Tuesday 5 March 2013

A Sad State of Affairs (Bullying Telus works)

I have a business telephone line with TELUS.  The original reason for this was that it included an ad in the printed Yellow Pages for my original ~$60/month.  Over the years, the rate rose to ~$75/month and that was ok, even though really it wasn't.  In August 2012, the start of my chosen homelessness, I called Telus to have the package changed to a virtual phone, with all calls being forwarded to my cell phone.  No drop in price for that, even though now all they had to do was forward calls to a phone number to a different phone number.  At the time I was happy just to have dealt with the telephone problem.
When I received my latest telephone bill, the amount due was $90.  Since I don't actually have a phone, long distance calls from that phone as the reason were easily ruled out. So I called Telus and asked them to explain the higher rate.  It seems they increased their rate, effectively charging $90 including taxes to forward a phone number. I think the agent heard something in my voice, because he put me on hold for a while, to "see what other bundle I can find for you".  I don't think I ever heard the word BS pronounced in a better way.
He came back and started mumbling something about then new total being $76, when I interrupted him with "You know, I paid $76/month for quite a while when I actually had a phone that I could use to make phone calls.  But let's be honest, all you guys are doing now is forwarding a phone number. You don't have to send out technicians, you don't have to maintain any line quality, all that is happening is that some computer somewhere is forwarding one number to another one. I don't want to have to call Shaw, but paying 90 bucks for that is outrageous!"
The customer service agent was less friendly after that, but he stated that my new rate will be $62/month + taxes. I'm sure there will be other fees, but the conclusion is:  Complaining about Nonsense works!

An update will follow sometime in May to see how Telus keeps it's promises.

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