RadioActive wrote:

The latest radio commercial for Bell contains a serious false flaw. It's the one in which this overly excited woman says she's calling Bell to give them a piece of her mind - and then thanks them profusely and gushingly for their wonderful app. 

The problem? She dials the phone number and a guy comes on the line and says "Thank you for calling Bell. How can I help you?"

Has anyone - even one person - ever called Bell on the phone and had a real, live person answer? In reality, you get a 15-minute menu (which advises you to listen carefully because "all of our options have changed" even though they're the same ones that are always there.) The system then connects you to yet another menu of choices, that puts you on hold for 10 minutes, that then finally, if you're lucky, gets you to an actual human being.

If they really wanted to make it accurate, though, after waiting all that time and explaining your issue in painstaking detail, they would disconnect you from the call, forcing you to start all over again. 

Now THAT would be an honest radio ad! But it would have to run at least half an hour!

I agree that Bell has misleading ads and products that work properly. I am glad that I don’t have Bell’s Fibe internet or TV. I

haydenmatthews14 wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

The latest radio commercial for Bell contains a serious false flaw. It's the one in which this overly excited woman says she's calling Bell to give them a piece of her mind - and then thanks them profusely and gushingly for their wonderful app. 

The problem? She dials the phone number and a guy comes on the line and says "Thank you for calling Bell. How can I help you?"

Has anyone - even one person - ever called Bell on the phone and had a real, live person answer? In reality, you get a 15-minute menu (which advises you to listen carefully because "all of our options have changed" even though they're the same ones that are always there.) The system then connects you to yet another menu of choices, that puts you on hold for 10 minutes, that then finally, if you're lucky, gets you to an actual human being.

If they really wanted to make it accurate, though, after waiting all that time and explaining your issue in painstaking detail, they would disconnect you from the call, forcing you to start all over again. 

Now THAT would be an honest radio ad! But it would have to run at least half an hour!

I agree that Bell has misleading ads and products that work properly. I am glad that I don’t have Bell’s Fibe internet or TV. I

Actually, I don't think that Bell's products are bad. I used to be a Sympatico customer way back in the early dial-up days and it generally worked just fine. And I've heard generally great things about Fibe. But when they started ripping me and others off with endless price hikes that never stopped and customer support that wasn't very supportive, I hung up on them for good.

And yes, I've had occasion to call their consumer phone centre and they have more menus than a 5-star restaurant. I don't have the patience to navigate them, just to get hung up on halfway through. 

I admitted in a previous post that Bell mostly puts out a good product, especially Fibe. It was their customer service and the never-ending price hikes and gouging that led me to dump them for good a long time ago. 

As for not answering the phones, it's become perhaps my biggest pet peeve about companies that boast they're dedicated to customer service, then proceed to completely disprove it when you need to reach them. These phone trees with their prerecorded messages and endless menus are amongst the biggest frustrations for consumers, and it's not just broadcasting or tech firms. 

My own doctor does this now. I cannot tell you how discouraging it is to need to reach your family physician and get a voicemail that tells you they're too busy to bother with you but leave a message and they'll get back to you within 24 hours. You could be dead or really sick by then. 

It's not going to stop, and I get the economics of it, but sitting on hold for hours on end (hello, Air Canada!) is beyond frustrating and it makes you start to hate the companies you're giving your hard earned money to. 

They all claim to be in the "people" business but then they all prove they couldn't care less about you. So why should I care about them?

This site is old and U.S.-based, but I've found success with it a few times. It's designed to get you past all those menus and to a real, live actual human being without all the waits and hassles. Sometime it works, sometimes it doesn't. But it's worth a shot if you really, really need a live voice. And if they can't get through, they even have a free service that will wait on hold for you until someone from the company finally comes on the line then calls your number to connect you. Not sure if it applies to Canada, though.

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