My experience with Bell has ensured that not only will I never be its customer again, but I will discourage everyone I know from being its customer. Last autumn, I ordered an 'Unlimited Europe' long distance plan, which was advertised as providing unlimited free calling to Europe, with the intention of using it to call my girlfriend in Britain. When I ordered the plan over the phone, I was not told that calls to mobile phones would be charged. I called back a few days later to double check that the calls I had made since ordering the plan would be covered by it. I didn't realize I had to specify that the calls were made to a mobile phone—since I was specifically asking the customer service representative to look at the calls I had actually made, I thought any contingencies would be covered. I was later told that the woman I had spoken to would not have had any record of the calls I'd made at that point, so she would not have the necessary information to answer my question at all. But nevertheless, she told me that since the calls were made to Britain, they would be covered. Presumably she didn't even look at my account.
A month later, I got a call telling me that my long distance service had been canceled because I had accumulated several hundred dollars in charges for calls to my girlfriend's mobile phone. This cancellation occurred before I had even received a bill. So not only was I being charged several hundred dollars when I thought I'd be charged nothing, but my service was being canceled before I'd had any opportunity to pay the charges. I insisted that I should not be liable for the charges, since I had not been informed of the details of the plan, but after being transferred back and forth between the credit department and the customer service department several times, I was told that I couldn't even contest the charges until I had received a bill for them.
Once I'd received the bill, I called to complain. The customer service representative said he understood the complaint and would rectify the problem. After about half an hour, he said everything was complete—but when I asked to confirm that the charges had been removed, he said that no, I was still liable for all the charges, clearly indicating that he had never understood the situation. He said that he didn't have the authority to remove charges, but that he would flag them for investigation. I asked to speak to his supervisor, who told me that she, too, lacked the authority to remove charges. Furthermore, she said there was no record of my call from a few days after I ordered the plan, and so it would be unlikely that the investigation would end in my favor. I told her that I would be immediately canceling all my services with Bell (home phone, long distance, and internet), which didn't seem to bother her.
After I'd canceled my services, I got a call from another customer service representative asking why I'd canceled. I related the above story, and he expressed great concern, assuring me that Bell would do everything they could to keep me as a customer. But when I asked what he could do about the charges, he said that he, like everyone else, didn't have the authority to do anything about them. And after all that, Bell had the gall to send me numerous letters telling me how sorry they were to have lost me; these letters ceased only when I complained to Bell.
On its website, Bell touts its 'Clarity commitment', a commitment to making all charges clear to its customers; but its representatives made no attempt to make the charges for a service clear before or even after I purchased it, and they had no power to resolve the problem once it had arisen. Because of this shoddy service, I ended up paying more than $500 for calls that I had every reason to believe would cost nothing.
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