Warning!!! Bell Canada = HORRIBLE Customer Service = Thieves = Scam Artists

I signed up Teksavvy for a friend of mine when he decided to switch from SYmpatico. I too am planning on switching to Teksavvy soon.

I'd post all my bad experiences with Bell (specifically ExpressVu) as well but it would take too long to type them all out. They essentially don't have a clue what they are talking about and absolutely under no cirmcumstances do they ever actually try to help you if you call. They will never take the blame when a problem is their fault. According to the the equipment is never the problem until it is out of warranty.

Originally Posted by NDman

They go neck-in-neck in terms of the quality of customer service, or lack thereof.

At least you got the problem resolved eventually. That's good

I wouldn't bet the farm on that. Bell has a history of saying one thing but doing another. I have read countless stories that relate closely to mine. I went through a similar experience with the OP and these, uncaring, apathetic, minimum wage earning fck sticks said it would be reimbursed/reversed, but months go by and nothing. You're forced to endure the aggravation of calling, holding on the in excess of 30 minutes and passed around from department to department like a sorority girl at a keg party. It's very touch and go with Bell. I haven't been with Rogers but I suspect when issues arise, they're no better.

For three and a half years I have been calling Bell sympatico tech support concerning really slow internet speed. repeately they claimed the problem was my computer. i specifically asked about the network only to be told repeately it was fine. i replaced my computer phone lines and the modem twice. I call today and find out the real problem when i cancelled this useless service. I was NEVER getting high speed. I can only get "lite" in my area. Sure didn't stop Bell from charging me for "high" speed since i signed up over three and ahlf years ago. So far they have stolen almost a thousand dollars in false charges. Nevermind the expense of new phone lines and a computer, plus endless aggravatiuon talking to utter retards in India who without exception claimed i was getting full bandwidth available. total lies. 100%. Bell knows this and has offered me only a two hundred dollar credit. Totaslly unacceptable and besides why would I want a credit for my OWN money they stole???? Just so I can continue to be ripped off. Bell sympatico is the worst ISP, next to Rogers. also a company that likes to levy false charges and invisible add ons. That's why i left them to go to Bell. Both have now ripped me off and are totally unapologetic about it. According to my calculations they have admittedly stolen $967, not including interest, the phone lines , computer and countless hours trying to get tech support to either fic the problem or tell me what it is. Instead they just lied.

Sorry to hear about your encounter with Bell. There is a substantially lack of competition here in Canada and I don't see this changing any time soon. There is no doubt that other smaller ISPs are out there competing, but they aren't much of a force just yet because Bell and Rogers are still going about ripping people off with their skyrocket high charges. I think government is also to be blamed for this duopoly.

BTW, my contract with Bell expires this January and I am planning on switching to either TechSavvy or Acanac; or I just might continue using it and without paying anything until Bell cuts me off... lol

Originally Posted by opeongo66

For three and a half years.......... I call today and find out the real problem ......... I was NEVER getting high speed. ....................Sure didn't stop Bell from charging me for "high" speed since i signed up over three and ahlf years ago. So far they have stolen almost a thousand dollars in false charges. ..........

HEAR ME OUT., before reacting.


How does one go 36months+ putting up with this low level of service? I would've cancelled after month 2? I don't buy it. Unless you're a real novice to the internet world and broadband? Where exactly in Ottawa are you that you don't have HSE anyway?

So you're saying your BILL INVOICE Actually says High Speed Internet, but your service was technically LITE? How would you prove this? Ottawa is quite nicely covered with HSE. I would SERIOUSLY look into taking them to small claims court. Spend a solid couple hours. Draft a strong but tactful letter and find someone fairly authoritative in the Bell Sympatico Hierarchy and mail+fax+hand deliver this letter along with documented speeds., (screen pictures?), Invoices, ANY proof to them.

Give them a Week or so MAX (but follow up every other day at LEAST)...I'm sure you'll get ALL of the difference back.

I have my own horrible encounter with Bell today. This is long so bear with me.

I have only one service with Bell. i.e. home phone and only basic phone service. My internet and TV are with Rogers.

2 days ago, there was a piece of paper dropped in front of my door step. It is a "Record of Work Completed" from Bell. The "Description of work completed" is "connected high speed to phone line. any problem with internet please call 310SURF". Since I did not order any high speed from Bell, I assume they fixed a phone line for whatever future high speed they want to offer me. Hence, I did not pay much attention to it. Last night, there were 2 messages in my answering machine. First one told me my "visual call display is activated". I did not add any feature to my basic phone service. Second message told me their technician would come today to install Expressvu. WTH!!!! Their CS department closed already at that time.

First CSR
I called 310-BELL this morning. The first CSR was kind of helpful and tried to track down what went wrong. It turned out their 'retention department' put an order to do all these for their 'win back' promotion. I did not cancel anything, so, win me back from what? We assumed they wanted to win back another customer but had a typo. [That means that customer is now in lala land and would not know what went wrong but I don't really care about that at the moment.]

The CSR tried to cancel and reset everything for me. It turned out she could only take care of the phone portion. That is to get rid of Call display, call waiting and whatever features added to my phone line. She saw the appointment of Expressvu and a internet modem was send to me. She said could not cancel internet and Expressvu. She gave me an order number and needed to transfer me to another department (I forgot the name) and that department would fix these 2 things for me. At this point, I already spend 45 minutes with just her including waiting, holding, checking.

2nd CSR
Now, the nightmare began. After I transfered to this department and after waiting, holding and transfer 2 times, I talked to the first rude person. He said he could not do that for me because I am not the account holder. My wife is. The first CSR said nothing it had to be my wife. Telling me this was not rude but his voice and attitude was. I told him my wife would not be able to call, navigate through Emily and waiting for an hour in day time. Their CS service closes before both of us go home. Then, he told me just do not let the technician who is coming to my home in today. Just send that guy away and the order would be canceled. Instead of he tried to cancel order and inform his own colleague not to come, he just let his own colleague to hit the wall. Fine with me. However, this only takes care of Expressvu. He said he could not do internet part either and told me since my wife did not call, the phone portion was not done despite what the first CSR told me. I need to get my wife to call 310-BELL to cancel both extra phone feature and internet.

In other words, he refused to do anything to deal with the Expressvu portion although he had the power to do so. He just let his colleague to have wasted trip. He could not help me to resolve the internet as the 1st CSR claimed.

3rd CSR
I was trying to think how to get my wife to do all these. She was at work and she was busy too. Suddenly, I thought of I could use my office telephone to do a conference call with Bell and her to straight that out. So, I call 310-BELL again, as usual, I repeat the same story. This CSR does not ask for my wife but he needs to transfer me to "Multi product Solution Center" and claimed this department will fix all these for me.

4th CSR
When I thought the 2nd CSR was rude, I heard nothing. This one is a supervisor and he was loud. I tried to tell him my story. He kept on cutting me off. I tried to tell him "The record of work completed". He stopped me after I said the word 'record'. "What record? I have no idea what record ... What paper? We don't put paper to someone's door .....those are advertisement and marketing material ... you don't need to let these salesman comes in ...". I wanted to slam the phone but 1.5 hours already passed and I did not want to go to square one again. I tried to explain and he cut me off many times and keep on talking, talking and talking. Finally, I picked up what I like to hear. That is (as the 2nd CSR said) if I do not allow the technician came in, the order will be canceled. If I reject the package of the modem, the internet order will be canceled. He kept on taking and lectured me about my consumer's right. That is if I do not accept the service, they can't charge me. So, that seems to cover internet and Expressvu. Then, I asked about the added call display of my phone line (all because the 3rd CSR told me 'multi-product solution center' would fix that all for me, big mistake). Then, another round of lecture ... telling me high speed internet has no call display ... they are 310-SURF (I was transfered here, I did not call 310-SURF ) and not 310-BELL ... 310-BELL deals with phone ... they are different companies ... they are all under BCE ..he spelled out these 4 companies and what kind of service they provide one by one .. OMG! That guy just keep talking loud non-stop. At least, I got his name and his employee number. Basically, he did nothing to my order and in a nutshell, his solution for me is to reject the appointment and the modem.

5th CSR
I assume internet and Expressvu are deal with. Now, I need to go back to 310-BELL to deal with the phone issue the 2nd CSR said that was not done. So, I call back 310-BELL. That CSR told me that the canceling of the extra phone features are in process and the 2nd CSR was wrong. No, I did not need to bring my wife in as the 2nd CSR said.

I wasted 2 hours, very frustrated, deal with 2 un-processional and rude CSRs because Bell made a mistake.

yup. BCE has so many entities under its belt that sometimes it can be an extremely frustrating experience trying to deal with these idiots. i really wonder what sort of low life brain dead people work there...

Originally Posted by earthman

I signed up Teksavvy for a friend of mine when he decided to switch from SYmpatico. I too am planning on switching to Teksavvy soon.

Im about 3 weeks in with Teksavvy now and the install process went great. A Bell tech did have to come by and do work on the dmarc but no jacks no charge. Teksavvy setup their stuff like in an hour, I just had to wait a few days for the Bell tech to do his work.

I got my profile bumped up to the full 5megs (bell seems to default it to 3). For that I left a post for teksavvy on dslreports forums and THEY contact bell for me. Act as a middleman and I don't have to waste my time. Sure enough next morning it was all good to go

So two thumbs up for Teksavvy, you get the same speed as bell with a cheaper price, higher bandwidth cap (and actaul useful packages) no contract and much better tech support

Thank goodness that I left Bell Sympatico long ago. Each time Bell tried to get me back, I declined as I am happy with my ISP with no cap plus free dial-up in some major cities in Canada if so needed. I only still have basic land-lined phone with Bell. Imagine my phone line is still on pulse-tone instead of paying extra for touch tone feature which I see no need as I don't use the phone unless necessary and got time to wait for a real person to take my call for whatever services rather than pushing numbers to 'nowhere' sooner. No long distance plan with Bell, too. If I want to phone long-distance, I use one of those 10-xx-xxx numbers anytime which directly bill to my bell account with no further charges.

Bell Canada is absolutely atrocious. Thieves and Scam Artists are definitely fitting words. They screwed my family in our contract as well. Everyone in my family vowed never ever to purchase anything through Bell again. Do they not know that screwing people over is not going to keep customers happy and they're going to leave? The sad part I guess is that there's so few alternatives..

bell canada 's customer service is totally a joke.
the funny thing is they don't even have 24hr tech support for their service.

Originally Posted by gman

I have my own horrible encounter with Bell today. This is long so bear with me.

I have only one service with Bell. i.e. home phone and only basic phone service. My internet and TV are with Rogers.

2 days ago, there was a piece of paper dropped in front of my door step. It is a "Record of Work Completed" from Bell. The "Description of work completed" is "connected high speed to phone line. any problem with internet please call 310SURF". Since I did not order any high speed from Bell, I assume they fixed a phone line for whatever future high speed they want to offer me. Hence, I did not pay much attention to it. Last night, there were 2 messages in my answering machine. First one told me my "visual call display is activated". I did not add any feature to my basic phone service. Second message told me their technician would come today to install Expressvu. WTH!!!! Their CS department closed already at that time.

First CSR
I called 310-BELL this morning. The first CSR was kind of helpful and tried to track down what went wrong. It turned out their 'retention department' put an order to do all these for their 'win back' promotion. I did not cancel anything, so, win me back from what? We assumed they wanted to win back another customer but had a typo. [That means that customer is now in lala land and would not know what went wrong but I don't really care about that at the moment.]

The CSR tried to cancel and reset everything for me. It turned out she could only take care of the phone portion. That is to get rid of Call display, call waiting and whatever features added to my phone line. She saw the appointment of Expressvu and a internet modem was send to me. She said could not cancel internet and Expressvu. She gave me an order number and needed to transfer me to another department (I forgot the name) and that department would fix these 2 things for me. At this point, I already spend 45 minutes with just her including waiting, holding, checking.

2nd CSR
Now, the nightmare began. After I transfered to this department and after waiting, holding and transfer 2 times, I talked to the first rude person. He said he could not do that for me because I am not the account holder. My wife is. The first CSR said nothing it had to be my wife. Telling me this was not rude but his voice and attitude was. I told him my wife would not be able to call, navigate through Emily and waiting for an hour in day time. Their CS service closes before both of us go home. Then, he told me just do not let the technician who is coming to my home in today. Just send that guy away and the order would be canceled. Instead of he tried to cancel order and inform his own colleague not to come, he just let his own colleague to hit the wall. Fine with me. However, this only takes care of Expressvu. He said he could not do internet part either and told me since my wife did not call, the phone portion was not done despite what the first CSR told me. I need to get my wife to call 310-BELL to cancel both extra phone feature and internet.

In other words, he refused to do anything to deal with the Expressvu portion although he had the power to do so. He just let his colleague to have wasted trip. He could not help me to resolve the internet as the 1st CSR claimed.

3rd CSR
I was trying to think how to get my wife to do all these. She was at work and she was busy too. Suddenly, I thought of I could use my office telephone to do a conference call with Bell and her to straight that out. So, I call 310-BELL again, as usual, I repeat the same story. This CSR does not ask for my wife but he needs to transfer me to "Multi product Solution Center" and claimed this department will fix all these for me.

4th CSR
When I thought the 2nd CSR was rude, I heard nothing. This one is a supervisor and he was loud. I tried to tell him my story. He kept on cutting me off. I tried to tell him "The record of work completed". He stopped me after I said the word 'record'. "What record? I have no idea what record ... What paper? We don't put paper to someone's door .....those are advertisement and marketing material ... you don't need to let these salesman comes in ...". I wanted to slam the phone but 1.5 hours already passed and I did not want to go to square one again. I tried to explain and he cut me off many times and keep on talking, talking and talking. Finally, I picked up what I like to hear. That is (as the 2nd CSR said) if I do not allow the technician came in, the order will be canceled. If I reject the package of the modem, the internet order will be canceled. He kept on taking and lectured me about my consumer's right. That is if I do not accept the service, they can't charge me. So, that seems to cover internet and Expressvu. Then, I asked about the added call display of my phone line (all because the 3rd CSR told me 'multi-product solution center' would fix that all for me, big mistake). Then, another round of lecture ... telling me high speed internet has no call display ... they are 310-SURF (I was transfered here, I did not call 310-SURF ) and not 310-BELL ... 310-BELL deals with phone ... they are different companies ... they are all under BCE ..he spelled out these 4 companies and what kind of service they provide one by one .. OMG! That guy just keep talking loud non-stop. At least, I got his name and his employee number. Basically, he did nothing to my order and in a nutshell, his solution for me is to reject the appointment and the modem.

5th CSR
I assume internet and Expressvu are deal with. Now, I need to go back to 310-BELL to deal with the phone issue the 2nd CSR said that was not done. So, I call back 310-BELL. That CSR told me that the canceling of the extra phone features are in process and the 2nd CSR was wrong. No, I did not need to bring my wife in as the 2nd CSR said.

I wasted 2 hours, very frustrated, deal with 2 un-processional and rude CSRs because Bell made a mistake.

Wow.. just.. wow.

I would not have put up with that bull$hit. I would have DEMANDED that the first CSR deal with ALL OF IT. It's THEIR MISTAKE and you let them know about it.. that's where your responsibility ENDS. I would then contact the CRTC if the issue has not been resolved..

That said, I will never be a Bell customer again. They fcuked me over on my cell phone.. and they essentially stole $30+ from me.. fcukers. They are scum.

Originally Posted by d_jedi

Wow.. just.. wow.

I would not have put up with that bull$hit. I would have DEMANDED that the first CSR deal with ALL OF IT. It's THEIR MISTAKE and you let them know about it.. that's where your responsibility ENDS. I would then contact the CRTC if the issue has not been resolved..

That said, I will never be a Bell customer again. They fcuked me over on my cell phone.. and they essentially stole $30+ from me.. fcukers. They are scum.

The sad part is I had to be a Bell customer back in the era Bell is the only phone company here. I did not even attempt to get any other Bell service but this still dropped to me.

In theory, even if you are not a Bell customer, this still can drop to you. That is one day, you suddenly get Bell phone, Bell Expressvu and Bell internet without your knowledge.

As an update, I still have call display at this moment. The Expressvu technician came but nobody home and he left a note. The Bell modem came and I could not reject it because it was put into the mailbox. I don't think leaving the modem in the mail box for the whole winter is a 'rejection'. I found that in my mailbox today and of course, their CS closed already.

Now, I will have more 'fun'.

We should start scamming Bell.