The following is an account of what happened to a friend of mine. For whatever reason he decided to check the tax calculation on his cellular bill and found a mistake:
I have just noticed and believe that Bell Canada has been incorrectly charging the GST and PST on my Bell Mobility account.
My exact example is as follows:
Plan charge of $20
Usage charge of $22.80
Long Distance charge of $3.00
Subtotal of $45.80
The above was/is undisputed and agreed upon by both Bell and myself. However the discrepancy lies with the tax amounts charged.
They were charging $2.31 for GST and $3.76 for PST. I can’t tell you why I decided to double check the amounts but I do periodically with all my bills and when I did I discovered that those amounts were incorrect. 5% GST on $45.80 should be $2.29 and 8% PST should be $3.66.
The difference was only $0.12 but it was the principle of the matter. If Bell is doing this with all of its customers they are making quite a mint! I spent just over an hour on the phone with Bell, and at times it got quite heated. In the end I got my $0.12 back but couldn’t get it through their heads that their system was improperly calculating the amounts. And for the life of me they refused to follow the simple calculations on a calculator. Now I will be going back through my previous bills to see just how much they have over charged me.
After talking to a couple of my own friends and asking them to double check their bills, they too have small discrepancies. I know its only a few cents, but on a large scale, Bell is potentially taking in millions of dollars that they should not be.
I am curious to know if anyone else has had the same complaint or if I am missing something?
Let’s do the math together, shall we?
Actual math: $45.80 x 5% (GST) = $2.29
Bell’s math has to be either $45.80 x 5.05% (GST) = $2.31 OR $46.25 x 5% (GST) = $2.31
For the PST:
Actual math: $45.80 x 8% = $3.66
Bell’s math: $45.80 x 8.22%= $3.76 OR $47.00 x 8% (PST) = $3.76
Now a simple calculation on say 3 million customers being overcharged $0.12 per month = $360,000 per month = $4.32 million a year from miscalculating the tax. Nice work if you can get it.
Bell’s math is just wrong. Or am I? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
A few years ago I too was a Bell customer….They were absolutely great in the beginning, everything was being charged correctly and then all of a sudden out of nowhere i got a bill for 1500 dollars, I called them up too ask them what the issue was and apparently, the same rate plan that i had been on for over a year never even existed, i told them i would fax them a copy of my paper bill, which at the time including text messages and an explanation of everything usually came up2 somewhere around 400 and some pages…needless to say they continued arguing with me the whole time, so i told them too stuff it up there asses and never bother me again, told them too cut me off and that i never wanted too use any of their services again and that i would also make sure none of my friends would ever use any of their services either…!!!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=270454056044&ref=ts
A related article about what is happening in the USA.
http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2010/03/30/unwanted_phone_charges_raising_consumer_ire/?s_campaign=8315
Mike Cunningham’s monthly phone bill is a crazy-quilt of fees, surcharges, and taxes, so it took nearly two years for him to notice “enhanced voice mail” charges of $14.95 and $13.22 tucked into pages five and six.
After reviewing statements back to December 2008, Cunningham found he had paid $567 to two companies whose names he didn’t recognize. Even worse, he had no idea what he’d bought.
. . . discussion of how third parties got access to the Verizon billing engine …
ILD and Enhanced Billing credited Cunningham’s account for $424.06 and $142.96, respectively. ILD said it did so immediately after learning his grandson was a minor.
Both companies said they would never bill someone for services they did not want, though Olayan added that ILD sent Cunningham $1,000 worth of coupons as part of the deal. “That’s a lie,” Cunningham said in response.
Cunningham said he now wants to drop Verizon Wireless, but can’t just yet. Instead of issuing him a $567 refund, the companies issued him a credit that can only be applied to his Verizon bills.
“It’s like salt in the wound,” he said. “I can’t leave. I’m a captive audience.”
I work for a taxi business and we recently noticed that we are being overcharged gst on our bills as well. I am currently contacting the government to see what they can do. I called bell once and after being put on hold for half an hour was hung up on, so I won’t be giving that a chance again.
If you look at the detail of your Bell invoice for Internet services you will see a portion of the monthly charge consists of a Modem Rental Fee, and that part (only) is subject to Ontario Provincial Tax at 8%.
The rest of your Internet service is subject only to 5% GST.
If your Bell invoice includes telephone services they are subject to both 5% GST & 8% PST.
I’m surprised no one you spoke to at Bell was able to explain that. Obviously most of the customer service reps have no clue.
Bell had my correct address on the bill. I left for 2 weeks on vacation. When I got back I found my bill on the floor outside my apartment. It had the incorrect apartment number written on the envelope. I should have received the bill before I left on vacation. I’m just waiting for my recorder to recharge before I record our conversation. It’s common sense that if it was put in the wrong mail slot then the person would leave it out with the other mail and not write the incorrect apartment number. It’s also common sense that the mail man would not write the incorrect apartment number on the bill. What makes sense is that Bell wrote the incorrect apartment number on envelope. Now I know I will be charge interest. Has anyone else had this problem?
Called bell to tell them that their practice is illegal. They don’t get it!!
This is definitely illegal. You are only allowed to charge tax for what you receive.
I also got overcharged on my new plan with bell.
SO basically I get a $17 discount on my plan for signing for 3 years and what bell is doing is to charge me GST and PST on the pre-discounted price.
So for example my plan costs $100 but I pay $83. Bell is charging me GST and PST on $100 instead of the $83.
Is this even legal??? I have never seen that anywhere except where you get a mail in rebate, which is not the case here. any comments would be appreciated.
There is a way to not even have Bell as your home phone. Rogers has a home phone service that they offer that is a bit cheaper than bell and much better. IMHO.
Hi, I have a different problem. Its with their billings of Television. I have wasted 12 hours of my time discussing the problem. I write down employee names and #’s every time I talk to someone. Its extremely difficult to finally be allowed to talk to Managers and when you do, they correct the over billings for one month and then you are back to square one the next month. When you try and reach that Manager again, they have become a phantom, they have went off on early Maternity Leave or they simply don’t call back. They initially sent the bill to the wrong address for 2 months, even though they had someone out directly to install the satellite. Then when we finally received the bill, it was double the price that was initially quoted by their sales person. Every 2 months I have to call them and tell them to correct the billing. After usually 1.5 hours they credit past over billings but refuse to credit current over billings. We even have in writing from them the amount of their supposed special pricing when you sign up with them (luckily no signature was required with the exception of signing that the equipment was installed). Every person I have talked to about this problem has stated the same problem. They are over billed and when trying to resolve the problem, you speak to people from India at Bells Call Centre who then try to repeat the same nonsense that their superiors have taught them. They try to state higher rates and that they are trying to help but never actually read your file with the comments added by the Managers that you have wasted time talking to. Is there a way in Ontario to not have to deal with Bell at all for the Telephone? If there is, I will automatically cancel everything to do with them and live a happy life.
So now it looks like Bell is incorrectly charging Ontario PST on its internet service.
My December bill now has the 8% on the internet monthly fee but according to the Ontario Government website and information phone line it is not taxable.
And of course the idiots on the other end of the customer service line at Bell know nothing.
I just noticed the exact same overcharges. What’s perplexing is that they actually argued with you – it’s black and white that any simple elementary school child could calculate.
I’ve been with Bell for 5.5 years now, and remember when they had their old billing system. They were constantly charging me for some mysterious long-distance usage. Even though they credited my bill, it was still time wasted in calling them.
I’m going to post these problems on as many sites as I can, warn my friends, and contact Bell. I suggest others do the same because this can’t be good news for them since they’re an official 2010 Olympic sponsor.
I tried the calculations for my last two bills:
Subtotal 53.84
GST 2.69 (correct)
Ontario PST 1.83 (should be 4.30)
Subtotal 93.14
GST 4.66 (correct)
Ontario PST 3.52 (should be 7.45)
so it looks like i’m getting a deal!