Bell Sympatico High Speed - unhappy about terms and conditions of service - and charges

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on June 3, 2002:

From:

RE: Bell Sympatico High Speed - unhappy about terms and conditions of service - and charges

In October 2001 we received a phone call from Bell Sympatico promoting their High Speed Internet Edition. The promotion was to pay the same price rate as regular unlimited dial-up ( which we receive now for $22.95) and free up our phone line for 6 months after which we either keep and pay the regular price of high speed or call and cancel , with of course agreement to their terms and conditions.

After receiving the high speed package, we read in their terms of agreement that after using their modem if we did not wish to continue using high speed we would be charged a fee of ($300.00) for not returning the equiment or the same would apply if the modem was defective. The terms and conditions also stated to receive high speed we must connect the modem to our computer and agree to their terms and conditions by connecting via e-mail..

Since we did not even take the equiment out of the box only, the instrutions and terms we then called Bell and said we were not interested," What do we do"?. We were told to return the box to any Bell store( we did). Upon reviewing our Visa statement for December and Feburary a charge of $66.81 (Dec),$74.57, $74.35( Feburary),and March for $48.30 we called Bell Sympatico and we were told that they assumed we would want thier product and contected us anyway.

We explained to them that we did not agree to their terms and did not want High Speed and returned the modem to a Bell centre (the returned modem shows on file and is not disputed by either Bell or us). Since we did not agree with their terms by connecting via e-mail for High Speed Ed., we thought that we would still be charged the unlimited dial-up fee of $22.95 a month.

They charged us for High Speed but with 10 free dial-up hours per month.All hours after 10 are charged at a rate of $1.50 per.We still conducted our business as if we were on unlimited dial up accounting for the exorbitant rate charge. Bell never advised us of the connection and actually continued to solicit us to change to the High Speed Edition.

After numours phone calls and e-mails of complaints we received a small credit of $22. Not happy about this an e-mail was sent to Sympatico that if I don't receive a response, a letter of complaint would be sent to the CRTC .

I received an e-mail from Bell Sympatico, a letter of conditions that I never read before and makes no sense to me. It really goes to show that the consumers who wish to try some new product and make inquiries, but never use their product should be aware, you will be charged anyway as they make assumptions that are to their financial benefit and not the consumer.

C.A.Dickie,D.R.Bryan