Bell Canada is not responding and makes me a target of collection agency from a victim of Identity Theft.

I got a letter from Bell Collections on 22/10/2008 saying that I owed $400+ for a phone number at an address not belonged to me. I had not been Bell Customer since March/2007. I called Bell and was told I had to report the incident to police. It took me 2 days for police to come to my home taking the statement. I called Bell back on evening of 23/12/2008 and was told by staff that that I would not need to pay the money.

However, I started getting call from a collection agency since early Dec/2008. It said that I owed Bell money. I told the agency that I was vicitim of Identity Theft and Bell already told me that I was not responsible for the payment. I called back Bell Collections but got different answers from different staff. One said that my case was closed and she had no idea why I was after by collection agency. The other one stated that my file had been transferred to collection agency. I tried to get something in writing to clarify whether I needed to pay and what was the situation of my case but nobody was willing to do that. I then asked to speak to a supervisor but was told that I had to wait for 48 hours. Yet, still no supervisor got back to me after few weeks. So far, I had sent 2 letters to Bell Collections stating the problem and asking why my name was still referred to collection agency while I was first told that everything was OK and I was not liable to the payment since it was related to Fraud. Nobody ever attempted to reply so far, i.e. after almost a month. In result, I am still bothered by calls from collection agency daily.

I am really angry with Bell's inconsistent and irresponsible attitude in handling this case. Actually, I believed it was because of Bell that my information was used by someone for setting up a phone line in early Feb/2008 since the company lost personal data of 3.4 millions customers in Jan/2008. I checked with Equilfax and found out that the latest contact was from Bell in Feb/2008.

I am not sure what to do now. Only Bell can stop this by withdrawing my file from collection agency but nobody is doing such nor contacting me for a solution.

I disconnected my Bell Expressvu DSL service on October 30 and returned the expressvu box to Bell. Bell is still charging me for this service and say they did not receive a disconnect. I am having no luck with phone service and cannot find an address to write - nor will their phone staff give me one. The DSL service is not even available in the building where I now live and as I don't have a satellite dish, it isn't even possible that I have this service. I have a postal receipt that they received the expressvu box back. I have contacted them by phone 7 times, by e-mail 3 times, and still no luck. They just say there is no disconnect!!! I have since cancelled my internet service and will also cancel my phone service due to this. Their customer service is the worst I have ever seen and it seems that the phone is set up to stop clients from getting further. I can't even find addresses of management or executive for BCE so I'm going to start walking around to find them as I work in downtown Toronto.

I can't believe the billing process for Bell Canada's cellular phone usage. Bell claims I require a lawyer to get clarification of the telephone numbers for incoming calls I am being billed for. I consistently have excessive amount of day time minutes I am being billed for and can not get clarification of the incoming numbers. In one day, 2 different representatives provided me with three different estimations for unused minutes and claimed they had an error on the calculations previously provided to me, all in the same day. The wrong calculations included Fab numbers and *611 numbers, which I should not have been billed for and are free numbers. WOW! I have to assume they are billing me correctly for incoming calls. I do not have a land line and rely on the cellular phone, which was to include 250 free day time minutes. I sign a contract of 1 year in order to keep my same number when I recently moved. I have inquired on a number of occasions with Bell, to be placed on hold for over a half hour, which seems to be the norm from what I have read on this system. I can not reach Bell's corporate office, which seems to be a secret amongst the Bell staff and now I totally understand why, they do not want to deal with the unhappy customers; the volume would be too high to handle. Well, I am certainly looking for a way out and would like some feed back from those who have experienced the same problem with Bell Canada. How does this company get away with misleading and over billing? Is it because the common person would not be able to afford a lawyer and they continue to get away with robbery?

Since the day I called Bell Canada to advise we were moving I have had nothing but bad service and experienced one mess up after another. I called to 1.report an address change, 2. cancel my land line and 3. find
out how much it would be for internet only. My first call began at the end of
August. When I called to change my address I went through an automated system and waited for a representative for almost 10 minutes. Since I work everyday cannot be on the phone all the time so I had to try back later. I called at different times of the day, but the wait times were always very long which made it very annoying and difficult to do what I thought was going to be a simple phone call. This happened several times over the first couple of weeks in September. When I did get to speak to someone she said she updated my address, and then said she had to transfer my call to someone else responsible for cancelling our phone line. After waiting and being transferred I was asked the same information over again and had to repeat the address change because I was told the first representative didn't update it properly. The representative asked why I wasn't keeping the phone line, which I explained to him. We have cell phones and only had the land line because we lived in a secure apartment building. The apartment building had intercom access which required a land line. Once we moved on Oct 1/08 we wouldn't need it. The representative told me my phone would be disconnected October 1/08 when we moved, but I'd have to pay for the service until October 18, 2008 because I hadn't called 30 days in advance. I explained that I had repeatedly tried to call but couldn't get through. He said that was unfortunate but it was Bell's policy and I should have tried to call back until I spoke with someone, therefore I would have to pay for the service until October 18/08 regardless. I asked him if I had to pay for a reconnection fee at the new address if I kept the land line. He said I wouldn't, so I requested that the phone line be transferred to the new address and then disconnected at the end of 30 days (October 18/08). He told me the phone line would be switched over on Friday October 26/08. He confirmed that there would be no interruption in the service and that we would have internet and phone access.
On Monday October 29/08 we still had no phone at the new address so I began the bothersome task of trying to get through to a representative again to find out what happened. When I finally got through, the representative apologized because the phone line was still set up at the old address. I was annoyed because the previous representative screwed up, but also concerned because there were new tenants moving into the old apartment. I was worried about any possible charges to my phone number. I talked to the representative about this and he assured me that I wouldn't be charged for any calls and that I could check my bill when I got it. He said my phone would be transferred in 5 business days. I asked if they could do it sooner since it was Bell's mistake, but I was told that wasn't possible. I also asked if I had to pay for service for 5 days when I wasn't receiving it, and he said I had to. I told him that didn't make sense because it was an error on behalf of Bell Canada. When I asked if there was someone else I could speak to I was told there was nothing anyone else could do either. I was very irritated and began obtaining quotes from other companies to switch our internet service.
Again I had the onerous task of calling Bell. I was sick of dealing with the company so I decided to have the internet cancelled on October 18/08 in addition to the phone line. If the representatives couldn't process simple requests like change an address or arrange connection/reconnection then I didn't want to deal with them. At that point none of the representatives showed an initiative or interest in trying to retain business. I just wanted to pay for the 30 days of poor service and cut my losses.
Within a couple of days after requesting cancellation of all services at our new address I received a call from a very rude Bell representative asking when I was going to pay my bill. I told him I would pay it when I received my bill. He persisted in telling me my bill had to be paid which I assured him it would be once I received a statement. (I later found out that on Oct. 24/08 my statement had been sent to the wrong address.)
It wasn't very long after that I received another call from a Bell
representative who said he was from Bell Loyalty. I actually thought it was a joke considering the service I had received up to that point. I couldn't
understand why I would be harassed by someone trying to collect payments before the bill was issued and then receive a call from someone trying to retain business. I recounted my bad experiences and how much time I had wasted on the phone over this. The 'Loyalty' rep apologized and said Bell valued our business. I asked if there was anything he could do about reversing some of the charges, since we had gone without services due to their error. He said that wasn't possible, but he offered us faster internet, discounts on our bills and a number of other services which I hadn't asked for. It's incredible that many Bell employees are unable to reverse charges when services were not provided. It's unbelievable that they don't assist customers in speaking to someone who can assist them in order to keep their customers. I would think it easier to retain an existing customer, than try to obtain new ones. I compared the prices the 'Loyalty' representative provided which came as a package if we kept the land line and internet. It was comparable to the quotes I had obtained and he assured me that I would have no further problems with our service. Based on that I agreed to keep the land line and internet. During our conversation I told him about the representatives I had dealt with prior to him and that I had requested the internet and phone be disconnected on the 18th. He said that request was cancelled and he promised me that there would be no interruption in the service.
On Oct 18th I was unable to sign on the internet. I wondered
if it was my computer so I made a trip to the library after work to use a
computer. When I tried to check my email, I received the message that my account had been closed. I started calling Bell again, but couldn't get through. Then I drove to a Bell store and the employee directed me to a self service phone to get some assistance. After being on hold for almost 20 minutes and speaking to a representative she disconnected the call. I was in disbelief that this was happening again. Before I hung up I asked another employee (Sandra Beresh) to check the line to determine if it had really been disconnected. She confirmed that it had been. Not knowing how angry I was at this point with every interaction I had experienced she suggested try again. At that point I had to leave the store before I exploded in anger. I have been in customer service for over 20 years and had higher expectations than this from a company that claimed they wanted to keep my business.
When I returned to the store Sandra apologized to me for the problems I have experienced and arranged to have the internet reconnected. Somehow the 'Loyalty' representative who promised the internet and phone line would not be cancelled and offered me the great deals, managed to keep the phone line open but the internet was still cancelled on the 18th.
Out of all the employees I had dealt with she somehow managed to have the
internet and email up again within 3 hours. How is it she could do that, but
other employees cannot change addresses correctly? Arrange to disconnect/reconnect services when they say they will? Transfer calls without disconnecting the customer? Reverse service charges? Harass customers for payment of bills before the bill is even received?
The time spent dealing with Bell was ridiculous not to mention frustrating. This is all because of a simple move. Customers do this everyday. It should be routine, however I had to make repeated phone calls, the frustration of being disconnected on several occasions, the inconvenience of driving around using other computers because of Bell, having to visit a store to try and get better service...the whole experience is very frustrating.
I emailed Sandra Beresh and asked to speak to a Manager or someone with some authority who could provide some meaningful compensation for the lack of service Bell's employees in general have provided. She responded to my request, stating that she forwarded my email to her manager. After one week I hadn’t heard from anyone so I sent her another email to find out how long it takes for someone to respond to a customer enquiry. She stated that there is no set timeframe, but assured me that she had sent her manager the email and also let her manager know that I was expecting a call. After a couple more emails and no response I made arrangements to switch all services to another company and called Bell to cancel service. Within, two business days I again received a call from collections threatening to suspend service. Once I asked the collector to not only suspend it, just cancel it immediately…he wouldn’t. He said I had to call a different number. I refused to call and wait on the phone for another ½ hour so I asked for a manager. He told me I couldn’t speak to one. When he realized he wasn’t going to get anywhere with me, he put a manager on the line. The manager was rude and disconnected the call.

I have been a customer with Bell Canada since 1988 and always paid my bills in full and on time. Until October 2008 I had never had an overdue account. They are unwilling to provide any compensation and it is impossible to even speak to a manager who will assist. If anyone knows who to file a complaint with that will get me anywhere with this company, I’d love to know about it.

ATTENTION ALL LONG DISTANCE PHONE USERS:

Please check your phone bill to see if you are paying exorbitant long distance phone charges. I recently uncovered the fact that my elderly in-laws were paying approximately $100 per month in long distance charges for calls that were made in Ontario only. They were on Bell's old First Rate plan whereby long distance savings only kicked in after 6:00 p.m. and on weekends. Unfortunately, due to several illnesses in the family, my in-laws had to make calls prior to 6:00 p.m., which is why their bill was so high every month. Bell now has a new plan, which costs $14.95 per month for unlimited 24/7 calling in Ontario. They also have another plan, which covers Canada and the U.S. for only $19.95 per month. In addition, there is a monthly activation fee (under $5.00) per month for either plan. This savings alone is huge for my in-laws, especially since they are on a fixed income.

Please check with your elderly parents, aunts and uncles etc. to make sure they are not paying too much for their long distance phone charges. Bell won't call them to explain the new plans, they have to call Bell and make the change. We need to protect and respect our elders, so please pass this message on.