I just received a TELUS bill as well as a TELUS letter, trying to explain to me that I have to pay $32.52 more this month on my telephone bill because "transition to a single billing date for all your services".
I am outraged. That TELUS is rearranging their internal billing practices is their overhead and not the customers' responsibility.
I have cancelled my automatic payment plan and will change phone service delivery if there is no change in their unacceptable billing practices.

I just received a letter from Mr. Rob Durham, Sr VP of Customer Operations with Telus, explaining that they would be billing me for a mistake they made.

A year ago, I switched long distance service from Telus to YAK, from whom I get a fabulous long distance rate (3.5 cents/minute). Apparently Telus has just realized that happened. Over the course of that year, they have continued to give me my service "bundle" at the rate I signed up for - which is apparently a discounted rate (I suspect it was a normal rate when I signed up, but is now being called "discounted" as a means of raising the bundle price). In the letter, they explain that they will be billing me for the difference: 12 months @ $3 per month ($36).

Yes, $36 is not a lot of money. It's not the amount that irks me, it's the principle. Telus has a lot of nerve to be billing me for their own oversight.

Mr. Durham, I recommend you refocus your department to Client SERVICE instead of OPERATIONS, and sign up for an intensive workshop on great service... from Yak.

I moved back from Alberta to Newfoundland and had a Telus telephone and internet service while in Alberta. after my move, i contacted Telus telling them to close my account. They said i had to pay a $648 fee for early disconnect and for a computer i received from them. I did not receive a computer from Telus and in regards of signing a 3 year contract with them i am not aware of doing it. I asked them to investigate the problem and the final word i received is that they cannot track or do a check on where the computer went or who signed for it so as far as they are concerned i must have it. Well i don't have it and neither did i receive it. Now they have sent me to a collection agency wanting me to pay for a service and product that i never received. Beware... seems that if Telus sends or say they send you something and even if you don't receive it... guess what your still liable... hard to believe that they have no way of tracking their product or having a way to check and see if, when and who signed for their product.

This is the letter I have written to the contact us site on Telus Website. Still I have not received any response after the letter being sent twice.

Please see below:

To: Darren [email protected]:Darren Entwistle, PRESIDENT AND CEO. Thank you for taking the time to listen to my concerns. This is the second letter I am sending you and unfortunately if I do not get a reply I will be forced to contact the CRTC and the Better Business Bureau. I hope I can receive a timely reply this time. As the was no reply on confirmation of my letter last time. I have been a customer since May 17/07. Over the past 8 months I have had good service and experiences with Telus service online and on the phone. My concerns today involve my handset which has been sent in 3 times for repair..ON the following dates: 10/04/2008... 26/04/08... and 28/05/08. Each time my A720 Samsung came back it was not repaired. I sent the phone in 3 times and by the third time I thought it would be fixed or they would have provided a replacement through samsung. On June 12.08 I went into the Milton store to purchase a phone which on my last visit I was told I could get without extending my contract and paying the 2 year contract price. When the clerk who was very good by the way checked she said she wasn't able to do this for me and I had to call telus *611, I called and was offered options by the escalations and the loyalty department which I felt were not congruent to the handset that I have, Also as a result of the luck of having a handset which is definitely a lemon, I do not want to sink my self in to too costly a replacement. The issues with my handset include the following: when I am speaking the caller on the other line can not hear me consistently as my voice frequently cuts out. Also NOW since the third repair the Camera on the phone NO longer works. I am really disappointed with Telus's Repair team as well as customer service. I explained this to Farida from Escalations yesterday (june12)(ext 6703 toronto office) and just received a bunch of rehearsed lines from her. About how that was all she could do or offer me, when she said she was sorry for all the trouble I have been through believe me she wasn't, it was very rehearsed and insincere. I am sure you would just like the facts at this point but I am not happy with the way I have been treated or the offers that have been put forward to me. I really do like my phone minus the problems it has been giving me that is why I have sent it in for repair so many times. I believe that you have the power to offer me a fair option, the phones that have been offered to me are not comparable to my phone and I would like it if you would take time to consider my request of looking into to this. I am a Registered Nurse at Trillium Hospital and have many friends and colleagues this experience has not been good word of mouth and publicity. And I hope in future I can be voicing my thanks and praises to Telus.

Thank You for your time,
Debbie Ramlogan RN.

In late 2007 I ordered an internet promotion from Telus. The web ad showed a picture of a choice between a computer with flat screen monitor or a notebook in return for a three- year contract. I have a computer with a regular monitor and decided to upgrade. I applied for the service. The service that I already had was cable internet month-to-month and was $5.00 cheaper, but the new computer with flat screen justified the extra expense and contract in my mind.

They sent the modem and months went by with no further communication with Telus. I went on holiday until mid-March and returned to an email sent to my Yahoo account, telling me that I had to go to the Telus website to confirm delivery address for the new computer. I tried and failed to access the page using the information sent. I called Telus and received assistance from one of their agents, Greg. While on the phone with Greg, we discovered that I had not been sent a username and temporary password from Telus to access my Telus email account and so had been unable to respond to any of the emails regarding the service sent to me by them. They had been corresponding with me at that email address for several months. He rectified the situation and credited me 3 months as I had been unable to use it the service.

We confirmed delivery of the promotional computer and I received it on April 1st. When I opened the box I discovered that the unit had come with a conventional monitor and on April 2nd sent the following email:

“I'm sorry Rebecca. There must be some mistake. I received the computer but it was supposed to be a flat screen monitor and they shipped a regular monitor.

Please tell me how to get the flat screen.

Thanks a lot.”

By April 8th I had not received a response to my question and sent the following email:

“I have not received an answer to this question that I sent to you on April 2nd. Is it maybe because that someone at Telus doesn't want to deal with it?

Please respond asap and include a copy of the promotional web ad that I responded to (with photos). I don't understand why I would contract to pay $5.00 per month MORE for telus internet (and a three year contract), as opposed to month to month cable internet when the promotional product supplied comes with an obsolete screen that I believe is not even manufactured anymore. That wouldn't be very smart, would it? I was under the impression that I had a choice between a notebook, or a computer with a flat screen.

I'm eagerly waiting to resolve this.”

That was the beginning of 6 weeks of total frustration. First “Ramona” responded the same day with this email:

Hello Cheryl

I apologize for the delay in responding to your April 2nd email, currently we have a high volume of emails and are slightly delayed in responding.

We can no longer send you the link for the offer that was online since it is now expired and has been removed from the website. Below you will find the specifications concerning the PC offer you requested. When the PC was ordered you have the choice of upgrading to flat screen monitor, the cost of the upgraded flat screen was $269.00 and it had to be ordered at the time of redemption.

Lenovo 3000 Desktop Computer

$5/month for 3 years

Model only available with TELUS offer

AMD Sempron 3400+ processor

512MB RAM

80 GB SATA hard drive

Windows Vista Home Basic

17" CRT monitor, mouse, keyboard

CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive

1 year manufacturer warranty

Network Card (NIC) (not wireless)

value $628

Optional upgrades to desktop

512MB RAM (total 1GB) - new $54.95

DVD-RW - $134

19" widescreen LCD monitor - $269.00

Later that day “Suzanne” responded:

Hello Cheryl,

I apologize for the confusion with the monitors. The way it was explained to you, is how it is for all of our customers who have ordered that promotion. The only time a client will receive a flat screen monitor, or any other upgrade, is if they make that request at the time they redeem the offer. They also have to pay the required cost associated with the upgrade as well.

Thank-you for your email inquiry.

Here was my response, also sent on April 8th:

Nothing was explained to me at any time. This entire exercise has been totally fraught with frustration. No one ever contacted me and in fact, were sending emails for me to a telus email address that I was not given a username and password for until last week. Check my file.

The online ad showed a computer with a flat screen monitor. That is why I switched from cable to Telus internet.

I feel that Telus has conned me into signing up for a more expensive internet service than the one I was already on, by showing the computer with a flat screen monitor. I would like this situation to be rectified please. I already have a computer with regular monitor and have no need for another.

Thank you

April 14th I had still received no response so sent the following:

I am still awaiting a response to this email that I sent on April 8. I feel that the customer service needs working on.

Thank you.

April 16th I received this response from “Elaine”:

“Thank you for your e-mail.

I have reviewed previous correspondence regarding this.

I'm sorry, but, the 17" CRT Monitor is what was advertised on our website (as follows):

_____________________________

Includes 17" E773 CRT monitor (not LCD flat screen),

keyboard & optical mouse

1 year warranty with Dell Technical Support

AMD Sempron 3400 + processor

Windows XP Home Edition

Microsoft Works 8 (does not include Microsoft Word)

80GB hard drive

512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2DIMMs

16X DVD-ROM Drive

Includes NIC (does not include dial-up internal

modem or wireless NIC)

Retail price $529 (subject to change by Dell)

BC & AB customers will need to enter a credit card #

and AB customers will be charged a $22 ECO fee + GST

during offer redemption on the Dell.ca/telusoffer

site.

_________________________________

We do not have any way whatsoever to get you the flat screen monitor.

Firstly, to get the flat screen monitor, customers were required to pay an additional $269 via their credit card at the time of redemption and, secondly, once the computer is ordered, there would be no way to revert back (to Dell or TELUS) in order to request the flat screen after the fact. The promotion is now completely closed and Dell will not honour this request.

I'm sorry that you feel that TESUS' intent was to trick you into switching to TELUS for internet service. Our intent with this promotion (and all of our promotions) was certainly not to trick customers into switching from competitors to TELUS. The computer was a bonus gift for agreeing to a 3 year term on our High Speed Enhanced service.

I do not have access to a picture of the computer promotion ad as it expired long ago. However, if you require, I can check with the Marketing department who may have this information available to print so that I can send it to you via mail.”

My response the same day:

“Hello,

I did not receive a Dell computer. I received a Lenovo computer. And yes, I would like you to check with the Marketing Dept. I would like to see the web ad.

Thank you.”

Later the same day I received another stock response from “Jessica”. My response the same day:

It's very hard to believe that a communications company would have so much trouble communicating with someone.

I am not interested in going around and around with different agents sending me the same response.

Here is the latest one that I received:

"Hello Cheryl

My name is Jessica and I will be taking care of your request today.

We can no longer send you the link for the offer that was online since it is now expired and has been removed from the website. Below you will find the specifications concerning the PC offer you requested.

When the PC was ordered you have the choice of upgrading to flat screen monitor, the cost of the upgraded flat screen was $269.00 and it had to be ordered at the time of redemption.

Lenovo 3000 Desktop Computer

$5/month for 3 years

Model only available with TELUS offer, etc, etc, etc

Regards,

Jessica

If you will read the text below, and my file, you will see that we are far beyond the stock response above.

I am now well beyond any patience that I had with this situation and expect a resolution by Monday, April 21st, or I will be filing a complaint with the CRTC over what I consider are deceptive business

practises.

A phone call would probably be in order, or at least dealing with the same agent instead of multiple ones.

Maybe you should just tell me where to return the computer, monitor and modem and we can cancel the contract. This whole exercise has been filled with miscommunication and misrepresentation. I don't want to deal with incompetence anymore.

By April 22nd, I had still received no response from Telus so I sent an email asking where to return the computer and saying that I wanted to cancel the account. Received a response from “Janet” advising that she was forwarding my complaint to the Customer Loyalty and Retention department.

I spoke to 8 different agents via email over 3 weeks. I received a stock response from most and multiple responses from the same email! Not one followed up and one wasn’t even talking about the right make of computer that I received. I requested several times to deal with only one agent and was ignored.

I thought that finally I would be able to speak to the same person more than once and resolve the issue. On April 30th I called the 866 number that I had been given and spoke to “Farzana” in the Customer Loyalty and Retention department. After speaking for quite a while she promised to have someone from promotions call me and told me she would call me back asap to update me. She said it might take a while and asked for my patience.

By May 13th, I had still not heard from her and again called the 866 number. The person answering the phone would not connect me with Farzana, even though she was there. I asked for Farzana’s voicemail to leave her a message and was told that she didn’t have one. She said that Farzana had to receive permission to speak to me directly and would get that permission and call me back later in the day. Guess what? I didn’t get a call.

It’s beyond belief that a communications company would have such difficulty communicating with its customers. I am way, way past the point of attempting to resolve this issue with Telus and now only want an address of where to return the computer and modem and for them to cancel my internet account at no charge to me. Please help me.

Update: It is now June 15th. The computer is still sitting in a box in my living room. The CRTC can't help me with my complaint. I am now waiting for the results of a Better Business Bureau investigation, but we all know Telus doesn't care about that.

I guess I will be keeping the crappy computer and paying the extra $5.00 per month for the duration of the three year contract because I won't be paying to cancel it.

However, for the entire three years I will be telling absolutely everyone that I can speak to about this situation and Telus's response to it and the second the three years is up I will be cancelling not only the internet account, but also my landline and I will deal with ANYONE BUT TELUS.