I wanted to share my recent experience with TELUS because, honestly, it left me feeling completely misled.

On July 23, I received a call from a TELUS sales representative. The call started as a home internet sales pitch. I already had internet, so I wasn't really interested, but he kept presenting offer after offer.

He told me I'd receive:

• A $150 account credit.
• An additional $75 credit to cover my first month of internet service.
• No installation fee.
• Home internet for about $65/month.

That got my attention.

Then I mentioned I was also looking for a new iPhone. The rep spent nearly an hour discussing options, talking to his manager, and eventually came back with what he described as a special deal.

He offered me:

• An iPhone Pro (256GB)
• Canada/US/Mexico calling and data
• 60GB of data plus 50GB shared
• Total monthly cost of approximately $76/month

I specifically told him I didn't want Koodo because I'd had a terrible experience with them previously. He assured me everything would be through TELUS.

At one point, the representative told me I would need to pay approximately $178 upfront in taxes for the phone. That immediately raised concerns for me for two reasons.

First, I questioned why I would be paying tax on the phone's full retail value when TELUS was supposedly providing a substantial discount on the device. If the discounted price was what I was actually paying, it didn't make sense to me that I would be charged taxes based on a higher amount.

Second, I've purchased phones from multiple carriers over the years, and I've never been asked to pay the full tax amount upfront on a device that was being financed through a monthly plan. In my experience, any device-related charges, including taxes, have always been incorporated into the monthly financing arrangement rather than being collected immediately as a lump-sum payment.

After putting me on hold and speaking with his manager, he came back and said the tax issue had been approved and taken care of.

At that point everything seemed settled.

I was travelling for 10 days, so I asked him to ship the phone to a TELUS store for pickup when I returned. He agreed and said everything was arranged.

Then things started falling apart.

When I returned on August 10, I had received installation notifications for the internet service, but absolutely nothing regarding:

• The phone
• The mobile plan
• An account number
• Order confirmations
• Shipping information

So I called TELUS.

The representative looked into my account and told me something shocking:

No mobile order had ever been submitted.

Nothing.

After spending hours on the phone arranging this package, TELUS had no record of the phone order actually being placed.

Then they tried to recreate the order, but suddenly the same tax issue came up again. The issue that had supposedly already been approved and resolved.

At this point I was already frustrated.

The installation fee surprise

On August 15, a TELUS technician came to install my internet.

The process took less than 10 minutes because the house already had TELUS service. The technician simply swapped equipment.

When he left, I texted the technician:

"Am I being charged an installation fee?"

His answer:

"No."

Three days later I received a charge for approximately $200 for installation.

I had to call TELUS again and dispute it.

To their credit, TELUS eventually reversed the charge.

But by this point, I had been given conflicting information by multiple people.

Then the pricing changed too.

After dealing with the installation charge, I asked again about the phone plan.

Another TELUS rep reviewed the account and basically told me they couldn't find any record of the deal I'd originally been promised.

Then I was transferred to sales.

The new price?

About $110/month.

Not the $76/month I'd spent hours discussing with the original representative.

At that point I was done.

What happened to the credits?

Remember the $150 credit and the additional $75 first-month credit that were used to convince me to switch?

To this day:

• I have not received the $150 credit.
• I have not received the $75 credit.
• Neither appeared on my first bill.

So let's recap:

✅ Promised an iPhone deal that was never ordered.

✅ Promised pricing of $76/month that later became $110/month.

✅ Told tax charges would be waived, then told otherwise.

✅ Promised no installation fee, then billed $200.

✅ Promised $225 in credits that never appeared.

✅ Multiple TELUS representatives giving completely different answers.

My takeaway

I honestly feel like the objective was simply to get me to say "yes" to the sale.

Once I was onboarded, the details suddenly became negotiable, missing, or impossible to verify.

I'm not saying every TELUS employee operates this way. But based on my experience, if a TELUS sales rep calls you with a promotional offer:

Get everything in writing.

Every credit.

Every discount.

Every fee waiver.

Every promotional promise.

Because if you don't have it documented, you may find yourself having very different conversations once the service is actually activated.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with TELUS sales offers not matching what was ultimately delivered???