Disappointing customer service process

There is a “connection fee” charged unless you do it online. It is currently $80. Unless there’s a promo, doing it through a rep will have this fee charged. Plans often have to be renewed more and more with a new in market plan if you choose to get a phone on a tab. 

Add-ons it would depend on the add-on itself. Typically they get knocked off if you change rate plans, but discussing with a rep to have them kept if it’s an add-on that can be retained is an option. What are the add-ons you are trying to keep? 

Edit: I apologize I misspoke and there should not be any connection fee charged as of 12 Jun 2026. 

​@DavidP 

We are sorry to hear about this experience!

Will you please share at which point during the process you are informed about a $80 connection fee? If it online, can you please share a screenshot of that part? (please hide any personal info, as this is a public forum)

Connection fees have been eliminated, so the rep has misinformed you. 

If you do not want to change your plan when upgrading your phone, I would suggest you to consider getting a second-hand phone from Facebook Messenger, Kijiji, or eBay. You may also want to check out Mobile Klinik for a CPO device.

The connection fee or no connection fee is only one point and often a rep will say that they can waive the fee to make you feel better.  The bigger issue is how difficult phone companies are making it to contact them and easily deal with an issue, complaint or request.  Their AI is not very intelligent and thief platform is clunky.  Going through chat boxes to get to the point where you schedule time to TALK to someone is frustrating.  Being on hold when you do have a call is infuriating.  I am polite on these calls and so are the agents.  I suppose they have processes they have to go through.  Actually they are better at handling service issues than they are with service requests.

Unfortunately it has become more of a norm for the “flanker” brands of the main telecomms and has been a thing for some years now. There is a consistent push across all sectors to minimize the need to have on-call reps for customer support. I do wish that the assist was better at getting a callback setup if needed, but it’s always going to be a callback setup to speak live over the phone with a rep. Otherwise there’s a mix of the expert message setup and the forum here. 

I have added a correciton in my answer to correct that there are no upgrade fees that can be charged as of 12 Jun 2026.

Koodo rep

Hello. This is Josuhe from the Koodo Expert Messaging team. I want you to know I'm a human and live agent. I also understand that having a solution to your request is important for you, so I will make sure to do my best and provide an immediate solution today. Please be aware that this is an async interaction, which means that the answers may not be immediate. However, I can assure you that I will be working in the back end to provide you with the most suitable solution. I’ll do my best to help !

Thank you for your patience today. I'll be glad to help. I understand you're interested in upgrading your phone. I understand you’re reaching out today for getting a new refurbished iphone. I can also see we talked with another agent yesterday about getting an iphone 15 without changing your plan. Considering there is a $80 connection fee by doing this with an agent like myself, I would like to suggest before doing this on the webiste. That way, you wouldn't get to pay any extras for your new phone ! f If you want to see what deals we have available for you for upgrading your phone. Please enter the following link and select whatever phone you prefer on the website. : https://www.koodomobile.com/en/phones?prov=on&INTCMP=KMNew_NavMenu_Shop_Phones&category=ios The system would then take you to the plan selection page where you will be able to choose among the available options.

That is not right. Let me flag a rep for you.

While I appreciate the comments from the mobile masters, I am more interested in actual Koodo or Telus rep responses.  Maybe some indication of how to deal with issues with their customer service.  Referring to Koodo as a “flanker’ brand doesn’t absolve Telus (the owner brand) of how customer service is provided.

Hi ​@DavidP 

We are sorry to hear about this experience and for the incorrect information provided in the previous interaction!

As ​@MilkyWay and ​@Goran confirmed, the connection fee is no longer applicable. 

 We have just sent you a PM to confirm some more details and make sure your concerns get addressed, please check your community inbox when you get the chance.

Its not an absolvation so much as the lower cost à service is, typically the less features you have. Koodo has always billed itself as a self-serve brand, where the more premium features and experiences are with the main label of Telus. It could be handled better, but it's going to focus on support being more on the customer where feasible.

And naturally you'd want an official rep to make such things clear, and  there has been one as well here to do so.