Cellular Apple Watch on Telus Business Mobility - Horrible Customer Service

[LexCorp]

My experience with Telus Business Mobility Sales, instore associate, and tech support over the last two weeks is listed below. I don't know where to go at this point, so please have someone reach out to me about this as from my perspective, the only option left for me is cancel all services with Telus and find a company that will actually attempt to support my needs.

Sept 29 - Chatted with Telus agent online (have chat logs) - I said that I needed a new line to my account for an Apple Watch SE 2 that I bought direct from Apple. The agent largely ignored my request and focused on the fact that I only had two months left on the contract for my cell phone. I said that did know that my cell phone contact was ending soon, but the Apple Watch was my primary need at that time. She continued focusing on getting me to renew my contract rather than on adding a line for the Apple Watch. I did like the price on the new contract plan I was offered and I eventually agreed to renew the contract as apparently updating my cell phone plan at the same time as adding a line for the Apple Watch meant that the termination fee would be waived. The IMEI and EID of the Apple Watch was provided during this initial chat session.

After the chat was done, the agent once again appeared to focus on aspects related to a new phone and contract for my cell phone rather than getting the Apple Watch taken care of. I had paperwork for Returning my Bring It Back Device, New phone and plan order confirmation, and upgrade confirmation agreement for the new physical phone and new phone plan by the end of the day, but nothing about the Apple Watch. I sent a follow up email to the agent at the end of the day asking when I can expect paperwork related to the Apple Watch.

Sept 30 - The agent responded and said that she was having an error with the Apple Watch and wasn't able to add it right away. Several hours later, she sent an email asking for the model number, watch color, and location where the watch was purchased. I provided this information the same day.

Oct 1 - I followed up in the morning asking about the Apple Watch and mentioned that I needed the Apple Watch to have a cellular connection by the end of the day as my son was supposed to walk home from school by himself for the first time on the next day. She responded saying that she has asked for assistance with the Apple Watch and was waiting for a response from the back office. I asked for an update or detailed description of the issue and asked if taking the Apple Watch to a Telus store would get this resolved quickly. I didn't get a response.

Oct 2 - I had to cancel and rearrange client meetings to be able to pickup my son from school as his new Apple Watch can't make phone calls yet and I'm assuming that also means that it won't report when my son is entering or leaving geofenced locations, which defeats the primary purpose of why the Apple Watch was purchased (keeping tabs on son when he walks home by himself). I once again emailed the agent asking for an update or detailed description of the issue. I didn't get a response.

Oct 3,4,5 - Still no response from the agent.

Oct 6 - Got fed up with not receiving a response and having to be the one to initiate any sort of communication. Took Apple Watch to my local Telus store. The store associate said that unfortunately, there is nothing they can do in store as the Apple Watch wasn't purchased from Telus, but we did look at MyTelus together and noticed that I now had a third subscriber on my account and that the Plan section for this Subscriber listed "Unlimited 1 for Business - Smart Watch $15", but there was nothing listed under the Device section. I thanked the associate for attempting to help and sent a follow up email to the online agent letting her know that the new subscriber was listed on my account but that the Apple Watch was still showing no connection. I sent pictures of the IMEI and EID as displayed by the Apple Watch just in case there was a typo in either when this information was provided during the initial Sept 29 chat (have since confirmed that the IMEI and EID I provided during the initial chat session are correct). I also asked about being able to pick the phone number for the new subscriber similar to how I was able to pick my other phone numbers when I first got them. Her response was, "Let me get back with them now"

Oct 7 - I emailed again asking for an update. No response.

Oct 8,9 - Still no response from the agent.

Oct 9 - Called *611. After waiting on hold, first agent I spoke to told me that Telus Business Mobility does not do standalone smartwatches and that that service is only available through Telus Personal Mobility. I was then on hold for 15 minutes waiting to speak to Telus Personal Mobility to figure out what needs done to rectify this situation. Once I had a Telus Personal Mobility agent on the phone, I explained the situation and that a Telus Business Mobility agent said I needed a personal line for a standalone Apple Watch, the Personal Mobility agent said that the Business Mobility agent must have been confused and transferred me to another department. After another 15 minutes on hold (1 hour total call time), I had to hang up as I had to get back to work.

It is now Oct 10. My bill is due to come tomorrow. I am expecting to see a bunch of changes on this bill including a charge for a smartwatch connection that doesn't work. I initially called in about getting a smartwatch online, and it is still not online over 10 days later, but the agent made sure to focus on upselling and extracting more money out of me.

[TELUS_Support]

Hi there, can you send us a private message? We'll get someone to assist with this. 

[Nicole6]

Hi,

I’m having this exact same issue with Telus!

I’m just wondering if you ever got this sorted?

[Nicole6]

Thinking about moving to Bell or Roger’s. Otherwise our Apple Watch we bought for our daughter is of no use!

[CJR]

If you’ve purchased the watch from anyone else besides TELUS can set it up directly through the Watch app on your phone. Added the link to the setup process to guide you through it.

https://www.telus.com/en/support/mobile-device/watch-series-6/7.4.0/connecting-a-family-members-watc...

[TELUS_Support]

We'll send you a private message to discuss further, thanks.

[LexCorp]

Hi, I spent the last hour crafting a detailed response of the continuation of this whole ordeal to help you out (and allow Telus to improve their training and internal vs external department nomenclature), but when I went to post it, this website told me I wasn't logged in and I lost the post. Sorry, but I'm not taking the time to craft another response. After 25+ hours of my time over the course of a month, I did get to a resolution. I'm open to talking you through it as that will only take 10-15 minutes, feel free to PM me to exchange contact details if this interests you.

[Hanson2010]

I believe I’m in the same boat @LexCorp and would love some guidance. I have an Apple Watch set up with a cellular plan on my Telus business account. I’d like to add another with a standalone contract on the same business plan (this will be the one with the family account for my daughter). I’m stumped - and wondering if it’s even possible now? @TELUS_Support 

[TELUS_Support]

Hi @Hanson2010 we can do our best to investigate your situation. We'll send you a message to assist further

[LexCorp]

Long story short, no, a standalone cellular Apple Watch for a family member is not supported by Telus Business Mobility.

Only Telus Personal Mobility supports a standalone cellular Apple Watch for a family member. To make matters worse, a standlone Apple Watch cannot be on a Telus Personal Mobility account by itself, it requires a primary phone to be tied to the Personal Mobility account, which would presumably need to be the iPhone that you use to setup the Apple Watch as a family member Watch. We had to do a "transfer of ownership" from Telus Business Mobility to Telus Personal Mobility with my Wife's iPhone, there is a fee for this, and then the kicker is that your Personal Mobility rate for the primary phone is likely much worse than you were paying for Business Mobility.

I have also learned that Telus Business Mobility agents have no idea what "Telus Personal Mobility" means, so they assume you mean a "Telus Business Mobility Personal Account", which does you no good and just causes you more headaches as you then have to get your family member's Apple Watch removed from this Telus Business Mobility Personal account So that you don't get billed for something that doesn't meet your needs. To save yourself a LOT of headache, refer to Telus Personal Mobility as the "consumer" department. 

To initiate a "transfer of ownership", you first need to talk to Telus Personal Mobility to run a credit check and create a Telus Personal Mobility account, then you will need to talk to Telus Business Mobility to initiate the "transfer of ownership". Then you need to talk to Telus Personal Mobility to verify the transfer of ownership, tend to the billing account changes, and then add the family member standalone cellular Apple Watch to your Telus Personal Mobility account. 

*Sent from my mobile device, please excuse spelling/grammatical mistakes. 

[Hanson2010]

Oh for Pete’s sake - that’s absolutely ridiculous. 

Thanks for taking the time to explain @LexCorp. This shouldn’t be such an issue…