Apparently the customer does not know best, or anything for that matter when dealing with 'customer service' reps at Telus Mobility Canada.
In October of 2008, after an error by Telus whereby a 'subscription upload' charge of $50 /mth was being billed to my son's phone -- after it had been physically disabled by us -- despite a number of calls ("There is no record that you called us." and "Why did it take you so long to do anything about this if you thought it was so serious! " -- not a typo as it was not a question), I couldn't get any information on what these download charges were.
I let things be through Christmas -- the usual busy stuff, and continued to pay the monthly fees on a second cell phone I use for business -- in November I even had a credit as the autopayment kicked-in right after I had just paid the bill.
Mid-January I discovered my fully paid up business phone was dead -- compliments of Telus. I tried to email customer service, but I never seemed to provide them with enough information.
Today I called as I was home sick -- BIG mistake. The first person I spoke to was polite -- Thanks Christa. The subsequent person was almost as polite -- Thanks Dave... then things went badly downhill.
Cynthia provided the chastising comment about not taking care of business in a timely manner and kept trying to transfer me. I finally gave up on her -- the righteous attitude was getting me madder by the second.
The next individual was politely rude and equally chastising "when I have bills I pay them... we gave you a credit so we are being reasonable..." A credit for their blunder? He obviously doesn't know the meaning of credit. I didn't purchase anything therefore there was nothing to give back!
Now Telus wanted a huge buy out ($480 for 1 phone for 21 months that should cost $17.30/mth -- why the premium?) to terminate the contract or a $250 security deposit (to be kept for 12 months and returned without interest -- big earnings for them!!!) to reactivate the phone if we paid all monies in arrears from October to present day.
Here's the kicker. If I didn't choose one of these options, the other phone -- completely paid up (less the "... you still owe $4 from January 23.." even though service was cut off without warning earlier in the month") could not be reactivated because the accounts are joined by having a single account holder!
When I suggested that holding my business phone "hostage" as collateral for the security deposit and a pre-arranged payment plan would surely cover any concerns for the "delinquent" phone and account (incidentally, we had already paid well over $1000 in additional charges within the 1st year of the contract for the delinquent phone due to our charming delinquent son) he calmly told me the phones were under two separate accounts! (Is your head spinning yet, because mine was!).
I calmly told Elio that I am not usually a hotheaded person, but I really needed to talk to his supervisor... but, oops, they (the supervisors) are not allowed to talk to customers on the phone (ironic).
Our only recourse was to fax the office of the president Darren Entwistle (I'm sure Mr. Entwistle looks at the reams of faxes and snail mail coming in and deals with each one personally. If he does, he might think about training his support staff a little differently! They didn't even know who he was!), or send his office a letter.
I decided to put my writing skills to better use by warning other unsuspecting cell phone consumers and parents of cell phone-demanding teens not to get tied up in any business contract with Telus. My husband tried to warn me... now he just has a lot of ammunition for future 'discussions'!
Webart
Perth, Ontario
Canada
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