Jan
23
Few people I know would disagree that Bell Canada has just about the worse customer service they have ever encountered.
As a subscriber to their DSL service several years ago, I tried to return a defective DSL modem they had supplied me with. She went through insisted her little decision tree, which eventually concluded that the problem was either with their modem or my network card.
The only way to exonerate my network card was by running a utility she supplied, but which was not compatible with my system’s configuration. I knew the modem was the problem, because I tried a friend’s and it worked perfectly with my setup. I told the Bell customer support agent this.
It was to no avail. I tried to explain to her the logic of what I was telling her, but she wouldn’t sway from her script and pre-planned decision steps, before finally getting angry and me, blurting out:
- Sir, do you want me to get fired for helping you?
Suddenly, it all made sense. If you work for Bell Canada, you shouldn’t help your customers, lest you risk getting fired.
So figure how surprised I was when my mother received a card from Bell after dumping them as her local telco. How thoughtful that a company the size of Bell Canada would take the time to send a cute little card to tell their customers “it was better with you here.” This, after she made it very clear to their telemarketers that she was not interested in returning to their service. Here’s a scan of the front and inside of the card:
In case some of you don’t get the message Bell is trying to send, here’s a rewrite, in plainer English, of their text:
It was better before deregulation.
Dear [xxx],
I’m writing to say that we are sorry to have lost our monopoly position in the market. Even though greater choice, lower prices and better service are driving millions of Canadians away from us, there’s still a sucker born every minute.
Unfortunately, since you asked not to be contacted again, we have to wait three months before resuming our harassing calls to you. We’re counting down the days because we’d rather spend time harassing disatisfied customers than figuring out how to actually provide a service that people want.
Tags: Bell Canada, Bell, marketing, telemarketing, permission marketing
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30 Responses to “Bell Canada sucks (or, how NOT to practice permission marketing)”
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About George Favvas
George Favvas is a serial web entrepreneur based on Montreal, Canada. He's been involved in the web since 1994 and is currently the President of SmartHippo, a community-driven comparison shopping site for financial products and is the co-founder of Reflexity, Inc., a provider of customer acquisition solutions for financial companies.
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We at Bell understand the frustrations some customers face when dealing with their telecommunication needs. There can be misunderstandings, improperly set expectations and pricing pressures that can affect relationships. Indeed, there are many regulations that impact how we interact with our customers. But Bell fully supports a deregulated market and does not support a monopoly environment. Rest assured that Bell has put a tremendous amount of focus on customer service and we have very powerful teams in place to address any customer satisfaction issues. For those reading this blog, please contact us at 310-Bell or 611 when you encounter any problem. If you have a problem and know an employee at Bell, ask them to use the “Satisfaction” program internal to Bell and they can log a complaint directly into senior management. Most of the problems logged using this process are solved within 48 hours. In addition, I can be reached at [email address deleted April 16, 2008 at request of comment author] and will help if I can.
Rest assured that we are committed to servicing our customers and solving any problem they have. I encourage your readers to continue to provide us the opportunity to earn and keep their business.
Regards,
Nick McGregor
My personal dismal experience dealing with Bell, faithfully for nearly 30-years, the company has absolutely no comprehension of customer loyalty.
To trim a story short I could tell would be well over 1000 words, Bell will not accept your request to downsize or remove a feature from your business telephone needs; I repeat they will not permit it (this is just my story, I’ve heard more from other business people).
The bastards held me hostage to a rate from a contract that expired over a year. I stopped paying. Push came to shove threatening to disconnect my service; I gave in to pay BUT I turned around and refuse to pay them another penny on the final day I will ever talk with Bell. All in the same day, three different reps gave me three different outstanding balances I owe. The low to high total I was given spanned a difference of two-hundred dollars; they’re making up the prices.
English is my first language; I don’t have issues with anyone. But I really don’t give a rats ass of your opinion of me but another big problem I have is when Bell wants something from me (money) they have a very distinct francophone, who is just plain rude with such a thick accent I can barely make out what he or she is saying; but if they want my loyality by offering promotional features and services it’s always a cheery and polite english-speaking person.
Shall I expand on my story or should I talk about my friends who have had similar bad experiences or how about my tech buddy who cancelled his Express-Vu but Bell continued to charge his credit card for eight months.
Alexander Graham Bell would be rolling in his grave if he had any idea how is name is being flushed down the toilet like a nugget and how their customers are being treated.
This is utter nonsense and your comments border on bigotry.
Bell Seems very screwed up from a customer aspect. Well take it from me there even worse on the inside. I can’t even begin to tell you how bad this truly is because I really don’t know the whole scope of it. I know guys who’s paychecks are regularly incorrect, Usually in Bells favor or also how HR seems to be broken and they will go out of there way to not speak to other HR departments in other devisions. A lot of the problems I have seen truly do stem from people not doing there jobs and the only thing that I can possible think that is the root cause is the unions. They atmosphere that they breed is mediocre to say the least.
Bell’s customer service is truely the worse I have ever dealt with. There will be no changes, until consumers demand the change. Some customers of Bell have no alternative company in their area to use. The ones who do have other companies they can use should contact those companies and see what they have to offer, if they are not happy with Bell. Personally, I can hardly wait until there is an alternative in my area. I cancelled my Bell Express Vu due to poor customer service, I cancelled my Sympatico due to poor customer service, I cancelled my cell phones with Bell Mobility due to poor customer service. I will never go back, how can anyone believe anything Bell customer service tells you? I do not know anyone who has “not” been lied to by Bell Customer Service. They seem famous for promising something free for all your troubles and then not giving you them to you, or giving it to you only to charge you later. “Famous Bell Quote”, I am very sorry I do not see anything on your file stating that you were promised that service for one month free or what ever the promise made to you was. I can hardly wait until I can cancel my landline with Bell Canada and once and for all be rid of them for good. I will admit that some of the other companies are “almost” as bad. You can usually pick them out by the terms and length of contracts they want you to lock into. If they provided the best services out there, they would not need to lock people into contracts in order to keep them. Who would leave if they are offered the best prices and best customer service? As a consummer that is all I ask for “The best price and the best customer service”. Someday one of those companies are going to realize this and will profit enormously, leaving those who don’t get it in the dust. What ever happened to the days when honesty, good pricing and customer service was the back bone of all organizations. Somewhere along the line it appears that stick it to the customer charge as much as possible, lie your ass off and pretend you are a customer service rep that cares, has prevailed. “Good Luck to the teachers union”, I am not sure if Bell Canada can be saved, it has been run so poorly that the biggest challenge will be trying to make consumers believe that they have changed and are honest now, I would not believe them. Not even free services or stuff will make me believe them “sorry, I heard that one before, and fell for it”.
If you’re dead bell will still screw you My father passed away and as both my mother and father each had there own phone line My mother called to cancel the second service and to clear up the account after being told the balance she did not believe she paid it all the same well surprise when the next statement comes in stating the account is in a a credit position after calling bell to get a refund she is told were sorry it is not you’re account and we cannot issue a refund What a great company
I thought I’d google “Bell sucks”. Lo and behold, there’s lots of results. No wonder why. I can’t even get into all the problems here because it’s a waste of my time and energy. After numerous problems, the final straw came yesterday and I called up Rogers and switched over my phone and internet. The english speaking fellow at Rogers, who were taking calls, unlike Bell, said they switch over about 1000 phone lines from Bell to Rogers per day! This did not surprise me, but it gave me a much needed chuckle.
Bell wasn’t taking calls, but they managed to get ahold of my ex-boyfriend before they called me to talk about disconnection. I never gave them his number as a contact on my account, it was just a number to use to reach me before they set up my phone when I first got hooked up. I couldn’t believe it! What a nerve to just start calling numbers before they called ME!!! Their billing was all wrong in the first place and disconnection notice wasn’t warranted to begin with. I hope they hold true to their word and discconnect me as promised. The date is the same day Rogers is showing up to connect me. I never ever had a problem with Rogers. I have no idea why I switched to Bell, but I’ve learned my lesson.
Bell SUCKS!
I’m boycotting Bell!!! They are the most ridiculous company ever. I hope the go down!! YOU SUCK BELL!
Been a long tiome Bell Customer but now it is time to switch as had very bad experience with Bell Customer Service staff.
Confirmation # 84019692
Very Dissatisfied/Disappointed with Bell
I think I would have more success chopping off my legs, replacing my eyeballs with mustard, and then trying to climb Mt.Everest then Bell would have success resolving an issue. I tried to transfer Expressvu from one location to another, after being transferred at least 1,564 times all of a sudden the account was no longer there to be transferred. Then today 2 months later, I get charged with a termination fee. If the writers in hollywood continue to strike, execs need not look any further than the services of Bell Canada to fulfill all their requirements for any comedy programs. What a joke. Letterman could open up his show with “Did you guys hear the one about the satisfied Bell Customer??” They’ll be rolling in the aisles.
Consumers need to strike back, please join me in starting a productive boycott of Bell. If anyone knows of a contact high up on the Bell food chain (I’m talking Lexus driving, Armani wearing, coke sniffin exec) to express all of our ‘displeasures’ with, feel free to provide it. If others can provide other avenues of expression, sign me up for that too.
Habs inside/out site saysanglo Canadians are cry babies, as their West teams as well as Toronto are losers, and dont even know how to use a phone, let alone pay a bill. Montreal and Quebec rule Canada.
As a general rule my service and customer service have been excellent. The one big problem is if it is a significant issue no one wants to resolve the problem. Does any one have a phone number to a person who will listen and try and solve the problem not become a record and give the same answer over and over again. I know there is a number to the executive office but can’t find it.
1-866-317-3382
or
Bell Canada Executive Office of Customer Relations
P.O. Box 593, Station A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1E4
or
executive.office@bell.ca
They are definitely beyond help, what a pathetic excuse for a company. I hope the Teacher’s Pension Fund comes in and clears out all the useless management and I am sad to say that I currently work for them! What a lame dead horse of a company.
Hi, I got hooked up with bell on Friday of this week..it’s monday today still no port..I have been on the phone all day trying to get this number ported..Ive been on hold now for about 15 mins..I bet she lost me….lol well a three year sucks..hey she just came back online after 20 mins to inform me that I could have got a temp number if it was known earlier that there was a problem but now they say its on telus end…im going to call them and finish this post after that…ok called telus five mins with them..they said the signatures on the line indicate a adsl line even though i dont have the service and no problem he would remove it right away..called back bell went on to the porting number..waited about ten mins..transferred to another number..apperently waiting for someone else but now the music stopped at 17min.. i think its dead..my phone is almost dead..and its a uniden..im going to get the other one and ill be back with a conclusion… well I think its been about 20 mins now.. it is 6:50 pm… I cant sit on the phone anymore so im going to hang up and stop chatting.. or writing this…this sucks..ill book mark it and see how much longer it takes…
Ok, NOw its the next day..my phone is ported but it is still ringing downstairs on the home line so i need to get it disconnected appernetly from telus…lol so ive been at it a couple hours this am all bell..about fifteen min telus… im on with telus right now and they are helping disconnect me. I did try to go on msn live messenger with my unlimited data plan and it indiocated i need to pay an additional 5 bucks so i will beon the phone with them for that.. when it all works i will repost.. and see the first bill
great… the plan i got that he didnt put in the bag (my copy) was suppose to be a 250 min a month corp allin 35 bucks with all the extras..they offered a 30 the same with 200 mins but they didnt have my phone so i drove to the next town…guess what..I called and im on the 200 but for 35 instead of 30..and the unlimited data does not include msn or hotmail as it says it does right here on this page http://www.bell.ca/shopping/en_CA_ON/MBUN.details so if you read that under text is clearly says msn instant messenger and email.. but they say its just that you wont get billed extra for using it but you need to pay an additional 5 bucks a month to use it… what a fn joke.. i jsut drove 40 miles and they wouldnt even admit that i should get 250 mins now…im going to see if i can get out of this.,.life is way too short
Too late! I’ve made other plans and I’m ending all my Bell accounts. For what it’s worth, I’ve never been so disappointed with a company, such as Bell ( Canada? ) Being as top heavy and arrogant as this company seems to be, I’m sure they’ll treat this lost account like lint on their shoe. Without exaggerating, I haven’t heard one good thing about Bell’s service in years. Not that they care though.
Years ago I wanted to go from cable to satellite and when I went to the Future Shop in London, Ontario, they said I had to pay with a credit card only! Due to that stupid and senseless decision on Bell’s part, I went to Star Choice.
Outsourcing your call center was, and still is ,the dumbest idea of those at the top level ever. Where’d you get those decision makers from, the same people who greet you at Wal-Mart? My apologies to Wal-Mart greeters. I’m sure the greedy company saved money by outsourcing their call centers, but it can’t possibly last much longer. People like me who don’t like change or the hassle it takes to do it, will do exactly as I have, get rid of a company. How’s the stress level amongst the employee’s? Oh wait, you don’t care, cause you’re up there on top of the world!
Bell has the worst customer service by phone and online, but I’m way down here, so who cares. I’ll be closely watching the value of Bell Canada and it’s subsidiaries within the next year, along with the other folks down here who decide where you’ll go in the future
DON’T CALL
DON’T EMAIL
DON’T MAIL, UNLESS IT’S MY FINAL BILL!
Thank-God,
Jim Greer
You have reached Bell Internet Services, my name is Rajkamal Narla and I
appreciate the opportunity to respond.
After going through your email, I understand your concern. I like to
help you with this. I have checked with your account and could see that
you have upgraded your service to Essential. As per our records, the
speed whic hyou are getting is good speed. I will provide you with some
steps, please chekc with these steps.
We recently switched over to Wightman telecom for home phone and internet services and are we glad. This company called Bell had jerked us around long enough. First it was the internet, could not get the help I needed to get it running again. Then, after fooling around with trying to get help, I was promised a new computer within 2 weeks. Two weeks came and went and no computer. I was told a computer was not ordered. I was also told the computer would cost me $64.00. This sounded funny. They failed to tell me the computer was $64.00 a month for 36 months. Talk about a jerk off company. A co-worker of my husband switched over to Wightman as well. Bell swayed her back promising to send her $300.00 if she did go back. Well, she went back, NEVER TO SEE THE $300.00 PROMISED HER. What kind of company does that???? I also switched over to Rogers for my cell phone. Bell should be ran out of business. I was reading another blog, and one chap said that he had been working for Bell for a number of years and Bell was losing customers for at least 10 years. One would wonder after 10 years of losing customers, they would get the hint and correct the errors of their ways and become a respectable company again.
well, I sent a letter to corp office only my home phone is now my cell so i dont want toanswer, they left a message on my phone (hadnt even set the voice up yet) and then i tried over and over to call back,. nothing yet , couple more days gone…
I am going to try to just switch to the 30 plan that was still offered when i first started this crap.. and as for live messenger there are other options like ebuddy etc… now that my phone browses the right dir with opera4 things will be ok without there rip off extras..
but the point is why do companies like this teach or allow there employees to lie and cheat their customers.. r they in it for only the contract… In my business i want repeats and if i don’t offer something then i simply tell the truth.
Bell my Grandpa would be ashamed of all his Bell stocks now that you’re so dishonest if he were still alive.
The executive office is useless. The only thing they do is give a read response on WHY you will owe them money in the end. I plan on cutting off my service to Bell tomorrow. They treat you like a piece of SHITTTT even though you give them 150 dollars of your money or more every month…..absolutely dispiciable…
The woman that called me back from the executive office stated she gets a LOT of calls from confused customers that have an all in one bill…. I signed up for an all in one bill, got 3 sepearate bills, cleared my balance to 0 dollars in sep 07, and now after paying 150 every month I SOMEHOW magically owe them 455 dollars or MY service will get cut off!!! lmfao!! go fuck yourself bell
I quit!
Class action suit against wireless companies
http://www.merchantlaw.com/cellular.html
Mr. McGregor left us an email address and tries to sell us more bs about the Bell Way of Confusing us with poor service and dumb platitudes. He deletes his email address after a couple of days. I guess he left the kitchen!
Boycott companies which cause you frustration. There is more to life than Bell and you’ll be much happier if you don’t deal with businesses who cause you grief. There are alternatives to landline phones (cell phones, voip, digital phone service, etc…) Instead of venting frustrations online, find solutions to your problems. Life is short. Enjoy it, instead of complaining about Bell or Microsoft or Dell or Dodge or McDonald’s, ad infinitum…
Bell has good services but the customer service… dissatisfying… I was trying to reactivation my internet service from bell because it was being paid by credit card and my card expired and they suspend my account. I called, the first person picked up and I spoke 2 lines then I got transfered. Another person picked up I spoke one line, BOOM! transfered.
I was starting to get frustrated. The next person picks up and said, “how may I help you today?” Then I told her That I want to switch to paper bill instead of credit card, she did do it. On the next week I paid the bill but why am I not getting my internet(dsl light not flashing) I called again. The person picked up and I said that I’m not getting internet through my line. He said that I was suspended and I yelled to him, “I ALREADY PAID UP!!!!!!!!! DAMMIT!” He quickly checked and said, “Oh! You have! I’ll quickly connect you back!” I grunted. I finally got my internet back. For people how wants internet service, DON’T CHOOSE BELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bell is a pain in the ass. Forgive me for being a Teen (litterally) but ok so my Papa told me to call Bell, ’cause we just switched our Bell homephone to Rogers, so the internet doesn’t work anymore since the number is switched (we had Bell Sympatico for our internet service). I called Bell and the first Rep was “OK” I guess, he told me I needed to get an “Dry Loop Connection” or something like that so he transferred me to the right department.
I waited FOURTY minutes till the next rep picked up. I told her about the “Dry loop Connection” thing, but then she ignored that and asked me “Who’s account is this?” I honestly told her that it was my Papa’s account, but then she made up an excuse for not letting me make a “Dry Loop Connection” (So The internet will work again)and treated me like a baby! It was so damn rude of the rep.
I FRIKKIN’ HATE BELL. I truly feel sorry for Alexander Graham Bell…
As the market place changes, ALL companies have to find a way to deal with the areas that once never existed. Business & personal solutions that were once easy now cross over many different platforms and since not one solution works for everyone (after all we are a society of “I need it now” people) ALL companies must struggle with the increasing demands that consumers put forth. Is Bell perfect? NO WAY, but be careful what you wish for - imagine waking up in a world where Bell no longer existed - how would you get e-mail on your blackberry (opps wouldn’t have one), or talk to your mom in England (you’d have to spend $$ to go see her once every 5 years). Bell doesn’t make the rules about how they’re allowed to do things, someone else does, they are merely trying as best they can to connect literally billions of people everyday. How many times can you say your home phone actually didn’t work when you wanted to make your booty call at 4am? Personally, these hassles are part of my daily life as a small business owner and the calmer I stay in dealing with things, the better I get my point across to actually resolve the problem then get upset and yell at everyone I can.
I called Bell on April 30th to change the date I wanted my phone disconnected from May 1 to May 14. After 35 minutes on hold and three customer service agents I was ASSURED it would be taken care of by the end of the day (they had already erroneously disconnected the phone). I called the number today from my cell and still disconnected so I called back and got an absolutely apathetic customer service rep who tried to convince me my phone hadn’t been disconnected yet DUHH. Another assurance it would be reconnected - yeah right. What a pathetic excuse for service BUT I have to tell you I have found customer service in general is pathetic these days as a whole.
Is it not time for a competitive market? I’ve been screwed by Bell soo many times, I’d never go back to them even if they were the cheapest (just on principal). I’ve had my rates for cell phone jacked up to almost 60+/month (even though I rarely used it, and this was going on 4 years ago). I’ve been told there is only a name charge, oh.. yes there is a charge, oh.. no, and $300+ later I got a phone line (this was for a sublet in which the guy had to come and switch a couple of jacks). I’ve been able to add additional features to a line that I was not the account holder on (shared cottage) but not been able to remove them because I was not the account holder on them (this was the cream de la crem). They told me since I was not the account holder that I could not remove the service. However, I was the one that added the service in the first place with no questions asked. The service I had signed up for was a “whether inside or outside all costs are covered”. When I singed up for it, they had said that someone had come out and inspected the site and found it was an “inside problem”. I said sure, sign me up since it was going to be something like $80 to just come out and it was only something like $2 a month for a 18 or 24 month contract. Well, the Bell guys (in a remote location) came out and said they had never been there and it turned out to be an outside problem). When I tried to cancel that service , they said I couldn’t. I got up to business managers that never called back and in the end I gave up and dropped it. In hind-sight, I probably could have sued them for that.
It’s tough to comment on most of these posts. Too many of them are poorly-written rants with more emotion than logic.
That being said, I agree. Bell blows.
Prices, promotions and customer service sucks across the board. No matter what company you choose as a provider.
The biggest problem with Bell is that it’s completely focused on marketing and nothing else. That means that prices are only lowered when competitors make the first move. And there is zero loyalty. You’re more likely to get a good deal as a new customer than you are as a 20-year subscriber.
I’m speaking from the inside. I’m a former employee of the website division. That place was a circus to put it lightly. Ideas and common sense are crush very quickly, and marketing goombahs are given ultimate power. They use amateur tactics and high school teachings to suck in new customers while hiding hidden fees and end-of-promotion slaps to the wallet. It’s almost disgusting.
No matter what provider you choose, you’ll lose. But I’m game for a grand-scale effort to move away from Bell. Perhaps teaching the stakeholders even a small lesson is our only option.