Bell Mobility had its wrist slapped by the Canadian Competition Bureau a few years ago for claiming to be the most reliable wireless network available, but yesterday they got slammed for something a little more serious. The Bureau has charged Bell for false advertising and fined them the highest penalty they could: $10 million. You might expect some kind of fight or appeal process, but Bell isn’t even disputing the charges, they’re just paying outright and promising to make the changes in their advertising.
So what’s all the fuss about? Bell has been advertising a deal that bundles wireless, broadband home internet, and home TV services for $69.90/month. Once you factor additional fees tucked away in the fine print however, the cheapest you could get is $80.27/month. You can see it for yourself if you go to Bell.ca, Bundles on the top nav bar, Bundle Now in the middle of the page, then click that “Offer and pricing details” on the right side. If it was just an extra $10 on a one-time fee, I could suck that up as an acceptable loss, like taxes, but that’s a recurring additional cost associated with a multi-year contract, and Bell’s been pushing higher-than-advertised prices since 2007. Of course, that’s not even addressing the principle of the matter: Bell was flat-out lying about their prices.
Bell isn’t the only one in trouble over this kind of thing either. In November, Rogers got called out by the Bureau on the same charges, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were next on the list for prosecution. Telus has yet to get into any serious trouble on this front, and if they can keep it that way, they’ll have a leg up on public image versus the competition.
Bell should be changing their ads in the next 60 days, but I’m more interested in what the government will end up doing with that cash.
[via]