I sign-up with Wind Mobile with their so called unlimited plan last week on Oct 2012 with the $40 per month plan and another $20 for the sim card.
So far so good, until I got a message two weeks later on my smart phone informing me to pay another $10 for another 5GB of data usage because I almost reach my 5gb per month limit. If I chose not to pay the additional $10, Wind may chose to limit my data download speed to 256KB per second for downloads and 128KG per second for uploads.
So much for the “unlimited” plan huh?
Well, I thought this was “unlimited” and I felt deceived by their advertisement for claiming to have unlimited data.
I emailed Wind customer service to ask about this. Here is my email to Wind:
Hi, I signed up for the $40 unlimited plan, believing that it was unlimited. If you advertise it as unlimited, why did I receive a message from Wind that I am about to reach my 5gb monthly limit and if I want to continue using my data I’ll need to pay another $10? This is not why I choose Wind and this is not unlimited.
Wind email me back stating:
Hi XXXX,
Thanks for contacting WIND.
I do apologize for this inconvenience but we do have a fair usage data policy. This is to ensure our customers enjoy optimal data usage on our network.
http://www.windmobile.ca/WIND%20Docs/WIND-Fair-Usage-Data-050111.pdf
If you have any further questions or concerns, feel free to get back in touch with us by calling 1-877-946-3184.
Thank you for contacting WIND and have a great day!WIND Specialist
611 ? from your WIND phone
1-877-946-3184
Wind Data Fair Usage Policy was effective on May 16th 2012
To ensure that all of our customers are able to enjoy optimal data usage on our network, we have a Data Fair Usage Policy. Our Data Fair Usage Policy specifies that if you exceed the data usage levels specified in this policy for your type of plan or add-on, we may slow your speed so that all WIND customers can better share the network and enjoy quality access to the Internet.
Read the rest of the policy here.
My problem with Wind Mobile
My beef with Wind is the Data Fair Usage Policy and there was no visible restriction posted on Wind Mobile page before I sign-up. I think “we” the customers need to know about this policy to make an inform decision. I would have gone to sign-up with Telus if I have known about this Data Fair Usage Policy.
See Wind web pages for their unlimited monthly plans yourself. I have screen capture two pages on Nov 2012 and please tell me where I can find that Data Fair Usage Policy? Can you find it? It clearly reads UNLIMITED DATA!
What do you think? Is Wind unlimited plan really unlimited with their Data Fair Usage Policy?
I am a former WIND customer. Yes, I expressed my concerns to them. My views regarding the Wind report titled: "WIND Data Fair Usage Policy", should have a subtitle: "We will cap your data usage because we are signing on more customers than our limited-but-growing network can handle any one time!"
In other words, I am renting a 2 bedroom apt for X number of dollars rent per month, then my landlord arrives one day and states, "Rob, we have decided to partition your apartment space, so now your square footage will be reduced to allow additional tenants to share the same space under said apt building roof."
I have other issues with WIND: service drops unexpectedly re: my cell indicates "NO SERVICE" when I attempted to dial out. Yes, I was sitting in my apartment, in the living room, near the dining room window, within the city limits. And all this for only $25.00 per month. I pay $37 per month now with "another carrier", whom I won't mention here because they don't need the publicity.
WIND: A little over 2 years ago (?) I raised my expectations of them when they entered the Canadian Marketplace when the President of the company introduced himself on a nationwide news feed. My advice to all newbies to the cell phone market: you want to support WIND? Fine. Re-locate as close as you can to one of their transmission towers and join them and ride the roller coaster of their success story or wait another 2 – 3 years when (hopefully) their services will be "smooth sailing" like a modern luxury liner. Thanks for putting up with my silly metaphors. Canadians are paying too much for cell services in this country, and for too long. I am referring to ALL the cell service providers when I state this, not only WIND. But, that is one of the factors that WIND uses to support their marketing policies, isn't it? Good luck!