Complaint Rating:

Company information:
bell canada
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
www.bellcanada.ca

On October 27, 2007, I received a call from a representative from Bell Canada. A bell representative asked me if I would like to receive a new 'wireless' modem, no charge for this. It would increase speed of my computer by 20%. (Guess what, no increase in speed) I accepted the offer. But wait, bell Canada had an exceptional 'promotional offer' if I was interested. A laptop for an increase in my monthly billing of just $12.00 a month for 36 months. The total would ultimately be a total of $432.00 for 36 months. Frankly, I hardly use the computer I have now. But my daughter asked if she could have it for school research, homework for the grand daughter. OK with me, I can pay $12.00 a month added to my monthly billing for 36 months. I had gotten the phone number and called the representative. I accepted the promotional offer with the aforementioned terms. Shortly thereafter I received the wireless modem.

About a week later I received a call from a rep. stating bell had depleted its supply of the promotional laptop and it was necessary to reorder to satisfy customer orders. But wait, the substitute would be an improved model. He said I was lucky to get the improved model under the same terms given to me before. OK with me.

Couple weeks or so later I received the laptop. My daughter was visiting me and opened the package. She took the instructions and I immediately put other documents into a file folder. I did not read anything as I already knew the terms. This was in late November. We contacted Bell customer service and arranged for my daughter to have the laptop and her added to my account. This was necessary in case there was a future problem and she needed a technician, etc.
My bell billing for January arrived. I checked the charges and saw that a $30.00 charge for a 'laptop starter fusion' was debited to my account. I thought this might be an initial activation fee so I paid it. My February arrived with another $30.00 charge for a 'notebook starter'. I called Bell and queried the charge. I was told the substitute laptop was a more expensive model that I had received. I explain the original call from Bell offering a laptop at $12.00 monthly for 36 months, and the latter call saying I would receive a substitute as Bell had depleted its supply. Also, that I was told there was no extra charge. The terms remained the same.

This effort gained nothing from the many Bell representatives I have emailed (online chat with representatives) and spoken to regarding the promotional offer. The callously tell me I received a more expensive model and, to put it simply, I need to pay for it, period! My last conversion with a Bell rep. named 'Edward' (don’t give surname) with Agent ID of X7515, located in the Ottawa Billing office. Understand that there have been numerous contacts with Bell but never with the same representative. He apparently perused my complaints (with some callous I might mention) and suggested he could lower the total monthly billing for me by eliminating my anti-virus, and other internet services to lower the bill. However, this did not affect the charge for the laptop which is $30.00 for 36 months for a grand total of $1, 080.00! Needless to say I was reluctant to accept this as this whole thing was not my mistake by one made by Bell. Edward and I agreed that he call me the next day to confirm my acceptance of his suggestion. I waited all day and received no call from him. (By the way, during these contacts I was informed that Bell does not directly offer promotional products. Bell sub-contracts such offers to different companies). As far as I am concerned the mistake belongs to Bell or its sub-contractor. I was told by another bell rep. named 'Caleb' Agent ID 6806 that he had forwarded a request to investigate the company offering the promotional laptop. As of now, that appears still on-going if in fact he did indeed make the effort and to follow-up on the investigation. As of now, I do not have anti-virus because Edward took it off my internet services. I believe he thinks his suggestion for lowering my monthly payments thought eliminating is ok with him as there is no contact from him. The problem is it has poor English speaking reps with little knowledge of comprehension skills with the language. They don’t care what happened, who caused it, who to lay blame on, EXCEPT hey the customer got the laptop he should pay for it. Misleading information from Bell or not, Customer has it so shut up and just pay for it.

Communication is lousy because of poor English from reps. I have been to India many time, to ten Philippines, and around eastern Canada. How the hell can one focus on anything in this organized chaos of Bell Canada.