Winback rules are one of the more contentious issues in the rules for ILECs competing in the local services business. We recently wrote about a Bell win against Videotron on one of the skirmishes in the winback wars. On Tuesday, Primus lost another winback battle.
The winback rules state:
… an ILEC is not to attempt to win back a business customer with respect to primary exchange service [(PES)] or local VoIP [Voice over Internet Protocol] service, and in the case of a residential customer of local exchange service (i.e. PES or local VoIP service), with respect to any service, for a period commencing at the time of the local service request and terminating three months after that customer’s primary local exchange service or local VoIP service has been completely transferred to another local service provider, with one exception: ILECs should be allowed to win back customers who call to advise them that they intend to change local service provider.
[Decision 2006-15, p.486]
So, the CRTC cut the winback prohibitions to 3 months (from 12) in Decision 2006-15 and Primus fought an uphill battle to try to argue that the Commission should stick to its guns and keep to the original 12 month prohibition. My first reaction in reading the Primus application was to call their lawyer and ask if he felt a little guilty taking their money – the chances of winning were so slim.
To have the CRTC review and vary a decision requires a demonstration of substantial doubt as to the correctness of the original decision. Indeed, the CRTC said that
Primus has not presented new evidence to raise any doubt, let alone substantial doubt, as to the correctness of the Commission’s determination.