Starting October 5th, Fido is introducing a $15 ‘transaction fee’ that will apply across the board to both upgrades and new activations — even for data-only plans. Previously, the carrier didn’t charge the fee for new activations, and charged $25 for upgrades.
In an internal document supplied to MobileSyrup, the carrier states: “The fee will automatically be charged to all new activations with or without agreement. This includes Fido Home Phones, tablets and data-only phones. It’ll also replace the current administrative fee for hardware upgrades.”
The $15 fee will be waived, however, if customers choose to complete the transaction online instead of in a retail store.
In comparison, Koodo, one of Fido’s direct competitors, has no transaction fee at all. Meanwhile Virgin Mobile has a $15 in-store activation fee that is waived for BYOD and online activations.
As for the eternal question of why these fees exist, Fido provides an explanation in the document that employees can offer customers: “The one-time transaction fee applies for the processing of your request. For the most part it helps us cover the costs of managing and restocking the inventory of phones and SIM cards as well as processing shipping and handling.”
Related: Huawei’s Nova Plus is coming to Canada with Rogers, Virgin Mobile and Fido
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