Background
Lived at present address for over 2 years and always paid my bills online. Only the one telephone number so only one account for telephone.
About 7-8 months ago, I started getting calls from bell regarding outstanding amounts on my phone bill. Though I had paid but am on anti depressants and take medication for panic attacks so figured I must have forgotten.
Paid again using the only telephone account I have on my online banking.
Time passes and I once again get calls on a daily basis. Make call to billing (turns out to be in INDIA) tell them have paid and can they check at that end because it has gone from my bank account. All goes quiet until about a week ago and the calls start again and are again on a daily basis.
Last time I paid I remembered to print out the transaction so that I have proof (thank go I did)
final straw from bell they call and I ask them to confirm accounts and any money they have got. Takes forever on phone and say's the account I used does not exist, explain to they person with poor English that I have always paid to that account but he insists it cannot be. Ask to speak to supervisor and he insists that he is the best man for the job and can deal with the situation. After protracted talks, it is quite clear he cannot deal with the problem and there is an issue with account numbers. Ask to speak to supervisor and he is not very keen to put me through telling me that the floor manages is unavailable. tell him will wait and go on hold...
duty manager come to phone and after much discussion he finds that bell has had money all along and that it now comes to a total of $572.33 CREDIT. He also gives me date these payments were made.By now, I am quite angry that I have been harassed on a daily basis for a bill that now shows up to be grossly overpaid. We work out that somewhere the account number changed but that I was not made aware. I have questions about why bell did not transfer this money back to the source if it was paid to an account that does not exist? I am told that I would have been informed which is certainly not the case. All the time the manager is trying to blame me for any errors. I am getting angrier at his attitude and stupidity and it is starting to show. I ask for three things to resole this whole matter a “full written apology, a full refund of the $572.33 and interest backdated to Dec 08 as apparently the problem started on January. It would have brought the refund to $683.93. I am told he is in no position to authorise that. I ask him what he is and he clearly states MANAGER I ask if he has the same duties responsibilities and authority as the day manage and he is quite clear that he has. I now TELL him what I want to settle the matter based on the amount of harassing calls I have had and the amount of anguish this is causing me.By this time I have already had to take a “ativan lorazapam” as I have wound myself up over the ignorance and stupidity of the two guys in India who have already starts to change stories I press they manager further and it turns out there have been lots of payments ($127.80 $379.11 $31.50 $100.00 $27.85 $150.00 $120.00)
There is certainly a mix up over the account numbers as none of us can agree or work out what goes where. One thing is clear and that is that bell have had my money for some time and told NOBODY!
I tell Indian manager he has one hour to fix this and call me back (I am pretty much spun by now). Did I get the call? NOPE!
It is more than clear from the stories that change by the moment that these people are a real wiz at bedtime stories for kiddies.
I call bell the next day and end up in India again. Once again I am assured I have the right man on the job and that he will sort it all out for me, If this sounds familiars that's because it is going to be a re-run of last night so cut this short and say a long call to a guy and end up with mangers who's is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard and once again more meds to try keep me calm and unspun. It also transpires that the manager last night made some decisions about how he was going to put his side of the story in his report and even try and give me credit towards my future phone bills (I think not) Again I ask them to call back to my satisfaction within the hour but once again the call never comes.
Now I really are angry I ring 310 hell (oops) and for the first time I get somebody who says they are in Canada (I have my suspicions but let it side) Once again I give my name my phone number and amount of hairs on my head (getting less since dealing with bell) I am now promised that this kind lady can fix it. Yea heard that before
I am on at least my third anti panic pill and know that I am going end up sleeping like a log for at least 12 hours
Of this money does not exist and that money is not there than this money all of a sudden is here. Something rings in my head so I ask her name and rep numbers and she even gives me a case number. I move up the ladder to the next department and this person actual seems to know what he is doing. All of a sudden, he asks me “Have you just made a payment? As one has just come into your account! “ I assure him I have not and that the last payment I made was on the 29th Jun His response is somewhat unusual “it is a miracle” and that is repeated a couple of times.
Now between two people seeing money then not seeing money and then money appearing in a different account some of it hinted by bell to have come from me.
Now I was more than angry I wanted details and all of a sudden stories changed again or I got the “I can deal with this” It seemed clear that there had been a flurries of activity on the account which red flagged some fraudster who then moved in and out of accounts to make it look like it was just late from the bank similar to what the bell rep had seen and notified me about. It ends up with me making the same request of bell that I had made the day before. FULL WRITTEN APOLOGY, FULL amount back with INTEREST dated back to December 08 and that just to cover the extreme anguish and upset they had caused me not only by my money hiding in bells account and gaining interest but also for the lies and deceit I had had to face to get some truth. I tell them that they have until close of business to fix it and call me back with the fix. I also tell them that if it is not fixed today my request would change. And continue to do so on a daily basis until it reached its climax
(no call)
Quick recap you screw a customer over who is already on meds you lie to him and change the story more often that a whore does a condom. In addition, you expect him to take that and go away considering himself luck to have been able to speak to you in the first place.
Ok final call to bell next day see what happened guy in Canada Whoop De Doo yes I can fix this blah blah blah after another extremely long call in which he tried to accuse me of being at fault and telling me money was not there and after I called his bluff a few times and also told him of information I had from India and from other calls then all of a sudden he has new information in front of him (just pure luck or more BS?)
During this conversation we again get Oh money has just gone into your account Oh its not there and now there is a payment that came in by cheque! I jump on this, as I have never paid by cheque he assures me it has just come from my bank so it must be my banks fault. Now I know there is some serious and dubious work going on. I explain to him more that 3 times that index has given me information the they has $372.33 as a payment in MARCH it must be true bell told me so and it did tie in with other payments. I advise him most strongly that it is not from me and nor did I pay it takes a long time for it to sink in that the information I have does not correspond with his in any way shape or form. He is still insistent that it my banks fault.
We get back to my requests just the same as before and he cannot deal with it even though he says he can? Still can’t work that one out. I ask him to hold wile I go take a med. and get a drink. He ends up passing me up to another dept. This woman also says she can handle it I tell her all my details again (think I might record them and just play them back because I am sounding like a broken record. I also give her the full story and advise her that seeing, as it was not resolved on the previous occasion that things had changed slightly. They offer me 0 point 5 % on the money they have had hiding in their system all this time but I advise the lady that is now unacceptable and the interest will be based on a credit card rate of 19.5% this would have taken the $572.33 they owe me to 683.93 and for all the suffering and many hours on the phone to sort out what people at bell seem to admit to as a problem at that end I would take for myself $111.6 Now I would consider that a miniscule amount after all the suffering and lying I was subjected to along the harassing calls from their collections. another little white one is popped because I am getting to a spun state even my eyes are watering (depression tears) and its a long time since that happened anyway I ask the lady how many other people has this happened to and what about seniors who might just not be quite there, what if they pay the bill then bell collections starts harassing them so the pay again things they must have forgotten. there are a lot of seniors who would not have fought as I did leaving bell with untold amounts riding in hidden or unused accounts for anyone who knows about them to play with as the want
She didn't want to talk much about that so I advised her we were about to terminate the call and I would use all within my power to ensure people knew about these type of practices. she told me she “could not authorise me to do that”, I told her I didn't need her permission and she said “oh that's what I mean”
If you transfer money to my account by accident you would know which account it came from and if you were in the least bit honest you would call the sender and say “hey I got this money its not mine take it back please”
Bells answer to that seems to be “don't tell the banks jack! its ours now, finders keepers”
Now If I got money by accident that way and than went out and spent any of it and then the bank found out I would in most cases be charged with fraud its just that simple
It seems bell think other wise. The attitude seems to imply “consider yourself lucky to get anything back its your fault for giving us it”
So you have to ask yourself have you ever thought you paid a bell bill then got the dreaded call from accounts receivable and then run out and paid it again to make sure?
Do you know of any seniors who might have been placed in this situation
Do you know of any seniors who did not know what to do about it and because it was only a small amount went “to hell with it”
How many hidden and old accounts have money in the that quite clearly does not belong to bell
from what I have just learned over the last few days bell is a company to be reckoned with, who will steam roll you right down if you so much as look at them wrong, not only that they will lie and cheat and change things to suit themselves to the point quite possibly of FRAUD.
UPDATE 8/13/2009
Call from bell executive office this morning. They had received a call from their privacy dept and wanted to ensure that the facts were correct. Told them I was extremely angry with them for all the trouble, lies, bullshit, misinformation, dis-information that they have so far put me through (ended up taking little white one)
She offered 0.2 % interest on my money that they have had for so long. (It was only yesterday that 0.5% was on offer from BELL, bad day at the stock exchange?) Advised her that they could put that offer “Where the sun does not shine” Advised her of what I considered fair in view of all the anguish, torment, and hours of phone calls to sort this mess out. She stated that “It will not happen” Told her in that case “That this call will be terminated” CLICK!
Guess this going to go on until BELL realise that this is one customer who is NOT going to back down to the harsh and unjust treatment they have dished out so far.
UPDATE 8/14/2009
BELL CREDIT COLLECTIONS CALLED!!!
Wow can I pay them over $100 with a credit card!! Don’t wait for anything else I have had enough. Give them absolute hell and ask for supervisor….long wait…. Don’t even give him / her chance to start I fire straight in tell them they better get their act together and that they owe me, give them amount tell them next call to be classed as nothing more than harassment and put phone down.
Call 310 hell and try to get through to any dept that deals with complaints
Ask to be put through to executive office am told they cannot do that, ask for supervisor….another very….. Long wait, supervisor also says cant, tell her did it yesterday, she says one moment while she gets number. On hold AGAIN……. Pretty sure am just getting run around until 5.00 she gives me the executive number 1 866 317 2282 I think it could also be “1 800 263 6521” or “1 888 267 2821” it’s only just after 4.00 and they don’t leave till 5.00 I reckon I have time to wait and still get somebody. I call! Wouldn’t you just know it, hold all our agents are busy……. Wait and wait and then “we cannot accept your call right now leave us a message and we will get straight back to you” Hmmm your check is in the post too eh!
But I do leave a message and ask how stupid they really are with collections calling me when they owe me money. Give my number at least twice to make sure they don’t miss it and tell them I am really looking forward to a call back, its Friday so I reckon that isn’t going to happen even though its not even 4.15 (45 minutes to the bell (sic))
4.58 bell Canada collections call. Don’t wait to hear more bullshit, tell them “how stupid are you people? ” CLICK
YOU REALLY DO HAVE TO WONDER IF THERE ARE THINGS GOING OFF INSIDE BELL THAT ARE NOT JUST UN-ETHICAL (WE CAN SEE THAT) BUT YOU HAVE TO ASK ABOUT REAL BIG BUSINESS TYPE FRAUD THAT MAY BE BEING PERPETRATED INSIDE BELL?
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