I should probably stop being surprised by stuff like this. And I probably will, just not today. I was getting ready to leave yesterday morning, and take Jessica back to Ottawa so she could get back home to that job she loves so much, and also formulating in my head the content of that update I actually have yet to put on paper–or, at least, online. We were due to leave at about 11:30 yesterday morning. At about 20 after 11, I get a phone call from Bell Canada, who I sadly have yet to fully ditch after losing their internet service over two years ago. It’s from their accounts receiveable department. Strange, I think, since the bill isn’t actually due for another few days–and besides, didn’t they already suck out their alotted portion of my soul for this month? Still, we’re already kind of getting into a time crunch, what with making sure Jess has everything ready so we can just grab her stuff and fly. So, knowing we have to leave, knowing they’re closed today, knowing they’ll be closed by the time I get back from Ottawa–turns out, they closed about 2 hours before I got back from Ottawa, I perhaps slightly less diplomatically than I should, tell them I’ll deal with it on Monday. I’d just add it to the list of about a dozen other phone calls I have to make then. Closed ’til Monday, right? Well, er, not really.
We do the Ottawa run, drop in to see folks before ducking out, get back here at 7. Jess is due into Toronto any time now, so I hang out for a bit then decide to call her, make sure the drop kicking of personnel isn’t required so soon into her trip. Pick up the landline, no dial tone. Weird again, I think–it worked well enough that morning for Bell to call me, and our ride to Ottawa to call me after that to say they’re here. Figure it’s just a temporary glitch type thing–the lines here sometimes will do that, for no apparent reason other than somebody thinks it’s fun to not fix things like that. So a few minutes later, I try again, same result. Well, okay, screw this. Grab the cell phone, dial my home number. Number’s not in service. Okay, now this is getting slightly irritating. So I call up Bell’s tech support via my cell phone, which routes me to accounts receiveable–who just so happens to be closed, call back on Monday. So now, as it stands, before I make any of the multiple calls that need to be made tomorrow, I first need to line up and jump down Bell Canada’s throat. Again. This is almost getting to be routine.
Bell. I paid you. Probably more than I should, considering the current state of my bank account. Kindly give me back my phone service so I may make significantly more progress in being gainfully employed, so I can come up with more money with which to pay you until such time as I can work ditching you completely into my plans. And then promptly shove your overeager bill collectors through the nearest doorway to hell. That’d be all kinds of appreciated.
4 responses to “Attention Bell Canada. I paid you. Why for you kick me?”
I sometimes question which is worse, Bell Canada, or Rogers. It really is a toss up. I am currently using my DSL modem at 64kbps, yes that’s “bits per second”, where it ought to be something like 8mbps (for non-techies that = a whole hell of a lot faster). Why you may ask? As did I, the answer from Bell Canada was to send a technician to my house today.
I was actually quite surprised to hear this, a technician, a live person in Canada, and on a Sunday, hurrah! So I waited from 12pm – 6pm, as I was told… nobody showed up. I contacted Bell Canada tech support and was told the technician would be arriving between 6pm and 8pm, so I waited… nobody showed up. So I contacted tech support again. Apparently they have no idea why the technician didn’t show up, but they said the problem will be fixed in 24 – 48 hours. My face slowly turns blue as I hold my breath.
Far be it for me, someone that has had to work in tech support in the past to criticize the tech support representatives at Bell Canada, I can hardly imagine working there. But, Bell on the other hand, you have some of the worst customer service and internal communications of any company that I have ever dealt with, including certain departments of the Federal government.
Wow. You’ve got it worse with Bell Sympatico than I ever did. And really, I’ve had some fun–most of it, I think, is over here. It’s sort of nice to see some things just don’t change.
It used to be no contest, Rogers being way more horrible than Bell. Bell has been good to me for years, but in the last couple of years it seems they’ve been in a race to the bottom and now I’m not sure who wins.
But for Bell, here’s a handy tip: When I subscribe to a bundle that is supposed to make my already quite reasonably priced phone service even cheaper, that does not mean hit a button, unbundle everything, cause my bill to more than double, then not figure this out until 4 phone calls later. It also doesn’t mean try to sell me television service when I’m already angry.
But on the bright side, in the end I have pretty much every service Bell offers for next to nothing thanks to the nice woman who realized that yes indeed, my situation counts as no good and created me a deal that can’t possibly be beaten.
I haven’t posted this yet, but I actually squeezed an answer out of telephone monkey after threatening to cancel the one service I still have with Bell. Once I’m sure that won’t blow up in my face, I may do to that service what I did to my internet anyway.