The Curse of the Pink Pearl:
Excuse the title, however this story is so dramatic it needs something equally rediculous to give it a name!
So it seems the best way to condense 10 months into as short a note as possible, I will have to add some chronology then discuss the details:
- I have been a TELUS customer for 8 years
- December 2007 I purchased a BlackBerry Pearl
- By January of 2007, my phone could not receive Text Messages or even keep Call Log lists and was told via phone Customer Service, to take in my phone and get a temporary replacement while mine was to be repaired. Upon doing so, I was told there was nothing wrong with my phone but that some 'linkages' were not turned on so that I could receive Texts and keep Call Logs longer than a day. Believing the 'expert' behind the counter, I left and had all of one days' worth of a functional phone. The following day, I drove all the way back to the store and had the gentleman give me a temporary replacement.
- Two weeks later, the phone returned and I picked it up only to have the SAME problems two days after taking it home. Livid, I called Customer Service where I was promised I would receive a NEW phone.
- Back to the store I went... only to have the 'expert' chastise me by saying I just didn't know how to work the phone and he refused to give me a new one. After persistence on my part, and calling Customer Service while in the store to back up my story, he was forced to give me a new one.
- Yay! I had a functioning cell phone that could receive Texts, keep Call Logs, and even access the Internet (please note, the entire time I had these complications with my phone, I was never reimbursed one dollar for any of the downtime in service I was paying for).
March 2008, here we go again for the next seven months... the exact same cycle of occurences took place and ended to make a long story short, I went through 5 (FIVE) 'new' BlackBerry Pearl phones and never had one work for longer than a few weeks - again, never - despite rampant complaints - was I reimbursed one cent for the downtime of the services I was paying and had paid for.
October 2008, I am now taking names... :)
After having been through 5 phones and never having gotten the service I was paying for, I demanded that I be allowed to change from BlackBerry Pearl to an HTC Touch... you would think that sounds easy enough!?
Well, after speaking with one Customer Service person named Bonnie, I was told I could go into a TELUS store and change my phone for the Touch. Onward I went... the 'expert' behind the counter told me that the Customer Service was wrong and I could NOT get one. Having taken Bonnie's name, I called Customer Service back only to find that Bonnie was in fact wrong. For me to make the switch, I would have to pay $150 but they would waive the HandHeld Switch Fee, an Activation Fee etc... because these are unique circumstances.
Now here is where it gets really complicated for TELUS... I had just moved from B.C. to Ontario and changed my phone number - for what I am about to explain, you would think this change took Nuclear Physicists to keep track of:
When going back into the store, I gave them the very brief scenario I had experienced over the past ten months and when they pulled up my account using my new phone number, there was NO HISTORY of ANY of the previous complaints, technical issues, dissatisfaction or the PROMISES ensured by their Customer Service team for me trade-in for the Touch etc...
So, now after having been through 5 BlackBerry Pearls, spent literally 33 hours of my life on the phone with Customer Service, and made 11 trips into the TELUS store (all over the last ten months) - no one believes I word I have to say despite being able to name Customer Service I spoke with and even the 'experts' in the store recognizing me from conversations I have had with them directly in the past... so, how does the saga end? I demand to be let out of my contract, but because there is no history in my account profile there is no reason to justify that on their end. Then I demand to have a phone that WORKS based on what services I have been paying for the $150 trade-in I was promised. Again, no history means no deal for me... in the end, I had to spend $250 for a new phone, was charged an activation fee, a HandHeld transfer fee etc... and the creme de la creme... I was billed $10 to have them sync my BlackBerry with the new phone and guess what? Nothing transferred and all my saved numbers, address book, and calendar were lossed. Did they reimburse me for the $10? No! Because in their words "I must not have had the appropriate links set-up in my phone." Which, if you recall back to the first thing I was told, everything has come full-circle.
I paid for 10 months of services I could rarely ever get to use and spent nearly 40 physical hours on the phone and in person plus the GAS money to drive 24 km there and back each visit I made to the store. And all I ended up with is a phone that I had to pay more to get... somehow, I was punished for their shortcomings, failed promises, lack of technical support, and all around pathetic customer service.
STAY AWAY FROM TELUS! STAY AWAY FROM TELUS! STAY AWAY FROM TELUS!
- February 2007
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