In February I decided to switch my cell service from Bell to Telus. I contacted Telus and arranged for a SIM card to be sent to me. When I received it I followed the instructions online. Initially I thought it was working because I could call out but couldn’t receive calls. So I called Telus. After being on the phone for way too long I discovered that I couldn’t receive calls because the SIM card was a temporary number. This was not explained at the time of arranging for the SIM card originally. It was explained the Telus person would request my original phone number. That I would get a text from Bell re moving my number. I got the text. I waited until the next day and tried receiving calls but it still didn’t work.
So I called Telus again. Again spent way too long on the phone. The person on the phone said he was going to try this again and was going to assign a different temporary number to my phone. We would run through the whole process again. Again requesting the number from Bell. This time everything worked. I thought everything was good until I got my first bill.
Instead of my bill being about $62 as it should have been, it was over $229. What the hell? Back on the phone with Telus. The person on the other end, finally after way too much discussion, understood that there was a problem with my bill. My bill showed about $92 for my original number, over $37 for one of the temporary numbers and over $90 for the other temporary number. I was told that my bill would be $50 plus GST and the other little extra addons. This bill was about $167 off base. He said he would make adjustments and we came to the agreement that I would pay $50 for the time being and clear up anything not paid on the next bill.
I got my second bill and it was still a whopping $157. Looking at the details, my original number was now being charged properly (in this second billing period), the was a partial credit for the larger temporary number charge and nothing for the smaller temporary number charge. There was no credit to correct for the overcharge on my original from the first pay period and to add insult to injury, there was now a late charge.
I phone Telus again. Explained the problem and was told they could not see the problem. I was offered a very insulting $10 credit. I told the person that I was owed about $72. He feigned customer service and came back and offered me $15. Absolutely zero help, sympathy, empathy or anything resembling customer care or service. It amazes me how a company that is in the business of communication can be so absolutely awful at customer service and communication.
To add fuel to the fire, even though my current bill is due in early April, I’ve been badgered by Telus that my service will be cut off if I don’t pay by March 27. I paid the bill today. Quite likely the last bill I pay to Telus.
My wife and I are weighing our options to move all of our services from Telus (TV, internet, security and my cell phone) from Telus to someone else (ANYONE ELSE). I was offered to come back to Bell for $45 per month for my cell phone. Seems like a really good idea. I should never have left. I want to get this done in the next couple of days. So that is about how long Telus has to correct its transgressions. It’s in your court. But once I’m gone, good riddance.
