Details of the service delivery problem:
Today (9/12/10), I sent two e-mail to friends notifying them of my new bell.net e-mail address (service was just connected on 4/12/10 as we just moved from Ottawa to Aurora). The first e-mail went out at 7:18 pm. The second was attempted at 9:02 pm but, immediate, I received a message back indicating that Bell suspended my account because they "noticed some unusual activity in your Hotmail account. To help protect you, we've temporarily blocked your account."
Steps I took to try to resolve the problem:
I called 310-SURF, Bell's technical support line and spoke to Marcelo (agent ID #XS880) about 9:15 pm on 9/12/10.
What the service provider said/did:
The Bell rep refused to resolve the problem, stating that I exceeded my quota for outgoing mail (recall from above, I sent one message successfully today and my account was blocked on the second message) thereby violating my user service agreement. As I pointed out, the user service agreement (https://explore.live.com/microsoft-service-agreement? ref=none - is the link provided to me in the notification sent by Bell) contains nothing whatsoever that refers to a daily quota, nor does it refer to any account suspensions except for subversive activity or failure to pay. The Bell rep continued to argue that he couldn't reactivate my e-mail service. He said all he could do was to raise a ticket (ticket number 113558471) and send to to some other department called SNET, with whom he would not permit me to speak, and that they might reactivate my e-mail account sometime in the next 72 business hours... maybe. I informed the Bell rep that we would not pay for the service during the time period that it was unavailable to us, to which he responded that he could do nothing about that and referred me to Bell's business office which was, conveniently, closed. I asked for the name and phone number of a senior executive (such as the VP of client service) and the Bell rep refused to provide this information. I asked for the Bell rep's manager's name and contact number and he, again, refused to provide the information, stating that his manager does not ever speak to clients.
What I consider to be a reasonable resolution:
1. My e-mail be reactivated as immediately as it was disconnected.
2. Bell Canada change it's user agreement to specifically state that users sending more than one message a day risk having their account suspended due to service agreement violations.
3. That Bell Canada change its business practices and warn all clients up front that it has the common practice of unilaterally suspending someone's account after they attempt to send more than one e-mail daily.
4. That Bell Canada offer us one year of free service (our internet, home phone and long distance are bundled and connected to this account) for this neglectful, disrespectful and blatant abuse of power with respect client service and, us, as clients.
5. Bell Canada apologize formally.
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