Freedom Mobile in Victoria

Had two lines from transferred from Koodo to Freedom on Saturday morning. Great deal... went from 1Gig to 12Gig for the same price, around $43/mo with a couple of discounts.

They said they were having problems with number porting, so gave us temporary Freedom numbers. They said it might take a couple of days to sort itself out. Later on Saturday afternoon we got a text on the phones saying that the temporaries had been transferred to our original numbers.

This morning out calls work fine but all incoming calls go right to voice mail. The phones show that neither recognizes a phone number.

Tried logging in to Freedom. The PIN number they gave us was incorrect.

Called Freedom. Answered 4 security questions and got the PIN reset. They has trouble locating me. Said the temporary number wasn't a Freedom number (I suspect because it had gone back to the free pool and wasn't tied to an account) Explained that neither phone was connecting yet. Got transferred from 'technical support' to help resolve the connectivity issue. After checking a few things was told they couldn't help me since I was Person B on the account and not the owner, Person A. I said that if if had lied and said I was person A they would have helped on not known the difference. Didn't matter, they insisted on talking to Person A and said they couldn't help.

Walked into the Freedom store in Bay Center and talked to the sales person who did our transaction on Saturday. They said they has stopped selling until the issue was resolved. They tried a few things, like dropping back to 3G, but nothing worked. They apologized and said "we're working on it".

Notes to Freedom from a long time support person/manager.

1) If you have a very new customer and you've sold them something that doesn't work, you need to pull out all the stops to resolve their issue. Adding roadblocks is going to make them very unhappy.

2) If someone answers all the security questions then you should be able to help them. This is particularly true when you change their PIN so they can access the online system where they can make any changes they wish.

3) Your technical support folks (if not first line contacts too) need so see latest bulletins. When a customer calls from a three day old new market, support should already know there are issues.

There you go, you're paying for that discount in other ways.

Sorry you had to go through that mess. 

I'm a geek, used to glitches, patient and easily adaptable temporary problems and changes. I'm also famously impatient about having things done right.

When I called Freedom, the conversation should have been...

"I see you have a days old account from Victoria. We're sorry but at the moment we're experiencing an unexpected roll-out problem. Give me your email and we'll provide updates and let you know when we have the problem resolved"

It should have been a one minute conversation, not a half hour, two support people and a trip over to see a real person in a store.

An update.

After three days (Saturday to Tuesday) people were finally able to call my phone without it going to voicemail.

My phone connects to 3G, has yet to connect to LTE (downtown Victoria). The phone still doesn't think it has a phone number. If you use something like Google Duo which is tied to the phone's number then you're out of luck.

The way I interpret this, they still don't have LTE up and make a temporary workaround so that at least in-calls to phones would work. Until my phone sees its actual number something is still messed up.

Geez, that's not good. I trust you're not being billed for services while this continues to play out?

They did advertise that one of the reasons for the six month half off rate was to allow for completion of their network. They still have some areas without home coverage (eg, Cordova Bay) so they use the away network then. They might consider rollout problems to be in the same vein.

I get the impression they had their opening date planned without having all the issues worked out first. They were left with politicians doing ribbon cutting at stores and decided to just go ahead.

I have all the functionality I need, over 10x the data I had with the previous carrier, all at a reduced rate, so I'm not all that concerned. I can see a lot of customers who wanted bigger data plans with faster data being quite annoyed.

Thanks to a forum member with a tip about a code for SIM reset. The phones now see their number.

Turns out the original pixels sold in Canada don't support Freedoms LTE band.

For the newest and best LTE experience you need a phone with Band 66

Only 2 more days left of 50% off for 6 months!! 

BCE Inc. is asking the federal government to block Quebecor Inc.'s purchase of 5G spectrum in Western Canada, stating the company didn't meet the requirements to bid on airwaves there.

Bell's court challenge comes after an auction of a key 5G spectrum by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada this summer.

The company said Quebecor subsidiary Videotron was able to purchase spectrum in Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia that was set aside for smaller carriers, allowing it to access airwaves at a cheaper price than Canada's largest carriers.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...court-1.6158716

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 30 August 2021 - 04:30 PM.

The board of Rogers Communications Inc. has voted to remove Edward Rogers as chair and replace him with John MacDonald, the company said Thursday.

Mr. Rogers will remain on the company’s board as a director.

“This has been a challenging time for the corporation and I want to reaffirm on behalf of the majority of the board our support for and total confidence in the management team and CEO of Rogers Communications,” Mr. MacDonald, who has been a director at the company since 2012 and chairs the corporate governance committee, said in a statement.

The board vote followed a letter sent by the company’s independent directors to Toronto Mayor John Tory late Wednesday that says removing Joe Natale as CEO and overhauling the company’s board would pose a risk to the telecom company’s planned $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc.

https://www.theglobe...ir-sources-say/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 October 2021 - 08:37 AM.

iPhone came out 15 years ago this week.  Now nearly 6 billion people have a smart phone.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 January 2022 - 01:08 PM.

It is 2005.

And you can see the future.

Cell phones will become the world’s most economically important device.

Trillions in value will be created.

Obviously, you massively long Nokia and Blackberry - Unmatched scale and expertise.

The iPhone’s ’07 release only validates the thesis.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 March 2022 - 02:34 PM.

Rogers Communications says it will sell Freedom Mobile to Quebecor for $2.85B

https://www.cbc.ca/n...becor-1.6493541

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 June 2022 - 03:48 AM.

CBC:

Telus is asking the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for permission to add a 1.5 per cent surcharge to the bills of customers who pay their bill using a credit card. The company is asking the regulator to decide on the proposal by Sept. 7 and would like to start levying the new charge as of Oct. 17.
•
While the CRTC must rule on the matter, in a statement to CBC News the telecom company made the plan sound like a done deal.
•
"Starting in October, Telus mobility and home services customers choosing to make a bill payment with a credit card will be charged a 1.5 per cent credit card processing fee," Telus told CBC News in a statement.
•
"This fee helps us recover a portion of the processing costs we incur to accept credit card payments, and the average cost will be around $2 for most customers," the company said, adding that it can easily be avoided by paying through a bank, via a debit transaction, or other means.