Our Unhappy Tale

After nearly three years were up on our three year contract, we got a new Visa number (our account billed automatically every month to the Visa). I duly called and informed Telus. About 8 weeks later, our phones were cut off. One day we just woke to find the phones would only call in to Telus.

I called the customer service line and cheerfully straightened out the problem.

Six weeks later, the phones were cut off again. Same problem...they were trying to use our old Visa again and just cut us off without warning. I gave them the info again, and we also discussed terms of a renewal contract.

It happened for a third time and I called in a less happy frame of mind. I told the rep this was the third time the phones had been cut off without a warning and as we got the family plan for our children's safety, obviously this was a bit of a slap in the face. She got very defensive and put me on hold to go get her supervisor to handle it. I wasn't being rude, but I was quite clear that I was not a happy customer. When she put me on hold I got incredibly loud country music, which I know perfectly well cannot be Telus' usual hold muzak.

When the supervisor came on, I asked if the loud country music was reserved for cranky customers? She seemed genuinely shocked that that is what I heard. I take it the operators are not supposed to punish unhappy customers with annoying, amped music! Anyway, I told her our situation and that I was not happy at the phones being cut of without any attempt by Telus to call or email us, let alone for the third time over the same problem. She apologized and handled the issue well, but I did say that our contract was nearly up and this kind of thing was not encouraging me to renew with Telus.

She then said it was my fault for ignoring the calls we must certainly have had warning us about the situation. I replied we had had NO calls, and as I am at home and we have a message machine, it was impossible they had called and I'd missed the calls.

She then asked: do you answer when automated dialers call?

No, I replied, THAT is what we got caller ID for! I NEVER pick up an automated call.

She then suggested it was my fault for failing to listen to the auto caller, which Telus uses to save costs.

I suggested that Telus had better look a little more closely at what productive and profitable customer service really is, and we ended on that sour note.

Shortly after, I began getting floods of unsolicited joke text messages on my phone...at $1.50 a pop. It struck me as a disquieting coincidence.

A couple of weeks later my phone deprogrammed itself. With two weeks to go in the contract, I did not bother setting it up again. The secondary lines continued to work just fine.

I would probably have renewed with Telus if they had not had such a miserable customer service department. And I cannot help but think the operators were messing with me when they played that loud country music. I hope they did not sign me up for the text message flood, but I can't help suspect they did.

I know Telus is a big company but they need to monitor their customer service and reps more closely.

Thanks for the chance to vent.

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› See More: Our Unhappy Tale

Oh yes, and when we went to confirm that our contract had ended and would not be renewed, we were charged ANOTHER MONTH because as far as Telus is concerned, you need to verbally say you will NOT renew your contract 30 days before it ends....or they just keep billing you.

Now in all the discussions I have had in the last 3 months, shopping for a new deal from Telus, nobody ONCE reminded me of this particularly nasty piece of fine print. Sigh.

Again Telus, what horrible, horrible customer service.

You kind of have to let them no you'd be cancelling, or they keep on giving you service. It would suck all together if you were at the last day of your three year contract and you lost your phone number and anything else associated with it, so that part makes sense. As for the music you heard. All telus employee's use a soft-phone (computer controlled phone for receiving and transferring calls) There is NO way a csr can control what music you hear. all they can do is put you on hold. On another note, most pay per use joke texts require you to signup from the phone, then confirm from the same cellphone... I would check to see who in your household actually signed up for it.

As for the poor customer service, it happens to the best of us... I left rogers because i had never been berated by a customer service rep until i needed some help with erroneous charges...