A small win over a big telco

I could go on for hours about the issues I have with Canadian cell phone companies and I'm definitely not alone. It's insane how Canadian (and US) cell companies screw their customers and have absolutely no repercussions. When Telus/Bell first started charging for incoming SMS's there was an impressive amount of outrage over it. Nothing happened, and approximately one year later, coinciding with the iPhone 3GS release, Rogers began charging for incoming SMS's. Somehow no one seemed to notice this (or we'd all just given up hope of changing it). Regardless, Rogers clearly has much better PR than Telus.

I think without exception, all of the cell phone companies in North America charge for incoming calls, and have for as long as I recall. When I was on AT&T in the US I repeatedly got called by telemarketing scams, and from a variety of numbers. Each answered phone call cost me 30c. I highly doubt the telemarketers have to pay 30c/call. Most people simply won't answer calls they don't recognize anymore because of this. I would guess the telemarketing scams alone cost me about $5 in the 3 months I was there. Not much for one person, but crazy amounts of money over all.

Back in Canada I'm on a pay-as-you go plan. It doesn't make sense to have a monthly plan when I'm not in Canada most of the time. I just drop $100 on my account and go. After a recent $100 top up, I checked my balance and noticed it had dropped by 39c even though I'd not used it. After a quick test call, I realized that I was being charged, not just for incoming calls, but CALLS I DIDN'T EVEN ANSWER! I hadn't initialized my voicemail so no minutes should be going there, and after reviewing Rogers' policy it looked like I was right to demand some money back.

Three or four emails later of quoting their "legal disclaimer" policy back and forth, my issue was escalated and a day after that they'd returned all $14 worth of missed calls back into my account.

It was pure luck I noticed this in the first place and I can only imagine how many other people are paying for MISSED CALLS. Charging people for any incoming calls or SMS's is completely insane and over time breaks the way that people use phones. The fact that most people are paying a premium for calls they don't even answer is completely unacceptable. There's no way to get around telemarketers from calling you, even if it's illegal for them to call, the vast majority of people aren't going to spend months in a legal battle over a 30c charge.

At this point, I would strongly recommend checking if you're getting charged (including having your monthly minutes burned up) for missed calls. Note that most companies charge you the regular per minute rate for voicemail messages, but if someone does not leave a voicemail message, they'll charge you anyway. It's on that point that I got my money reimbursed. I also had my voicemail completely disabled since I wouldn't be using it.

I'm convinced that North America's cell phone situation has and is severely hindering any kind of wireless technological advances from coming out of North America. It's amazing to me that we've had any at all. The cell phone companies have proven that they can't manage the situation themselves so the only two places to turn are the consumers and the government.

How does one go about trying to improve this situation?