So, I had a call to the mother corpse. No, not the CBC, but Bell Canada.
Unlike most people, I have stuck with Bell and have all my services with them (internet, mobile, TV and home phone). Call me a dinosaur. But I do find that this “loyalty” (more likely inertia) has its rewards.
There is some serious competition in the infotech world these days, so with Bell, Rogers and Shaw (and in my area Cogeco) all sniping each other’s business, being a shrewd and patient consumer can be rewarding. But patience is the key, as you will soon see.
Here is today’s adventure. Doing my monthly banking/bill paying routine, I realized that my Bell “One Bill” has been steadily creeping up by about 7-8 bucks a month since the last time I called with my mantra of the day: “I want a better deal.”
This is a problem, and given that Bell has been taken to task by the CRTC for illegal billing before, I remain vigilant. I called their number and chanted my mantra for today: Why is my bill going up?
After speaking to someone who clearly knew very little, I was transferred, without warning, to the “better deal” department (they actually have a department for people who want a better deal, I’m serious, though the may not call it exactly that). After some confusion (I was transfered to the Quebec office) I got Ashif, who kept telling me that his job is to make sure I go away happy.
I chanted my mantra again: why is my bill going up? He said he’d go through each component and make sure I’m getting everything I need for my needs.
Then he proceeded to look at my phone bill. He asked me how often I use my long distance. I told him I don’t know. He said well you used it very little in November. I replied, well then you have your answer, but what do you mean by “very little.” I suspect he had more information than I do, but he wasn’t telling.
Then he told me he has very good news for me. Just for calling (apparently) he was going to up my long distance usage to 1500 minutes a month (which clearly I did not need since my Nov usage was 4-5 minutes) and give that to me for free. I was saving $10 from previous bills. Hey, that’s pretty good.
Then he looked at my internet bills. He saw that I was using about as much bandwidth as I needed. But he had very good news for me. He was going to cut $10/month off that bill. Very good news for me. Just for calling in.
Finally, he looked at my Satellite TV usage. He said he couldn’t provide me anything beyond what I was using, but he had very good news for me. He was going to drop my price by $10/month.
All of this was on the promise that I’d stay loyal for a year. Given my inertia, that was no problem.
Of course, none of this 30 minute conversation answered my original question of why my bill was going up. So eventually he transferred me to the billing dept (separate from the better price dept)
They told me that my bill was going up because I was ordering pay-per-view movies, and paying per view!
Okay. Fair enough. Mea culpa. AND that answer came within 3 minutes of reaching that billing guy. I would have been perfectly content to know it was my doing, and be off the phone quickly. But through my patience and their unwillingness to give a straight answer, I just saved $360/year.
Very good news.
Call now, operators are standing by.
