Rather than re-experience the anger of whole tale, I'll simply here past a copy of the e-mail I sent to the executive offices last evening. Hope the formatting translates O.K.

technical terms -

demarcation unit, demarc : the grey box that Bell puts on the side of the house - their wires come into it, your own internal wiring continues from there

torpedo : those longish green tube boses that hang beneath the main telephone cables in the alley, from which individual services branch out

pair : any two individual conductors in a telephone cable, required to provide the service

quote:

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James *******************************
Sent : September 21, 2005 9:30:10 PM
To : [email protected]
Subject : VERY UNSATISFACTORY SERVICE

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Dear sir or madam;

I am a long time loyal Bell Canada customer. (519) *** - **** This afternoon, I am also a very angry one. Not only have I been greatly inconvenienced, lost business and a great deal of time, but I've had the pleasure of being treated as an idiot by a whole series of Bell Canada personel.

Several weeks ago, I ordered a move of my Bell telephone and Sympatico high speed service. I was formerly at *************** in Windsor, ON. I was moving only 3 blocks, to ************* Avenue, *** ***, thus maintaining the same phone number. At the (new)address, there is one existing service (519 *********** ******) My service, as apparently your records show, is to be a second service at that address. I was advised that the move of both phone service and Sympatico could be done on the afternoon of September 21st. I planned my move accordingly. (I operate a home business and thus cannot be without phone and internet service.)

Early this morning, the 21st, the service at (the old place) went down, as anticipated. I made arrangements to wait at the (new) address all afternoon, if necessary.

The existing service at (new place) is by overhead cable to a single Bell demarcation unit. I had examined that unit in detail beforehand in order to plan for any necessary unternal wiring. (The Bell order was to demarc only.) I had noted that the incoming cable, from a "torpedo" at the back of the adjacent lot, was the standard 2 pair & ground, with the usual "red-green" attached to the existing servive. Thus I was able to advise, when placing my order, that new cable would not be necessary.

When 4:00 P.M. approached this afternoon, I had not yet seen a tech, could see that no alterations had been made to the cable or demarc, and decided to call Bell to ensure that no glitches would be causing problems. After the expected "on holds", "redirects", etc. etc., I finally spoke to a "real person" in the business office, who, surprise, surprise, told me that the order showed as "complete". I know not where she was, but she could barely speak understandable english, did not know the local geography, and clearly did not know a "pair" from a "pear". Nonetheless, she was quite confident in assuring me, as I stood in front of the open demarc box, that the job was done. The "system" told her so! I presume sort of like, the Bible tells me so ???

I was adamant, so she generously agreed to contact a supervisor, and assured me that someone would call me at the contact number. She also gave me a direct line and extension by which I could supposedly contact her.

A half hour or so passed, I recieved no call, and so tried the "888" # she had left. It went to what I came to understand was some sort of a phone sex service that had just been connected today. They congratulated me on being their first caller.

I persisted, and through "611" eventually spoke to a "supervisor" in the repair department. He was extremely rude in the process of telling me that the job had been completed at 11:45 A.M., insinuating that I was too stupid to know how to plug in a phone, and insisting that the second service to the location had been tested and was working. This despite my assuring him that I had walked around the residence, no new overheads had been strung, no trenching had been done, no new demarcs installed, and that I was staring into the open existing demarc and seeing only one pair attached. He seemed highly offended that I would rhetorically ask how many wires were required per service. He would have me feel that I should consider myself "lucky" that my "repair" problem was scheduled to be addressed "sometime Friday".

I have since spoken to an uninvolved Bell tech who, on hearing my description confirmed that there is "absolutely no way" that the move was properly completed today. He described it as "a typical screw-up". By the way, I have now tested the remaining, "unused" pair. It does not have dial tone. (yes, I opened your box, so shoot me)

My questions, in this order. How soon will you get this "fixed", and at minimal inconvenience to me ? How would you propose to compensate for the incompetence and rudeness of your employees ? Lastly, and most important, how does this happen, and how can it be avoided.

Yours truly
James

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With Bell, they insisted they had made the switchover, but we had no dialtone. They informed us that they could have someone out to take a look at it "in a week", and insisted that was the soonest they could help us. The guy came out a week later, fixed some stuff, and we had service again, but now it's crapped out and we have to call again.

With Rogers, we used their online self-serve page for service changes. The day before the move, I called them just for some confirmation, and (big surprise here!) they said they had no record of any service change to our new place (though, curiously, they seemed to have a disconnect order from the old place). Same deal: sure, we can help you, in 8 days.

Naturally there's no way to force either Bell or Rogers to hurry up, or to make amends, or what have you, so I do the only thing left to me to to: I do my very best to make the idiot on the other end of the phone cry. I don't insult them, or call them names, or cross the line between angry and abusive, but I ask simple questions they cannot answer ("How is it that if my payment is late you know how to contact me, but if your serviceman will be late you cannot?") and I hammer away at them with common sense. If they cop out and say something like "I don't know" then I might ask "how much do they pay you to not know? Isn't it your job to know?". If they insist they have no record of my last call to them I might ask "Really? I was told at the beginning of the call that it was going to be recorded. Isn't that a record? Why don't I wait for a moment while you go access that then?", etc.

However I think any human who works with people has to have a certain amount of common sense, and so when they disregard common sense I'll call them on it. My thinking is "well, YOU'RE the one who just said you don't do that, and I'm showing you that you do, so what's up with that?" If they don't want me raking them over the coals, they need to make sense.

Least favourite episode: "Waldorf Salad". Painful to watch.

[ 22 September 2005: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Boom Boom:

Also love it when Basil goes postal - period.

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Their service is in complete chaos...with right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing...except if you're late paying the bill.

I've had two major service disruptions since March...both lasting over a week...one in the summer being the result of storm damage.