The inner chaos of a web guy's mind.
Beware of Bell Mobility
Well the Bell Mobility issues never end. This is the most corrupt organization, not only are they throttling internet connection but time and time again they are ripping off their customers.
In previous posts I have detailed the issues with Bell and its billing policies. For 6 months they over charged me for my service by $20 dollars. Each an every month I have had to call the Bell customer service ( I use the term loosely) associates to get the bill corrected every month. I spoke with an customer service associate last month who stated that I would not be charged a cancellation fee when I switch companies because of all the hassles. After hearing this from the associate I went down to Rogers and signed up for a new contract with them.
A month goes by and I get a Bell bill, on this bill they have added the $20 that was credited back to back to me the month prior and again my bill is $20 more than it is supposed to be. After another 1 hour call with the manager of Bell I was told that it was Rogers fault for not canceling the account when the port transfer went through. Passing the buck yet another thing that Bell does well, no common sense in the company I tell you. If you don’t have the number anymore you have lost the client. Well I find out to no surprise that at this point Bell will try and extort as much money as possible out of you. “Watch this we’ll punish this puny client for getting fed up with our crap and going to a competitor!”. So during this call I am told that I will have to pay the $200 cancellation fee, OMG they have a recorded call with an associate telling me that they will waive the cancellation fee. These morons won’t pull the call and verify this information, of course not cause then you would HAVE to waive the fee for me. To bring this crap to a close they decide to give me the new cancellation policy which is $100 . Wow thanks for the crappy service and the reduction in the fee that I was not supposed to pay in the first place.
The manager on the line at this time tells me that he is only doing this because “I am a Bell family customer and even though I am with another provider now I will return to Bell!” What arrogance. If you think I will ever use Bell for any service again in the future you are either delusional or insane.
With any luck this whole ordeal will be done with once the cancellation bill is paid and I won’t have to deal with these idiots anymore. This article is a warning to all Bell mobility customers, I hope you don’t get trapped with this company. With number portability in full effect now you can keep your number and move to any other cellular service out there. There are so many to choose from in this day and age .
YOU DON’T HAVE TO USE BELL FOR ANYTHING!
June 6, 2008 - 10:03 am
I agree with you the customer service at Bell very bad, they are rude and sneaky. I too have an issue with Bell I was charged $400 cancellation fee for two phones they were suppose to be mate phones. Every month I had to call because they charged me too much claiming I was over using my telephone they even claimed I was using it when I was at work and it was turned off, if I used it while at work I would be out of work so that wasn’t true. I still can’t get them to correct my billing. I was told I signed a contact to pay this cancellation fee yet when I asked for a copy of that contract they claimed they don’t have one, so I guess I don’t really have to pay now do I? Please be very careful and think twice before signing up with bell the billing is very bad and always wrong. I am also thinking about charging my home phone service as well because of many problems with billing and other issues. Buyer beware.
June 6, 2008 - 10:22 am
I am sorry to hear that you too had a similar issue. I just hope that through this awareness we can help save others from having the same hassles and hit the company where it hurts. If by posting this article a few people decide not to use bell then in will cost them 10 times what they cost us in errors. That is just a start. Major companies need to be responsible and look after their clients. Everything posted here is fact people have the right to know what kind of company they are getting involved with.
July 8, 2008 - 8:57 am
I too am dealing with a $400 cancellation fee from Bell. I have been a loyal customer since 2000, signing my last contract in Sept 2007 for 3 years. I don’t use my phone very often, so I only have the basic $30 plan. My husband has been transferred and we are moving to the states, so I will be cancelling service. When I called them, they said moving out of the country still constitues a $400 cancellation fee. Their only suggestion is that I get a North America plan for $97/month so I can use the phone in the US. $97 a month!!! I am presently trying to find someone to take over my contract. If I can’t find anyone, I will try to fight the fee again.
July 8, 2008 - 9:57 am
And the corruption at Bell continues. These big companies do nothing but gouge their customers and hold them ransom with ridiculous contracts. And to top it all off you don’t build credit with a cell phone but the cell company can sure as hell damage your credit.
Keep fighting them as hard as you can. As I will keep fighting them also.
August 2, 2008 - 1:44 pm
.m.m
400$ ?
Damn My contract was signed on last august.. 24months left… Will they charge 20$/month?
September 16, 2008 - 2:20 pm
Here I sit for more than an hour trying for the third time to get Bell to honour their word…okay, stop laughing! Seriously, my daughter has a Samsung U740 and she’s 12 months into a 36 month contract. Her phone has already spent 2 months in repair and now the best they can offer is a $50 hardware credit or I can take the phone in to have it repaired again which will likely take 4 weeks during which time she gets an inferior loaner phone. Hmmmmm…where’s the customer service? Perhaps the reason Bell needs to spend large amounts on advertising for new customers is because their existing customers can’t stomach the thought of spending more money with them once the contract is up!
The idea of the generous $50 hardware credit is great until I get to the store and learn the phone is not for sale to an existing customer at the new customer 3 year contract price of $129.99 but the full retail price of $480! The Bell Customer Service rep told me I could get the new lower price by extending my contract for an additional year. Naturally I was willing to extend just to get the lower price.
For a regulated industry there seems to be no one looking over the shoulder of cell phone companies insisting that the customer be treated fairly. If it didn’t cost $500 to break my contract I would move my daughter’s service immediately.
Buyer beware doesn’t begin to cover the hidden fees and corporate advantage Bell has over its contract bound existing customers.
January 29, 2009 - 2:44 pm
What saddens me is that while informative, this forum, and others are usually too late. I came across this AFTER going with their two year contract. They are horrible horrible horrible. I have never experienced so much frustration towards a company in my life. I cannot believe, with so many choices, that this company is still in business. I will almostly happily pay an undeserved cancellation fee of 200$ just to not have to deal with them ever again. What a joke. Who owns this crap anyway?
February 4, 2009 - 6:27 pm
Bell is a telecom conglomerate and they believe that they do not need us the consumer as an individual. I assure you though as competition stiffens companies with poor customer service like Webserve and Bell will be forced to downsize or sell out to other growing companies.
If you want to help more people please make sure you use the share tools and share this post on facebook, myspace and your other accounts. The more the word spreads the bigger impact we as a consumer group can have to affect change.
March 6, 2009 - 7:11 pm
I paid for my phone because did not want a con::: they waived connection charge Untill I get first bill $35.00 connection and $1.00 for paper billing. I have no con:: so time to find another companie Value your customer or go down with Chrysler/Ford/GM.
March 15, 2009 - 3:33 am
Bell is a monopoly that you cannot win against, just swallow your pride pay the termination ransom and get the hell away from this senseless heartless abusive company ASAP.
April 4, 2009 - 11:23 am
After 8 years with Bell Cellular, having constant drop outs, and the odd extra charge for no reason, I decided to leave.
Calling their “helpful reps”, I was advised that I had just a few days over a month to go on my plan.
They told me that when I move my number over (port it out), that that would count as the 1 month notice. (so no matter what I have to pay an extra month for nothing)
That is bad enough, but wait….check this out….
The rep told me that, if I ported out one month early, I would be paying the final month anyway, so I could do it early. I took her advice.
I just got a final bill from Bell, they had tacked on a $200 early cancellation fee on top of the extra month I did not use.
I did what she advised, and now have to pay over $200 for doing so. Do they do this to make that extra little last $$.
The Bell rep and manager on the phone yesterday were no help.
It is now in the hands of the Better Business Bureau.
June 29, 2009 - 2:25 pm
Bell is the worst, they employ delibaratly predetory practices, something has to be done we need more regulation here, write your MPP and complain, start a facebook petition, tell everyone you know. Dont sign up with Bell they’ll take you to the cleaners.
July 3, 2009 - 3:07 pm
All I can say is that I am glad I am not alone. I have been fighting and getting nowhere. Every month they overcharge me by a hundred dollars and cannot explain to me the mysterious charges. They took 300 from my account without permission. The guy on the phone said my bill was 60. I said okay for sure? And once I pay this I am good? Well I authorize one time payment and two days later I see 300 came from my account! I call back and nobody sees anything. They say “we don’t have that on our computers we didn’t take anything from your account”. I tell them I am LOOKING at my bank statement. After hours on the phone somebody says Oh I see what happened but guess what? They don’t see shit, they have no idea what they are talking about. I fight for a month and get different information every other day about what is happening with my money. When they finally return it they short me 7 dollars like a bunch of chumps. Now, like all my other issues with bell that never end, when I went thru the BBB guess what Bell said? “That was a pre-authorized payment; it was valid.” Yes, because that’s what the note some idiot worker made on the computer: “Authorized payment”, as if that explains anything. I was misinformed about roaming charges so we know what this means: I call up and they tell me If you use a calling card you won’t be charged for roaming. If you are roaming in such and such a place it will be 20 cents a minute” Well this goes on the record as “Educated customer on roaming charges”. A month later I’ve got a ridiculously huge bill. I see they charged me 50 cents for roaming and there was no point using my calling card. I finally miraculously get a kind lady after literally dozens of employees as I try to handle this and other problems and she tells me this is very common and admits, amazingly, how unaccountable the company is. She cuts the fees in half. But still, according to Bell’s response to my complaints thru the BBB they refer to this as “We generously reduced your roaming charges and we have on record previous to these charges that you were educated about the roaming charges and that after we refunded you, you were educated once again”. WTF??!! ARROGANCE! I want to file a class action law suit or something because I cannot believe they have the audacity to want to charge me 400 dollars to disconnect me after they rob me daily and have the guts to respond to my plea thru the BBB that “All charges are valid” and then explain the stupid policy for cancellation again adding insult to financial injury. I have NEVER felt so much rage, especially since I spend, EASILY, 24 hours on the phone over the course of months since I signed up last October. God I wish I could burn that place down.
January 2, 2010 - 7:40 am
I was with Aliant with a fairly good family plan and things were going wonderfully before they merged with Bell.
Immediately I began being double billed each and every month and I would have to call in and get it fixed month after month. After being extremely tired of dealing with this nonsense I pleaded with Bell as to find a way to resolve this ongoing issue. I was informed Bell could not support my good plan that I had with Aliant and the only permanent fix to the double billing would be to go with a “similar” but different Bell plan (more expensive with less benefits… go figure). This was my first negative experience with Bell.
Back in August/September of 2009 the phone I had for my daughter became unusable and we had to return it for service with a $100 fee. We were told it would be 1 week to ship, 1 week to fix, and 1 week to ship it back; 3 weeks total, they offered us a “brick” with no features as a loaner but my daughter opted that it would ruin her social status to use such an ugly phone. We opted to wait until the phone came back. Well it came back 3 months later due to a “lack of parts”… what a joke these guys are.
During the process of returning the phone for repair I inquired with the sales rep as to perhaps upgrading the 2 phones I had vs going through the hassle of sending the phone off for repair (my wife has the other phone and it also has many issues with not ringing, and going dead in a few hours without even using it). I was told I would not have any “upgrade credits” until December of 2009; credits were were undoubtedly going to use as soon as they became available.
In November 2009 my daughter’s “repaired” querty phone now only works with the keyboard open and the phone on speakerphone. We were patiently waiting for December and dealing with the pain.
December came and we went to Bell to upgrade the crappy phones. Now we receive a completely different story from the counter rep who states it will be yet another 12 months before we received any upgrade credits; no further explanation was provided.
So I get on the horn and call the Bell customer dis-service line. I actually had a very nice lady who’s name I will not say as I feel she may have divulged more information than she should. This lady informed me that just this summer Bell “changed” their upgrade credit policy to only kick in at the end of a contract period… I was confused as I was a Bell customer long before the summer of 2009 so how can they force this new policy down my throat?
The customer service lady also informed me of how many calls they were receiving reference their, what I call, shady business tactics.
I was transferred to the cancellation and retention department where I spoke with Tracy who was useless… I begged she would act more on the retention side side as Bell was about to lose a customer. Tracy told me there was nothing she could do for me as the new policy was what everyone has to abide by. I asked if there was “anyone in Bell” that had the power to change this policy in my case? Tracy quickly told me “no”; umm excuse me Tracy, but there is no one in all of Bell that could adjust or change this in order to keep me as a customer? What a crock.
Anyways Bell has obviously no desire to keep me as a customer and I will gladly pay the termination fee to end this saga of poor service, poor equipment, and false promises. Perhaps I will change my own policy and remove any termination fee from my account… why not it works for them!
Currently we are looking at Rogers who have nicer phones and if you are an Eastlink customer you will be able to bundle your cell service with Rogers into an Eastlink bundle package to save money. Once I get up and running with Rogers, Bell will hopefully become a bad memory; though I am sure Bell will try to make it as painful as possible.
René
February 3, 2010 - 10:57 am
And the wheels keep turning!
My issues started last year when my wife & I seperated & we tried to seperate our BELL lines to different accounts. Not only did they cluster f*#*k that up by cancelling the lines instead but we went 2 days without service & numerous hours until it was rectified. I then decided to cancel my line & take over my 12yr old sons line as he no longer needed it. As I had that line on a spending cap due to his age with a min. price plan, I changed the plan to accommodate my Blackberry usage. Now the fun begins… I could not get the spending cap removed without a security deposit as it was still a new line even though I had my line for years with them & was spending over $200 a month. I refused to give them a security deposit )allow them to hold the money & collect 12 months interest on it, I don’t think so) therefore I was stuck to change the plan to allow for a generous amount of airtime to make sure there would be no disruption in the service. On a few occassions while away on business, my L/D charges were high & suddenly my line was suspended due to the spending cap. Turns out the price plan request was never honoured & I was paying $200 -$300 a month in overage & L/D charges. I do agree it was partially my fault as I should have broken away from travel & work to have my bills forwarded to me & reviewed them BUT I believed that BELL had employed capable individuals & not monkey grinders to answer their customers concerns! I finally had enough when my Blackberry crashed & a tech rep @ BELL misinformed me on install repairs. I lost alot of vital information. After 2 days & 6 reps, I finally cancelled my service & was told there still was 4 yrs remaining on the term due to a price plan change. After contacting a manager & educating them that a price plan change cannot warranty a term extension as no bonuses were rendered, they opted to negate that term & honour the original. With 12 months still remaining, an ECF was still required. Mind you, I did get an ” I sorry to see you leave & if there was anything I can do to keep you I would BUT my hands are tied”.. Got to love the level of seperation when it comes to responsibility & culpability!! I am now going to port over to another company & will STRONGLY voice my opinion everywhere I go!
February 4, 2010 - 3:30 pm
Dwayne-
Par for the course unfortunately with this company. I have since moved to rogers and I am not having any problems at all.
Bell is terrible.
February 8, 2010 - 6:38 am
This is an email to my husband to tell him about a new bill….
I had bell mobility on the phone and they have put a 400.00 charge on the bill because I canceled Amys phone with them.
Two days before I got her new phone, I called Bell to see what kind of charge there would be for canceling. She had the phone over two years and
it was broken.
The guy told me after he checked, that there is no charge on the phone to cancel.
So I said great..I figured that because it was a cheap $0 phone from the start, that Bell considered it paid off so there were no additional charges.
So I go and get her the new phone with Telus because their plan was more suitable for her.
When I called now, they said they have no notes about anything on the file and only notes from May when I asked them to
adjust minutes etc on my plan.
They said because they switched plans around, the automatically started a new contract on all the phones and my contracts
end in 2012. They didn’t tell me they were making amy’s contract till 2012…her phone was crappy in May, crappier
in July and she wanted a new phone. I would not have agreed to get a new contract for a phone that was not working right and she hated.
Anyway, they told me no charge two months ago.
So, because they don’t have any notes they say I owe 400.00 for cancelling her contract.
So I have to write the client relations advisor in Mississauga….by mail.
When Amy comes home I will see if she has papers that I wrote something down on.
Bell is basically telling me that they can make mistakes by not writing down notes, and I have to prove that they said there was no charge. They are calling me a liar, I have been a customer for 8 years and I still have two cell phones with them.
I also have to prove that the guy, back in May didn’t tell me he was renewing amy’s contract and that I need to prove this.
They have the notes and they can add things in right now, to protect themselves. They are liars.
If you have time, think of something (in french). I will translate.
I have told them that I am a bell customer for 8 years. I know all about contracts and have had my phones for 3 years
and already renewed. If I called and asked for charges and he had said 400.00 two months ago, I would certainly not cancel. I would
have waited till the contract expired. And if Amy had a contract till 2012, why didn’t the guy tell me when I called 2 months ago before
getting her new phone. He didn’t say anything…..just there was no charge.
I would have kept the contract till the end….which as far as I knew at that time …was just till the summer of 2010….not till 2012.
They are expecting me to believe that someone told me specifically that my daughters phone was getting a new contract till 2012, back in May.
Her phone was crap in May….how was it going to last until 2012?? It actually broke for good in December 2009.
So I would like to cancel all my bell services but they will charge me $400 for each phone that I cancel to break the contracts.
I also have Bell tv. I want to cancel that too, but they will charge me something to break the 3 year contract for the receiver.
I think I have had it for over one year….since we got the new tv.
Anyway, I will pay them their bill of 120 or whatever it is. I have to write these guys.
Bell Canada
Executive Office
Client Relations Advisor
5099 Creek Bank Road
East Tower-Main Entrance-Ground Floor,
Mississauga, ON. L4W5N2
ASSHOLES
March 10, 2010 - 5:29 pm
I cancelled service in December 2008. All was fine and ended smoothly. They stayed on my credit report as an old paid off in good standing account until now, when out of nowhere even though I don’t have service they updated my credit file with 3 late payments. Dec 2009, Jan 2010, and Feb 2010. So about a year after leaving them, they still managed to stick me.
I called them up, and was told no I don’t owe money, my account is canceled. I ask them to correct their credit report error they reported and said there is nothing they can do, I ask for accounts receivable and am told because I don’t owe money they won’t talk to me???!!! WTF???
CRTC and my Lawyer will deal with them now.
March 14, 2010 - 10:45 am
Alex, let us know how did it go with lawyer dealing with bell. I would be very interested to know because we are having currently problems with them and i need to figure something out here. We have 2 phones with them and on a last bill they billed us 4 times same charges and we have a year left on contract about. Would like to get out because i am fed up with their system as well.
March 16, 2010 - 4:06 pm
Bell Canada
Executive Office
Client Relations Advisor
5099 Creek Bank Road
East Tower-Main Entrance-Ground Floor,
Mississauga, ON. L4W5N2
Anyone with a BEll contract I would advise you to write a detailed letter explaining what happened. If you do not get results on something you consider unfair, write immediately to the above address. (I am in Ontario so they gave me this address) Anyway, they cancelled my $400 bill and I paid only what I originally should have paid which was 120.00. They told me my contract was ending in 6 months (not 2012) and because upgrades were never offered or even possible with my old phone, that I was not getting charged 400.00. So you see it is worth fighting for something if you are convinced they are cheating you. I am pleased with my outcome with Bell even though it was a pain in the ass writing a two page letter when I was mad.
Good luck everybody.
April 1, 2010 - 12:35 pm
If you own a Blackberry 9000 series and up, read below:
Anyone ever see a “Data Service Agreement Price Adjustment” charge of $200 on their bill?
I have a smart phone (BBerry 9000 and up) and want to know what happens if you buy that phone with the regular email package (no data) for $40 from Bell Canada?
Answer: You will get a bill months down the road for $200 for buying a smart phone without a data plan!
Yep — that’s what happened to me with Bell Canada and they insisted I either upgrade to a $50 plan or pay the $200 penalty.
By the way, I’ve owned the phone for 4 months and this charge appeared yesterday. I’ve been paying for months at $40 for the phone (standard email / text plan .. no data).. so imagine getting a bill for $200 for NOT having a data plan on my phone (that was the explanation given to me: Black Berry 9000 series and up, you must take the data plan or pay $200 cancellation fee).
You think anyone said that when I bought the phone? Or mentioned to me during the last 4 months of owning the phone (and I did call in a few times to dispute ‘other strange’ charges — which they reversed no questions asked). I was given an ultimatum… pay more per month (upgrade) or pay the $200 charge.
No one ever told me that when I bought that phone (it doesn’t apply to other BlackBerrys — 8700 etc). The salespeople in the store actually helped me pick my phone, but no mention of a $200 fee if I opted not to take the data plan.
Say the words –> Total fraud – misrepresentation at it’s best. After 1 hour, I gave up and told the guy on the phone ‘alright just upgrade the package then’.
I have absolutely had it with scam artists. Bell Canada are the best in the business at misleading people and then telling you to read the fine print when they can’t explain it themselves. Total embarassment of a company.
I convinced myself that they are all the same.. now I am convinced they are not.. Bell is the most dishonest and scheming in Canada.
I’ve given up on them… just awaiting the contract to finish now.
April 6, 2010 - 3:09 pm
Follow-up to post 18.
All is now well. Bell corrected the error after placing me in contact with the executive office by phone. New reports arrived and are error free.
April 13, 2010 - 7:31 pm
I am another unhappy customer to add to the growing list.I have been a Bell customer for 12 years. I have been charged $400 to cancel a contract for a second phone and phone number that I never had except as a loaner. It all started with a Motorola phone that I got that kept crashing. It crashed again just before I had to go away on a work trip but the store said they had no loaner phones left. The salesman told me that adding another phone on to my account on a share plan with a second number was the only way I could get a phone for a few days, but that if I brought it back within 15 days I could cancel the share plan with no cancellation penalty -which is what I did.
I took the loaner phone back within a week and then paid the difference between my upgrade allowance plus $80 on cash for a new phone for my own number. Only they never cancelled the contract for the “loaner’ phone. When two numbers showed up on my bill, I called each month and talked to a different person who said it would be rectified. This went on for six months. The second number had no calls charged to it but it still kept showing up as a $25.95 charge each month. After the second month, I asked for names and employee numbers. Finally the charge was cancelled but then I got a $400 cancellation fee on my bill a month later. When I called Bell they said I had a second number under a contract that I’d been paying for and I hadn’t disputed it so I must know I had a contract. I gave them the employee names and numbers that I had been talking to. I also asked for a copy of the so-called contract but they told me to go to the store. I went to the store and they it would cost me $35 for them to look for a copy.
Now I have no phone service at all because I won’t pay $400 cancellation for a contract that I don’t have and they won’t produce. I’m out $156 for 6 months of paying for a phone number that I never used and didn’t have a phone for, plus a cancellation fee for a non-existent phone and contract.
May 6, 2010 - 3:40 pm
I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment expressed on this site. My experience with Bell was that I gladly paid the cancellation fee to be rid of this crap. I can’t tell you how pationate I am to convince people to stay away from this crapany. I can only say I hope they bleed to death just like Eaton’s did!
June 4, 2010 - 11:17 am
I just called Bell and paid the $400 to get out of the contract. They are unethical, uprofessional, and a poor excuse for a company. I cringe everytime I see an ad for them. Their monthly bill which was full of errors, was just a reminder for not cancelling earlier.
If anyone is considering Bell, please do not go wtih them. I would pay double somewhere else to avoid Bell.