This is also posted as a comment over at Ellen Roseman's blog. It is a fairly long letter I wrote to Kevin Crull, who is currently the VP in charge of Residential Customers at Bell Canada, and posted via Canada Post on the 14th of August, 2007. To date, I have received no response. Thank you very much Bell, you provided exactly what I paid for (most of the time), and not a penny more. Maybe I won't get any better service elsewhere, but I'm certainly willing to try. At least the begging / whining telephone calls from Bell wondering how they can get my business back have stopped.
#
For reference, my telephone number is currently 519-xxx-xxxx, which is the same number we held with Bell since we opened our initial account in June, 2001. Please note that I do not wish to be contacted by anybody from Bell with reference to this letter except for the person to whom this letter is addressed: Mr. Kevin Crull. I understand that Mr. Crull is very likely a very busy man, but it is his name on the card to which I am responding, so I feel entitled to demand his attention. While consulting Google in an (unsuccessful) attempt to find a mailing address to which I could send this letter, I found a weblog posting by Ellen Roseman that you replied to personally, Mr. Crull, so I have taken the liberty of Cc:'ing her as well, in the hopes that she will find this letter of interest.
I am in receipt of your card, which was undated (and lacking a return address), but was postmarked 07 August of this year. In it you invited me to contact a member of your team at 1-877-449-0774. However, I do not want to speak with a member of your team in order to discuss anything at all, as there is very little discussion to be had. I merely wish your company to know why it lost me as a customer, or at least, why I am extremely unsympathetic to displays like this card.
Firstly, the card was addressed to me as I have addressed my letter to you: first initial last name. I know your full name is Kevin, you signed it to your letter, just as I know Bell knows my full name. The fact that my name was used precisely as it appears in the telephone book tells me that Bell doesn't care to find out my full name. Furthermore, while the note itself was obviously professionally printed on fairly nice cardstock, and the envelope was also of fairly decent quality, my address was obviously printed on a cheap inkjet printer that needed its heads cleaned. To be perfectly frank, this was not a great impression to give, as a company which has taken approximately $7,000 from me in the last six years.
Secondly, I had to dig around to find your mailing address. Ultimately I found it it in a copy of the Yellow Pages; I think it's quite telling that the only mailing address obvious on Bell Canada's website is one for investor relations. The address was not included in the note with your name signed to it; only a telephone number was given. I know why that is, it's so that if I want to tell Bell something like what I'm describing in this letter, I have to give a customer service representative a chance to try to win me back. Your company must give its customers a full range of options to use in order to contact it, and one of those options ought to be regular old land mail. Quite frankly, I'm not interested in having to justify myself to somebody I've never met why it is I've chosen to switch to Rogers Home Phone for my service.
There is not one single reason why I chose to terminate my account with Bell, although it's mostly because we were spending more money than we had to. Living in an apartment building, our telephone lines aren't the greatest and there's nothing we can do about it, so we were paying for Bell HSE services that we were unable to use: our maximum throughput was limited to about what we get paying half as much to Rogers for their cable modem Lite package, because of the excessive amounts of noise on our line. Additionally, every time it rained outside, our HSE service would be interrupted for anywhere from 30 seconds to five or ten minutes. I realise that these issues are beyond Bell's control, but they're also beyond mine.
Finally, I will illustrate why I do not believe Bell customer service to be so much as a shade better than any other large business in the world, and worse than many, with a personal anecdote. The sort of note I received today would have been much better received about two years ago, when our land line service with Bell stopped working abruptly. When I called that evening to complain, I had to navigate a menu in order to get in contact with a customer service rep, who promptly put me on hold, even after I told him I was calling from a pay as you go cell phone - because, of course, my land line was non-functional.
When the CSR returned about five minutes later, he told me that he could see nothing wrong from Bell's end, and that was it. He could schedule a service call for me, but warned me in no uncertain terms that if the field technician found nothing wrong either, I would be billed for the service call. After telling him that yes, I was sure I wanted somebody to come visit, he scheduled an appointment for me the Friday of that week (I had called on a Wednesday) for some time "between 8am and 5pm." Nonplused, I asked for a more precise time frame, as I was going to have to take time off work, and was told that was as precise as it got. I took a full vacation day to stay home, and no technician had shown up by 6pm.
Calling customer service again, I was told that no, the rep had no idea why nobody had shown up, and was promised a service call Saturday, although at least the timeframe (early afternoon) was more precise. Ultimately, however, it didn't matter, as again nobody showed up.
I called a third time to register my displeasure - again, keep in mind, this was on a pay as you go cell phone from Fido - and was again told that another service call could be scheduled, but if nothing was wrong in the eyes of the field technician, I would be billed. I scheduled a call for Monday, but my phone was again mysteriously working by Saturday evening. I must say, I was sorely tempted to let the technician show up (or not) Monday, and then to contest the charge with Bell and the CRTC when I was billed for it, but I didn't want to waste a technician's time for the fault of the company for which he or she worked.
I also seriously considered submitting my own bill for a customer satisfaction survey to your customer service department at my standard rate of $500 an hour for the approximate length of time we were without telephone service (approximately 65 hours, or $32,500 plus tax, as well as the one hour of Fido time at 25 cents a minute). I chose not to do so as I felt it would not get paid anyway, and no tax benefit would accrue to me for keeping a bad debt on the books as it might have if I was still running a business for myself.
No apology was extended by the customer service representative when I called in to cancel my appointment, nor was an offer of pro-rating my service for that month extended. No mention of my wasted day and a half was made. In fact, I felt that the representative thought I had been lying all along, and it was clear to me that he wanted nothing more than to get me off the line. To further add to the insult I felt, I spoke with a different representative each time I called, and had to re-explain the full situation - including previous interactions - each time. During these explanations, I could hear the representative typing away. Since I cannot believe that actual notes were being taken regarding my case, I had to wonder what they were, in fact, typing. All in all, these interactions left me feeling incredibly insulted and dismissed.
In short, our major reason for staying with Bell after this event was largely inertia and the desire to keep our internet and telephone services bundled. Our major reason for switching was financial, but the reason why I am extremely unlikely to ever again pay Bell for service is because I do not frankly believe that Bell service is worth very much money at all. It seems to me that Bell's attitude towards customer service can be summed up by the infamous VMS "see figure one document" (for instance, see Netfunny's posting), and the only reason why it has chosen to send out note cards to customers who finally dump your company is what some would call a naive (and what others might call a cynical) attempt to try to convince those customers that Bell really cares about them. I do not believe that Bell - any moreso than most other large businesses - really cares about me, but rather about the income that I represent. Given that, I don't think Bell can blame me if I jump ship the instant it makes financial sense for me to do so.
Incidentally, I am told that given that I live in an apartment building where the demarcation point is not accessible by me personally, it is against CRTC regulations to levy such charges as I was threatened with against one's customers. I don't know for sure if this is true or not and won't waste my time looking it up, but if I am ever in that situation again, please be assured that I will make it my business to find out. In any event, I do not appreciate being threatened by a company to which I have paid a great deal of money for a service that is not working.
I realise that this is an extremely long letter, so as thanks for your perhaps reading this far, I will offer a (free) bit of unsolicited advice: give your customer service representatives much more latitude in being able to offer customers service, rather than causing the customer to have to demand it. Give them the ability to offer a free month or two of services when they encounter customers in a situation like mine. Your call centre managers should all read books on customer service and business by people like Seth Godin, and encourage their employees to do the same. I assert and believe that this sort of service and education would more than pay for itself in the long run. I see from your Bell web page that you hold an MBA degree and an otherwise impressive resume, so hopefully this sort of advice is not entirely new to you, but I would like to impress upon you that if I felt that Bell had such a commitment to customer service, I might never have left in the first place and would be more sympathetic to pleas to return. However, should I change my mind, I assume that the offer of waiving my reconnection fee has no expiry date, and so I will hold on to my copy of this card as binding proof of this offer.
#
For reference, my telephone number is currently 519-xxx-xxxx, which is the same number we held with Bell since we opened our initial account in June, 2001. Please note that I do not wish to be contacted by anybody from Bell with reference to this letter except for the person to whom this letter is addressed: Mr. Kevin Crull. I understand that Mr. Crull is very likely a very busy man, but it is his name on the card to which I am responding, so I feel entitled to demand his attention. While consulting Google in an (unsuccessful) attempt to find a mailing address to which I could send this letter, I found a weblog posting by Ellen Roseman that you replied to personally, Mr. Crull, so I have taken the liberty of Cc:'ing her as well, in the hopes that she will find this letter of interest.
I am in receipt of your card, which was undated (and lacking a return address), but was postmarked 07 August of this year. In it you invited me to contact a member of your team at 1-877-449-0774. However, I do not want to speak with a member of your team in order to discuss anything at all, as there is very little discussion to be had. I merely wish your company to know why it lost me as a customer, or at least, why I am extremely unsympathetic to displays like this card.
Firstly, the card was addressed to me as I have addressed my letter to you: first initial last name. I know your full name is Kevin, you signed it to your letter, just as I know Bell knows my full name. The fact that my name was used precisely as it appears in the telephone book tells me that Bell doesn't care to find out my full name. Furthermore, while the note itself was obviously professionally printed on fairly nice cardstock, and the envelope was also of fairly decent quality, my address was obviously printed on a cheap inkjet printer that needed its heads cleaned. To be perfectly frank, this was not a great impression to give, as a company which has taken approximately $7,000 from me in the last six years.
Secondly, I had to dig around to find your mailing address. Ultimately I found it it in a copy of the Yellow Pages; I think it's quite telling that the only mailing address obvious on Bell Canada's website is one for investor relations. The address was not included in the note with your name signed to it; only a telephone number was given. I know why that is, it's so that if I want to tell Bell something like what I'm describing in this letter, I have to give a customer service representative a chance to try to win me back. Your company must give its customers a full range of options to use in order to contact it, and one of those options ought to be regular old land mail. Quite frankly, I'm not interested in having to justify myself to somebody I've never met why it is I've chosen to switch to Rogers Home Phone for my service.
There is not one single reason why I chose to terminate my account with Bell, although it's mostly because we were spending more money than we had to. Living in an apartment building, our telephone lines aren't the greatest and there's nothing we can do about it, so we were paying for Bell HSE services that we were unable to use: our maximum throughput was limited to about what we get paying half as much to Rogers for their cable modem Lite package, because of the excessive amounts of noise on our line. Additionally, every time it rained outside, our HSE service would be interrupted for anywhere from 30 seconds to five or ten minutes. I realise that these issues are beyond Bell's control, but they're also beyond mine.
Finally, I will illustrate why I do not believe Bell customer service to be so much as a shade better than any other large business in the world, and worse than many, with a personal anecdote. The sort of note I received today would have been much better received about two years ago, when our land line service with Bell stopped working abruptly. When I called that evening to complain, I had to navigate a menu in order to get in contact with a customer service rep, who promptly put me on hold, even after I told him I was calling from a pay as you go cell phone - because, of course, my land line was non-functional.
When the CSR returned about five minutes later, he told me that he could see nothing wrong from Bell's end, and that was it. He could schedule a service call for me, but warned me in no uncertain terms that if the field technician found nothing wrong either, I would be billed for the service call. After telling him that yes, I was sure I wanted somebody to come visit, he scheduled an appointment for me the Friday of that week (I had called on a Wednesday) for some time "between 8am and 5pm." Nonplused, I asked for a more precise time frame, as I was going to have to take time off work, and was told that was as precise as it got. I took a full vacation day to stay home, and no technician had shown up by 6pm.
Calling customer service again, I was told that no, the rep had no idea why nobody had shown up, and was promised a service call Saturday, although at least the timeframe (early afternoon) was more precise. Ultimately, however, it didn't matter, as again nobody showed up.
I called a third time to register my displeasure - again, keep in mind, this was on a pay as you go cell phone from Fido - and was again told that another service call could be scheduled, but if nothing was wrong in the eyes of the field technician, I would be billed. I scheduled a call for Monday, but my phone was again mysteriously working by Saturday evening. I must say, I was sorely tempted to let the technician show up (or not) Monday, and then to contest the charge with Bell and the CRTC when I was billed for it, but I didn't want to waste a technician's time for the fault of the company for which he or she worked.
I also seriously considered submitting my own bill for a customer satisfaction survey to your customer service department at my standard rate of $500 an hour for the approximate length of time we were without telephone service (approximately 65 hours, or $32,500 plus tax, as well as the one hour of Fido time at 25 cents a minute). I chose not to do so as I felt it would not get paid anyway, and no tax benefit would accrue to me for keeping a bad debt on the books as it might have if I was still running a business for myself.
No apology was extended by the customer service representative when I called in to cancel my appointment, nor was an offer of pro-rating my service for that month extended. No mention of my wasted day and a half was made. In fact, I felt that the representative thought I had been lying all along, and it was clear to me that he wanted nothing more than to get me off the line. To further add to the insult I felt, I spoke with a different representative each time I called, and had to re-explain the full situation - including previous interactions - each time. During these explanations, I could hear the representative typing away. Since I cannot believe that actual notes were being taken regarding my case, I had to wonder what they were, in fact, typing. All in all, these interactions left me feeling incredibly insulted and dismissed.
In short, our major reason for staying with Bell after this event was largely inertia and the desire to keep our internet and telephone services bundled. Our major reason for switching was financial, but the reason why I am extremely unlikely to ever again pay Bell for service is because I do not frankly believe that Bell service is worth very much money at all. It seems to me that Bell's attitude towards customer service can be summed up by the infamous VMS "see figure one document" (for instance, see Netfunny's posting), and the only reason why it has chosen to send out note cards to customers who finally dump your company is what some would call a naive (and what others might call a cynical) attempt to try to convince those customers that Bell really cares about them. I do not believe that Bell - any moreso than most other large businesses - really cares about me, but rather about the income that I represent. Given that, I don't think Bell can blame me if I jump ship the instant it makes financial sense for me to do so.
Incidentally, I am told that given that I live in an apartment building where the demarcation point is not accessible by me personally, it is against CRTC regulations to levy such charges as I was threatened with against one's customers. I don't know for sure if this is true or not and won't waste my time looking it up, but if I am ever in that situation again, please be assured that I will make it my business to find out. In any event, I do not appreciate being threatened by a company to which I have paid a great deal of money for a service that is not working.
I realise that this is an extremely long letter, so as thanks for your perhaps reading this far, I will offer a (free) bit of unsolicited advice: give your customer service representatives much more latitude in being able to offer customers service, rather than causing the customer to have to demand it. Give them the ability to offer a free month or two of services when they encounter customers in a situation like mine. Your call centre managers should all read books on customer service and business by people like Seth Godin, and encourage their employees to do the same. I assert and believe that this sort of service and education would more than pay for itself in the long run. I see from your Bell web page that you hold an MBA degree and an otherwise impressive resume, so hopefully this sort of advice is not entirely new to you, but I would like to impress upon you that if I felt that Bell had such a commitment to customer service, I might never have left in the first place and would be more sympathetic to pleas to return. However, should I change my mind, I assume that the offer of waiving my reconnection fee has no expiry date, and so I will hold on to my copy of this card as binding proof of this offer.
Your letter sums up the feelings of many clients,
Bell Service on a scale of 1-10 rates only a 2, there total disregard for clients, I to have been looking for an address to send Bell a letter, impossible to find....why, because they want to hide from clients.
After two experiences this year Bells Customer Call Centre expertise leaves little to be desired, we lost our business email files on two occasions because a so called techy didn't know what he was doing.
As it turns out Bell signed an agreement this spring with MSN transfering all Sympatico customers are now on MSN Servers, as result MSN through Bell's network blocked me from sending emails until such time a customer signs a subscription fee 25$ with MSN. Of course Bell's CC would not recognised this but preferred to blame Norton because they want to sell their software for anti-virus.
After 5-6 calls with BCC and close to 100$ later to hire a PC Technician were we able to retrieve our business files.
I can only hope that Teachers does a thorough shakeup of this bureaucracy, let me say tis Verizon treat their customers with respect and with reasonalbe rates for services provided.
JP Laramee
Thanks for the comment, JP. I hope you have better luck in the future than I did.
Your letter sums up the feelings of many clients,
Bell Service on a scale of 1-10 rates only a 2, there total disregard for clients, I to have been looking for an address to send Bell a letter, impossible to find....why, because they want to hide from clients.
After two experiences this year Bells Customer Call Centre expertise leaves little to be desired, we lost our business email files on two occasions because a so called techy didn't know what he was doing.
As it turns out Bell signed an agreement this spring with MSN transfering all Sympatico customers are now on MSN Servers, as result MSN through Bell's network blocked me from sending emails until such time a customer signs a subscription fee 25$ with MSN. Of course Bell's CC would not recognised this but preferred to blame Norton because they want to sell their software for anti-virus.
After 5-6 calls with BCC and close to 100$ later to hire a PC Technician were we able to retrieve our business files.
I can only hope that Teachers does a thorough shakeup of this bureaucracy, let me say tis Verizon treat their customers with respect and with reasonalbe rates for services provided.
JP Laramee
found this email address in a page on the internet
kevin.crull@bell.ca
this person should be inundated with complaints;
communicating with bell customer service is just too painful, annoying and not conducive to resolving service problems of any type. Among other directions from them: the expressvue rep told me to go climb on the roof to check wires; finally got a contact in canada (call the number to cancel service ($107/month!) they came and fixed their problem.
as well, recently (2008 12 12), they have have negatively impacted internet email service for their internet customers; the chat fix it story is laughable. Check out this url
http://forums.bell.ca/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=401&sid=40b5ebbde85702f8f3458e2083fff4be ; it is not a pretty story
Yes, I mentioned Mr. Crull in my original post. I'm going to guess emails will have no better effect than snail mails, unfortunately, and it would appear that Bell is no better now than they were over a year ago when I first wrote this post.
In today's mail, I received a "card" from Kevin Crull, writing to say he was sorry for losing my business and that if I wanted to discuss anything, I should call one of his team members. So, that's what I did. What a waste of time. The gentleman I spoke to instructed me to go to www.bell.ca's website and go to "customer comments". I went to Bell's website and maybe I missed it, but I searched and searched for a "customer comments" icon, but could not find such a place. I also searched for an e-mail address for Mr. Crull and also could not find one. I have been a loyal customer of Bell Canada's for thirty-eight (that's 38!) years. In an attempt to switch my internet and cable over to Bell in early December, to bundle my services and hopefully save a few dollars, turned into an exercise in frustration. Even after five phone calls, being put on hold for over seventy (that's 70!!!) minutes for one call alone, Bell, still couldn't get my order right and, in fact, couldn't even find my order at all! At that moment, after being a Bell customer for 38 years, I cancelled my home phone service and am now bundled entirely with Rogers, who installed my services when they said they would; who bent over backwards to be helpful... yet, I am still annoyed and upset with Bell's horrendous customer service.
Mike,
Was doing some personal research in hopes of finding a direct contact for someone over there at bell. I've seen the Crull contact, but from the horror stories I've been reading, seems writing a letter to this Crull chap would be a waste of my time.
Regardless, it was well worth reading your post here. I'm at the end of my proverbial rope here with a bill far exceeding that of what I signed up for with Bell. Disputing this with "reps" in just about every possible department within Bell left me hovering and posting on the forums (forums.bell.ca) to the extent that my account there was suddenly "deleted and IP banned".
I suppose if I make use of a proxy anonymizer or some other software I could quite easily access those forums again, but if you have ANY tips on contacting someone "higher-up" at Bell, I'd love to get hold of that info.
T.M.
Hi Mike:
I just happened on your site while looking for an email address for Kevin Crull Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I've had my own problems with my email since the beginning of April despite Kevin Crull's email telling us that, and I quote, "The transition to the new Bell Mail will be a simple one. Your existing email address will not change and your current email inbox, address book and calendar will not be affected during this launch".
HA! It has been nothing short of a nightmare. They have lost, misplaced or whatever 90 of my emails (some of which were important), all my web contacts are missing, etc. And when someone emails me now they get a failure message telling them my mailbox is full??? I have spent numeous hours on Bell "chat" as well as on the phone with a live person and I'm no further ahead. My last phone call was Tuesday and I was assured that my emails were not lost, there were server problems during the transition and that everything should be back to normal in 3, I repeat 3, days. Well today is day 6 and we're no further ahead.
I just wanted to share my story here in your forum and despite the fact that I will probably not hear a "peep" from Kevin Crull, Bell or anyone because they simply don't care, I'm going to use the email shown above and "unload". If nothing else, it will make me feel better. Then, after many loyal years with a Company who just doesn't give a "hoot", I think it's time to search for a company who will value me and my hard earned money.
Mike, thanks for this info and this forum.
Have a great day!
Christine
Christine (and everybody else), you're welcome. I wish it wasn't required and I wish that nearly two years later we weren't seeing the same sort of comments and complaints, over and over again. Wish in one hand though...
Thanks for the note Mike. I just wanted to write to let you know that I fired off an email to Kevin Crull using the email address further up in your blog - and guess what???? I got a phone call back from someone in the Bell Executive offices regarding the email I'd sent to Kevin Crull. I have to phone them back tomorrow because I got the message too late but I'll keep you posted as to what happens.
Stay tuned................
Christine
Glad to hear it - I hope it works well for you, I'd appreciate hearing back either way!
I've been running in circles for over a month with Bell. I live in BC and have been trying to get a phone service installed for an ancient relative in Ontario. So, I don't care about Bell.
Where is the contact for Rogers??????
Sorry Thomas, I don't know anything more than you can get off the Rogers website.
Help - I am trying to get in touch with Kevin Crull or someone at the Bell Office regarding a problem I have. Everything in the above comments or blogs are absolutely true. You cannot reach anyone, no one returns phone calls or e-mails. There is a dark hole and every type of communications falls into it, never to be seen or heard again. Does anyone out there have a phone number, or e-mail address of someone higher up at Bell, or an ombudsman??
Thank you.
Nothing has changed with Bell in 2 years, that's so sad.
I requested an investigation into usage on an account I called to cancel. The investigation request was 1 year ago, and I have not heard from Bell. Until today.
My story is similar to everyone elses. Bounced through useless and unhelpful department. No help, no answer until I got a call from a collection agency for $10.
Nice.
I don't know what it will achieve, but I will be writing a long letter to Mr. Crull as well.
I just switched from Bell to Rogers, after being with Bell for, approximately, 10 years. I relocated from Toronto to Ottawa in July; asked Bell to suspend all three services (phone, internet and satellite TV)for a month, when I was going to live in a hotel waiting for a rented apartment to be ready, then reconnect all services again once I move to the apartment. I was assured that yes, they understand the situation, there will be a charge of $10, and I was given a "ticket" number confirming my request. A technicinan showed up at 5 PM the moving day in my appartment in Ottawa, had a look around, said that with all the boxes it will be difficult to find the phone jacks, that one visible jack is not working and "there will be a lot of wiring to do", and proposed to reschedule for Saturday - "you don't need to call them , I'll reschedule for you". I agreed - BIG mistake! In the first place, he did not reschedule; secondly, NOBODY showed up for FOUR scheduled appointments. One time the reason was "they probably called in sick, they are human, you know". Two times - "your order did not download". Last time - the technician actually called me on my cell phone to assure me that he'll be there - guess what - another no-show. I switched to Rogers and everything was done in 45 minutes and on time. In the mean time, Bell send me invoices for July and August for a full amount for services which were suspended and never reconnected - not for the lack of trying from my part! I already spent at least 90 min. on the phone with Mark - someone who, apparently, deals with complaints, trying to explain why I don't intend to pay. According to Mark, my phone was suspended, but my TV and internet were not (who's fault is this?) Consequently, he offered me a 50% reduction of charges - for phone (???) and TV, and credited me for the internet - "because I see you were not using it". Obviously, I have no intention to pay a cent, and I'm bracing myself for another call - another two hours of endless explanations, questions, spelliong out my name, being put on hold, etc etc. I never yet had an opprotunity to speak to the mythical "supervisor" - they are not available, busy, something-or-rather. I guess a letter to Mr. Crull will be my next project. This is the absolutely worst case of customer service I had in 20 years in Canada. Goodbye, Bell.