As you can see in that previous article, I called Bell/Bell Mobility (I had to call both, because each side of the issue kept telling me that it wasn't their purview and I had to call the other). The Bell representative agreed with my FB source, and claimed that it wasn't Bell of any sort calling either, and that it was likely a scam. I was angry, and I insisted that she put our home Bell phone number and my Bell Mobility number as Do Not Call. She claimed it wouldn't help, because it wasn't Bell or Bell Mobility calling me. I insisted, and insisted that she do it for me right then and there and let me know when it was done. I was willing to wait. This required her to actually contact Bell Mobility herself, with my information, and do it for me.
As an aside: Companies "streamline" their call centers to the various divisions they have internally. It makes sense to them. But what they often fail to understand is that the customer is calling the company, they don't care about divisions. For example, in this case I had a Bell issue. They said "Bell Mobility" but were calling my home Bell telephony number. So I called Bell. And neither side wanted to own up or help me, because each side thought it was the other side's fault. You know what? I DON'T CARE! To me, it is a Bell issue and someone at Bell better fucking help me with it or I stop using Bell. It's that simple. I don't think I'm unique in that way of thinking, either.After many minutes getting approval from her manager, calling Bell Mobility, working it out with them, and then doing it for our home number as well, she came back on the line and let me know it was done. She did gave me a parting, "But you'll still get calls, as it isn't us who are calling you." Fine, whatever. I was happy at the time.
Fast forward to today. Interestingly enough, ever since a few days after that conversation, I have not received the "scam" phone call from the India call center again. Now, it could be a WILD coincidence that my strong-arming Bell and Bell Mobility into placing our numbers on an internal Do Not Call list just happened to coincide with that scam India call center ceasing its operation but, since I know friends and family in the area are still getting those calls, I tend to doubt it.
What I'm learning via some other stumbles that Bell has made is that the company, basically, thinks its customers are stupid sheep that deserve to be fleeced. It tried to get UBB passed so it could fleece an entirely new set of customers. It has had some issues with the cable side of things, over-billing and changing packages so that people have to upgrade to continue getting the channels they used to. Basically, the company's name is mud in Canada, now more than ever. Yet they made earnings of $1.5 billion in 2009, with growth of between 6-10% in all sectors. However, since Bell and Rogers (with Shaw and Telus) have a virtual monopoly on TV, phone, and mobility in Canada and don't give a rat's ass about the people, because the people have nowhere else to go. And Canadians are too polite to sue.
Bell had better watch itself. You can only fleece the people so long before they will get wise, rise up, and take you down. The people seem to be at that stage right now. People are angry enough that they are actually talking about suing, which is practically heresy here. I hope it happens. I hope the people don't back down and keep pressing Bell to amend its ways and do the right things a company should be doing.
In the world in which I was raised, there were Customer Service reps who handled customer complaints. Often, there were forms to complete and follow-up calls made by the reps, who were paid to resolve the issues. People began in large companies at the bottom of the employee pyramid, learning skills from the most menial to, eventually, the top tier, so most of them realized that at the core of any business is a customer.
ReplyDeleteToday, far too many "whiz kids" are seduced upon college graduation to come into corporations and increase the revenue stream. Because world-wide communication is so much easier and faster, these highly-motivated, very well-paid, but inexperienced employees max out their creds with whatever it takes to make the corporations money: lots of money.
The end result: it's a computer game to them, Monopoly played for a personal win at the expense of the consumer. There is no long-term thinking, just what can I do right now to distinguish myself and take another step up the corporate ladder -- and, oh yeah, get the most bang for my own personal buck.
It's a sad commentary, but, at a more basic level, a practice seen every single day in retail establishments that used to hire cashiers to ring up a sale. When employers started changing the terminology to more attractive-sound euphemisms, such as calling a cashier a Consumer Service Rep, people began to believe their new job titles, rather than provide the duties required of the job description: ring up the purchase in a timely, effective manner -- and leave the snotty attitude at home: you really are just a cashier and your job depends on my purchase, not the other way around.
*benas
It's really awful some of the things I see via work that Bell does to vulnerable groups. We don't tend get the same calls & questions from folks who could stand up for themselves. I've been fighting with their calls as well and have already begun what I need to do in order to permanently stop any calls from Bell. 15-20 calls a day for the last 6 months from a company I haven't dealt with in almost 6 yrs despite multiple requests to add me to their DNC lists is getting a tidge outrageous. I have also written letters to Bell & the 4 companies I know they outsource to with full C&D requests. It's completely ridiculous. I hope you also pursue it if they continue to harass you.
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