What to do if your service provider increases your bill

Posted on July 29, 2026 in Articles

At the CCTS, we hear from many customers who notice that the price of their wireless, phone, TV or internet service has gone up. An unexpected increase in the price you pay for a service can be upsetting, but sometimes price increases are permitted if the service provider follows certain steps.

Quick tips: What to do if there’s an increase in your bill

If you notice that your wireless, phone, internet or TV bill has increased:

Check your bill. Why has it increased? If you aren’t sure, contact your service provider.
If you don’t believe your provider was allowed to increase your bill, work with them to try and resolve the problem. You must try to resolve your concern directly with your service provider before filing a complaint with the CCTS.
Give your service provider a reasonable opportunity to fix the problem. If you skip this step, we will not be able to accept your complaint.
Collect all the necessary information you need to submit a complaint with the CCTS. The more information you can provide about the problem and what solution you are looking for, the more effectively we can assess your complaint.
Submit your complaint to the CCTS. Our online complaint form is a great way to submit your complaint to the CCTS. You can also use one of our alternative methods, including by phone, TTY, Video Relay Service (VRS), mail and fax.

Can your service provider change the price you pay for services?

The answer is… it depends.

Canada’s communications regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), does not generally regulate the prices service providers charge individual customers for wireless, internet, phone and television services in Canada. This means that service providers are usually free to set their own prices for their products and services and may adjust these prices for a variety of reasons.

But there are rules that service providers need to follow when they increase their prices. Whether or not your service provider can increase its prices depends on:

the nature of your commitment with the service provider: a fixed-term contract or month-to-month contract;
the rules of the relevant CRTC consumer protection code, and whether these rules apply to your provider; and
what your service provider’s Terms of Service and your contract say about whether and how your provider can change the price.

What to do if you notice an increase on your bill

The first step to take if you’re concerned about a bill increase on your wireless, phone, internet or TV service bill is to bring it to the attention of your service provider.

Tip: If you have a concern about your wireless, phone, TV or internet service, it’s always a good idea to notify and discuss it with your service provider as soon as possible.

When you contact your service provider, give them as much information as you can about your concern so that they can understand the situation.

For example:

When did the increase occur?
- When did you first notice the increase? Which bills have the increased price?
Why do you think the increase isn’t allowed?
- For example, did your provider tell you that the price would be guaranteed for a period of time? Are you on a fixed-term (for example, 1-year or 2-year) contract with a fixed monthly price during your commitment period?
What do you want your service provider to do to fix the problem?

Before you can submit your complaint to the CCTS, you must try to resolve your concern directly with your service provider. This includes giving them a reasonable opportunity to explain or fix the problem. If you skip this step, we will not be able to accept your complaint. It’s also a good idea to document any efforts you make to work with your service provider. Keep track of the dates and times of phone calls and in-store visits and save copies of emails and online chats.

Once you’ve given your service provider a reasonable opportunity to resolve the issue, if you remain unsatisfied with their explanation or suggested solution, it may be time to submit a complaint with the CCTS.

How the CCTS can help if your service provider has increased your bill

The CCTS cannot challenge a provider’s decision to raise its prices, and we cannot help with complaints about the price of phone products or services. We can help resolve complaints where you believe the increase was not applied in accordance with the contract or the change resulted in a billing error. There are a lot of concerns related to an increase in your bill that we can help with, including if you are:

billed for a higher price than advertised or agreed- to
overcharged as the result of a billing system error
billed for pay-per-use services you did not use, such as long-distance charges, wireless data charges or international roaming charges

When we accept your complaint, we help you and your service provider resolve your concern. In some cases, this may include working as a mediator between you and your provider, by explaining consumer protection rules, your provider’s Terms of Service and the details of your service contract, and identifying different solutions for you and your provider to consider.

In cases where you and your provider can’t agree on a solution, we can investigate to determine if the provider followed their contract and the consumer protection rules when it increased prices. We would consider whether your provider is permitted to change their price, for example, by checking if the CRTC consumer protection codes apply. If they are allowed to change the price, we would verify whether they followed any code rules or contract requirements to increase the price. For example, did your provider give you notice and include the required information about the change? We would also consider if your provider made a price guarantee promise to you, to determine what is fair and reasonable in the circumstances.

If your provider is permitted to change its prices and has followed any contract and rule requirements to inform you of changes, then we would determine that they have met their obligations to you. In that case, your provider would not be required to fix anything.

If your provider has not followed its own contract or the CRTC rules when increasing its prices, we have authority to require the provider to fix the concerns raised in your complaint. For example, we can require the provider to correct a billing error by providing a credit or refund for any amounts it should not have charged. We can also require that they honour prices moving forward if we find that they were not permitted to change the price. When you submit a complaint with the CCTS, make sure you’re clear about what solution you’re seeking. The solution should be reasonable and within our authority to grant.

What the CCTS cannot do if you notice an increase in your bill

We can’t tell service providers how much to charge for their services or force them to lower the price of their services. If a provider has changed your service price, our role is to check whether they can do so and then make sure they have followed all the requirements in your service contract, their own policies and procedures, and any consumer protection codes set by the CRTC.

We also do not have authority to punish or fine service providers as a result of your complaint or force them to change the way they operate. As an ombuds service, we implement remedies to individual complaints. If you submit a complaint with us and we find that your service provider didn’t meet their obligations to you when they changed the price of a service, we can require them to implement a remedy that resolves your complaint.

Information we need to help you

If you file a complaint with the CCTS, our goal is to assess your concern quickly and thoroughly. To help us do that, you should include as many important details in your complaint as you can.

For example:

When did the price increase occur? Did it appear on one bill or several?
Did you receive notice of an increase? When did you receive notice?
What type of contract do you have? Does it renew month-to-month or are you in a fixed-term contract?
What reason did your service provider give for the price increase? Do you believe they have broken your contract agreement or a consumer protection code of conduct?
What steps have you taken to resolve the concern with your service provider? Did you give your service provider a reasonable opportunity to correct the issue?
What is your desired outcome for the complaint? What do you want your provider to do?

Gather this information before you submit your complaint for an easier submission experience. You will also have an opportunity to provide documentation to support your complaint, so make sure you have copies of your bills, contract and anything else that might help us help you. The more information you can give us, the better.

Learn more about the information and documentation we need to help you.

Submit a complaint to the CCTS

If you’ve given your service provider a chance to resolve your concern and they refused, didn’t respond, or you weren’t satisfied with their resolution or explanation, it may be time to submit a complaint to the CCTS.

Make sure you have all the necessary information ready, then submit your complaint online.