Some cell phone customers are outraged after a price increase to their phone bills, after switching over to major carriers thanks to a lucrative promotion.

“They shouldn't be allowed to get away with that, it just said that it was going up ten dollars a month,” said TELUS customer Andrew Korycki.

Korycki was one of thousands who took advantage of a $60 a month promotion offered by TELUS, Rogers and Bell back in 2017.

He says he signed up over the phone, but wasn’t told the pricing could change after a year. Then he received a letter informing him that his monthly bill was set to go up.

“I wouldn't have switched my plan for sure right, if I had known it was going to keep going up,” said Korycki. “I'm not very impressed with them at all, it breaks the trust for sure.”

A telecom consultant says the promotion was intended to bring back customers that had left some of the bigger carriers for low cost alternatives.

“That's what ignited this whole thing right was the discount providers offered it so the big providers said hey we'll jump on board we can offer that as well,” said Mohammed Halabi of Mybillsarehigh.com.

CTV News reached out to the top providers, receiving responses from TELUS, Rogers and CTV’s parent company Bell.

TELUS says it does not take the decision to increase the cost of services lightly, adding that they “recognize this increase has an impact on our customers.”

Rogers argued it regularly reviews and adjusts it’s plans to reflect ongoing network investments, while Bell says it always provides at least 30 day’s notice if it makes any changes to no fixed term plans.

The spike has some suggesting that telecom companies simply have too much leeway, and consumers will have to pick up the phone to get their power back.

“They have full legal right to do this. Of course the CRTC or the CCTS can step in and introduce some regulations that can protect customers when they subscribe to a plan,” said Halabi.

"If enough people call in and voice their concern over this that some action will be taken.”

With files from CTV Edmonton’s Regan Hasegawa