Customer ~service~

Wow! What a day for really BAD customer service.

Perhaps it is me!

Started at Koodo earlier today. Got hubby a cell phone through them about a month ago - guy that signed us up assured us that there were no hidden charges or surprises - and that if the plastic case that we bought broke it would be replaced, no problem, “just bring it in”.

So. It broke, we took it in and did they exchange it? No, of course not.

And their response to my observation that in spite of their claim that there would not be additional costs, they were now charging us an extra $3/month to send us a bill, the girl said “it’s only $2, and all the cell phone companies do that.”

First of all, no, they don’t, actually - and they don’t claim, either, that there won’t be any surprises or additional costs, either.  Mostly it was her snotty tone that I didn’t appreciate.

We left without our case replacement, and I will not be switching my Blackberry service to them when I’m ready to do that (soon).

Went down the hall to one of their competitors and bought another new (and shatterproof) case to replace the POS, didn’t last a month one they’d sold us.

Also stopped in a Soft Mocs in the same mall. Last time I was in there I was impressed with the woman that served me. The boots I bought don’t work - but that’s my fault for having bought them when I didn’t have my orthotics with me to try them.

While I was there, I had looked at some Doc Martens boots, but they did not have them in my size. Afterwards, I went online and looked at the models that Soft Mocs does carry in my size - could order online, but thought I would stop in to see if they might have a pair, even in the wrong colour, of the size I want so that I could try them on and at least have a better indication that they might work.

In addition to needing orthotics for plantar faciitis, I have terrible ankles ever since I broke one and badly sprained the other. I need the RIGHT shoes/boots, and am quite willing to pay for them.

Anyway, young man working there today - and not a very bright one.

Do you have ANY Doc Martens in a size 10 (Euro size 8)?

No, those (the one I had in my hand) are a size 9.

Yes - but do you have any in a size 10? I know that Soft Moc doesn’t carry the purple ones I want in that size - but they do carry black or cherry red - both the clerk I dealt with last time I was in, and the website told me so.

No, neither of those styles come in a 10. (wrong, but whatever…)

So I asked what styles do come in a 10.

“None of them - but I can get you a 9 in any….”

Why, pray tell, would I WANT a size 9 pair of boots? Am I supposed to decorate my house with them? Perhaps tie the shoe laces together and wear them over my shoulder? Or maybe I am supposed to cut my toes off?

Fail.

Just checked the website again and used their store-finder link; discovered that they have the cherry red boots in my size at both the Oshawa and the Barrie stores. Will have to get to one of those, possibly this weekend. I would still rather have purple, but since I can’t find those anywhere the red (or black, I suppose) will have to do.

And last but not least, Bell Canada continues to irk me on a regular basis.

I do not understand why I have NO problems with their service at my Peterborough house and nothing BUT problems at 1 of the 2 Victoria Harbour houses.

In addition to repeated issues with billing ever since we switched

1. inisting on dealing with Doris (who is dead) and rudeness towards me (for not being Doris?)
2. somehow, they keep reverting to a very OLD mail address - even once they (supposedly) got it through their thick skulls that Doris is dead and they have no choice but to deal with me, they still want to send the mail to her (albeit with my name on it).
3. they screwed up the bundling of our services because - duh - they were sending phone and television bill to the right person at the right address and the internet bill to the wrong address (that they pulled out from YEARS ago - that was actually changed several years prior to Doris’ death)
4. PLUS the ultimate fail, in my book - their service, at least in the Victoria Harbour area is DAMNED UNRELIABLE. Twice I have lost my Internet service …and today was the third time (in less than 6 weeks or so) that their POP server went down.

The other 2 times I waited it out - but it IRKED me. Today I was beyond IRKED - went online and ~chatted~ with a supposed customer support person.

I swear it was the same person that, back when I first set things up, kept sending me emails that said “I will be pleased to assist you…” and then went on to cancel the services I had ordered because I wasn’t Doris, etc. etc. Morons r’US @ Bell!

Before I even contacted support, I had gone in and checked my email through their online mail program (which I do not like and do not use regularly). Discovered it worked, so accessed ~support~ to ask whether there was a problem with the POP server (again!) or whether it might be an issue at my end.

I TOLD the guy that I had checked my mail through the online server and that it was only the POP mail I couldn’t get.

I also explained (well, I tried) that I rely on my Blackberry to retrieve my emails and that I do not appreciate the frequent (and usually protracted) outages. I also observed that every time the service goes down, even when it comes back on, I have to go to the trouble of logging into the Blackberry mail support and fix it, and that I should not have to do this so often. His ~solution~ was to suggest that I go online and check my email that way.

What part of I have already done that did he not understand, I wonder?

I repeated that I had done so and again explained that I want my email to come through on my Blackberry reliably and for that I need to be able to rely on their service - that would be the service that I am bluddy well paying for, by the way.

“You can check your email online at…..”

I may have become just a ~tad~ bitchy at that point. Told him that obviously he was not interested in actually listening or responding to my problem in any meaningful way, so “I will let you go so that you can get started ignoring your next customer. Have a nice day.”  ….and then I closed the window without waiting for a response.

I know from past experience that at the end of the conversation they ask whether there is anything else they can help you with today, and whether you would be willing to answer a survey about their customer survey ….  was just experiencing a moment of regret for having shut down before that bit - but then the survey popped up anyway.

Yay. I got to tell them - for about the 10th time since I switched services about 6 weeks ago - that I was dissatisfied with their ~service~. Do you think they’ll hear me this time?

Yeah, me neither.

SO… I don’t like Rogers (that’s WHY I switched everything but my cell/data to Bell in the first place). I don’t like Koodo. And I don’t like Bell.

Perhaps I am just not meant to have a cell phone at all?!

Am I too demanding?

I don’t want to be double-billed.

I don’t want to spend hours on the phone or net setting up services or dealing with issues, nor do I want to be told after I have spent hours on the phone or on the net that it was all a total waste because I’m not Doris.

I don’t want to be lied to or ignored.

And I DO want the services I pay for.

Is it me?

Tags: Bell Canada, customer service., Koodo, Rogers, Soft Mocs

Quality & Service Are Our Top Priorities - or NOT

My kid is a pain in the butt.

She needs glasses. She found ONE pair that she likes - and once she decided on that pair that is what she wants. I insisted she look elsewhere… but try changing her mind. *sigh*

Me, I would tell the store she went to to pound salt. They are charging her WAY too much if y’ask me. My hubby and I both just got new glasses - both of us wear bifocals, and we both got the scratchproof coating, etc etc…

Our frames were about the same price as the kid’s - and so are, apparently, the lenses - even though hers are single vision. Ridiculous.

Me, I have little tolerance for being ripped off. Did I mention I would tell them to go pound salt?

So I was, admittedly, already predisposed to be somewhat irked. But whatever - it’s not me paying for them ….really.

I’m paying the initial cost, but then once kid gets reimbursed, I will get my money back. So it isn’t coming out of my pocket. Really.

So fine, whatever… go ahead and order them.

Except that the store’s motto - Quality & Service Are Our Top Priorities - is just SO much bullshit.

They’ll be happpy to serve me by letting me pay by credit card. I just have to drive 3 hours each way to do it as they can’t possibly consider SERVING me by allowing me to do it over the phone.

Welcome to the 21st century, people. You know, where people buy things online - or over the phone - all the freaking time.

They’re going to “protect me” by refusing to serve me? Good thing I read the website so that I know that Quality & Service are their top priorities - I wouldn’t have known it otherwise, that’s for damn sure.

Tags: customer service., Oshawa, Revere Optical

Purple Dr. Martens

Went shoe shopping again today. Not much fun!

I have orthotics - and weak ankles (broke one, sprained the other) - and am much happier with a high top runner/boot. I have a pair of boots that I really like but ortho guy insists it is time for a new pair.

So fine - can’t find a high top shoe I like (very few out there, and they’re hideous) - so started looking at boots.

Found a great pair of purple Dr. Martens at the Soft Mocs store in Peterborough. BUT not my size.

Went on the Soft Mocs website, where everything costs $10 more but they tell you you get “free shipping” - not cool - but anyway, the purple boots I want don’t come in my size. The black ones and the cherry ones and the funky metallic ones - THOSE all come in my size. But not purple.

Most annoying, don’t you think? I want the purple ones!

The red ones don’t look SO bad though. But I want the purple!

Found other sites that have Dr. Martens for sale (in Canada) but so far no joy

Oh well - for now I found a pair of nowhere near as cool but they’ll do for this summer boots. Since I apparently can’t have what I want, they will have to do.

Quick flits

So … I am done my coursework!!!!

Last paper went in this morning. Still got a couple of days worth o’ seminar - but aside from that, I’m done.

SO… I’m back in the blogosphere! Yay! I get to spend some time writing just because.

Since I have been away from it for awhile… a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG while! … I have a whole bunch of customer service YAY or NAY that didn’t get posted… so here’s a quick flit through some recent really good/really bad experiences.

First of all, a HUMUNGOUS YAY for net-solutions. My youngest kid’s computer got infested with a really nasty bit-o-work called Antivirus Soft. Several of the supposedly free solutions out there are about as bad as the Antivirus Soft malware program - which is one of those oh so ~charming~ programs that tells you you have lots of viruses/spyware and offers to clean it all up for you, for, of course, a ~small~ fee.

We spent several hours trying to find a solution - over the phone, as she doesn’t live nearby - and were getting extremely frustrated by free offers that, just like the original malware, tell you you have an infection and offer to remove it for a ~small~ fee. But then I happened to find the net-solutions site.

A free removal tool that actually was free! And quick. And easy.

And a couple of NAYS:

Metro Tavern Restaurant in Kitchener Ontario. Used to love the Metro - best place to get schnitzel I have ever found. Food is still very, very good. Service sucks. Like as in REALLY sucks. We had a family party there - my Mom is getting old - people came from all over the damn place to be there. Very disappointing. Out of far too many menu items. I do not CARE if you were “really busy yesterday” - when you only have ONE vegetarian meal on your menu you had best not run out of it. Seriously. Also less than impressed that our server absolutely refused to do separate bills. Not for individuals. Not for family groupings. Just no. AND twice he reached directly in front of my face without so much as an excuse me or sorry or ….  I should have bit him. I could have!

I was extremely unhappy, especially since it was my suggestions. NAY. Definitely disappointing.

And then there is Canadian Tire - the Barrie store. They get a big old NAY as well. Rip off central. There is a reason people call it CrappyTire.  We needed a trailer hitch and they gave hubby a big long song and dance about how very difficult it is to install on our particular model vehicle. BS. Pure and utter BS.  They charged him for 3 hours for a 1 hour (max!) job.

Very defensive when he called customer service to complain - his fault, he shouldn’t have signed the work order then. Except that how was he to know how straight-forward it actually was until he saw it?

After several games of phone tag, during which manager dude got snotty because he had to leave more than one message (so sorry for having a busy life that includes travelling between 2 cities) they finally offered to refund one of the two overpaid service hours. Not holding our breath on that one. We’ll see - but even if they do eventually get ’round to paying it, we won’t be going back.

Bell Canada still proving how very INCOMPETENT they are - most recent nonsense is that they put my new Internet account in Doris’ name and sent it to Doris’ old post office box  - since Doris is still dead - and our PO has issues around incorrectly addresssed mail, it was not appreciated. ESPECIALLY a week after I had spent SO much time on the phone trying to convince people that Doris was dead and they PROMISED me that they had it now.

And when I called them about the bill (which was not only addressed to Doris who didn’t even use Internet -EVER - when she was alive, either) it was double the amount it was supposed to be - and asked why it wasn’t bundled with my other bills, I was told that it couldn’t be bundled because it was in Doris’ name.

Silly me, I asked them to fix that (with 3 houses to pay bills for, I really DO care how many stOOpid bills I have to keep track of) …..  when I went online to check my bills they had totally stuffed it up. I’ll have to call them again - shoot me now!

Oh and a NAY to Country Life, a Facebook game. They are irritating me …. they have always aimed high - require FAR too many neighbours to expand, and everything is too expensive and with very low return.  And now their new build items require WAY too many items to build. 35 bricks. Yeah, will get RIGHT on that.

Who do they think they are, Farmville? SO not even close.  Love Farmville. Buh bye CL.

Tags: Bell Canada, Canadian Tire, Country Life, Crappy Tire, Farmville, Metro tavern, net-solutions

Oh Canada!

Well… the Olympics ended today with a bang as the men’s hockey team brought us to a record 14 gold medals in sudden death overtime (after giving away their lead by allowing the US to score with only 24 seconds remaining!! but let’s not go there). 

Very exciting - and enough to make one proud to be Canadian.

But then a long time friend showed up on my msn and - while I was very happy to catch up with him; it’s been too long! - I was less than thrilled to discover that he is still being stonewalled and harassed by the (deadbeat) Canadian government, who have yet to pay him for work he did years ago.

He was hired as a consultant; signed contract, all that good stuff.

And he did the work - which involved a great deal of travel - all of which he paid for out of pocket, expecting to be reimbursed, as per the contract. 

He is owed a great deal of money. Well - what to him, you, or me, would be considered a great deal of money. To Natural Resources Canada, of course, it is a drop in the bucket.

But Harper & co. are deadbeats, apparently, and rather than pay what was owed when they came into power, they cancelled contracts, including K’s with Natural Resources Canada.

Cancelling contracts is one thing - refusing to pay what was owed on those signed contracts, quite another.

More than 4 years later, he is still owed more than $100,000 - and to add insult to injury, now he is being hounded for the GST owing on the money he has never been paid.

The media, and other politicians, do not seem interested. The lawyers are, of course - but only insofar as they can make money from it. So far, they haven’t had much … okay, any…. success at getting the Canadian government to honour their debts.

It makes me wonder how many other people got burned in similar circumstances? Does Harper make a habit of not paying his bills? And if so, why is it that the media can’t be bothered investigating this?

Oh Canada, indeed.

Tags: Canada, Conservative government, Harper, Natural Resources Canada

A Quick Update about Bell Canada

Did send in a customer complaint - got back the obligatory email…we appreciate your input and will get back to you within 3 business days. That was - surprise, surprise - well past 3 business days ago.

AND in the meantime, the twit that came to install my internet did not have the brains to check whether, once he’d finished, the phone was working.

I discovered - at about 8 p.m. when I tried to call my Mom - that the phone had been nonfunctional since he left well before noon that morning. A friend of mine had actually tried to call to let us know she was coming down for a visit - since we didn’t answer, she didn’t bother

You would think that the phone company would make sure the GD phone was working, wouldn’t you?

And still no response.

I do believe I shall escalate my complaint(s).

Windows Vista - what a POS!!!

*)&(*&^*^%!!!!

Wanted to use the Windows Easy (HA!!!) Transfer Wizard to grab my email account settings, contacts and emails from the laptop that has no power cable to move to the computer that does …and Windows Vista, in its infinite know-it-all-ness tells me that Easy Transfer “can” take several hours so I should plug in my power cord  before beginning.

If I had the ****ing power cord I would not NEED to ****ing transfer everything in the 2+ hours of power I have left in the laptop.

Bluddy hell, I hate know-it-all Windows.

Future Shop - yeah….NO!

At least, not with the Orillia store….what a total waste of my time.

Went in there earlier this week looking for a computer.

Found one I liked. Well ….I WOULD have liked had it actually WORKED.

Bought on Tuesday, did not get home to set it up and …. uh… install…. pretty please! …until yesterday.

Totally frustrated last night - 2 hours of trying to get it up and running … no joy.

Discovered that I apparently forgot power cord for laptop in Peterborough - and although I do have another, can not find it, so … yeah… no joy there either.

So fine. Today I had meetings all day, and I have been ill all week (aftermath of wisdom teeth removal) and I really did not want to go 40 minutes out of my way (in oh so charming winter driving conditions, no less - x 2)… but I did.

Was at Future Shop within minutes of their opening - guy at tech desk tries to boot it and gets same error message I did …. tries to boot in safe mode (as I did) and has the same result as I did.

I have a meeting at 11 in Barrie - agreed that I would leave computer there and come back at the end of the day.

Which I do - they have not fixed it! No new hard drive, no ….well… no nothing… other than they have another computer all set up and ready to go for me in case I would like to pay ANOTHER $100 (plus tax, of course) and take it instead.

I know nothing about this other computer - and I have already had to drive 80km out of my way for this $800 doorstop - are they giving me a discount or anything?  Uh … nope… they are not offering me SFA (sweet **** all) …. hell, they could have lied to me and TOLD me they were giving me a discount and I might have gone for it …. but the nope…and the *shrug*  these things happen …

no… they do not NEED to happen, actually.

If you are selling a computer (without box, etc) …would maybe be a good idea to take a minute or two to make sure it actually WORKS. How hard is that?

Might have looked at what else they had - but I decided that I did not want to deal with a business that chose *shrug* these things happen  over an apology and an attempt to make it right.

So …went to Staples, found a comparable deal (Acer, not Gateway) … in a box and with manuals and everything….! Exact same price, slightly better CPU, slightly less RAM.

And it actually works, even. I apparently installed wrong keyboard map…but will get that sorted eventually… other than that, it is great. MUCH faster than what I had. Me likey.

Tags: acer. gateway, customer service., future shop, staples

Bell Canada Customer ~Service~ …wow

Oy vey!

Apparently Bell still hasn’t got the message about customer service!

I spent more than an hour on their site yesterday talking to a Chat Representative - to order Internet and TV service.

That was frustrating enough - at one point, a $10/month security package that I did not want showed up on my order and the attendant insisted there was no way to remove it until “after”  - funny, I figured out how to remove it with no difficulty.

But aside from that - it was, I thought - a satisfactory experience.

Until the oh so helpful Colin, who is “pleased to assist you with your TV order” emailed me to tell me that he was ~pleased to assist~ me by asking for clarification of my address - which I had, in fact, correctly filled out in the form provided - in FOUR places but which their system had wiped out and reverted to the (incorrect) mailing address that was associated with the account decades ago when it was first set up.

So fine - we corrected the address.

But then this morning, Colin was~ pleased to help me~ by cancelling my order altogether because according to him, my name is not on the account. Nor, for that matter, was my husband’s name - the Internet part of Bell, apparently, does not talk to the rest of Bell - so every time we had changed the account so that we could deal with it it was all for naught and only Doris could order a new service to be added to the Bell account.

I’m sure Doris would be happy to do so - aside from the minor little detail of her death. Years ago now - and even long before her death, I was dealing with all of the bills - and yes, in fact, my name was added to all of the accounts back then too - as was hubby’s.

Good thing Colin was so happy to assist me, huh?

Anyway - as you might have guessed, I was a ~little~ irked by Colin’s particular version of assistance.

I did call Bell - once hubby was up, as of course, they had to talk to him (insert rolling eyes here) because once again, the person who supposedly added my name to the account (any of the last 5 or so times we’ve done this rigamarole) hadn’t really - and we went through the whole process of changing the account into his name, with me as a second on it - yet again.

And THEN more than an hour of being on hold, talking to various people, etc. before it was all straightened out.

All told, more than 3 hours to purchase 2 additional services!!!! 

The only reason I went ahead and didn’t tell them to stuff it is that Rogers isn’t any better - and I am fed up to the gills with paying more for less service through Rogers - AND having the added aggravation of having to use 2 different email accounts to send my email as Rogers won’t send through Bell and Bell won’t send through Rogers - so when I’m here at home have to use Rogers, and when I’m at our other house in Peterborough, I have to switch to Bell.

Now, of course, I will have the aggravation of making sure that all of my accounts with whatever/whoever use one of my gmail addresses, not my rogers email address - and ensuring that all of my contacts have the right email address, since my Rogers’ account will be closed - but I’ll live with that.

Fun times!

On the plus side, I have not yet had any problems with my Bell services in Peterborough - so hopefully once things are set up here, won’t have to deal with them often. 

Yeah, I know…. but I can hope.

Tags: Bell Canada, Bell.ca, customer service.

Is it just me? Satellite tv

Years ago, we switched from satellite to cable television.

But now, at our new house in Peterborough, I made the mistake of switching back.

i have heard not very nice things about the local cable provider here - not the one I am used to - so decided to go with Bell.ca for everything.

Honestly - am SO not impressed.

Phone service is fine.

Internet - sucking! Constant issues re: which account I want to send email from because Bell won’t allow Rogers to go through - so can no longer just hit reply to and send … I have to remember to also change the sending account.

And TV - OMG it is MAJOR SUCKING!!  We have two tvs - one up, one down.  And on both of them, the sound and video are SO NOT SYNCHED. I hate that.

On cable (at our other house) - occasional problems specific to one channel/show or another - but here it is on every single channel all the time. It is incredibly distracting and annoying.

I’m not a big TV watcher anyway - but now I don’t enjoy ANY TV at all.

Searched their site looking for troubleshooting info tonight - didn’t find anything, and online chat isn’t available now (and doesn’t tell me when it WILL be available; also annoying). Will try again tomorrow - but I’d be interested to know if this is typical of satellite television. If you use satellite, please do tell!

Tags: bell, custumer service, Internet, television