There is a law “Statement of Consumer Rights“, which applies to your local home telephone services. It states that if there were any billing errors that caused additional charges (i.e. overbilled), customer has a right for refund during one year for recurring services and 150 days for non-recurring.
Bell customer figured out that he was overbilling by mistake during 1.5 years for $8.95 per month + taxes. Bell added Wire Care and Phone Care maintenance plans to the customer’s account without any consent. This complaint described in Bell Canada adds Extra Features to the Home Phone without Customer’s Consent.
Statement of Consumer Rights tells the following:
Refunds for billing errors
You should inform your phone company if you notice that your telephone bill includes a charge that should not have been billed or that was overbilled. You have the right to receive a refund for any billing error as long as you report it within a set period of time. Billing errors for recurring charges, such as monthly local telephone service, must be disputed within one year, while billing errors for non recurring charges, such as directory assistance charges, must be disputed within 150 days of the date of the bill. Any refund that you receive for a billing error should also be credited with interest.
Entire document in PDF format is located here: Statement of Consumer Rights
The billing error was happening every month during 1.5 years. Since the law allows to dispute errors within one year, the customer asked Bell to issue refund only for the last 12 months. Bell did not want to look into the law at all. Customer service representatives were referencing purely to internal Bell policies, violating the official law.
Here are several e-mail replies from Bell to the customer who was referencing to the Statement of Consumer Rights.
Customer asked for refund to be issued for the last 12 months, but Bell representative did different thing, and did not address the original problem at all:
I can appreciate your concern. Our records indicate that the WireCare and the PhoneCare Maintenance plan has been on your line since September xxth, 2008. I can assure you that we do not access our customers’ account unless requested by our customer.
As we have millions of customers, we rely on our clients to review their bills each month and contact us immediately if there are any discrepancies. A breakdown is provided every month showing details of your services and equipment. This gives our customers’ an opportunity to review what is on their line, and contact us to make any necessary changes.
I appreciate that you have taken the time to voice your concerns to us. The WireCare and PhoneCare maintenance plan will be removed from your line on March xxth, 2010.
One more reply from Bell after customer clarified again what he wanted:
Please be assured that according to Bell’s policy we are unable to credit you for the last one year. I can assure you that we do not access our customers’ account unless requested by our customer. You have this maintenance plans on your account from September xxth, 2008. You should have told the very next month if you do not need the plan on your account.
All the excerpts from Bell replies given here are just ~2-5% of entire replies, that were just tons of general prepared sentences about how good Bell is, and how they work for the customer satisfaction. It is very disrespectful to customer: forcing to read absolutely useless text. Bell can’t obey the simple law!
This is the most common reply which I’ve read about 10 times and heard about 5 times on the phone:
I appreciate what you are saying and can understand your frustration. I further realize that the standard rebate you are entitled to under our Terms of Service does not fully address the inconvenience and personal loss to you. Our society is becoming increasingly dependent on technologies and fortunately, we have reliable systems second to none. That’s not to say however, that these are infallible and when something happens, the effects can be far reaching.
Although I am very sympathetic to your situation, it would be inappropriate for us to compensate some customers and not others. While I cannot offer you financial compensation, I can reaffirm our commitment to quality and we will try to prevent such an occurrence in future.
The most useless reply ever! Customer spent time and asked specific questions…
BELL CANADA STAFF HAS DAMAGED MY PROPERTY WHILE INSTALLING A CABLE LINE TO ONE OF MY TENANT.
Bell Canada linemen came to connect a new line to one of my Tenant. There were existings two cable connections to this particular apt from the backside of the building where they choose to drill and make few holes from the front of building. This has damaged my propety, I filed a complant No 41469092 and they promised to show on April 05, 2019 between 8am to 5pm. But they never show. When I called the Bell Canada, they promised to sent linemen at 7pm but they did not show again.,
A friend has a mobile phone, he wishes to sell it to me. The phone is completely paid off and free of any leans except it is locked to Bell. In December 2017 Bell will be required to unlock all new phones and all existing phones. This is according to the regulatory agency CRTC, Bell has made it publicly clear that they are against unlocking phones as per the law, they have said as much in public articles. But Bell customer service agents has now been giving some form of training on how to counter/refuse the unlock requests (3 months before the law applies). First off don’t expect them to make it easy, or inform you correctly, some agents will lie and others have started to find loopholes, including phones can only be unlocked if you can prove that you are the original owner (keep your receipts). Please also beware that Bell has been known to black list as stolen phones owners that have an unpaid balance on their account even if the phone is paid off.
Hello my services have been disconnected for my contracted cell phone. There is no reason for this and I can even call to resolve this issue
Paste it all onto kijiji. If you can’t start your own category just stick it in the phones for sale. I know that’s mostly cell phone, but lots of people will see it anyway.
Record Any further conversations with them – you don’t have to tell them your doing it. You may not win but you’ll be getting the word out. Good luck.
I have a verey bad costumer service no help at all just went money so bad the I been with u for good ninteen years very bad that no one won’t to hle
Signed up with bell in june. Promotion/bundle offered – $39.95 internet; $19.95 basic cable and $32.94 phone = $93 plus tax. Did not receive a bill for two months then received a call saying i owed bell $566!!!!! Called bell, spoke to 3 reps for 1 hour – was told i would get a $274 credit. One month later, cable service suspended. Call bell again – speak to 2 reps for 1 hour -told i still owe $566 – credit has not been applied yet but will be. On week later – receive email saying i now owe bell $752!!!! And pvr function disabled. Call bell yesterday – speak to 3 reps – last one says there is no record of a discount owing to me. One hour later, I hang up!!! AAAARRRRGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!! Now what????????????
I have had bell fibe service for 2 months and it is by far the worst experience in tv service…ever. 6 times I have had a technician come out and “fix” the problem not to mention the amount of times the service has lost its signal. Now that I want to cancel the poor service (which the last employee stated would be credited if I gave it one more chance)(which of course was not recorded)they are going to charge me 200 cancellation fee. Unreal and very dissapointing.
Bell is the most terrible company one can deal with. I did not receive a bill from them for 2 months. Then they called and I agreed to pay for the first month for not receiving a bill after they said they did not know I was being billed by mail!!I paid the amount they gave me and the next day I received an e-mail saying they will cut me off if I did not pay for a bill I did not receive this month. I have for more then 50 years paid my bills and I am really ticked of by Bell for treating me this way. The said part is they have the monopoly and there is not much one can do. Help me to get rit of my frustation with Bell.
@chris- total performance is the internet package you are on and the unlmiitedusage plan is exactly as it says… a suage plan, in other words an add on. there is no way you will get a refund for that, even if this guy seems to think you will, i work for bell and it wont happen, they may give you like $50 satisfaction credit… but thats prolly it and thats even unlikely.
Hi,
I had the worst support from bell and prompted me to finally create this website so people can see how I resolved this problem. I think we are poor informed on how we can contact consumer protection sites. Check out the site and hopefully this will help solve your problem as well:
http://www.worstcanadianbellservice.com/
Thanks
Sam
Hi chris,
You may contact Bell and ask for refund referring to the “You have a right to refund” section of the “Statement of Consumer Rights”.
Regards,
Trueler
1 Total Performance 49.95
1 Unlimited usage plan 25.00
i thought i was using service unlimited and they didnt notify or change my services and kept me paying unlimited usage and then charge me 1 total performance please advice me of what to do to get a refund