-From a visitor at SmileKonnects International House, 2018
I come from Japan. I live in Quebec for now five years.
When I arrived here, my first desire was to get in touch with my family. I had no computer no mobile phone no iPad, as well I was still a student and not wealthy.
On my first day at work, a colleague advised me to go see the famous mobile phone company here, Telus: "They have good packages" he said. Without knowledge of the facts, I called Telus and spent thirty minutes to understand the different packages offered.
Because I was calling from my work, I took advantage of the free landline calls. In the evening, I bought my first "cell" - as Quebecers say - with his package to $ 40 / month. Price horrified me and still horrifies me yet, but it seemed to fit with my profile: 200 min. calls per month, a limited number of outside Quebec calls - added option to communicate outside the country, of course - unlimited text messages. Mobile phone in hand, I followed the instructions of my colleague from Videotron "the best deals for television and the Internet." Came to this store, I have explained on the packages offered.
The most important is that the invoice amount varies according to monthly Internet usage; moreover, the customer consumes GB per month plus bill is whatever is a paid option for unlimited Internet access. So here I go home with a distributed mobile phone Telus and "appointment for the installation of the cable" with Videotron.
Three years passed -length of contract with Telus-. During these, I had to watch my loan bills: the amount of each varied considerably each month. In fact, I had to negotiate my bills, which amounted to more than $ 53 / month since there are taxes, charges by here and there.
I also learned later that Videotron, La Cabine, Bell, Rogers, ACN, Fido, Koodoo, etc. also offered monthly plans for mobile phones rather interesting. So what I did, choosing a trio which included Videotron mobile phone + TV + Internet. In Quebec, we need to "shop around" telephone companies, television, the Internet, to avoid seeing the price of each invoice grow.
In fact, what is a "package" includes? A package includes the number of minutes of incoming and outgoing calls, the number of text messages, the higher or lower rate of Internet usage. In addition to the price, we have to check use of Internet which varies according to the Web pages that are consulted.
We must therefore ensure that each package includes access to adapt to our Web lifestyle.
In short, be careful: when you think taking a "not so expensive" package, it may actually cost more than an expensive package at the base. I learned to compare the monthly price, Internet usage -including downloads music or watching a movie- and different companies. After losing a lot of money, without knowing why, I realized that it’s better to:
1 - compare plans of companies;
2 - keep abreast of promotions.
Namely: in Quebec, we have special offers and discounts at any time, everywhere, so lets enjoy!
SmileKonnects International House looks forward to welcome you in their International House ! It would be a pleasure to help you to know more about Canada and the amazing City of Quebec for you to fully enjoy your stay in our wonderful region ! 😉
