LeeMobile

Okay, so maybe “Bell Horror Story” is an exaggeration, but here is my own clash with the huge telecommunications company and their utter lack of customer support.

I lived in Ottawa last year for my internship, and being the geek I am (or rather, any red blooded westerner) I had to subscribe to high speed internet. I signed up with Bell for their high speed service.

The service was great, and I got pretty blazing fast speeds for a dsl service. I couldn’t complain. Eventually my internship ended and I returned my rented modem as I moved back to Edmonton. This was at the end of December of 2005.

Three weeks later I got my credit card statement showing a charge of $207 by bell. There’s no explanation at all. A week later I get a letter in the mail for the charge, filed under “miscellaneous charges”. Hmm…. wtf? There surely must’ve been a mistake. Mind you, I never authorized them to charge that amount to my card… they just went and did it.

I call their help desk. After being put on hold for almost 40 minutes, I finally reach someone. I find out that apparently I hadn’t returned my modem, and that’s what the charge is for. The person on the other line is of no real help and they said they’ll “transfer” me to someone who can fix the problem. Phone goes dead… click. Thanks buddy.

I email them, and through their lengthy email screening process to finally get a reply in March. They said I did return the modem, and that I’ll be receiving a cheque in the mail in 4 to 6 weeks. Hooray!

Six weeks pass and no cheque. By the time that happens, I’m on the road for a big two week road trip and fly back to Ottawa for work during the summer. I come back in September expecting a cheque from them. Nope.. no deal.

Again I call. Again I get put on hold for a ridiculous amount of time (45 minutes this time around). I talk to someone who can’t solve my problem and transfers me to someone who should be able to help me. “I’ll transfer you now sir… *click*”. I’m starting to think that the “transfer you to someone important” really is a “I’m going to hang up cause we don’t want to help you” maneuver.

I take the email route, and find that the bell website will only handle emails if you are a current bell customer. Great. Just fantastic. I send one to the old replies I had and cross my fingers. A week passes by and they apologize, saying my money is on its way again and will be here in 4 to 6 weeks. This time, 8 weeks pass by before I get my cheque… which is today. I love how it took them 10 months to figure out that they charged me unfairly, without my authorization, and that I had to hunt them down to fix things.

I’m never going with Bell ever again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.