According to Walter Schultz from Kitchener, Ontario, Bell needs to work on the consistency of offers from its customer service teams.
Schultz, a licensed private investigator, recorded his calls with Bell reps back in February when he was looking for a better wireless plan.
The Bell customer was told by three different customer service reps of a $55 plan with 10GB per month. He says he accepted the offer but was later told the plan doesn’t exist.
“My initial reaction was laughing like, this is not real, this is not happening … it’s absurd,” said Schultz, in an interview with CBC News.
Bell later apologized and told CBC’s Go Public the problem was related to its customer service reps that combined two separate offers.
Despite the recording of the offer from Bell employees, Schultz says the company didn’t budge to offer him the plan.
One rep told him on February 27 to go to his local Bell store to get his new phone and the plan would extra data would apply. He tried to get a confirmation number but was told it wasn’t needed as all info was on his account. When he showed up at the Bell store, nobody knew what he was talking about.
He called Bell back, and was told a phone would be mailed to him with his new plan and contract. But it turned out the new plan, which arrived on March 2, only had 5GB data instead of 10GB.
Schultz tried contacting Bell a third time via online chat, and again was told he could get the $55/10GB deal and it would show up on his online billing. But it never did and he was told on March 29 by the company the plan doesn’t exist.
He complained to the CCTS, which reached out to Bell, but the company refused to offer the plan; a $45/8GB offer was doled out instead, which Schultz declined.
“All I wanted was for them to honour their word. It was a very simple thing,” he told CBC’s Go Public.
“If the provider is saying no, this is not what was agreed to, then we do expect the provider to be able to demonstrate what was the agreement,” said Josée Thibault, assistant commissioner at the CCTS, to Go Public.
Bell said its “agents made errors in combining two separate offers and we have since coached them on the correct process. As a result, the billing did not reflect what was initially promised to Mr. Schultz.”
The company added it was a “rare experience,” noting it will be “rectifying the situation.”
Schultz says after Go Public reached out to Bell, he heard back from the CCTS, noting the wireless company had other offers available, but not the one he originally wanted.
