OT.....who uses Bell cell phone service?

[tophee99]

This is definintely an OT post.....sorry, but thanks for reading.

Do you use Bell cell phone service? Have you had any problems dealing with them?

The STRANGEST thing happened today. Bell cut off my friend's cell phone. She was on a monthly plan that is paid by credit card and the minutes roll over if not used. She called Bell and they said her MC had been declined....but this is the MC she has been using for 5 years!!! Called MC, they said that Bell had never tried to bill her for NOV/DEC/JAN....it was not even attempted. Called Bell back......she gave them her MC number again.....it is not the one on file that they have been billing......they somehow messed up the number, so some poor sap has been paying for her phone (only 10 per month, but still). She tried to give Bell the proper number, but they stated it would cost $45 for a "reconnection" fee and that she loses all her accumulated minutes (120).

Any suggestions on what to do?????

Thanks.

 

[punksmom]

Don't get me going about Bell. I am in the process of eliminating them from my life. I just disconnected my sympatico because Bell had direct access to my bank account and triple billed me on several occasions and offered no explanation so I disconnected and put stop payment on my account.
Also, just his past Monday, I went to use my Bell cell phone and tried to call out but the number went directly to bell billing. So I waited on the line to have the cs rep laugh and tell my they have put a block on my phone because my account was overdue by $3.27. She said it was an obvious mistake but asked if I wanted to give her my visa or bank account information to settle the $3.27 (still laughing by the way). I explained to her that I will never again give bell any direct connects to any of my credit cards or bank account again.
Sorry - little upset with bell. I am going to have the cogeco high speed internet and the cogeco phone installed next week - only have to keep bell cell phones until the end of the contract - next August- and then bye bye bell for me.
These were not my first encounter with Bell - about 5 years ago I received a home phone bill for $900 - just about flipped when I saw the bill. I called Bell and they quickly realized the problem but took 3 months to fix and in the meantime the credit department phone/sent letters to me threatening to disconnect. Also, when I first got the 3 phone family plan, I was double billed as well but they fixed it the next month.

Ok -that's off my chest - back to thinking about the long weekend and upcoming trip to WDW

 

[highland3]

Bell.... Bell.... Bell...

This is the worst major corporation to deal with. They (from the top down) simply don't give a &*#@.

I've been screwed around by the Internet tech people... and in turn, their sales people a couple of times. If you complain about cell or phone service, it's like talking to a brick wall.

I'm with Punksmom... I'd like to send Bell packing.

 

[sammi]

I HATE BELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[sean-1966]

I'd contact a manager. That doesn't make sense. I've had a couple problems with Bell over the years and they've always been resolved to my satisfaction.

 

[F4disneyfan]

Ha ha ha Bell has bent over backwards for me with everything from my cell to my sat service wheras Rogers wouldn't do squat for us. We used Rogers for everything then tried to sign up for their home phone service so they send the line release paperwork to Bell bell releases the line for Rogers so that should be all done. Well let me tell you we waited 3 weeks for rogers to get around to getting our home phone set up and then when we did they had the wrong number they set our number up with somone else in teh neighbourhood so all our calls were routed to them. We called Rogers and canceled everything with them and went back to Bell saved money and get much much better service for everything other than my internet is slower now tha it was with Rogers.

 

[mousy_in_canada]

100% HATE Bell!!! I switched to mountain cable over 2 years ago for everything and they are awesome! I use PC mobile for my cell phones and mountain for everything else. nothing but problems with bell and the second I need ANY Tech support with mountain they are at my door (literally) to help me out! They even installed a new ethernet to my computer when mine died.. and that is not their fault but it was free of charge.. I would like to see Bell do that.. NO way, they would charge me an arm and a leg for that kind of service. I have saved so much money by going with mountain too. $24.99 a month gets me call waiting call display & Voice mail. it is a really good deal!

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

We got rid of Rogers due to issues with customer service, cost and issues with slow internet. The last straw with Rogers was when the internet tech made me feel like an idiot with the questions he was asking and way he was asking them when I called in about the slow internet - and then he did it to dh too.... not a smart move!!

Bell has been ok so far. We had a few problems setting up the HD satelite in December but nothing major. I prefer to pay my bills online on the 32nd of every month rather then giving them my credit card or access to my account so no problems there - dh is starting to have some major issues with his 1.5yo cell phone - it's not ringing, service keeps cutting off - and my HS internet seems painfully slow some days but other then that they've been fine for us!

Doesn't seem to matter who you go with these days there are always unhappy customers - customer service just seems to be a thing of the past with most places and the people coming in to do that now just don't seem to know how to do it! Maybe it's our instant gratification society... who knows!!

 

[Newcastle]

I completely agree with BitsnBearsMom! Customer service seems to be seriously lacking with a lot of these big companies. And you would think that once Bell lost its monopoly in the phone industry that they would invest more into their customer service to satisfy customers and keep them as customers. I used to email Bell my questions/concerns however every time (and I am not exaggerating here) I had a problem, they would email me back and their response had nothing to do whatsoever with the question that I had posed originally. They would email me some standard blurb and not even bother to address the actual issue. I can't tell you how aggravating it is to have to send message after message until somebody get's it right. I won't do that any more!!!

 

[sammi]

It also doesn't help when you call Bell for a problem and all you get is a call centre..... with many of their employees not speaking English or if they do speak English they haven't got a clue how to help you out!

 

[jtdl]

If I could eliminate Bell from my life completely I would. I had them for my cell phone provider, but after countless problems, finally got rid of them. Oh, they would fix the problem eventually, but if it was a one-time thing that might've been ok, but to continuly have problem after problem is unacceptable. I'm stuck with them for land line phone since we live in a rural area and have no other choice, we don't get cable service. I needed a second line installed a year ago and it took them 3 1/2 months to have someone come out. They made an app't earlier but the guy never showed up and then I had to wait all over again! My latest problem is with canada411.com which gets their listings from your service provider - of which mine is Bell. My street address is correct, but the city is wrong. I asked Bell to have it edited and was told they can't because they have my wrong postal code on file! Well, change it!!!! I can't believe them really - it's just ridiculous. I tell the person I'm dealing with that my bill that comes every month certainly has the correct address - city and postal code and if it didn't I'm sure it would be changed to the correct one pretty quick, so why can my address not correctly displayed in a public directory (this has caused two invitations, that we are aware of) to not be delivered to us. He puts me through to a supervisor and now I am told the correction will be sent to canada411.com. Absolutely ridiculous if you ask me. Back in the days when there were no options for anyone, Bell didn't care about customer service, and I always said that if people had a choice of phone providers that Bell would go out of business. I saw an article in my local paper last week that Bell is going way out in trying to improve their customer service. But for me it's too late.

 

[petbren]

100% HATE Bell!!! I switched to mountain cable over 2 years ago for everything and they are awesome! I use PC mobile for my cell phones and mountain for everything else. nothing but problems with bell and the second I need ANY Tech support with mountain they are at my door (literally) to help me out! They even installed a new ethernet to my computer when mine died.. and that is not their fault but it was free of charge.. I would like to see Bell do that.. NO way, they would charge me an arm and a leg for that kind of service. I have saved so much money by going with mountain too. $24.99 a month gets me call waiting call display & Voice mail. it is a really good deal!

Wow, I'm with you
We must be neighbours
We also have eliminated Bell from our lives, eventhough best friend works for them---it's a living.
Mountaincable all the way
I'm in the market for a new Cell..any issues with PC

 

[mousy_in_canada]

I have mixed feelings about PC mobile, they have good prices, and good reliable networks but when I have had to phone for tech support, they are not the best... they are after all owned by bell.. lol... for 10 days now my phone has been unable to receive text messages and whenever I Phone they say they are working on it, but it must be a network problem because both mine and DH's phone does it, Actually I should say that it can get text messages from another phone and from their web site but not when you use email to send it to the phone.. not sure what is going on there. And another word of advice.. always use a prepaid card to add funds to your account not a CC, took them 2.5 WEEKS to get it applied to my phone.. and that was because I had to talk to a manager to get it on, and had to fax in my cc statement, with a ton blacked out mind you. I personally think I should go back to rogers for the pay as you go, but not right now as I just bought my phone recently (around 6 months ago and DH over a year and a half ago) and it seems to work ok as long as they get the email thing worked out, but the phone it's self works ok, and it does not cost me an arm and a leg to use it.

whew that was long winded.. sorry!

 

[Daddio]

I don't think poor service is specific to Bell. I have used Bell for 15 years and the service isn't any worse than anything else that requires human intervention.

But, I have to ask... wouldn't you notice if you had no charges for a service in a ten month period?

 

[sammi]

YIKES!!!!!Just read in our local newspaper that Bell is going to buy out the only cable/internet company in town! ON NO!!!!

 

[highland3]

Sammi... my condolences!

 

[tophee99]

But, I have to ask... wouldn't you notice if you had no charges for a service in a ten month period?

I agree.........however, there were some rather difficult circumstances that she was dealing with at the time....so she didn't notice the missing $11 per month.

But, wouldn't you think that a major company would contact you if payment had not been received (given that it was very out of the ordinary for this person/client)????