An Open Letter to Telus Communications

[Betty]

Dear Telus,

Thanks for putting me on hold for the past hour. It so dearly makes me look forward to dealing with you in the future.
I cannot express to you how much I appreciate never getting my bills in the mail until they are way past overdue. The disconnection notice for my phone service the day it's to be disconnected is a nice touch.
I truly love how you keep me in the dark as to how much money I owe you until it is too late for me to pay it.
I am certain that you and Shaw Cable are run by the same management team, as your performance is flawless in that I never know for sure exactly how much money I owe you.
Although, the apology letter that you sent me and millions of others for the poor customer service performance over the past two years was heartwarming, it doesn't nearly measure up to the lengths you have gone to make up for it.
Nobody truly enjoys being put on hold for an hour, no, wait, my mistake, it's been at least 85 minutes now, anyway, I digress, nobody enjoys it more than I do, to be put on hold for well over an hour only to get the final message of "Thank you for calling Customer Service, our office is now closed, blahblahblah"
I look forward to being a customer of yours until you no longer hold a monopoly on the phone business in my area.
To sum up my feelings of gratitude, get bent and bite my arse.

Sincerely,

Betty Harrigan.

[Staz]

Hey Betty, Do you have cable broadband?? Looked into an internet phone?

Atleast with cable you can switch to satelite. But poor customer service with power and phone sucks. I can't stand it when you call the phone company and it's busy! Can't they afford enough phone lines?

[Daniel ~]

You struck a blow for consumers rights today Betty, Give'em HELL!

[Betty]

Originally Posted by Staz

Hey Betty, Do you have cable broadband?? Looked into an internet phone?

Atleast with cable you can switch to satelite. But poor customer service with power and phone sucks. I can't stand it when you call the phone company and it's busy! Can't they afford enough phone lines?

It's not offered in my area. And even if it was, I suspect it would be just as poor as my same service.
It's not so much that the connection is poor. It's the lack of billing and then being billed on the day of disconnection that pisses me off.
I have gone through this scenario with both the phone company and the cable company countless times. They NEVER send me bills until it's critical. I pay my bills when I think about it, but, I DON'T think about it unless there's a bill in front of my face. Perhaps that may be my fault, but, I really don't think so. I know that I want this service, nay, I need it...but, I do also NEED to know what I owe month to month.
With my internet connection, I get no bills at all...I have seen only two bills since moving here in August and have paid a bit a week on it, sometimes skipping a week or two and I occasionally get disconnected from the internet for delinquincy. I can understand that being behind is behind, but, for Godsake's at least send me a bill that I can read and know that I'm behind. I don't get a letter, a phone call or anything. Just all of a sudden no internet. It royally pisses me off.
Tonight at midnight, I will not have a phone. While I recognize that I should have my bill paid up to date, I argue that I can't really when I don't know what amount it is I owe.
What can I say? I'm just a single Mom struggling with day to day woes. :S

[Staz]

I hear ya screamin Betty.

I once had my power shut off for non payment. So I got understandibly upset. So my wife told me that it must be paid because there was no unpaid bills in her bill caddy.

It turned out that the power company was sending my bill to the same address one town over.

I Complained that I either never got a bill or it was paid. I got my power turned back on and they waived making me pay a deposit but made me pay the reconection fee. I'd go to their competition if I could, but like Microsoft, they don't have any.

[SteveI]

I try to have all of my bills paid automatically. I have to admit, I've been lucky. Whenever I forget about a bill, it is because it got lost in the clutter.

If that is an option for you, it could make life simpler.

[Gizmo]

Originally Posted by SteveI

I try to have all of my bills paid automatically. I have to admit, I've been lucky. Whenever I forget about a bill, it is because it got lost in the clutter.

If that is an option for you, it could make life simpler.

I try to have my bills paid automatically as well, not because I don't <GET> the bills, but because <I> don't get the bills (my internal mail delivery system at home seems to misplace mail regularly ).

Even that can be a pain. I have my cell through Cingular, but the bill is never the same each month; it can vary by up to $2 from month to month, which makes balancing my checkbook a pain. At least I don't get disconnected though.

[Daniel ~]

Monopoly is a tyrant we've taught our children to accecpt... scary huh!

[Carlz0r]

Where do you live Betty? I live in Vernon BC and we've also been gettin the same crappy service. We've long switched to Exel Communications. Way cheaper, way better service.

[Betty]

Originally Posted by Carlz0r

Where do you live Betty? I live in Vernon BC and we've also been gettin the same crappy service. We've long switched to Exel Communications. Way cheaper, way better service.

I'm on the island, in Port Alberni. There's no other phone service available here. *shrugs* I finally got a hold of them a day or two after making this post and b**ched them out big time and haven't had a problem with them since.
If I had any other option, I'd run with it.

[Phat Pat]

I know a lot of people ditch their land lines alltogether and use a cell for all of their phone communications. not the ideal choice, but you might want to look into how the costs would compare since there are so few options.

[mookydooky]

I've been transferring a lot of my bills onto my AMEX Skymiles card. I'm planning on changing airlines soon so I figured I may as well get started. I figure I can rack up at least a couple hundred thousand miles by doing this.

[cadaveca]

i'ma telus customer too...and they suck A$$.
my connection from them, and the phone service, in themselves, are spectacular...in comparison to what other companies offer....
i have NEVER recieved a bill from them. NEVER. Not even for my 3 cell phones. Of course, when i don't pay, i get the disco notices.
i now call in every month. They know to expect me, and this irks me. They tell me it's because my address with them was missing a NW....funny how every other peice of mail i recieve does not need this, and i run a mail order business.
Now, i get one phone free each month. I don't pay late fees, nor do i get a bill. i make my monthly calls and find out my balance, which gets paid while still on the phone with them.
When it comes to internet problems, i never am put on hold. Being an internet tech, i already had the direct number to one of the supervisors desks( who is just another TSR that says he's a supervisor, but it gets me what i want, except for my bill).
Telus sucks..period. They are so disorganized, that in January i was hired by them. I got an ID card that will even let me get into the network rooms, in the mail. Nobody has ever called me to tell me when i am to start, or to tell me that i have been fired after not showing up after, oh, 8 months. But everytime i go downtown, i swipe may card and walk through the offices.
And you wonder when they have other issues? lmao
i could walk in, pull a bunch of cables, and telus would be down for quite some time. But because they are MY ISP, I can't take such drastic steps. But should the need EVER arise.. I can walk in and do so. Can you believe any company could be so careless?

[dod]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

Telus sucks..period. They are so disorganized, that in January i was hired by them. I got an ID card that will even let me get into the network rooms, in the mail. Nobody has ever called me to tell me when i am to start, or to tell me that i have been fired after not showing up after, oh, 8 months. But everytime i go downtown, i swipe may card and walk through the offices.

You should call them complaining you haven't received your salary

[cadaveca]

they just fired the president recently for embezzelling....might not be much money there...

[Gizmo]

Sure he wasn't an ex-Enron employee?

[karbon86]

hey dave do they offer a faster connection such as a buisines grade like road runner here in the states. Faster upload and DL speeds? If they do walk right in and switch your connecion to the faster one.