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Bell Sympatico

Bell Sympatico review: I worked for Bell Sympatico 4

S
Author of the review
9:08 pm EDT
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I just feel the need to tell people the truth about Bell Sympatico. I worked for Bell Sympatico as a "technical support" person. Let me tell you a few things about what I had to do to keep my job - my purpose was not so much to solve internet connection issues but rather to get money from customers. Cute things like "mistakenly" setting customers up for services they didn't want to subscribe to, but the worst was KNOWING what was wrong - mainly spyware related problems - and not being able to tell the customer the truth.

Why you ask?

Because they wanted us to convince their customers to subscribe to THEIR software - instead of the FREE software you can
download. Usually it was $5.95 a month each for antivirus, antispyware and so on. To get the free stuff (which works fine,
updates are free - its great!) just go to www.download.com and look on the right hand side for "MOST POPULAR SOFTWARE" - look for
"AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition",
"Ad-Aware 2008",
also do a search of this fine site for
"ZoneAlarm Firewall (Windows 2000/XP) 7.0.362" and "CCleaner 2.07.575" - this will give you great protection at no charge.

I remember how I cheated customers and betrayed their trust all in the name of keeping my job. I once convinced a customer that
the problems they were having were due to having Norton Antivirus installed on their computer. I told them that it was such an "aggressive" program that it was placing a stranglehold on their computer and that uninstalling this antivirus and
downloading Bell Sympatico's antivirus would resolve their problems - you see, Norton Antivirus won't allow the installation
of another antivirus program - so to do so one must uninstall the Norton Antivirus - LEAVING THE COMPUTER DEFENCELESS - and then the customer is to go online and download the Bell Sympatico antivirus - with no actual antivirus installed on the
computer. Guess what happened - when the customer finished the installation the computer had to restart for the installation
to complete. Only thing is... now the computer doesn't start. And I'm supposed to tell the customer that somehow it's their
fault!

I shudder to think of all the times I had to intentionally mislead customers - I wanted to work for Bell Canada - that
was my dream. So I did some shameful things in pursuit of that goal. I want you all to know the people who work at Bell
Sympatico are good caring people - it's just that the company they work for is bad.

I want to close this by saying how sorry I am for all the people I hurt while doing this job - I was deeply in debt and
desperately needed to keep working, otherwise I would have just walked out. I would also like to say that I would never, ever
work for Bell Canada now - the great respect I once had for that company is gone.

I would also like to pass this along - there are companies that offer FREE INTERNET - one such company is
National Capital Freenet - now, they do want you to pay - but if you explain that you can't afford it right now they will
help you out anyway. I went to them a few years ago and they gave me free internet for one year. Their website is

http://www.ncf.ca/

Good Luck and have a good life

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4 comments
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fatso
, US
Jul 04, 2011 2:42 pm EDT

I really appreciate and respect your honesty! The info you provide confirmed my suspicion...the laptop I'm trying to de-bug has been hosed mainly by sympatico. 2 of everything in tasks & add/remove programs. I mean 130 running services?!? WTF?
After "shutting down" symp's security app, everything returned to only 1 copy of each.

Anyway, still miles to go before I sleep, but at least I know what to kill 1st.
Thank you!

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rodney2008
Peterborough, CA
May 24, 2010 9:25 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I diss like them they offered me wireless for a while to try then they said It was not available for me and to get the stick I did not want the contract nore the unit it cost me over 150.00 I am sick of the dial up. If I try anything else i do not want contract. Thanks and yes Prepaid Visa or MC is real and work I used for Rogers Wireless and other store payments and they wanted Visa or MC for 12.00 to send me wireless and then told me they will bill me in stead no such luck

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Bumboclot
, Diego Garcia
Jan 16, 2009 1:24 pm EST

Wow. I've seen other equally sleazy scams from Bell.

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Bill
,
Jun 01, 2008 6:01 am EDT

How can I get out of a Bell/Sympatico contract.. It stinks!

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