We love you. We really, really love you!

It’s not too often when you get to say, “gee, I love my government,” but today you can, at least in relation to your data costs.

If you are a Worldline Unlimited High-Speed Internet customer that is.

For folks signed up to some other Internet Service Providers… well, not so much.

What makes us different from many other ISP’s is this; we are exclusively using something called a “Digital Subscriber Line” or DSL to provide Internet service to our customers.

And yesterday, Canada’s telecommunications watchdog ruled that our DSL customers have been paying way too much for their Internet, (which is something we’ve been saying for years by the way).

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced Thursday it has established a standard billing model to set new limits on how much the telecom behemoths can charge independent Internet providers, (that’s us), who need to access their infrastructure.

That means some independent Internet providers could see “significant reductions” in the wholesale rates they pay to the dominant players like Bell and Telus, whose DSL networks the smaller ISPs use.

Again, that’s us, although we ain’t that small; 300,000 people use our services after all. One of the key words in there is “some,” because the CRTC also ruled that wholesale rates for cable Internet networks will go up. By a lot.

So basically what it all means is this:

• If you get your Internet via cable, like Rogers customers for example, your Internet bill is about to go up.
• If you are a customer of an ISP, like say, TekSavvy who offers both cable and DSL, your bill will go up because they are going to have to spread the sting of the cable price hike to all their customers regardless of how they get their Internet.

But if you are our customer, well, we’re going to share in the savings with you. We’re not precisely sure how as of yet as this announcement just came down the pipe, (and we’ll be too busy partying for a while).

But in short order we’ll be letting you know how we’re going to take advantage of this fantastic ruling and how it will impact you,

Again, only if you are a Worldine Unlimited High-Speed Internet customer that is. And if you’re not, after reading this, what the heck are you thinking?

So stay tuned. 2013 is shaping up to be a great year!

Okay, this isn’t an actual letter from the CEO. Tricked ya! But after you are all hooked up with Worldline’s Home Phone & Internet Bundle, in the welcome package that includes stuff like the modem, cables, instructions, discount coupons etc, you will also find this on page one:

Page 1 of the Bundle Welcome booklet

This letter from Jody provides our customers, be they unlimited long distance calling customers, unlimited international calling customers, unlimited high-speed internet customers or Internet and home phone with unlimited long distance bundle customers, with his personal email address, which means all our customers have direct access to the guy who makes the rest of us jump through hoops around here.

It’s a powerful weapon he’s handed off to the hundreds of thousands that we serve.

It’s been written here before how useful it is for our customers to follow Worldline on Twitter and on Facebook, because it gives them instant customer support – and that’s all true.

But giving them a direct connection to the head honcho?

Man, what was he thinking?

What he was thinking was this: We’ve made it way too hard for our customers to interact with us, and the opposite is true as well. We haven’t been taking advantage of our greatest resource, our customers, to improve the services we provide.

In 2013 we have committed ourselves to change. We are opening up as many avenues of access that we can, and in the coming months we be debuting a set of tools that will greatly improve the customer experience.

But in the mean time, drop us a line whenever you want, and give Jody a shout if you have a question or an issue.

If you do, it’s guaranteed it will never be ignored.

Now this is the kind of news story we can really sink out teeth into!

We just hate national news stories that make our competition look like money grubbing scam artists… 

Courtesy of CBC News:

Laurel Banfield has a problem with her contract for home phone, cable TV and high-speed internet services — she didn’t even know she had one.

The company won’t give her anything in writing about it, and she is locked in for another eight months.

“It’d just be nice to have something in writing showing my obligations as a customer to Rogers,” Banfield said.

Last year, after she saw her bill go up a couple of times, Banfield called Rogers.

The agent applied some discounts to her services. That’s where the problem started.

By agreeing to those discounts, Banfield unwittingly entered into a contract. She says she’s since been told that the cancellation fees to get out of it are $60 per month. So she’s staying with Rogers until September.

“I guess I keep paying them until they tell me I don’t have to,” Banfield said.

Banfield isn’t the only person to get frustrated about tangly contract situations and unexpected fees.

Last year, the provincial government decided to take action to aid consumers.

The result, Bill 6, is aimed at making contracts easier to understand.

The law says fixed-term contract cancellation fees are capped at either $50, or the remaining portion of any discount offered on equipment. For example, a consumer signs a three-year contract for a $600 iPhone, but gets it for free. If they decide to end the contract a year early, they would be on the hook for $200 – the pro-rated portion of the phone’s value.

Under the law, the province can go to court on behalf of the consumer.

Good for them, but still, what a huge pain in the butt! Here’s an idea:

Why not sign up with a company that has no contract?

I can recommend a great one!