Rogers or Bell??? I have Bell-- lesser of the two evils...
I am convinced that Bell is the
worst company in Canada. I had their home phone and internet service for about three months, and it was a constant struggle.
1) I called to sign up, went through the process, and was told it would about $70/month. Great, sounds good.
2) Get the modem, set up my internet service, everything is going well... except no matter what I do, my one housemate's laptop (running Windows) cannot get online over WiFi. If he plugs directly into the router, no problem, but no WiFi.
I call tech support to find out what's going on... I'm connected to a call centre in India and a woman who barely speaks English and is clearly reading from a script, who asks me a bunch of questions, asks me to reset the router, and a bunch of other beginner things I'd already tried. Finally she gives up, says she'll look into it and get back to me within a half hour. Well, that was 18 months ago and I still haven't heard back.
3) First bill comes: $70. Great! I pay it in full. But a few days later, a mysterious charge from "Sympatico/Ottawa" I did not approve appears on my credit card statement. I call Visa to dispute said charge, they investigate and quickly reverse it.
4) Second bill arrives. The "Previous Balance" amount does not match the previous bill they sent me, and they claim I did not pay the previous bill in full. Since I
have the previous bill, I know they're lying.
Now, obviously what happened was that the previous bill did not include the internet service (for whatever reason), and that's what the mysterious charge on my CC was. But here's my objections:
a) I was told my monthly service would be $70. My first bill + that CC charge add up to more like $100.
b) They did not send me a bill for internet service, but charged my CC without my permission. Visa agreed the charge was unauthorized, that's why I was credited.
I call Bell to ask them to mail me a copy of the bill that includes both phone and internet for the previous month. I want physical confirmation of what I'm paying for. They say they will send one. 17 months later, I still haven't received it.
5) Monthly bills continue to exceed the $70/month I was quoted when I first signed up.
6) Finally I get fed up. We're being overcharged, under-served, and my buddy still cannot access our WiFi. I call to cancel my Bell service. They say fine, your internet service will end on this day. Well, that day comes, and so does my new router from my new ISP. I'm having trouble getting the new router sorted, so I call the new ISP. They walk me through the setup, but I still can't get onto the internet. They investigate: turns out Bell never actually cancelled my service, so I have a conflict on my connection. They deal with Bell, and soon my service is working flawlessly. My buddy can even get onto WiFi!
7) Bell continues to send me promotional material begging me to come back. I've sent them letters asking that they stop, to no avail. They continue to misspell my name on their correspondence.
Seriously, in three months I had nothing but trouble with Bell. From being quoted misinformation, to unauthorized and undocumented credit card charges, too useless tech support, there is no redeeming quality to Bell. They are the worst company in this country, at least for customer service. Now, to be perfectly fair all of my problems were confined to the internet side, and maybe their phone and/or wireless side is better... but once burned, twice shy in my case.
I switched to Primus, and their customer care has been stellar. No problems with their phone or internet service, and any calls I've had to make have been dealt with quickly and professionally. And the price I was quoted when I signed up is the price I'm being charged!
