Canada-Complaints.com » Telecommunications » Complaint / review: Telus - Misleading information leading to hours of wasted time and great inconvenience | #27650

Telus
Misleading information leading to hours of wasted time and great inconvenience

On June 7, 2015, I spent a total of 28 minutes chatting online with a very helpful Telus agent named "Nery". I was attempting to arrange cell phone coverage for a 6 week trip to Canada. In the past, we have not been able to do this with any company once we were in Canada, because we did not have a Canadian address or a Canadian credit card. After much research, I had read that Telus had overcome this problem. So I contacted Telus and this chat ensued. I have a copy of the chat. The record shows that I was told by "Nery" that I would have to go to a Telus Shop once I was in Canada. I would need my passport and a credit card. It could not be done over the phone for "privacy" reasons. The credit check would be a half hour or so. I was assured, many times in this chat, that this would be easily accomplished. I took a copy of this chat with me.

The Telus representative we met in Windsor, Ontario was polite and helpful and said right from the start that he has never been successful getting an American such a service, with two previous attempts. He said it had something to do with their credit. We told him then there should be no problem, as we have the "highest" credit rating. We have never had a problem. It took him a long time - his computer did not allow him to enter an American address. He got on the phone with his corporate or operations offices, and he was able to use the store address to start the process and even got us an account with a password, etc. He seemed surprised, and we were delighted.

The next step proved the whole process was doomed. The agent was told that sometimes American credit reporting is complicated since it is done differently. A long wait ensued.

Then we were told that it would cost us an extra $200 per SIM card (we were purchasing three). We were told our American credit was insufficient. Therefore each card would require an extra $200 deposit which we could get back after one year of continuous billing. Since we only needed six weeks of service, and in fact the original conversation with Nery was about 4 or 5 weeks of service), we had been told we could cancel with no penalty as long as we gave 30 days notice. Now we were told we would have to pay $600 for the deposit, none of which we could get back because we would not be making 12 monthly payments. Their logic defied our understanding.

If we used the service and then ended it, using no more of Telus’s resources, what possible reason could they have to keep ANY money of ours beyond what we had spent. We would have paid our bill. We should have been able to get our (safety) deposit back.

Again, our “not good enough credit” was the reason given for this process. And, as stated, we have excellent credit. Apparently all American customers are perceived to have bad credit.

Telus certainly has right (I would guess — not knowing Canadian law) to say “no, we don’t give credit to American customers or Swedish customers or…..” but that is not what we were told.

We are here on vacation. We bring many dollars to this country. We are good and easy visitors. Canada and Canadians seem to welcome us with open arms. We LOVE visiting Canada.

We would have been able to arrange for “roaming” with our American cell phone company at a very high cost — that’s what we’ve done before. But we didn’t, based on the Telus chat with “Nery”. We wasted a good part of an afternoon of precious vacation time (and a very nice young man’s time) in Windsor.

Since having cell service is a necessity of our personal travel, we were able to find another way around this, on our own, with the help of another Canadian company. But that is not the point of this complaint. A waste of time and energy and a very disappointing beginning to a long planned trip and BAD company actions and ideas is what this is about.

All that could have been different if we had been told in the beginning, by “Nery” — who seemed to be really trying to be helpful -that this is unlkely to work. Or our credit could have been checked during that chat or before we left America.

Telus does not owe us service. It does owe us honesty and respect. We will do our best to inform about this misleading and dishonest experience.

Thank you for letting us express the details of our disappointing experience.

The complaint is really about the corporation, not the location where we were in Windsor, but I am not certain about how to list that.

Date:

Company: Telus

Country: Canada   Province: Ontario   City: Windsor   ZIP code: N8X 3Y8
Address: Devonshire Mall

Category: Telecommunications

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