telephone companies suck

[gusl]

What sucks about phone companies, and utility companies in general is that they escape accountability. Even though you signed your contract at a shop (incidentally, full of fine print), no single person is responsible to keep their side of the deal, or to maintain a standard of reasonableness. You are always dealing with a different person. This impersonal relationship is the source of much frustration for the customer.

Anyway, because I have been good at paying my bills, Bell "rewarded" me by lifting my spending cap. This is the last thing I'd want, so I call them to try to fix it. Customer Service guy talks to me like I'm crazy:

- Why would you wanna do that?
G - I won't want to be stuck with a large bill.
- you can check your balance at any time.
G - I want to get a warning automatically, without calling them myself.
G - Besides, say I lend my phone to somebody...
- oh, I would never do that!

Then he tells me he can't do it himself, so he speaks to Accounts Receivable for me. He comes back and tells me:

- They won't put you back on it. Once you're off, you're off. That's just how our system works.
G - well then, next time I won't pay my bills on time! [I say rhetorically]
- you don't wanna do that, you'll get late fees.
G - ok, well, I would at least like to get a real letter with somebody's name on it, telling me that they won't do it.
- What's your email address?
G - XXX
- Ok, I'll see what I can do.

After making me hold, he comes back without addressing my request:

- You cannot have it put back on. There's no way of notifying you when the bill gets too high. You have to keep track of it yourself.
G - I understand everything you're saying. But I would like to see this in written form.
- ok, then you can send a fax to 1-800-818-7449 Accounts Receivable, include your account number and phone number.
G - and how will they reply?
- You can request that they reply by fax or by email


There is clearly an incentive for them to let me get screwed with a big bill, explaining why this policy remains, and this is clearly evil: they are rewarding people who make late payments (assuming they prefer to have a spending cap).

Time wasted: 25 minutes

Comments

[widdertwin.livejournal.com]

Next time someone from a phone company calls, just say "sorry, I don't have a phone" and hang up.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

OK, so exactly the same reaction as I got from Rogers. Except I figured it was hopeless and didn't waste as long.

You at least got the concept across to them. I've failed at that.

[infryq]

The tactic that tends to work very well with phone companies is to be willing to take your business somewhere else, and tell them so when they pull stupid shit like this. Almost always there *is* a way to do what you want, they just don't tell the lower echelons because most customers won't make a fuss if they're told "it can't be done." I know a guy who doesn't have a contract with his provider -- every couple years they call to try to get him on a contract plan, tell him they can't put him in the new system without a contract, he threatens to drop his account, they find somebody with actual power to do whatever magic is necessary to keep him. You might not be willing to put in that much effort, or risk having to switch phone companies, but that doesn't mean what you wanted is impossible technically speaking.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

yeah, truly evil... it sounds like they intentionally prevent low-level workers from solving problems (when these solutions hurt their immediate balance sheet).

My contract has a 1.5 year to go and they can probably see this, so I don't have much bargaining power.

[noequal.livejournal.com]

There's something I'm not getting. I think its in how the bill works.

Mine's due the same day each month, and is for the same amount. Furthermore, I let them automatically bill my CC, so I don't need to think about it.

I don't understand the "spending cap". Does yours really work by you accruing a bill up to a certain amount and then paying it down? That seems ... backwards.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

When you don't have a credit history in a country, they put a spending cap on you (corresponding to the deposit you make). Billing is due the same day each month.

[noequal.livejournal.com]

.... Couldn't you lower the deposit, then?

Or, if you now have a credit history with them, could you get a different plan / contract that was not available before?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

every time i have gone over text messages or minutes on TMobile, it has been due to some egregious bullshit on their end. like last month when the website erroneously told me i had text messages available, when i did not, and when the bill came out it charged me for the overage, and customer service was like "oh yeah sometimes the website isn't right."

and every time i ask them to just stop allowing me to make calls or send messages when i am out of minutes/messages. and they say they cannot. which is obviously purely so that i will continue to pay them overage charges.

i suppose you could switch to a pay as you go phone... but you said you are still under contract, so probably not an option.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see client-side software to keep track of minutes for you and send you alerts when you're in danger of going over. Is this doable on an iPhone??

Once healthcare is done, America (and Canada) should consider cell phone reform. Holland is a great model to follow.

[kartiksg.livejournal.com]

Tmobile has such software... it just also makes your phone unusable because its buggy. And their website outright lies to you.

I have one of their prepaid plan (they tried to post-pay contract me, but I refused enough times) that simply refuses to place calls after the balance runs out. The billing statement is one of the biggest monstrosities I have ever seen. For example, they send you a bill mid august for payment due late august for the service period of september-october while listing all the calls I had made in july-august. All the dates are randomly jumbled up and it took a while for me to figure out the accountese (and it did make sense after a while -- but it took some really hard digging and a thorough reverse engineering of their accounting system). It really should not require a CPA to read a billing statment.. but hey.. who else am I going to go to with a Nexus?