Fido puts per-second billing into the doghouse.

Canada, home of the three-year mobile phone contract, “service access fees,” high activation fees, unlock phone fees, $10 for 10MB of data, and $8 extra for “caller-ID” has had one thing going for it that American cell phone companies don’t offer — per-second billing.

Not anymore.

Our regular reader Alex writes to inform us that Fido (owned by Rogers Communications) has joined the parade of Telus’ Koodo and Bell’s Virgin Mobile Canada eliminating the money-saving billing feature for all new activations starting yesterday.

These prepaid customers will now pay by minute when they start new service or change an existing plan.

Mobile Syrup reached out to Rogers and obtained official confirmation and their explanation:

“Fido will adopt the common billing practice in Canada: per-minute billing beginning July 4th. This means that calls are rounded up to the nearest minute. This change will apply to new customers signing up with Fido. All customers who are on current plans with per second billing will retain this feature unless they change their monthly plan. The majority of customers should not notice any impact to their monthly bills. Fido offers several great plans with various call, text and data allowances that are designed to meet any need.”

The billing change further discourages Canadian consumers looking for a better deal in the prepaid market. It is the best alternative available from the handful of national carriers that charge considerably higher prices tied to an extra-long service contract and expensive data pricing.

Maybe not

Alex notes per-second billing was one of the great advantages Telus’ Koodo offered, and other competitors were initially forced to match that innovative pricing.

“Koodo’s new plans are simply the old plans, but with a $5/month increase for two calling features,” Alex notes. “Koodo found another way to gouge their customers: per-minute billing. They also removed 50 minutes from the $30/month (previously $25) plan, which used to have 150 minutes. At a time when Internet is the main demand, while talk and text cost virtually nothing to provide, Koodo is gouging.”

Koodo, Fido, and the other carriers are probably noticing that cell phone customers are talking on their cellular phones less than ever, and per-second billing can save an average of 25% off per-minute billing, especially for short conversations.

Alex has a petition up on Koodo’s website asking them to reconsider, but we’re doubtful they will. Rogers’ is not well-known for responding to customer desires for better, more cost-effective service.

Tony Cosentino has been trying to speak with an AT&T supervisor for weeks, but the company’s customer service representatives have refused to put him through.

At issue is a $652.52 charge AT&T sent to collections for U-verse equipment the company claims Cosentino never returned after ending service. But Cosentino has proof in the form of a shipping confirmation that he did, in fact, return the equipment, but AT&T has refused to listen.

With collection agencies calling Cosentino’s home for more than a year, the frustration peaked when Cosentino was turned down for a mortgage refinance when banks discovered his credit score took an 80 point plunge thanks to AT&T.

That credit hit could have stayed with him for the next seven years, but Cosentino called KOVR-Sacramento’s consumer reporter and let him chase down AT&T for an explanation.

Sure enough, AT&T quickly discovered the last year and a half of collections hell for Cosentino was all for nothing.

AT&T spokesman Dan Newman called it a “system error,” saying “we appreciate you flagging it.” They also agreed to remove the negative information from Cosentino’s credit report so he can win back unblemished credit.

The one valuable piece of news from the entire affair was that Newman disclosed AT&T’s executive customer service number — 1-800-791-6661. This team of customer service specialists is authorized to handle disputes at its  discretion, which gives customers the opportunity to talk to someone that can make things happen, and quickly. If you run into a dispute with AT&T their usual customer service representatives cannot solve it to your satisfaction, call AT&T’s executive customer service and see if you can’t win a better outcome.

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KOVR’s Curtis Ming is back again to fight Big Telecom, this time on behalf of a Rancho Cordova man who had his credit ruined by AT&T.  (3 minutes)

Thomas

Feisty T-Mobile is back on the attack, this time against Verizon’s new “Share Everything” plans which T-Mobile’s marketing gurus are calling a lousy deal for consumers.

Harry Thomas, director of segment marketing, dismissed Verizon’s new plans as costly, complicated, and punitive in a company blog post:

• They’re COSTLY – Verizon is charging more for what consumers want by raising rates on data, but promoting the “value” by pointing to unlimited talk and text even though today many consumers use less of these services. This is especially true for add-a-lines – now with Verizon’s Share Everything plans, adding a line starts at $30/month for a basic phone (non-smartphone) and, for accounts with at least one smartphone, requires unlimited minutes whether customers want unlimited or not.

• They’re COMPLICATED – Verizon is forcing customers to share data when many customers don’t know how much data they’re using, which makes it hard to stay within their limit when trying to balance multiple users (not to mention the family data hog).

• They’re PUNITIVE – At the same time that Verizon is making it harder for customers to manage overages, they are also increasing overage rates from $10/GB to $15/GB for accounts with at least one smartphone.

Thomas predicted Verizon’s new plans would deliver more benefits to Verizon’s bottom line than to consumers, and as they took effect late last week, he’s now convinced he was correct.

T-Mobile released this graphic showing its plans offer considerable savings over Verizon Wireless’ new “Share Everything” plans. Verizon is probably wishing AT&T managed to get that T-Mobile merger through, if only to stop this kind of competition.

AT&T wireless customers grandfathered on unlimited wireless data plans might want to think twice about calling to protest billing errors, because the company is using the occasion to strip off unlimited data plans from customer accounts.

Stop the Cap! reader Jess DeSanto is one of thousands of Florida customers who discovered AT&T has a tendency to add “extras” on wireless lines without the customer’s consent. DeSanto had been paying $2.99 a month for “Roadside Assistance,” part of her phone bill since the day she signed up for AT&T, and she never asked for it. She only noticed when a lawsuit required the company to notify customers the service was optional and offered refunds to those paying for the plan without realizing it.

“We always thought it was just one of those fees AT&T puts on our monthly bill, because we have been paying for it ever since we switched to AT&T from T-Mobile,” DeSanto shares. “When we finally learned we should have never had to pay for a service we did not order, we contacted AT&T to have the service removed.”

DeSanto said AT&T promptly took the service off her account, and even refunded more than a year of charges because she never used the service. But the company also quietly stripped the DeSanto family of its grandfathered, unlimited use data plans in the process.

“When I was reviewing the bill, I saw the credits, but I also saw we were suddenly placed on 3GB usage-limited data plans — the unlimited data we had was gone,” DeSanto writes. “Boy was I mad at AT&T.”

DeSanto had to endure a lecture from a customer service representative about how the unlimited use plan and the 3GB plan were essentially identical. (AT&T throttles the speed customers receive on the unlimited plan after 3GB of usage per month. AT&T will charge customers overlimit fees on the 3GB plan if they exceed their allowance.)

“I told them I don’t want to deal with a sneaky phone company switching my services without my permission in such an underhanded way,” DeSanto said. “It’s like buying a car off the lot and after you sign the papers, they drive up in a different car.”

A manager finally agreed to switch DeSanto back to the plans she originally signed up for, but she is still seething over the affair.

“If you are an AT&T customer, you better scrutinize that bill real careful every month, because you have no idea what they will pull next.”

DeSanto is not alone. A blogger named “Michael” reports his unlimited data plan was also eliminated when he called about another AT&T “billing error”:

I’ve had one of AT&T’s unlimited data plans since I first got an iPhone 3GS not quite three years ago. You can thus imagine my surprise when I checked my bill last month and discovered that I had been switched to 3GB/month limited data plan.

[…] When I finally got a rep on the line, I learned that they had made the change on March 22nd when I had called in about another billing error. As it turns out, when I upgraded my phone, they not only renewed my contract, but they also added roadside assistance ($2.99/month), phone insurance ($6.99/month), and something called the “enhanced mobile protection plan” ($3.00/month). (Note that none of these charges were reflected on my signed contract.)

When I called back in March, I had no trouble getting them to remove the unwanted services and credit me for the charges, but… they apparently took this opportunity to also switch me from my beloved unlimited data plan to a 3GB/month limited data plan. Without my permission.

Michael had no trouble getting his unlimited plan back when he complained. In fact, he was suspicious because it seemed “too easy.”

“[It was sort of]  like they’ve been making this “mistake” on purpose and are ready if/when people notice and call in to complain,” Michael writes.

Detroit U-verse technicians are at high risk of being confronted by crooks looking for valuable electronics.

AT&T U-verse technicians carry iPads, cell phones, and other expensive electronic equipment in trucks destined for service calls, and the crooks know it.

At least 10 technicians have been robbed in northwest Detroit in the last week alone, some at gunpoint.

“They’re scared. Afraid to go in certain areas,” said CWA Union President Greg Streeby. “A tech was approached by an individual with a gun who said, ‘Give me your iPad.’

So far, union leaders have been unimpressed with the reaction of AT&T, leading one worker to suggest the company does not care if technicians live or die.

Thieves learned AT&T’s U-verse branded trucks come stocked with expensive electronics, including cell phones and iPads, and they have become magnets for smash and grab robberies while technicians are inside customer homes. Since the robberies began, some technicians have started bringing valuable equipment inside with them.

Thieves learned to adapt, and are now willing to confront technicians as they return to their trucks, sometimes at gunpoint, and order them to hand over the electronics. Technicians have lost phones, laptops, tablets, and whatever else the thieves can steal and resell.

Jim Simons has never seen anything like it, and he has been working for AT&T as a field technician for more than 20 years.

“We are defenseless. We don’t carry any weapons,” Simons told WDIV News. “Not allowed to.”

AT&T workers were told by administrators there is nothing the company can do about the robberies, at which point a group of workers left and began a union-backed protest outside of several AT&T facilities across Detroit.

AT&T promptly locked out those workers and deactivated their ID badges, and their vehicles remain locked and inaccessible inside AT&T gated parking lots.

The company claims it is working on a solution, but union officials want an extra service technician temporarily sent on service calls in dangerous areas to keep an eye on the company’s property while another worker attends to the customer. AT&T has rejected that proposal.

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WDIV first told its Detroit audience about the AT&T holdups last Friday in this exclusive report. (2 minutes)

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Since WDIV’s first report, safety conditions have further deteriorated for AT&T workers, some of whom have now begun public protests outside of AT&T facilities demanding more safety while on service calls. (2 minutes)