Unnotified rate increase

[adixon]

My bill this month increased without any (visible) notification.

I just spent some time trying to contact Telus and it was an incredible waste of my time.

What is my best line of complaint here?

[A-B]

All customers are notified of any upcoming rate increases in the billing notes of all monthly invoices. If you'd like to speak with our team about your billing, you can reach out via private message to our team over at our Twitter / X or Facebook pages and they can take a look.

[adixon]

Actually, that's not true, unless you mean you hid a small notice at the bottom of an invoice.

There should be an email notification of the price increase, not a hidden notification buried where no one would reasonably see it.

I don't use x/twitter or facebook. Your system should, provide a reasonable way to at least ask a question, rather than a maze of bullwonderful options that are designed to deter any real engagement.

Please try using your own system to inquire about the origin of a price increase and tell me you don't end up in a rage.

The only public source I could find describing a price increase is this one: https://www.whistleout.ca/CellPhones/News/big-three-price-increases

[adixon]

But if you'd like to engage with this topic on social media, please do, here:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7163915785151737856/

[A-B]

Actually, it is true. We always encourage our customers to read their bills every month. If you don't have any social media accounts, you can reach our teams to discuss at these numbers:

Home Services - 1-888-811-2323

Mobility - 1-866-558-2273

[adixon]

As I noted, a price increase hidden in a footnote is not a valid way to alert your customers of a price increase.

Encouraging me to read my bill is kind of hilarious.

You have sent me multiple emails trying to sell me services I don't want.

Also, I tried that phone number, and it asked me to wait for 15 minutes on hold. Of course, no guarantee that there would be a reasonable answer at the other end, except the kind of anodyne scripted answer you are providing here.

[A-B]

It would be have to be via one of those two methods (calling in or reaching out via social media) as our team would need to verify the account in order to get access to billing, etc. for customer security purposes.

[adixon]

Okay, I'll play at 'reply to the anodyne script answer' a bit longer.

1. If I'm asking why my service fee is arbitrarily increased without notice, why do you need to verify my account?

2. If you did feel the need, then I'm there logged into my mytelus account like a compliant client, so I'm already "verified". The technology is there for you to accept a simple email to your team with all the details. Instead, I'm routed to a number of automated systems that lose the authentication and try to avoid having a person interact with me.

Since you're also playing along, I'm afraid you actually believe what you're saying here.

Please do my experiment - log in to your my telus account, imagine your bill just got bumped up arbitrarily and see how it feels. I know right?

[A-B]

1. We need to verify accounts for a number of reasons, the same as basically any other company that deals with private customer information. We're not going to discuss or talk about anyone's private billing or information with anyone without first verifying that we're talking to the customer in question. This is quite common practice that has been business commonplace for...oh, probably decades now.

2. As I mentioned, you've been offered our methods of contact. This includes phone numbers where you can talk with our agents. You can also do that via our social media accounts.

We notify all customers of any upcoming billing increases, but unfortunately are unable to force anyone to actually read their bills. We do always however encourage that!

Lastly, please feel free to check out our House Rules as there are a number of handy rules we like all of our community users to adhere to.

I always believe what I say. Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you!