Post by newleaf on Jun 21, 2011 1:01:10 GMT -5
Okay, folks it's long, but you won't believe what Telus did to me last year.
I have had a telephone account with BC Tel/Telus since 1977. Since 1986, this account has been in Victoria, BC. Since 2003, the service address has been my current home.
For many years I have had two lines: 250 xxx xxx, with a smart ring of 250 xxx xxx, and 250 xxx xxx.
I have also had Telus internet service since 2003.
In January 2010 I requested that my phone number 250 xxx xxx be disconnected and that the smart ring number be moved to the other number. This was done.
On February 1, 2010 my neighbour on the same property requested internet service from Telus. He was told that there was no service to this address. In fact there was one working telephone line, with a smart ring number as well as internet service. There was also an entirely physically separate line to the neighbours’ home, which was formerly the 250 xxx xxxx number.
On February 8, 2010 I left for a three week long birthday celebration trip to Hawaii. I used my Telus internet (using web mail) in both Vancouver (on the way) and Hawaii. On February 10, I first was unable to access my e-mail via web mail. Also at that time my cc. e-mails were returned to me with the following comments:
“Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
“ my name@telus.net
“Technical details of permanent failure:
“Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other e-mail provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 <newleaph@telus.net>: Recipient address rejected: User unknown (state 14).”
I was on vacation and e-mail was not really a priority in my life, so I just set up a gmail account to use. Also Telus periodically sends out messages like that or denies my password or something so I figured it would all sort itself out in a day or so.
But, no. Now at my new gmail address, I began to have friends say that all e-mails to me at myname@telus.net were being rejected with the same message from Telus: “Recipient address rejected: User unknown (state 14).”
Also at this time a friend telephoned my home phone number and received a recording that my number was “no longer in service.”
How could this be? Everything was fine when I left home.
I attempted to contact Telus via the internet but because my accounts had been closed I was not recognised and could not communicate with anyone via the web. I tried to find a telephone number but none of the 800 numbers or other numbers would work from Hawaii. So I asked a close friend of mine to please call Telus, giving her my credit card numbers etc. The Telus representatives would not discuss my account with her at all. They would not call me in Hawaii at her request. They, in fact, told her that probably the account was closed because I DID NOT PAY MY BILL. After she got quite shirty with the rep, she finally got a phone number which I could call from Hawaii to speak to Telus.
So on the morning of my birthday- February 15, I called Telus to straighten this out. I did not have my account number (I don’t usually carry my telephone bills on vacation) and because the account was a legacy account and now closed I had a lot of trouble getting through to anyone who could help me. I explained that I was calling Telus on my cell phone from Hawaii. When I finally got through to a competent agent, even he found it difficult to believe what had happened.
What had happened was this: My neighbours requested telephone/internet service for February 1, when they moved into their home. For some reason the representatives were unable to locate any service at our address. When they did finally locate service, it was my existing, in operation service. This was to be set up at the beginning of February. The phone internet at my neighbours’ did not work (as it had been set up on my physical line which did not go to their house). On February 6 a Telus representative was to come out. They did not come out until the following week (I believe the 9th or 10th). At that time, without confirming this in anyway via e-mail or telephone to me, they disconnected my telephone service as well as my internet service and set up my neighbours’ phone/ internet on my line. It still didn’t work because it was on my line into my house. When the service was finally sorted out and the neighbours’ phone/internet were connected on the correct line, my line/ service were never reconnected. My neighbour actually called and told Telus that my line was not working and that this mistake had been made, but NO ONE AT TELUS PAID ANY ATTENTION TO HIM OR CORRECTED THE PROBLEM.
I find it impossible to believe that my telephone and internet service could both have been discontinued without ever making attempt to speak with me or e-mail me before doing so. When I call Telus no one will even discuss the account with me without getting my driver’s license number, birth date, full address including postal code, etc., yet someone just decided to close all my accounts. Unfortunately it is not as difficult to believe that the Telus representative could not locate the disconnected account and so used my existing line. Since most of the representatives have been out sourced to foreign countries where English is not their first language,they do not have access to all Telus information and since it was a legacy account, I can easily understand why there was not a competent person to locate the former service line at my address.
Meanwhile in Hawaii from February 15-17, I was making and receiving calls from the helpful and co-operative Telus representative. He finally got my telephone arranged to be reconnected on February 18 and the internet the following week.
When I returned from Hawaii my telephone was working, though there was lots of static and line interruption. The internet was not working at all from my home.
March 3, 2010: Called repair. Every time I called Telus, I had to go through the whole unbelievable story again. A service technician was sent out to repair the wires on March 4, 2010. Although I had been very specific that I would not be home until after 2 pm. - and the call was set for between 2- 6 pm. - I passed the service tech coming to my house at 9.30 am.
March 6, 2010: Internet not working properly and phone still full of static. I requested that a technician come out and make sure that the neighbours’ phone and mine are on separate physical lines and that the neighbours phone be put into its own phone box so that this does not ever happen again. I spoke with two different agents and then supervisor, who was very curt and not at all helpful. She actually implied, once again, that this was somehow my fault. I had to explain the entire problem from the time Telus disconnected my service to now to each person. Supervisor phoned my neighbour, who said his phone seemed to be fine, but that he didn’t know anything about mine and that if they would separate the services, it wouldn’t happen again. She came back to me and said there didn’t seem to be any problem so she couldn’t justify sending out a technician to put in a separate box. My neighbour said “She had her own agenda and wouldn’t listen to what he had to say.”
March 7, 2010: Called repair. Internet not working properly and phone still full of static. Clicking noises like someone picking up the phone. Again, the call was to be in the afternoon on February 10, between 1-4 pm. At 10. 26 am, Feb. 10, I had a call from the technician. He had been assigned numerous calls in Sidney in the afternoon, in addition to mine and could only come now. It seems that the person who had come to do the neighbours’ line hook up had not connected things properly. After two visits the technician has now got both my telephone and internet lines working properly.
Meanwhile, I have been trying to sort out the service and billing aspects of the new account.
My Telus billing for February 27, 2010 includes charges (plus taxes) for additional directory listings, which I did not request or authorise, as well as Internet services, when the internet was not operating properly until March 10.
On March 3, 5 and 7, I spent a total of 8 hours on the phone, on hold, being transferred and being disconnected and not called back. I have been charged for things I don’t want; I have been charged for internet service I didn’t have. I have had my name and address published, when before they were private. When I call to speak to a supervisor, I am told they are too busy. In all this mess only ONCE has anyone said they were sorry. I have received absolutely no credit for any of this and when I requested a credit, I was told ”You weren’t charged for the time your phone wasn’t working.”
March 24, 2010: I have now received my Koodo cellular bill. The roaming charges for the month are all US/International and total $124.03 + taxes.
March 26, 2010: Called this morning because in yesterday’s mail I received a bill for my old account , which was closed on February 1. I had been charged $240.00 for an “internet service adjustment” which was reversed, but the taxes were still charged on this amount. Telus had processed this amount: $18.42- to my Mastercard. I first spoke with Linda, who could not help me. I was transferred to Joanna who said that the charge of $18.42 will be credited to my Mastercard within two weeks.
March 26, 2010 2:13 pm. Called and asked to speak with a supervisor to settle extra charges on Feb. 27 bill for old Account as well as request credit for Koodo bill. Spoke with Andy (female) who referred me to supervisor Tony @ 2:33 pm. Tony informed me that my account billing was already under review by Ezra, as of about 20 minutes before.
Continuing with Tony, I requested credit for the additional directory listings of .56 & $1.75 plus applicable taxes as well as credit for internet service which was not operating properly until March 10 technician’s visit. Charges for internet are $10.16 & $35.00 for Feb. 18-26 and ?March?.
Tony will credit the fees for the additional listings plus taxes ? $2.59 as well as $27.04 for internet., leaving me with a credit balance of $1.27 from the February 27, 2010 billing cycle.
In addition we went over and clarified that there is only one listing in the telephone and 411 directories with no address. There is no listing for my smart ring number, nor should there be one.
I also requested that Telus pay the roaming charges for my Koodo (Telus by another name) cell phone of $124.03 plus taxes. Tony asked that I send him the Koodo bill via e-mail or fax. He will call me back regarding. Thanked for his help and ended call at 2:54 pm. Scanned Koodo bill and sending with this account at 3:30 pm.
4:38 pm, 3/26/2010: Tony called back. As Customer Loyalty appreciation, Telus will credit me the cell phone charges of $138.91, including taxes. This gives me a total credit on my bill of $140.18. I asked if they would allow me any other credit for all of their mistakes and my trouble. Tony replied that normally they don’t refund cell phone charges when the land line phones don’t work but he was crediting me with the cell phone charges. I pointed out that the cell phone charges weren't just usage charges, but usage charges to call Telus to remedy the situation which they had caused. He replied that he knew that and that was why they were crediting me with the cell charges. If I have any further problems, feel free to call him.
So Telus’ final decision is that they have refunded me any mistaken charges and any “out of pocket” charges for the whole screw up, but not allowed me any further credit for my time (over 20 hours on the phone alone- 105+ minutes of which were on my cell phone during my Hawaiian vacation), the insults and slander to my good name, dismissal of my service complaints by the managers, general annoyance and keeping all my accounts with Telus. There has never been any formal acknowledgement of the massive mistakes made by their employees as in: ”We are so very sorry this has happened and would like to give you: some months free service or a gift certificate to go out to dinner or a new telephone or a dozen roses.” Nope, they have so very generously given me back all the money they charged for services they did not provide and my out of pocket expenses to contact them after they refused to deal with the problem when reported by two different people in British Columbia.
I would eagerly move to another provider but unfortunately, I live in an area which has frequent power outages and does not have reliable cell phone coverage, so have no alternative to Telus at this time.
I have had a telephone account with BC Tel/Telus since 1977. Since 1986, this account has been in Victoria, BC. Since 2003, the service address has been my current home.
For many years I have had two lines: 250 xxx xxx, with a smart ring of 250 xxx xxx, and 250 xxx xxx.
I have also had Telus internet service since 2003.
In January 2010 I requested that my phone number 250 xxx xxx be disconnected and that the smart ring number be moved to the other number. This was done.
On February 1, 2010 my neighbour on the same property requested internet service from Telus. He was told that there was no service to this address. In fact there was one working telephone line, with a smart ring number as well as internet service. There was also an entirely physically separate line to the neighbours’ home, which was formerly the 250 xxx xxxx number.
On February 8, 2010 I left for a three week long birthday celebration trip to Hawaii. I used my Telus internet (using web mail) in both Vancouver (on the way) and Hawaii. On February 10, I first was unable to access my e-mail via web mail. Also at that time my cc. e-mails were returned to me with the following comments:
“Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
“ my name@telus.net
“Technical details of permanent failure:
“Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other e-mail provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 <newleaph@telus.net>: Recipient address rejected: User unknown (state 14).”
I was on vacation and e-mail was not really a priority in my life, so I just set up a gmail account to use. Also Telus periodically sends out messages like that or denies my password or something so I figured it would all sort itself out in a day or so.
But, no. Now at my new gmail address, I began to have friends say that all e-mails to me at myname@telus.net were being rejected with the same message from Telus: “Recipient address rejected: User unknown (state 14).”
Also at this time a friend telephoned my home phone number and received a recording that my number was “no longer in service.”
How could this be? Everything was fine when I left home.
I attempted to contact Telus via the internet but because my accounts had been closed I was not recognised and could not communicate with anyone via the web. I tried to find a telephone number but none of the 800 numbers or other numbers would work from Hawaii. So I asked a close friend of mine to please call Telus, giving her my credit card numbers etc. The Telus representatives would not discuss my account with her at all. They would not call me in Hawaii at her request. They, in fact, told her that probably the account was closed because I DID NOT PAY MY BILL. After she got quite shirty with the rep, she finally got a phone number which I could call from Hawaii to speak to Telus.
So on the morning of my birthday- February 15, I called Telus to straighten this out. I did not have my account number (I don’t usually carry my telephone bills on vacation) and because the account was a legacy account and now closed I had a lot of trouble getting through to anyone who could help me. I explained that I was calling Telus on my cell phone from Hawaii. When I finally got through to a competent agent, even he found it difficult to believe what had happened.
What had happened was this: My neighbours requested telephone/internet service for February 1, when they moved into their home. For some reason the representatives were unable to locate any service at our address. When they did finally locate service, it was my existing, in operation service. This was to be set up at the beginning of February. The phone internet at my neighbours’ did not work (as it had been set up on my physical line which did not go to their house). On February 6 a Telus representative was to come out. They did not come out until the following week (I believe the 9th or 10th). At that time, without confirming this in anyway via e-mail or telephone to me, they disconnected my telephone service as well as my internet service and set up my neighbours’ phone/ internet on my line. It still didn’t work because it was on my line into my house. When the service was finally sorted out and the neighbours’ phone/internet were connected on the correct line, my line/ service were never reconnected. My neighbour actually called and told Telus that my line was not working and that this mistake had been made, but NO ONE AT TELUS PAID ANY ATTENTION TO HIM OR CORRECTED THE PROBLEM.
I find it impossible to believe that my telephone and internet service could both have been discontinued without ever making attempt to speak with me or e-mail me before doing so. When I call Telus no one will even discuss the account with me without getting my driver’s license number, birth date, full address including postal code, etc., yet someone just decided to close all my accounts. Unfortunately it is not as difficult to believe that the Telus representative could not locate the disconnected account and so used my existing line. Since most of the representatives have been out sourced to foreign countries where English is not their first language,they do not have access to all Telus information and since it was a legacy account, I can easily understand why there was not a competent person to locate the former service line at my address.
Meanwhile in Hawaii from February 15-17, I was making and receiving calls from the helpful and co-operative Telus representative. He finally got my telephone arranged to be reconnected on February 18 and the internet the following week.
When I returned from Hawaii my telephone was working, though there was lots of static and line interruption. The internet was not working at all from my home.
March 3, 2010: Called repair. Every time I called Telus, I had to go through the whole unbelievable story again. A service technician was sent out to repair the wires on March 4, 2010. Although I had been very specific that I would not be home until after 2 pm. - and the call was set for between 2- 6 pm. - I passed the service tech coming to my house at 9.30 am.
March 6, 2010: Internet not working properly and phone still full of static. I requested that a technician come out and make sure that the neighbours’ phone and mine are on separate physical lines and that the neighbours phone be put into its own phone box so that this does not ever happen again. I spoke with two different agents and then supervisor, who was very curt and not at all helpful. She actually implied, once again, that this was somehow my fault. I had to explain the entire problem from the time Telus disconnected my service to now to each person. Supervisor phoned my neighbour, who said his phone seemed to be fine, but that he didn’t know anything about mine and that if they would separate the services, it wouldn’t happen again. She came back to me and said there didn’t seem to be any problem so she couldn’t justify sending out a technician to put in a separate box. My neighbour said “She had her own agenda and wouldn’t listen to what he had to say.”
March 7, 2010: Called repair. Internet not working properly and phone still full of static. Clicking noises like someone picking up the phone. Again, the call was to be in the afternoon on February 10, between 1-4 pm. At 10. 26 am, Feb. 10, I had a call from the technician. He had been assigned numerous calls in Sidney in the afternoon, in addition to mine and could only come now. It seems that the person who had come to do the neighbours’ line hook up had not connected things properly. After two visits the technician has now got both my telephone and internet lines working properly.
Meanwhile, I have been trying to sort out the service and billing aspects of the new account.
My Telus billing for February 27, 2010 includes charges (plus taxes) for additional directory listings, which I did not request or authorise, as well as Internet services, when the internet was not operating properly until March 10.
On March 3, 5 and 7, I spent a total of 8 hours on the phone, on hold, being transferred and being disconnected and not called back. I have been charged for things I don’t want; I have been charged for internet service I didn’t have. I have had my name and address published, when before they were private. When I call to speak to a supervisor, I am told they are too busy. In all this mess only ONCE has anyone said they were sorry. I have received absolutely no credit for any of this and when I requested a credit, I was told ”You weren’t charged for the time your phone wasn’t working.”
March 24, 2010: I have now received my Koodo cellular bill. The roaming charges for the month are all US/International and total $124.03 + taxes.
March 26, 2010: Called this morning because in yesterday’s mail I received a bill for my old account , which was closed on February 1. I had been charged $240.00 for an “internet service adjustment” which was reversed, but the taxes were still charged on this amount. Telus had processed this amount: $18.42- to my Mastercard. I first spoke with Linda, who could not help me. I was transferred to Joanna who said that the charge of $18.42 will be credited to my Mastercard within two weeks.
March 26, 2010 2:13 pm. Called and asked to speak with a supervisor to settle extra charges on Feb. 27 bill for old Account as well as request credit for Koodo bill. Spoke with Andy (female) who referred me to supervisor Tony @ 2:33 pm. Tony informed me that my account billing was already under review by Ezra, as of about 20 minutes before.
Continuing with Tony, I requested credit for the additional directory listings of .56 & $1.75 plus applicable taxes as well as credit for internet service which was not operating properly until March 10 technician’s visit. Charges for internet are $10.16 & $35.00 for Feb. 18-26 and ?March?.
Tony will credit the fees for the additional listings plus taxes ? $2.59 as well as $27.04 for internet., leaving me with a credit balance of $1.27 from the February 27, 2010 billing cycle.
In addition we went over and clarified that there is only one listing in the telephone and 411 directories with no address. There is no listing for my smart ring number, nor should there be one.
I also requested that Telus pay the roaming charges for my Koodo (Telus by another name) cell phone of $124.03 plus taxes. Tony asked that I send him the Koodo bill via e-mail or fax. He will call me back regarding. Thanked for his help and ended call at 2:54 pm. Scanned Koodo bill and sending with this account at 3:30 pm.
4:38 pm, 3/26/2010: Tony called back. As Customer Loyalty appreciation, Telus will credit me the cell phone charges of $138.91, including taxes. This gives me a total credit on my bill of $140.18. I asked if they would allow me any other credit for all of their mistakes and my trouble. Tony replied that normally they don’t refund cell phone charges when the land line phones don’t work but he was crediting me with the cell phone charges. I pointed out that the cell phone charges weren't just usage charges, but usage charges to call Telus to remedy the situation which they had caused. He replied that he knew that and that was why they were crediting me with the cell charges. If I have any further problems, feel free to call him.
So Telus’ final decision is that they have refunded me any mistaken charges and any “out of pocket” charges for the whole screw up, but not allowed me any further credit for my time (over 20 hours on the phone alone- 105+ minutes of which were on my cell phone during my Hawaiian vacation), the insults and slander to my good name, dismissal of my service complaints by the managers, general annoyance and keeping all my accounts with Telus. There has never been any formal acknowledgement of the massive mistakes made by their employees as in: ”We are so very sorry this has happened and would like to give you: some months free service or a gift certificate to go out to dinner or a new telephone or a dozen roses.” Nope, they have so very generously given me back all the money they charged for services they did not provide and my out of pocket expenses to contact them after they refused to deal with the problem when reported by two different people in British Columbia.
I would eagerly move to another provider but unfortunately, I live in an area which has frequent power outages and does not have reliable cell phone coverage, so have no alternative to Telus at this time.