Bell Canada wowed me with Awesome customer service

[walkonby]

Today I got 3 bills in the mail ( ugh! )
My Bell has 2 items, phone and cable. ( I am in Ontario btw)
I noticed the total bill was higher than last months so I went through each line comparing it to last months bill.
Found it!
There was an increase of $2.00 on the phone and $3.00 increase on the cable, then add the extra taxes and I had to call to ask " why??"

I will make this short, the fellow who assisted me was very comical, and actually a pleasure to talk to, and no I was not flirting! ( lol)
In the long run what he did for me was issued me a one time credit applied right to the bill today for 12 payments ( a years worth), plus the applicable taxes to cover what those 2 increases would cost me!
( $3.00 x 12 + tax, plus $2.00 x 12 + tax )

He said the reason he could offer me this is
-because I had phoned to express my displeasure with the increase,and
-because I am a longtime faithful Bell customer

So check your bills and if you inquire about the increase and express your disappointment with the increase, you should see a nice refund that will negate the charges for a year at least! That is what I call good customer service! And remember to FLIRT!!

Good work Bell Canada!

[Shwa Girl]

Don't mean to be a downer, but I hope that this will be done by your next bill.
Bell is notorious for not fulfilling their offers ("if their mouth is moving they're lying")

Hope you prove me wrong, next month!

[matrix82]

Glad you've had some satisfaction. I have had just just been not pleased with them. I got a letter in the mail about a new promotion and a special pricing, that was lower than the online advertized price. So I switched plans to take advantage of the special pricing. I get next month's bill, I have the new plan, but not the special pricing. I call, was told that I was wrong and it didn't matter about the letter, it was wrong, even though I had the letter right in front of me, and I could fax it to them, but they couldn't change the price. Took 30 minutes as the rep checked, comes back and says that I had a very limited offer, only offered to a few people (yeah right), and I would see the new pricing on my next bill. I am not holding my breath. If it's not the special pricing next month I am cancelling my services.

[sweet sparrow]

They're not technically lying, but do remember to check your bill. Frequently, they try to weasel out at the lowest possible amount. For example, if they promise to credit you $12 for an amount you've already paid, they'll give you a $10.62 credit. Now if you add the tax to the amount, you'll get the number you were promised. Even though you already paid $12, they pocket $1.38 because it's the amount of hypothetical tax you would have paid, had you been billed at the higher amount (even though you had been billed in the past!).

Of course, if you're really upset about it, you can call in the next month for the $1.38 credit. They're betting you won't because if you call after work, you'll wait ~23 minutes on hold to speak to someone, another 10 minutes to look up your account and explain the situation, etc. - thank goodness for speakerphone so I could prepare and eat a full dinner while waiting!! And if you hadn't asked for their name and reference number, you may get that the CSR "forgot" to make a note on your account and the discount was never applied.

WOB, I can vouch for your not flirting since everyone gets the discount who asks. Not that you didn't ask nicely, I'm sure. They make enough money off of the people who don't that it's a standard discount they can hand out without approval.

I originally called in because soon after entering a 12-month contract with them, they raised the rates about 2 months in. Apparently, the contract pricing isn't binding on their end, but the customer can't walk away from their services because of it.

You'd think they'd know me on a first name basis by now. The last time I called was for an amount that was pre-paid, but since I terminated my service with them before the end of the month, they decided to "steal" the remaining balance. The hilarious thing was that it was called a "tolerance fee". When I called in to ask about the missing funds, they said they took it to "zero the account". Oh really....

[walkonby]

Uh oh guys ( all who posted)
You seem to feel I am counting my chickens too early maybe?
Thanks for the heads up and for citing your own experiences.

Well here is what I thought was going to happen.
When he offered me this " refund " initially, I just presumed I would have to pay this bill in full by the late Feb due date, and then next months bill would show the reduction.
So when he stated to me " your present bill due WAS this amount, but now with the discount I applied it is THIS amount " I verified 2 times with him, that in fact the discounted amount has come right off my present bill today?
He confirmed.
Since my bill is paid automatically attached to a rewards CC, I will make a point to watch and see how much Ma Bell takes, then I might post back in here.

Thanks again for all your insight. I do know what you mean by their seemingly shady practices because I cancelled my high speed internet with them last year because of the high cost.
I mailed back the modem as was instructed with the tracking number sticker they sent me.
2 months later I get a $75.00 charge added to my bill saying modem was not returned. I called, said I did in fact return it. Then they asked me for the tracking number!! Now normally I would not have kept that paper that the sticker came on, but lucky me I did and recited it off to her. They removed the $75.00 charge the same way by taking it right off the total of the present bill that I was calling about.

[Shwa Girl]

Uh oh guys ( all who posted)
You seem to feel I am counting my chickens too early maybe?
Thanks for the heads up and for citing your own experiences.

No, no,no. I'm rooting for you. I want you to win against Bell. I am looking forward to your next post, telling us that you got what you asked for.

BTW, it would be good publicity for Bell too, that someone loves their service.


I won against Bell, because I recorded what they promised and fought them with a Vice President at their head office. When he saw the text from the online chat, and what the "gentleman" from the call centre in India promised me, there was no dispute. The VP gave me extra discounts and for a longer term, because I had a two month run around.

I am staying with Bell for internet until school is over (December *knock on wood*). Then I am going with a discounter like Tek Savvy, since so many SCs have had a good experience with them and the price is right.

[sweet sparrow]

No, no,no. I'm rooting for you. I want you to win against Bell. I am looking forward to your next post, telling us that you got what you asked for.

As am I. There's just a lot of SCers who are tired of calling in at Bell to fix our bill. Not that they won't give you a discount, but it's certainly a hassle!

[walkonby]

thanks sweet sparrow and Shwa Girl. It is a good thing I know in advance how Bell has aggravated so many, I will keep my boxing gloves near the phone, lol.
It is funny eh? I really started this thread because I was on a bit of a high after unexpectedly getting treated so nice by Bell. Normally I gripe when I get bad service, so this time I wanted to be fair and share the good too.

Thanks again for the support

[Natalka]

That's awesome, WOB! Don't let others rain on your parade, I'm sure your flirting got you what you wanted!

[Shwa Girl]

thanks sweet sparrow and Shwa Girl.
It is a good thing I know in advance how Bell has aggravated so many, I will keep my boxing gloves near the phone, lol.

Boxing gloves
You go girl!

[GoJays]

good job! just make sure to make note of the exact date that you had that conversation and check back in one year.. we enjoy a "special" price for internet and telephone but it's only good for one at a time.. once that year is up, they jack the price back up without mentioning it in hopes that we won't notice.. pfft

[Shwa Girl]

That's awesome, WOB! Don't let others rain on your parade, I'm sure your flirting got you what you wanted!

Good point Natalka. We should be celebrating with Walkonby.
It's just that when I saw that awful 4 letter word* in the thread title, the bad memories came back.

*(4 letter word = B-e-l-l)

[walkonby]

Four letter word^^^ Thanks Shwa Girl.

[tjthemanto]

Don't mean to be a downer, but I hope that this will be done by your next bill.
Bell is notorious for not fulfilling their offers ("if their mouth is moving they're lying")

Hope you prove me wrong, next month!

Plus when they offer you the credit for 12 months , more often than not they automatically sign you up for a 12 month contract without even telling you or taking your consent

[Brynhilde]

Yeah.. they are good with saying they will give you x amount of dollars of for x amount of years but it feels like it takes forever for it to come into effect properly on the bill. I hate their billing system