they do not permit Satellites (I sooo miss my channels) :(
I called in October 2008 to change my extreme normal to the 50mbit plan they supposedly offered (the same 100GB/$1.50 per gb over) and they said they do not have it in my location (which is less than 1km from videotron’s head office) SO the agent recommended the 20mbit ‘extreme plus’ which is 15$/month more for the extra speed, which made sense. No mention was made to the fact it was 30Gb/month cap and an unprecedented 7.95$/GB of overage WITH NO CAP. This is absolutely mental. There is no way a company should be allowed to charge this much for internet.
Can you think of any company, INCLUDING MOBILE, that charges 800$/month for 120Gb? You can get 100mbit fiber optic (100mbit up and down) with 3 TB of bandwidth for 800$/month. What kind of government allows a company to operate in this manner? What protection do we have against this as consumers?
This is unbelievable and I’m surprised the company is still undertaking in this business practice.
VIDEOTRON SUCKS… THIEVES …. LIERS … STUPID …. MORON … name it….
LET’S BOYCOTT this mother *cker company…
Videotron has really cheated their customers and still doing so. Being a company from Quebec they have a huge sentimental edge compared to other ISPs in Quebec. And they are ripping advantage of it in broad day light. Like some of the comments above, I agree that no other company charge their customers in such an insane manner. Seriously, videotron thinks they are the king of quebec and they can get away with anything. Arguably its true their internet is better then others, but that doesn’t give them the right to behave the way they do. The people of quebec need to rise up against this sort of companies, which take advantage of their customers in the name of quebec nationalism.