Ma Bell...you ARE a Muther!! argh!!

[walkonby]

I hope the title does not offend too many, but I wanted to vent a bit. Received an email the other day from Bell letting us know they will be coming to pry our wallets open a bit more starting June 1st, 2016 for various TV services.
Seems like 1 step forward 2 steps back for us as the Loyalty Dept recently secured some savings for us after we complained of the most recent increase to both tv and phone.
I have no idea what will stay the same on our bill now and what will change.....must call again and go through it all line by line I guess.

[greeny]

Ughhh I can't tell you how many times this company has raised prices ! It's insane. In the past 3 years my bill has gone up by A LOT. They are tricky. They give you "discounts" but then raise the prices !

[GoJays]

walker, the best day for me was the day i told bell to stick their services where the sun don't shine
we went with cogeco for internet and telephone and are with shaw for tv
the only thing that would make me happier is if shaw would expand the rest of their services to ontario
sadly, they are only in the west, lucky to have tv from them, i guess

[anisa]

They have an awfully long opening in the email, sounds like they are whining about all the poopy costs of doing business. poor souls.

We dumped our cable 2 years ago to go OTA and have not looked back. A bajillion channels, and I was only watching CBC, TVO and PBS anyways

[Candini]

Bell is annoying AF. Equally annoying to Rogers. My Bell bill is never consistent, they always sneak random things into the bill. I call it bitterness because somehow last year I got a sweet deal on unlimited internet for super cheap. Yeah they never offered that again!

I`ve said it before on here, Netflix for shows , koodo for cellphone.

[Shwa Girl]

walkonby, reading between the lines in theh first paragraph of Bell's 'explanation', I can translate,
"Because the CRTC made us do Pick and Pay, we are going to get the money back somehow. So, you are on the list to make up for Pick and Pay legislation."

[Momof3girlies]

Yup, Bell and Rogers suck A$$!! Their customer service is bad, no one takes notes even when you ask them to put notes into your account. Don't waste your time nor energy with those companies.

[HappyCouponSaver78]

Yes, I don't like Bell esp cell phone services they going up paying nearly forty dollars

[flemeth]

Had both bell and rogers and after lot and lot of frustration I changed to Primus I am happier than before

[electric_viking]

walkonby, reading between the lines in theh first paragraph of Bell's 'explanation', I can translate,
"Because the CRTC made us do Pick and Pay, we are going to get the money back somehow. So, you are on the list to make up for Pick and Pay legislation."

Brilliant observation!

[sweet sparrow]

Funny how Bell can be so hated and yet they still get business. I remember being a student and they had a monopoly on all the student residence lines. We had to rent the phone from them, pay their rate, long distance fees, ... Every so often, they would unfairly charge random students an extra dollar on their bill for who knows what. Then if the student noticed, he/she would have to call in and get it reversed.

How are they one of the only companies that have a loyalty department to try and keep the irate customers they have? Or the secret department one step above loyalty that claim access to have better deals than anyone else in the company can see?

Oh the most satisfying call ever was the one Bell rep who phoned after we cancelled to ask what they could do to salvage the business. I told the rep it wasn't personal, and it was just the company he worked for, but basically don't increase fees every three months for either phone/internet/cable and treat your customers like a cash cow. Then to even call in to complain, the 45+ minute wait times are not realistic. When they do give credits, they don't refund the tax amount either. DH suspects the phone wait times are so long to make you hang up and give in.

I had a cellphone with Bell where you had to pre-pay one month in advance or $50. They would credit this amount to your "other" Bell accounts when you cancelled. Well I did, but it couldn't be transferred because the phone was in DH's name. So, in their words, they just took the $50 to "zero" the account. In any other business, that's considered theft!

Yes, they will always hand out discounts and credits while on the phone with you. Then with their fingers, they're typing out your next notification of a bill increase. That's always been the case with our "credits and special offers".

As soon as DH says we can give up our $45 phone line with Bhell, I am not looking back!

[seylz_gurl]

yep, change in legislation makes them find the money other ways. Same has happened with the change to 2 year from 3 year cell plans, now they are just more expensive. dropped cable about 3 years ago and don't miss it.

[walkonby]

walkonby, reading between the lines in theh first paragraph of Bell's 'explanation', I can translate,
"Because the CRTC made us do Pick and Pay, we are going to get the money back somehow. So, you are on the list to make up for Pick and Pay legislation."

oh yes!! you said it @Shwa Girl . Poor, poor Bell......the nasty CRTC made us do this.

[lilo0003]

We live in a Cogeco area & they are not much better, but after yearly increases we ditched the Cogeco phone and went to OOMA. We pay 4.50 a month for a home line (still have kids without cell phones) & with Cogeco they had jacked us up to 45.00 over times.

[ReallySC]

There are three topics that take me out of my normal Zen like state and drive me absolutely over the edge: phone/cable providers, Ontario Hydro and insurance. I'm getting riled up just thinking about it!

My ex use to work for one of the big two phone/cable providers ... blew me away when I had to get set up with my own service and somehow they got me a deal where I was paying basically what he had paid for years (after his employee discount!). Not that I'm complaining about my deal but that's a sad statement if your employees are getting screwed over too. Same thing though...you'd watch that bill change every once in a while if you weren't following the fine print.

Have been seriously thinking about dropping cable completely but I'm sure they'll pull the same trick as Hydro..."we have to raise the rates because you cut back and we aren't making enough". Rant over!