What’s bugging you?
July 9 2008 by Ellen Roseman
People are getting more annoyed, testy and disgruntled in their dealings with big companies — and sending me emails about it.
I heard from lots of people (both personally and at The Star’s website, which now takes comments) about my column last week on call centres and my sequel.
Not surprisingly, Bell Canada took much of the flak when it came to “broken telephone.” But Rogers also gets static about its heavyhanded attempts to switch former Sprint customers from one telephone technology to another.
I’m also getting complaints about the marketing of new Visa Infinite cards by “negative option.” If you say nothing, you get a new card with a new number. You have to speak up in time to get out. Readers are surprised that banks can use this discredited technique.
Some provinces have banned negative option marketing, but the federal government never did. Even in Ontario which has rules against it, companies like Direct Energy can get around the rules as long as they initially signed up customers before the implementation date (July 2005).
Sometimes, it’s the smallest things that make people angriest. See the correspondence below between Direct Energy and a customer who refuseed to pay $75 to have his rented electric water heater picked up after 20 years.
So, keep this grudgefest flowing. Tell us what makes you really irritated.
BS
Jul 9 2008
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008
To: BS
Dear Mr. S,
Our records show we spoke to you at the end of June and advised you the cost of the pick up. We also provided you with a list of drop off locations. I will have our installation department contact you today to arrange the pick up of our rental hot water tank.
Andrea Higgins
Executive Support Team
Direct Energy Essential Home Services
Dear Andrea:
Welcome back from your vacation.
I have been renting your electric water heater for in excess of 20 years and have switched to a natural gas water heater.
Your tank is taking up room in my garage and forcing me to leave my car in the driveway and I would like it removed ASAP, please. I don’t want to pay the $75 pick up charge.
Tue, Jul 8, 2008
Good morning, Mr. S. As a goodwill gesture, Direct Energy will waive the pick up cost for $75. I will have someone contact you to arrange the pick up.
Thank you.
Regards
Andrea
Good Day, Andrea:
Thank you very much for Direct Energy’s consideration. It is much appreciated.
Have a great day and enjoy the rest of the summer.
BS
Ellen:
I lucked out as Direct Energy is not going to charge me the $75 to pick up their electric hot water tank.
It pays to be persistent.
BS
Unspending
Jul 9 2008
Nothing makes me more angry than waiting to talk to a customer service representative. I recently switched from Royal Bank to PC Financial. No only do I avoid having to pay bank fees, but I’ve been able to speak to someone in less time than I’ve had to wait for an RBC representative.
On a positive note, I had a great customer service experience with Zip.ca’s live chat. Within minutes, “Kylee” was able to fix my problem.
I’ll likely write about it soonon my blog, http://unspending.wordpress.com, but that positive experience has already led me to tell a few friends about it.
VM
Jul 9 2008
Your article about outsourcing phone support struck a responsive chord for me. So many times when I have called Bell Sympatico for technical support, the person on the other end of the line has been almost incomprehensible.
I do not care one way or another about a person’s ethnicity, and while I wish Canadian corporations would keep their employment in Canada, I will reluctantly accept outsourcing. However, one non-negotiable requirement is that a person who is hired to deal with the public should have the linguistic skills to communicate with that public.
Unfortunately, language is not the only problem with Bell’s service. I am attaching a letter which finally (after months of trying) got Bell to address the mess they had made of our billing. It is actually quite funny if you are not the one receiving a bill for $450 above and beyond what is the correct amount.
By the way, my son who is a computer specialist in the telecommunications industry advised me to eschew high tech forms of communication with Bell. He said, “No emails, no more phone calls. Send them an old-fashioned printed letter with your payment.” He seems to have been right.
Bell never bothered to contact us, but the overcharge was rectified on the next bill.
The experience still left us distrustful of Bell and we decided to diversify all our telecommunications services. We were planning to move at last from TV antenna to satellite. Bell’s poor service confirmed that we would opt for Star Choice rather than ExpressVu, and shortly after that we moved our cell phone service from Bell to Rogers.
I am trying to find out if some other company can give us high-speed internet out here. If that happens, we will not only be dropping Sympatico but also switching to internet telephony, and Bell’s share of our communications dollar will be zip. We are voting with our cheque book that Bell really needs to improve its customer service.
March 12, 2008
Bell Canada
P.O. Box 9000
STN Don Mills
North York ON
M3C 2X7
Dear Sirs:
Over the past few months we have experienced several problems with our Bell billing. Let us recap the situation that led up to it.
Your website indicated that the Wi-Max In-Home 2.0 Mbps service was available at our home number and we ordered it. By the way, your website froze up when we attempted to pay for it by credit card at that time. However, a subsequent call from Bell to arrange for installation confirmed that the order had gone through.
On Jan. 15, 2008 a technician came to install the service. He was courteous and efficient, but he could not detect a trace of a signal with his equipment. He explained that the service is line-of-sight and even trees can block it, and he left without doing any installation. We naturally assumed that our dial-up service remained in effect.
We received our January bill with a charge of $100 for wi-max installation and also small charges for wi-max service. We did not worry about the latter, since with the discount for the first three months the charge was virtually the same as for dial-up.
However, we contacted Bell about the installation charge. We thought the phone representative understood the situation, but perhaps he did not. In any case, shortly afterwards, we were astonished to receive a packet instructing us to return our DSL modem or face a charge of $75. As you must know, here in our remote location (all of 100 km north of Toronto!), we cannot possibly get DSL service.
We called Bell again, and after more than an hour on the phone, much of it on hold, we were disconnected. After a few minutes, we called back and went through the whole story again with another representative. He does seem to have been successful in dealing with this as the charge for a phantom DSL modem never appeared on any bill.
To pay the Jan. 28 bill, we attempted to calculate what it should have been by subtracting the Internet charges on it and then adding $21.15, which had been our regular monthly after tax charge for dial-up internet. Rightly or wrongly, we arrived at a figure of $109.04 and paid that amount online. We were shocked when we received a bill for Feb. 28 in the amount of $454.51, even after the payment of $109.04.
We immediately phoned Bell on March 7. We would like to mention that the representative we spoke with was superbly helpful, extremely courteous and patient, and she spent about 1½ hours on the phone with us.
Now consider the charges for internet services on that bill, copy attached.
1. There is a credit for $100, which in effect acknowledges that the wi-max installation never happened.
2. There is an Early Termination Charge of $115. How can we be billed for early termination of a service we never received?
3. There is a charge of $224.08 for Total internet usage (before taxes). Your representative explained that we were being billed $1.50 an hour for accessing the internet by dial-up while we were presumed to have wi-max service. However, either of the above points (credit for non-installation or charge for early termination) would indicate that according to your system we did not have wi-max service.
The representative we spoke to on March 7 reported that she was able to remove the $115 early termination charge, but could not immediately change the charge for internet usage. She therefore advised us to pay $339.51 and promised that we would receive a credit of $235.28 on the bill at the end of March to make up for the improperly billed internet usage charges.
After some thought, we have decided not to follow her advice fully. Bell has put us through a lot of hassle and we have spent about 7 hours of our time on the phone trying to clear up this mess, plus writing this letter.
We are not blaming any person at Bell. In fact, it is quite clear to us that your automated billing software has sent out these ridiculous charges untouched by human brains.
However, in the first place, it has been a lot of bother and vexation for us, so we do not see why Bell should hold our money for a month on account of their mistakes. In the second place, we are senior citizens who allot our resources according to a carefully planned budget. If we pay you money we do not owe you, it will mean that some other creditor will have to wait a month, perhaps the person who snowplows our driveway.
We think Bell is better able to ride out any financial crisis created by our anticipating the credit you should give us. We are therefore paying you $339.51 - $235.28 = $104.23.
In closing, let us suggest it would be nice if Bell not merely accepted this payment of the actual amount we owe but also issued us an additional credit to compensate for all of the time and aggravation we have been put through by your company’s mistakes.
Sincerely yours,
AG
Jul 9 2008
Excellent article on call centres and the almost deliberate lack of communication.
We were with Bell for phone service for many years, and were treated poorly and the service was lousy.
We are now with Mountain Cable of Hamilton (as is nearly 70% of Haldimand County - - says something about Bell, does it not?), for cable, internet and phone, and the service is impeccable.
Bell never lifted a finger to retain us as customers, but since we switched, it is almost non-stop letters, calls and offers to come back, and Bell does not understand that we refuse their “gifts” without even listening to what they are.
Keep up the good work.
MT
Jul 9 2008
My beef with call centres: It doesn’t seem to matter whether they are offshore or not, they can’t answer the question.
Primus used to be terrific in that the support line would give you a system update before the “push button maze” began. If it was a systemwide problem, you knew they were on it and you didn’t have to go through the rest of the process.
Then Primus contracted out every stage of their operation and became useless. Each entity was competing to prove competency and so there were ridiculous delays.
I returned to Bell because, ultimately, it is Bell who repairs the line. Not that Bell’s support people are much good. You simply have fewer layers to go through before somebody physically does something.
A second issue is that the technical support stays at a superficial level. I’m not that sophisticated but I already know to flash the system (restart everything), check for filter (like they’re going to suddenly fall out?) and try it at the demarcation point. The modem’s interface already tells me if a DSL signal is present.
The last time we had an issue, the support people had my wife moving furniture to check outlets. I was furious: they have the technology to tell from their end if there is a signal. But… the support people insist that you must go through their steps. I just grunt.
You can’t tell them you use a Mac, or have more than one computer on a network (even when you have a wireless router). I just grunt: if one computer has a problem, it’s not the network; if they all do, it’s the network. DSL doesn’t care if it’s talking to a Mac or not.
Hmm, guess I’m more annoyed about it than I thought. Thankfully, I’ve got a good setup and don’t need them right now.
KE
Jul 9 2008
I’m having a problem with my TD Canada Trust Visa. I attempted to make a purchase online and my credit card was declined.
I thought this was strange since I had not exceeded my credit limit and the card was valid through to August 2008. When I called TD Visa, I was informed that my card had been suspended because I had failed to call in and activate my new chip-enabled card. The only problem was that I had not received a new credit card yet!
The first representative told me the new card had been sent out on June 24, so it was unlikely that it had arrived yet. I asked that my card be reactivated until I received the new card, but they refused to do this on account of the fact that they are switching to new credit cards with embedded chips that merchants worldwide are supposedly using.
At this point, I became very frustrated and asked to speak to the supervisor. He claimed a card was sent to me in April (again, I never received anything,) but offered to have a new credit card sent to my local bank branch that I could pick up. Again he refused to temporarily reactivate my card so I could use it for the interim.
To my disbelief, but not complete surprise, when I arrived at my bank branch Friday to pick up the card, they had not received anything! They called Visa and confirmed that the card had been sent out, but informed me that there was no way a card sent out Wednesday night would arrive on Friday.
They recorded my complaint as I was the 10th customer to come into their branch in recent days to complain of this same issue and promised to call me when the card arrived.
Now I *may* get my new card on Monday, but in the meantime I am faced with a weekend with no access to a credit card. This is my only credit card. I have been a loyal customer of TD for 20 years and I am thoroughly disgusted with the lack of customer care I have received. I am seriously considering moving my account.
—————————————————————————————–
Kelly Hechler, TD Visa spokeswoman:
Hi Ellen — Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
We (and the other banks) are rolling out the new chip cards in Kitchener and the latest wave was sent out at the end of April. Those cards were to be activated by July 1st when the old cards would be deactived.
There should have been no gap between deactivation of old cards and arrival of new cards — we gave our customers almost two months of overlap between the old cards and the new ones. Not sure why this customer did not receive her new card back in late April or early May — am asking Visa to look into it.
I’m sorry she had a negative experience when she went to get her new card at the branch and it wasn’t there. We’ll try to find out what happened there as well. I’ll get back to you shortly. In the meantime, we’ll do what we can to remedy the situation as quickly as possible.
BS
Jul 9 2008
I enjoyed reading your article on the call centres. I have had to deal with Rogers over the years and I often find it difficult. Generally, the language spoken is understandable - once you get past the annoying thing that answers and routes the call.
But what I cannot understand is why they need my phone number 50 million times. (I may have exaggerated a tiny bit.) Are they that far behind?
I feel my call should travel to each agent without being redone each time - or is this part of Rogers’ plan to aggravate their customers? Does anyone remember “customer service”?
RF
Jul 9 2008
I don’t know if you have noticed changes at the grocery store. In addition to our shrinking economy, packaging (and sizes) has been shrinking too.
The 2 litre sizes of juices, ice creams etc. are now coming in 1.66 - 1.89 litres. And the grocery stores tell you it’s lower pricing!
AM
Jul 9 2008
I had an interesting thing happen with one of those Sunday morning TV infomercials. This was on HGTV.
The product, called the Cricket, was a small, computer type, die-cutting machine that would be perfect for scrapbooking. There were 4,500 patterns you could cut out to precision quality, with an additional 2,300 if you took advantage of their offer, which was $49.95. This would include a 30-day free trial in your home.
I never buy from infomercials, but I thought this was just the thing I needed to make my scrapbooks sing.
I called and was put on hold for 15 minutes, but finally a man came on the phone and asked for my name. He wanted to know if I had seen the infomercial and when I told him I did, he started to explain the “real deal”. (Nowhere in the infomercial did they state that the $49.95 was one of several payments, or that there would be any additional cost other than shipping and handling.)
It seems the $49.95 was the cost of the “free trial.” (Ha ha. I guess no one ever told them definition of the word “free”.) The actual cost of the product was $259.95, which they would be happy to accept monthly payments on, or if I made one full payment I would receive free shipping (value $16).
What a scam this was, to get people to call and hopefully get hooked. Needless to say I never made the purchase, and I think that this was definitely “false advertising.”
I don’t think I will be purchasing any infomercial products in the future either.
RC
Jul 9 2008
Get this for irony: my email exchanges with the billing department at Bell were going nowhere, so I asked someone to call me or for my correspondent to give me a number I could call.
Here’s the answer I got (twice): “We appreciate your situation. Unfortunately, our e-mail team is unable to contact you by telephone, as we are an inbound e-mail centre only.” How about that - a phone company you can’t talk to!
And why was the email exchange going nowhere? Because Bell said there was a problem that did not exist.
They sent me an email to tell me my e-bill was ready. Fine, I expect that. But in the body of the email, it said my credit card had expired and they needed the particulars of an up-to-date card.
My card has not expired, the last statement includes the charge for my Bell service, and I told the polite email service exactly this. Not true, they say.
Meantime telephone service continues, bills get paid. I thought the original email might be a variation of phishing, a scam; that’s why I emailed Bell in the first place.
Now there may be something to this, but how do I find out if I can’t talk to a real, live person (not Emily, please, not Emily).
BT
Jul 9 2008
How can we mere citizens make an impact on the likes of TD Canada Trust with their offshore customer service practices?
One way is to move all personal business away from them and that’s effectively what my husband and I have done. Not entirely because of this new situation with TDCT but it, subconsciously, had an impact on our decision.
We’re now with Manulife One. I’m going to call them today to determine where their customer service people are located and their plans, if any, to go offshore. If all banks follow TD’s lead, we’ll have no one left to switch to.
Perhaps hitting these companies in their pocketbook is the best revenge. Thanks for letting me, and so many others, vent on you.
GT
Jul 9 2008
I bought a package of 5 year - long life bulbs in a six pack from Sam’s Club about one year ago. These are GE brand, made in China, soft white 60 watt equivalent new style 13w bulbs.
The package says over 32 years of light, each bulb equal to 8 incandescents. This rating is based on 4 hour per day use at 120V.
I installed these after my old incandescent bulbs burned out. None of these bulbs has been in use for more than 12 months.
Already I have had 2 bulbs burn out. Both of these bulbs were installed in standard bathroom fixtures and probably never exceeded 4 hours usage on any given day. Many days these bulbs would have been in use for less than half that time.
I do not believe there is any valid reason why these bulbs should expire in such a short period.
Obviously, this doesn’t match the guarantees of GE or the industry standard. For a few bucks, I am not about to go through the process of trying to make a warranty claim with either the retailer or manufacturer.
However, I wondered if you or your readers have received any other comments or complaints on this subject?
DB
Jul 9 2008
I hate it when the customer service representatives lie and say they are not in India.
I first quiz them on some commonly known geographic fact of Toronto. I think, for instance, that everyone who says they are calling from Toronto should know what lake is south of Toronto. Of course, they never get the right answer and often go on with their script. I then tell them they are lying and hang up.
I just got a call last night from someone who said he was calling from Montreal. I asked him what river passes by Montreal and of course he didn’t know.
RDS
Jul 9 2008
I am disappointed with your lack of knowledge about the Indian continent. Let me give you a short course.
1) Most countries have people who speak with accents (Canadians too).
2) Most call centres’ conversations are scripted short and sweet for business purposes.
3) Canadian call centres, you may need to know, are more expensive sell-trained and, more than not, do not answer your questions.
4) You have to wait and I have timed them 10 to 15 minutes to get one to answer them. Yes you have to listen to their annoying music.
Try Rogers call centre (they are Canadian). Then when you get through, call again and see how many different versions you get for the same question.
I guess you now get the picture, more or less now, why more companies are going overseas to get the job done.
Oh! Before I go, Indians are more educated and well-read (scripted or otherwise). Take the time to call your Canadian call centres to find out.
CR
Jul 9 2008
You will most probably get a lot of response to this article from frustrated customers of several corporations.
Bell is one of the worst and considering they are in the communications business, it is doubly annoying to deal with some of their call centres in either India or Malaysia.
Some of the agents are now saying they are in Canada when asked if they are in India or Malaysia…as they know people will hang up. Try calling directory assistance… that is a joke.
It is time that we as tax-paying Canadian consumers insist to companies that call centres remain in Canada. After all, Canadians need jobs…whether they are new Canadians or not.
Overseas call centres are a kick in the teeth to Canadian consumers. It is done to maximize corporate profits… little thought or care is given to the frustration and lack of excellent service that customers have to endure.
NN
Jul 9 2008
For those of us with land-lines only, telemarketers are creating a dangerous situation when they play their unstoppable recordings.
Not having call-display, I can’t ignore their calls because I can’t distinguish the frivolous calls from the legitimate ones. Nor can I report on these companies to an official body since I don‘t know what number they‘re calling from.
Should there be an emergency in this household (both of us are retirees), I couldn’t get through to 911 because no amount of pushing the handset button terminates the message, even if they are no longer talking to me but to my answering machine.
Yes, some of these firms offer the option of removal from their list, but if they are honouring that promise, they seem to be replaced by others who are equally persistent. (It’s just as hopeless a cause as removal from an unsolicited fax list!)
Bell employee
Jul 9 2008
I am an employee of Bell ExpressVu and have witnessed several changes on how their customer service is provided to customers.
You are correct in saying that sometimes the rep with a foreign accent could be located in Canada. The problem that I encounter on a daily basis is the difficulty the client has in understanding that rep.
This results in the client hanging up and calling back until they contact a rep whose diction is clear. This process results in multiple calls being made to resolve an issue that could be addressed the first time if the communication was clear.
Bell ExpressVu has a call center in India that handles most of their technical assistance calls. The company has also opened one in the Philippines where more local calls will be routed. I have transferred calls to India and also received calls from representatives located there. I find it difficult most times to understand what the individual is saying and have to request the rep slow down and speak slowly and clearly.
One can understand the frustration of a client who is faced with such as situation that I deal with on an ongoing basis.
Even if the rep is not located in India, it sometimes is hard to communicate with an individual whose speech sounds garbled.
With regards to the comment you referred to about the rep not seeming to listen to the client, there could be several reasons for this. One I am intimately familiar with relates to the AHT (Average Handle Time): the time one is allowed to spend with clients. The company sets out the handle time and pushes reps to meet the standard.
To avoid having their performance in this area constantly monitored, the rep will try to get the client off the phone as soon as possible. Failure to meet the stated handle time could result in disciplinary action taken against that rep.
Thanks for creating a forum that allows me to present my viewpoint..
LR
Jul 9 2008
With good reason, you have given Rogers and Bell a pretty hard time about their customer service. I thought you might enjoy a good story for a change.
My Mom, who lives close to me, had a stroke on June 2. She was sent to a rehab hospital where she did very well; well enough, in fact, to come home for a weekend pass on the July 1st weekend.
On the Sunday, she called me on her cell phone to say her home phone was not working. I then called her home number, as sometimes there is a recorded message telling you what the problem is.
I was shocked to hear “that number has been disconnected”! This is her lifeline! This is how friends and family contact her!
I immediately called Rogers, expecting to be on the phone for hours. Within a minute, I was speaking to a live person. I explained the problem; he asked to put me on hold for five minutes so he could find the problem.
Again, I expected this to be forever. Within four minutes, he was back. It was a glitch at their end, and he had already called my Mom’s house to let her know everything was fine!
Ellen, I have no doubt it is because of your constant publicity, but they have certainly pulled up their socks, at least with this example. Keep it up!
GT
Jul 9 2008
I always try to catch your column because, for whatever reason, your topics often are things that are irritating me.
Rogers: Why DID the CRTC approve Roger’s takeover of FIDO years back, then just now open up spectrum for competition? Makes no sense to me…
Cable TV: If Rogers can provide print media, cell phones, internet, home phone service, and Bell can provide phones and TV service, why can’t I have competition on the cable co-ax line? Would Cogeco be better? Why are there strict areas for cable companies that date back to the days of Maclean-Hunter, etc. etc. Just wondering.
And your Call Centre feature in Saturday’s Star was brilliant. However, one need not look to call centres, wherever they may be, for this tortured English. Just try any of the local (Toronto) newscasts.
CTV/CFTO is probably the worst with mispronunciations, parsing wrong, emphasis wrong, phrasing wrong, pausing in the wrong place in a given string of words and so on and so on. Global is a close second.
On the other hand, it is so nice to see such stations giving neophytes a start in the broadcast business with their on-the-job training. Yeah. Right. It’s only the end-user/viewer who has to put up with this assault on his/her senses.
JP
Jul 9 2008
Here’s a personal issue I just dealt with. I know it’s probably too petty for your normal efforts but I thought I should add it to your bag of advertising-related complaints.
On June 30, I ordered an HP P1006 printer from TigerDirect.ca at the promotional price of $84.99. They accepted my order and processed it. A number of days later (July 6), someone phoned from TigerDirect and said that HP had discontinued that model and it was no longer available.
Being rather disappointed, I started the search to find another model. And to my surprise, I see that TigerDirect are now selling the same printer at $171.99!!!
After a phone call to TigerDirect, I was informed that HP would no longer give them the promotional price, so it was not their problem. I indicated that I thought this was misleading advertising. They had accepted the order, so they should honour the price.
He said no. The fine print on the website said they could change prices at any time.
Isn’t there a law about this? I used to work at Sears and I know that we would honour prices regardless of what our suppliers did to us.
I spoke to a supervisor, who I think is in Toronto, and he said “no”. I called the order info line (888-771-9999) and asked for a supervisor. He offered to sell it to me “at his cost” which he said was $160!!
I just got off the phone with Visa and they tell me that there was no charge made when they accepted my order at the lower price.
PK
Jul 9 2008
The National Gifting Centre is a hard-sell vacation property/timeshare that tries to trick you into attending their functions by supposedly offering free gifts. The problem is that they just keep calling my wife and me, no matter how many times we tell them to get lost.
There are plenty of references on the web to their deceitful business practices. People need to know about them. They have been issued “cease and desist orders” by a number of states.
They have even entered their own comments on the web, saying how great they were treated by the National Gifting Center in the same broken English of their telephone calls to try to counter complaints.
They lie about how they get your name. It is from the phone book. We know we did not fill out any form because the city they have for us is the old postal district, not the city of Toronto which we would write down.
While their constant calls are only a nuisance to us, I’m concerned that others might be defrauded by them. Financial hardship seems to be experienced by many of their “victims”.
Just in case you want a reference, here is a link to experiences with the Canadian version, located in Woodbridge. Pretty well explains my experience. The U.S. version was investigated in several states.
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-905-481-0571/2
DM
Jul 9 2008
My phone service started with Sprint, but I came to Rogers when they bought Sprint.
I have my phone through a regular telephone wire into the house. I want to keep it that way, but they have told me that they will cancel my service unless I convert to their cable with a modem.
Through a second line in the house, I had experience with them for this service and I want nothing to do with it. The phone line was down for quite some time on several occasions and finally I told them I wanted a regular line.
I took the modem back and they lost it and kept charging me twice for the same line, saying I hadn’t brought back the modem. They were even charging me twice for the same phone number. After quite some time, they finally found it in their warehouse.
It is also because of this that I do not want to have any equipment of theirs in my possession. They will make me responsible for it and even though I am capable of managing this, they are not.
Most companies, if they are not happy with a portion of their business, they sell it off. They don’t threaten their customers with cutting them off if they do not change to a method that is better for them.
Why does Rogers not just sell this block of business to Bell instead of threatening their customers? I pay my bill on time through automatic bank debit and I pay them over $2,500 a year for phone, internet and cell phone. This is not a nice way to treat a good customer like myself.
Lior
Jul 10 2008
What makes me irritated? Well, for starters, companies that I’m a customer of selling my contact information to third party telemarketing firms to call me on their behalf and try to up-sell me.
I had this experience with Rogers about two months ago. While Rogers may keep their in-bound call centres here in Canada, they hire offshore telemarketing firms to call Rogers customers and pitch them other Rogers services.
The Indians who called me were trying to sell me Rogers Home Phone. Now I’m perfectly content with Bell in terms of reliability and pricing, but these pests were just persistent to the point where I hung up the phone on them.
The first Indian calls me on my cell phone, despite the fact that I instructed Rogers to put me on their do-not-contact list when I signed up for their services. His name is “Simon” (probably Sateesh or something). Hmmm… ok.
He tells me about this great offer Rogers Home Phone is having, yadda yadda yadda. I tell him no thanks, I’m busy. He tells me he’ll get his supervisor “Alex” to give me a call later on to discuss the plan. I tell him I’m not interested and never call me again. In the background, you can hear a whole bunch of Indians just screaming as they’re talking on the phones to other Rogers customers, trying to make the same pitch to them.
The bottom line is there’s no accountability. Just because I’m a customer of Rogers doesn’t give them the right to waste my time in trying to sell me their other services. And even if they do want to make a sales pitch to me and earn my business, they may as well put on the line someone who can speak coherent English and understand that no means no and that I don’t want to speak to your friend “Alex” after I told you to get lost.
FM
Jul 10 2008
My husband has a small business and needs to remit GST. Earlier this year, he had problems with the online transfer, so he called TD Canada Trust. When he tried to explain his problem, the other guy asked him, “Can you spell GST?”
How would you spell it? My husband asked where he was located and he insisted he was in Canada – until my husband challenged that he could not not know what was GST. He admitted that he was in India.
Another totally unrelated story: A young lady came by our door, soliciting donations to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). My husband answered the door.
She started reciting the script, including, “Are you a mother yourself?” (She could not see me from the door.) My husband said to her, “Do I look like a mother to you?” She ignored the remark and just carried on with the script.
Needless to say, we are not for drunk driving, but we are not supporters of MADD either.
RS
Jul 10 2008
I recently received a special offer from my credit card company, BMO Mosaic MasterCard, for a reduced interest rate of 3.9% on all balance transfers until July 27, 2008.
Since I have a high balance on my American Express card right now (due to the recent purchase of a car!!), I figured I would transfer this balance to the Mosaic card and take advantage of the low interest rate for the brief period.
On June 11, I called Mosaic C/S to initiate a transfer of $2,193.30. I was told it could take a maximum of 5 business days to show up as completed.
No other information was given to me on this call, except for a confirmation number regarding the transfer.
On June 18, I checked my balance on my Mosaic card and saw this full balance was now placed on the card. I just assumed this meant the transfer had gone through properly and would show up as paid on my Amex card.
Well, unfortunately this was not what happened. One week ago, I received my new Amex bill and found out that the full amount of $2,193.30 was still accruing interest and showing up as a past due account (bad rating).
In fact, right now I am accruing interest on this balance with both credit cards, if you can believe that!!!
I called Mosaic right away after getting this bill and spoke with a manager, who gave me some very surprising information about balance transfers.
It seems the representative I had spoken with to initiate the transfer had given me inaccurate information. Balance transfers can actually take up to 15 business days, not 5, and to make things worse they send the cheque to the other credit card company by regular mail.
This was unbelievable to me. I can’t believe in this day and age of electronic banking over the phone and internet, Mosaic actually sent cheques out by mail (not even courier, so it could be traced).
With all the bank’s protocols for confidentiality and professional ethics, they really dropped the ball with me. If I had been originally told what I know now, I never would have proceeded with the transfer.
One, I would be worried about the risk involved in the cheque getting lost and resulting in non-payment with my other credit card (which is what has actually happened in my case). Two, it would not have been worth the hassle with the special interest rate expiring so soon.
Today, I am held in limbo. The same balance is appearing and accruing interest with both credit cards and no end in sight.
I was told that both Mosaic and Amex are putting a trace on the missing cheque and will let me know when it turns up.
This is so absurd it is almost comical. There is this little thing we as individuals can do when we write a cheque to another individual and it either goes missing in the mail or we don’t receive a specific product or service we paid for. It’s called a “stop payment” and it’s something we do through our own bank branch for a small fee.
I guess Mosaic has never heard of this. If they did, then they could reverse the transferred amount on my card and I could finally go and pay off the Amex balance without having to worry about two different interest amounts accruing.
In fairness to Mosaic, they have assured me that all interest amounts resulting from this error will be taken care of on both cards. But still, I want compensation for my time and aggravation dealing with this problem almost daily and for the unethical way they handled the transfer to begin with. All Mosaic cared about was getting my debt balance on their card, not about giving me the proper info to make a fully informed decision.
I hope this can serve as a warning to your readers that a balance transfer can turn into a real nightmare that could adversely affect your credit also.
Jaz
Jul 10 2008
Like Lior, Rogers called me constantly to try and sell me new products. Everytime I received a call, I asked to be put on their no-call list (I was already supposed to have a no solicitation note on my account, but that apparently means nothing). Each time, I was ignored. I finally wrote to head office, threatening to complain to CRTC and cancel all of my services. I haven’t had a call since.
I don’t know if the people who called me were from India or Canada, but regardless of where they were calling from, they didn’t understand “no.” Sad that you have to go to head office to get anywhere…
CA
Jul 11 2008
I would like to add my voice to the chorus of those complaining about charging people for incoming text messages. This is one of the worst abuses of power in industry I have seen to date.
We will be cancelling our Telus agreement posthaste if this is not overturned. My daughter, who is a university student, relies on text. Her bills would be enormous if she had to pay for text messages that she has no control over.
What a boorish autocratic decision that was! Companies that put these services in place make them indispensible to the general public and then say bend over folks, now we know you can’t live without this, get prepared to pay.
A fixed reasonable rate would be palatable, but certainly not the plan they have suggested. Telus and Bell will find that there is a mass exodus, not because of the money but because of the methodology they have chosen to pursue. With a recession now a reality, I could see people hanging up their cell phones in total disgust!
Jamie
Jul 12 2008
I just had the worst retaii experience in my entire life today.
I attempted to use a coupon from popular website save.ca st Loblaws in Kingston ON for “save $10 when you buy any one Gillette Fusion razor”, an offer that was heavily advertised on sites like TSN for quite some time.
There was a long issue with 3 Loblaws staff claiming “Save $10 when you buy one” meant “Buy one and save $10 when you buy a second one”. They kept reading the coupon, but using different words then were there.
I gave up and said I didn’t want to buy anything, just wanted the coupon back. They then accused me of fraud!!! and told me they could not give me the coupon back because it was fraudulent.
After a huge delay for people behind me in line and quite a scene I eventually got them to reluctantly summon the manager on duty who said he had never heard of save.ca, nor ever seen a coupon for $10 or a coupon that would yield a free product. Eventually he did hand me back my coupon (not sure what would have happened if he refused, I’d probably still be there).
He said he would be checking into the coupon and if it was legit (and it was obvious he was pretty darn sure it isn’t), he would let me use it there…as if I would go back after being accused of fraud!
There has been a lot of discussion on this coupon online, and I know for a fact piles of them have been used at loblawys nationwide for weeks.
Jackie
Jul 13 2008
I am extremely annoyed at having my calls redirected offshore each time I make an inquiry on my TD Visa. These individuals provided me with account information regarding account transactions, available balance etc without verifying my identity by asking security questions. Furthermore, I cannot say that I am comfortable with my personal information being available to workers at a call centre in an offshore country. Canada has privacy legislation to protect its citizens and the arm of this legislation does not extend offshore to protect individuals from potential identity theft etc…
A recent article published in the Hindu Times discussed how call centre employees in offshore offices were selling personal identity information for rupees (local currency).
DW
Jul 15 2008
I bought a package of 3 Globe Enersaver bulbs (CTC #0525120-0) some time back, guaranteed to last 7 years/10,000 hours.
One failed after a year of intermittent service (laundry room, turned off when no one is there); another was DOA.
Given the rather extravagant claims on the package for money saved, and the relatively high price of the bulbs, I told the company I would like replacements for these bulbs.
Here’s the company’s response:
Good afternoon Mr. W,
Thank you for contacting Globe. We apologize for any inconvenience the failure of this bulb may have caused you and rest assured, Globe Electric stands behind their products and we strive to deliver quality products and excellent customer service.
Although our bulbs are guaranteed to last up to a few years in certain models, the average being based on 3-4 hours usage per day, with millions produced weekly, there is a small amount of failure to be expected. Several factors beyond our control can cause these bulbs to fail prematurely.
With small electric components within the ballast, change of temperature, on/off cycles, vibrations and so on, they can wear down. Please follow this link for a better understanding of CFL bulbs.
http://www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/energystar/english/consumers/questions-answers.cfm?text=N&PrintView=N
In our constant effort to improve on customer service, we have introduced a new warranty that no longer requires the bulbs to be sent back to us. All new packaging will reflect this new policy.
Your only responsibility is to keep a copy of your original sales receipt and the UPC bar code from the package. Globe would be pleased to replace your light bulb upon reception of the attached warranty claim form along with a copy of the sales receipt and a copy of the UPC code (bar code) from the packaging. You can either scan this and email back to me, or fax back the required documents at the number indicated below.
Please be sure to indicate “Attention Customer Service” as we have a shared fax machine.
We thank you for bringing this to our attention as it is feedback like yours that helps us to continuously ensure and push our high standard of quality and performance for all our products.
Sincerely,
Globe Customer Service Team
Globe Electric Company Inc.
150 Oneida, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H9R 1A8
t: 1-800-361-2861 ext 151 f: 1-800-668-4562
http://www.globe-electric.com
Here’s my reply:
Your warranty doesn’t do me much good nor, I suspect, will it satisfy any customer with a similar complaint. You can hardly expect people to keep a sales receipt for a relatively low-value item like a package of three light bulbs.
Incidentally, rather than lasting “up to a few years in certain models, the average being based on 3-4 hours usage per day”, this package is marked as being good for 10,000 hours of service.
DW
Here’s the company’s response:
Good afternoon Mr. W. I must confess, I am saddened by your comments about our warranty. The warranty details are defined on the packaging and when purchasing products, regardless of what they are, when such a long warranty period is offered, usually consumers are more careful with the documents and/or the packaging.
You are putting me in an awkward position here. Globe-Electric does stand behind their products and I have demonstrated this with my previous email.
As a one-time customer service gesture, I will replace this bulb under warranty. Please complete the attached form for processing and upon reception, I will honor my gesture to you.
As I await your response, I wish you a very nice afternoon.
Here’s my conclusion after going through this experience:
On one level, I got what I wanted (or at least, I’ve been promised what I wanted) — replacement for sadly deficient bulbs.
But on the other hand, I got something surprising, a lecture with all the guilt-inducing elements that mothers apply to teenagers going out with ‘unsuitable’ dates.
On the face of it, this person is right - I should provide a receipt.
At the level of reality, no one keeps receipts for light bulbs (”documents”, indeed) and many sensible establishments respect the difference between a pocket-money item like this and a significant purchase (a television or computer), for which a receipt is rightly expected.
Dollars to doughnuts, if I’d simply taken the package back to the store where I’d bought it, a manager would have given me a new package with none of the hand-wringing and lamentation that this twit has laid on me.
Bill
Jul 16 2008
Hey Ellen,
I have added the reCAPTCHA and I am testing the comments to make sure it works.
Bill
bylo
Jul 16 2008
> I have added the reCAPTCHA and I am testing the comments to make sure it works.
Dumb move. That CAPTCHA is barely comprehensible to humans. It took several refreshes to get one that I could actually read. This will only discourage any but the most dedicated readers to respond. And as a cursory reading of Slashdot news will show, all CAPTCHA distortions have been compromised by software.
So what’s the point?
Paul O’Toole
Jul 26 2008
A while back I went online to get approved for a CIBC credit card. I filled out all of the info and within a few weeks I had a card. Only problem — there was a card for my wife also. I never requested a card for her.
It appears that when you truthfully answer all the questions — one being is there a spouse in the same home — and you enter the generic info about them, they got you. They send two cards out.
I called the same day and had both cancelled without problems, but it’s something for people to be aware of. Note: I’m not sure if this has changed, so this is my bug.
Jamie
Aug 14 2008
Here’s an update to my post of July 12, concerning Loblaws’s staff who falsely accused me of fraud while I was trying to use a common coupon, and then wouldn’t allow me to leave with my property for quite some time.
I was very surprised at the poor treatment I received in the store, particularly when the manager on duty did not seem to care at all. I am shocked, SHOCKED, at the lack of interest from Loblaws to my complaint over this.
I phoned the manager of the store the first day he was in. He said he knew why I was calling (I had emailed save.ca a few sentences, suggesting they inform Loblaws their coupons weren’t fraudulent and they called the store immediately). He gave the impression he did not want to hear from me. His answers were short, and very, very strange.
I asked if staff were supposed to accuse the customers of fraud: “not especially.” I asked if it was their policy, as staff had claimed, to say they had to keep a coupon they believed was fraudulent: “not especially”.
I could only name the manager who had been there, so he said he couldn’t tell what staff were involved as that manager was on vacation, despite the fact there was only one customer service person and I knew the exact time. He blamed the incident on this: “something must have been missed in training”.
I got an email response from Loblaws indicating I had had a “conversation” (if you can call it that) with the manager. It made out like he had gotten in touch with the coupon issuer (who actually called him after I contacted them) and said the manager would ensure I was satisfied if I visited him at my convenience (an offer he did not make to me when I called him). There was no indication of what hours that could be (the problem happened on a Saturday, as I cannot shop during business hours).
I had also snail mailed a detailed letter to Loblaw’s president’s office, even including the $10 coupon in question - NO RESPONSE AT ALL.
On a happier note, I did use the same coupon that caused Loblaws’ staff to treat me as a criminal at the local Wal-mart, with no problem at all. Wal-mart’s regular price for the product is the same as Loblaws’ occasional sale, 30% cheaper then their regular price.