The scenarios don’t matter as much as the result when it comes to cancelling a service from the likes of Rogers, Bell, Telus, Shaw and even Wind and Mobilicity. If you’re looking to port your cell phone number over, or you’re cutting the cable or satellite cord — whatever service it may be — these providers mandate 30-days notice. Whether it’s fair or even ethical is debatable, but here’s why it happens and what you can do about it.

Cancellation notices and policy are largely derived from the terms found in contracts offered by the major providers. It wasn’t always this way, of course, but it certainly is now, and it doesn’t matter if you’re under contract or not.

Suppose you’re a Rogers customer and you have both wireless and cable Internet service with them, but you want to cancel your wireless service to port your number over to Wind. You’re not under contract for either service, so you’re essentially free to leave whenever you see fit. Under these circumstances, you would still have to provide 30-days notice, and if that wasn’t enough, you would also be billed for whatever number of days of your billing cycle are left outstanding after the 30 days.

Here’s another scenario: you will be working in a foreign country for six months and want to cancel your wireless service around the exact day you’re leaving. The 30-day notice applies in these cases, too, so you would have to time it to end the day before you leave. But again, you would also be charged for the remaining days of your billing cycle.

If you’re under contract and the above scenario applies to you, you might be able to convince your provider to cut you a break on the rest of the contract term, but that’s not always a guarantee. Definitely call and ask to speak to a supervisor.

Here’s what a Rogers representative had to say to us when asked about the 30-days notice required for cancelling service:

Like many businesses, we do require our customers to provide 30 days’ notice before cancelling their service. This requirement is laid out in our terms of service.

A 30-day notice period is common throughout the telecommunications industry as well as other businesses that bill customers on a monthly basis. In the telecommunications industry, this includes large providers such as Rogers, Bell and Telus and small competitors such as Distributel and Primus.

Advanced notices are also used by other businesses that bill monthly including insurance companies, fitness clubs, and so on. This billing practice is very common and widely recognized by consumers.

This is Bell’s take on the policy:

All customers have a contract with Bell outlining terms of service. Where applicable, the terms of service provide for a 30-day cancellation period, which is common practice in the industry.

The 30 days helps avoid surprises after the account is closed by ensuring all items from the last billing cycle are identified prior to cancellation. The cancellation period also allows customers time to back up emails, contacts, etc. as well as enjoy uninterrupted service if circumstances change and they choose to remain with Bell.

There are, of course, exceptions where accounts can be cancelled without the 30 day period. Irresolvable technical issues, moving from a consumer to business account and some extreme situations (i.e. fire, flood, etc.) are some examples.

In cases where you think you’ve been wronged, treated unfairly or forced to pay for services that aren’t even active (i.e. the remaining billing cycle days), there is some recourse.

The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/ is an independent organization that hears grievances and complaints from the public about their service providers and then works with both sides to solve the issues. This form of conflict management and resolution can lead to results, since the CCTS goes directly to high-level executives instead of customer service reps.

What the providers do say about the 30-day notice being fairly standard is true, as there are other industries that practice this policy, but the bigger issue may actually be that billing continues even after the services are no longer rendered. The only time that you could cancel on a wireless carrier cold turkey is if you’re a prepaid customer.

The CCTS has a reputation for being prompt in referring complaints to the providers who have partnered with them, so if there’s no way of resolving things directly with your provider, that could prove to be a good route to take to try and come to an amicable solution.

Unfortunately, there are no bulletproof options when it comes to these issues, but at least the providers are under some pressure by the CCTS to address complaints quickly and thoroughly. That’s the way customer service should be.