Additionally, the updated Wireless Code has changed the trial period after purchase to allow customers to cancel their contracts within 15 days and return their device in “near-new” condition at no cost, as long as they have used less than half of their monthly usage limit. Currently, most carriers have more restrictive limits — for instance, at Bell it’s 30 minutes of voice usage and 50MB of data.
It also restricted roaming and data overages without the customer’s explicit consent — for instance, it required that carriers suspend service when roaming fees hit $100 CAD, at which point users will get a text asking whether they’d like to use more.
Additionally, the Code mandated that a customer’s contract must be written in plain language and that when a customer cancels his or her contract, the carrier must comply immediately. Previously, customers were forced to wait 30 days.
The pro consumer changes were inevitably interpreted in ways that were sometimes less than generous — such as raised prices for the two-year plans to account for the shorter subsidy period — but overall, the number of complaints received by the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) saw a sharp decline.
