Leaving Bell Telephone – My Experience ** UPDATED **

Let me begin by telling you it was a very frustrating experience, to say the least… but, one I’m glad I made it through… finally!

Please, let me explain…

Seems customer service is a “thing of the past” with Bell

Telephone. Sometime in late October, a female rep from Bell Telephone’s Sympatico Internet department threatened me that if I don’t sign a contract with them, she’d make sure my internet access was slowed to a crawl by the end of November (end of my present contract).

Needless to say, I refused to sign a contract. And, just as soon as I was done speaking with her on the telephone; I called Distributel, informing them that I have no other option left BUT to sign up for service from them.

I told the Distributel service rep that I didn’t want to find myself ever having to “eat crow and crawling back to Bell” so they just had to make sure this transfer of services went as smoothly as possible. Distributel not only assured me, they assigned me a service rep to see me through to a successful hook-up!

No one at Bell Telephone was EVER officially notified by me of my leaving them. I left all of this up to Distributel so that I could keep my telephone number. Heck, I’ve had my number for over 30 years now. Too many friends and family have my present telephone number, so I was VERY thankful to forgo that kind of dreadful change too.

By mid-November, Distributel was to have their techie arrive at my home by 5:00PM to make the switch to their lines from Bell’s services, and… POOF! At about 1:30PM on that day, during a telephone conversation with my cousin, Bell Telephone cut my telephone service off!

Go figure… I had even paid my November telephone bill, one month in advance! I have NEVER missed paying my telephone bills either, so what was THEIR excuse?

I quickly grabbed my Magic Jack telephone and called my cousin to let her know what happened, and to let her know not to worry, I’d let her know once the transfer was completed.

Not two hours later, my Magic Jack telephone no longer worked… AND, Bell Telephone cut me off email service too, though I was left with internet access.

WOW, now how’s THAT for kicking me out the door…  WITH my bills paid!

That wasn’t the worse of Bell’s poor treatment either…

Thank God, Distributel had their equipment delivered to me BEFORE the transference was to begin.

Once I realized what Bell Telephone had deliberately done, I put the Distributel equipment in place in order to call Distributel.  By 5:00PM the fella from Distributel arrived… but… he couldn’t connect anything because, he said… Bell Telephone had NOT completed the work correctly. The dry loop was not functioning properly.

After several minutes on the phone with his rep from the Distributel repair department, and his rep informed me that nothing could be done until Bell Telephone finishes the work they stated they had completed already, at this time.

Needless to say, I was not very impressed.

It’s my guess, Bell Telephone was trying very hard to ‘tick me off,’ in hope that I’d blame Distributel for this inconvenience… and, that I’d come crawling back to them for telephone and internet service, no matter the cost.

Huh! Not in their wildest dreams… Distributel is worth waiting for… ESPECIALLY now that I suspected Bell’s deliberate tampering with the transferring of services.

Days later, a fella from Bell Telephone actually came to my home. After nearly four hours here, he admitted that NOTHING had been done previously, at what I think he called, the ‘transfer station’… nor my home…. AND… that the notes on my home connection were stated, dreadfully wrong.

Gee, now that’s a surprise, huh?!

Distributel sent out their fella again… and, once again, he confirmed that I was NOT using the proper line… so it was BACK to Bell Telephone… AGAIN!

In the meantime, I purchased a wireless router but couldn’t get it to work for love nor money… so I called Distributel and spoke with a fella in tech support. That fella walked me through the entire setup. Seems Distributel’s VoIP and my wireless router were trying to use the same IP address, and that’s what was stopping me from being able to set up the router previously.

Voila! Once again, I can use my Notebook computer too.

This is a BIG bonus!

Bell Telephone has NEVER provided THIS level of tech support service …EVER!

Nearly a week goes by, and another fella from Bell Telephone comes to my home. He fiddles at the side of the house for a few hours, and then asks me to make sure I can use my telephone… which I could. He then informs me he’s completed the work and off he goes.

Next day, Sarah from Distributel calls to make sure all is okay… WOW!

This quality of customer service too has NEVER been received from Bell Telephone by me… not in my <gulp> over 30 years of being a loyal customer to Bell has Bell Telephone EVER treated me as kindly as Distributel is now.

Have you made your decision yet?

I have… and I’m glad I did!

UPDATED April 12, 2011: Distributel is the LEADER in their service department. Their staff could NOT have treated me any better if they tried. True!

But I have to admit… from November 2010 to April 2011, I have spent far too many hours on the telephone with the support staff trying to “fix” the Distributel setup… only to start suffering many outages of services lately.

Early on the morning of April 10, 2011, I was without communication services of any sort. No internet, no telephone… for over 48 hours.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I feel a telephone is MORE important than a smoke detector… and I would NOT be without a smoke detector… EVER!

This was not the first time my telephone was out of service lately… just the longest time …AND… not JUST my telephone this time… BUT all forms of communicating with the outside world.

Frightening? You bet it was!

Needless to say, on the morning of April 11, 2011, when I awoke to discover I STILL had no telephone… I decided enough is enough.

I readied myself and drove downtown to a local company I had learn of recently, and signed over my services to them. So… now all I can say to anyone considering depending on Distributel as a primary means of communication is this; . . . . Distributel? . . . . Use With Caution!

UPDATED July 18, 2014: May 2011, I moved my telephone services to Telnet, a local landline and internet service provider. Oh yeah, and they rent Bell’s lines and then rent those lines to their customers cheaper than Bell Telephone can. My monthly bill has NEVER increased since joining Telnet, unless I accidentally dial long distance that is. Bell claimed they could NEVER leave their prices this low for lengthily periods of time. Go figure, ’cause I can’t. Telnet ROCKS!

UPDATE 17 October 2021: Due to the new CEO of the CRTC mandating new rules to Canadian companies who provided lower monthly rates on landlines, I have now lost my super inexpensive access (the company I was able to use for years now, have been forced out of offering this service) and I’ve been forced back to using Bell Telephone for my landline, as of 22 September 2021. This will now cost me an EXTRA $40 monthly, going forward.

Back in July of 2017, BNN Bloomberg published a post by Alastair Sharp, with the following:

A consumer rights group said that [Ian] Scott’s appointment may shift the CRTC’s focus away from the consumer-friendly policy direction it had under its former chairman, career bureaucrat Jean-Pierre Blais, whose five-year term ended last month.

Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/ian-scott-to-take-over-as-crtc-chairman-sept-5-1.807591

Well, that prediction was BANG on, wouldn’t you agree?