Bell calls me Rev. Gustavo Lacerda

[gusl]

When I got a cell phone contract with Bell, they somehow listed me as Reverend Gustavo Lacerda. I didn't care.

Now I found out they also had a totally bogus address, on 18th Avenue. Since I just updated my address, in order to request paper bills, I decided to fix the issue. -"So you're not a reverend?" -"No, I'm just a guy."

Yes, paper bills! As much as I love paperlessness, Bell does not merely email me my bill. Instead, I have to log in to their site. Furthermore, I don't trust that they will keep my records forever.

I think cell phone companies are listed among the most hated (and they deserve it, especially in Canada). I think a large factor is that you sign away your rights to an invisible entity. Although you are personally bound to keep your side of the contract, the company is merely doing you a favor if it does. If they make a mistake, it's your problem. This asymmetry feels very unfair. The fact that you deal with a different person every time is an illustration of this asymmetry.

Comments

[marymcglo.livejournal.com]

Threaten to excommunicate them.

[chrisamaphone]

the other solution for making the information accurate is just to go to the ULC and become a reverend.

[lordspaz.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine actually fixing that. I'd open a church instead :). "Ordained by AT&T." Let's see who's dumb enough to argue with that.

[puellavulnerata.livejournal.com]

I disapprove of paperless billing for much the same reason. Of course, if they did e-mail you, it would probably be a useless mess of HTML. The only company I do business with that actually gets it right (e-mail in plain text) is Speakeasy.

If you're a reverend, can you threaten to damn them to Hell unless they fix the problem?